Ocean Blog
The Great Hermit Crab MigrationPublished by: Hannah Waters - Sep 11, 2012Over the last few days, a video of hermit crabs stampeding across the rocky shores of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands has taken the internet by storm. Where are the hermit crabs going, and why? |
 A Caribbean hermit crab (Coenobita clypeatus) crawls on the forest floor.
Flickr user Island Conservation
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Uncovering Biodiversity Before It DisappearsPublished by: Trish Mace - Aug 22, 2012Editor's Note: See more information and details about the organisms displayed in the slideshow here. Researchers who come to Curaçao to take part in DROP (Deep Reef Observation Project) aren’t running on sleep; they’re running on passion, curiosity and a drive to not waste a moment of opportunity to explore. (And, yes, a fair bit of caffeine.) |
 When this tusk shell was brought up from a dive it was a surprise when a hermit crab poked out. The large claw that you see can be pulled in to cover the shell opening.
Barry Brown/Substation Curacao
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Uncovering Biodiversity… with ARMS and a Submarine ClawPublished by: Trish Mace - Aug 16, 2012If there had been room to stand up, there would have been a standing ovation. As it was, the five of us on the submersible Curasub clapped and cheered when the first three deep-reef ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures) were successfully deployed at approximately 396 feet (120 meters). |
 This Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure helps scientists study coral reef diversity.
Laetitia Plaisance/CReefs, Census of Marine Life
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A Voyage of Discovery to Inner SpacePublished by: Trish Mace - Aug 13, 2012The Mars rover Curiosity is sending images back home: glimpses of another world during a voyage of discovery. While Curiosity is clicking pictures millions of miles away, I am privileged to be taking part in my own voyage of discovery to the inner space of this planet. |
 The Curasub departs for a deep sea dive, up to 1,000 feet off the island of Curaçao, where this sub is located.
Trish Mace/ Smithsonian Institution
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Sneak Peek: Future of Coral Reefs in an Acidifying OceanPublished by: Laetitia Plaisance - Aug 2, 2012Scientists don’t often get the opportunity to travel through time. But nestled among the beautiful coral reefs of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a place that provides a glimpse today of what could be the biggest future threat to coral reef survival: Ocean Acidification. |
 Where the pH is the lowest, corals can no longer grow - sand, rubble and seagrasses replace the reef.
Laetitia Plaisance
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What We DON'T Know About the Deep SeaPublished by: Dave Pawson - Jul 13, 2012Imagine: You’re in a small submersible, and you gently settle on the soft muddy bottom at a depth of 12,000 feet. It’s absolutely dark. What will you see when the exterior lights are turned on? Will you discover underwater volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, as some astonished geologists did back in 1977? Not likely, but you will almost certainly see several kinds of animals that are new to science, and there’s a good chance you’ll also see some beer cans. |
 Dive through the zones of the ocean to the deep ocean bottom -- like this remote operated vehicle (ROV) -- where many strange species live, and there are many yet to be discovered. Explore them in the Deep Ocean Exploration section. |
Making Science Sing: The Longest Time (Coral Triangle Edition)Published by: Maggy Hunter Benson - Jul 9, 2012How do you make science sing? Just ask a couple of female scientists to sing about their research interests and their passion is quickly conveyed in a quirky little tune. Informative, inspiring, and a little bit silly are all adjectives that aptly describe this music video performed and produced by a group of female graduate students from UCLA’s Barber Lab. |
 Corals, sponges and seaweeds cover most of the surface of many coral reefs.
Wolcott Henry
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Happy 50th Birthday, FLIP – a Mobile Research IslandPublished by: Hannah Waters - Jul 2, 2012Ships are well-known for their tiny rooms and tight quarters. But have you heard of a sea vessel that has toilets and sinks sticking out of the walls, and staircases and doors on the ceiling? This unique research vessel is real -- and, in June 2012, the Office of Naval Research and Scripps Institution of Oceanography celebrated its 50th birthday. |
 Scripps Institution of Oceanography's FLoating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, conducts sea trials off San Diego in May 2009.
© 2009 Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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A Better Way to Measure Marine LifePublished by: Maggy Hunter Benson - Jun 27, 2012Collect, sort, identify, photograph, sample, record. Repeat a couple thousand times. This is what the students and researchers have been doing as the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC) project has seriously ramped up. |
This Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure helps scientists study coral reef diversity.
Laetitia Plaisance/CReefs, Census of Marine Life
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Hotspot of BiodiversityPublished by: Chris Meyer - Jun 20, 2012We have arrived as the advanced scouting party to the scene of this year's field work location: Pemuteran, a small fishing village in northwest Bali. More importantly, we are sitting squarely at the heart of marine biodiversity at the "Coral Triangle" -- that small part of the globe where, if space aliens came to take an ocean safari, they would likely go. |
 This graph compares the crustacean biodiversity of coral reefs in Bali with two sites on the Great Barrier Reef (Heron and Lizard), Ningaloo Reef (NW Australia), Moorea, French Polynesia, Hawaii and the Line Islands -- both in the central Pacific.
Chris Meyer, Smithsonian Institution
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