Ocean Blog
Ocean Trash: Marine Debris From Shore to SeaPublished by: Cristina Castillo - Jul 27, 2011We drove down a long dirt road on the northern side of Curaçao looking for a remote place to snorkel and sample. After a 30-minute bumpy ride, our team stepped out of the car into a breeze and the sounds of wind and crashing waves. It’s a moment I will never forget; although no one was in sight for miles, the evidence of human activity was apparent. We had stepped onto a shoreline blanketed in garbage. |
Cristina Castillo / Smithsonian Institution
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The JASON Project Live from the Shedd AquariumPublished by: Maggy Hunter Benson - Jul 19, 2011This week people representing federal, state, and local governments, academia, non-profits, and private industry are in Chicago for the biennial Coastal Zone Conference. This meeting will give more than 1,000 attendees the opportunity to discuss ocean issues, strategies, and solutions. |
 Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer in Residence, will appear in Wednesday's live broadcast to speak about the state of our ocean in a pre-recorded segment
Flickr User kk+
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Educational Uses of Gyotaku or Fish PrintingPublished by: Catherine - Jul 18, 2011Gyotaku is a traditional form of Japanese art that began over 100 years ago as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught. They would apply sumi ink to one side of a freshly caught fish, then cover the fish with rice paper and rub to create an exact image of the fish. The ink was non-toxic and allowed for the fish to be processed for eating, while preserving records of fish species and sizes. |
 A Gyotaku flounder print helps teach students about its anatomy. Flounder like all other flatfish, have both eyes on one side of its body while the opposite side is blind.
Smithsonian Institution
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Diving for Crabs in the Deep SeaPublished by: Cristina Castillo - Jul 14, 2011Last week, Smithsonian research zoologists Dr. Jerry Harasewych and Dr. Martha Nizinski were in Curaçao looking for deep-sea marine gastropods and decapod crustaceans, respectively. |
 Smithsonian zoologists inside the Curasub, a 5-person submersible. They're exploring the biodiversity of the deep reefs off Curaçao in the southern Caribbean.
Cristina Castillo / Smithsonian Institution
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A Sub and a Sea ToadPublished by: Cristina Castillo - Jul 8, 2011Have you ever seen a creature so unusual? This fish (22 cm long) is called a sea toad and studying them requires luck and the opportunity to descend into the deep waters where they live. |
 Researchers with the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) collected this sea toad, Chaunax pictus, off the coast of Honduras in 2011. The team is trying to collect sea toads from around the Caribbean to better understand the group's genetic diversity and distribution.
Smithsonian Institution
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Tunas and Marlins Officially Classified as ThreatenedPublished by: Tina Tennessen - Jul 7, 2011Extinction is a real possibility for three species of tunas. That’s one of the messages from a new study released today online in the |
 The Southern Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) is listed as "critically endangered" on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. If its population continues to decline, the species faces the possibility of extinction. It's not alone. Scientists classified the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (T. thynnus) as "endangered" and Bigeye Tuna (T. obesus) as "vulnerable."
Ian Gordon / Auscape International
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Summer in a Sub: DROP Down to DiscoveryPublished by: Cristina Castillo - Jul 5, 2011You never know where following your passions can take you. I came to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) two years ago as a research intern after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in biology. I never expected, two years later, to spend a summer working with scientists, sub pilots, and engineers to help document the biodiversity of marine life off of Curaçao, a small island in the southern Caribbean, just north of Venezuela. |
 Smithsonian researchers are using this five-person submersible to study the biodiversity of the deep reefs of Curaçao in the southern Caribbean.
Substation Curacao
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Fossil Whale Found, Excavated, Jacketed, and Returned to STRI!Published by: Nicholas D. Pyenson - Jun 23, 2011Jorge and I packed up the night we arrived in Panama with Aaron O'Dea and his team from STRI. The road we took in two field vehicles mostly followed the Panama Canal heading northwards; we had to stop at a tanker ship crossing, where the locks separated the roadway. Quite an engineering marvel. |
 The fossil squalodontid skull was located in the middle of the tidal environment in Panama, giving researchers the added challenge of racing the tide for the excavation. The team was successful in their efforts, conducting an excavation that would normally take two days in just four hours.
Aaron O'Dea
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At STRI, No Whales Yet, But There Are Fossil Sea Cows...Published by: Nicholas D. Pyenson - Jun 18, 2011Jorge and I arrived in Panama City around 3 pm this afternoon, and took a taxi to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)'s headquarters in the Gorgas neighborhood of downtown Panama City. The temperature's about like it would be in D.C. on a hot day, but, much to our amazement, there are giant, beautiful avocados and mangos hanging from the trees, along with monkeys and toucans. (Apparently they pass for the Central American counterparts of rats and pigeons). Pretty neat though! |
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Expedition to Excavate a Fossil WhalePublished by: Nicholas D. Pyenson - Jun 17, 2011My graduate student Jorge and I are departing today for Panama, to excavate a fossil whale that was discovered by an undergraduate student working with Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute researcher Aaron O'Dea. |
