Tina Tennessen

Tina Tennessen
Tina Tennessen
Tina Tennessen

Tina Tennessen has a background in radio journalism and loves hearing a good story. She is a science writer, web editor, and a former radio producer. Before joining the Ocean Portal team as a web content and social media producer in early 2011, she held the position of Public Affairs Officer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Md. While at SERC, Tina created and edited a news blog called Shorelines and publicized Smithsonian research and educational programs, generating press coverage and public attention for issues such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, invasive species, sea-level rise, shoreline development, and over-fishing. Tina grew up near five of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes and feels fortunate to be working among marine scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding the underwater realm and the issues that affect it.

Collaborator Contributions

A bird sits atop an outcrop of rocks surrounded by turbulent water.

Offshore Rock Island

A still from The Changing Sea, part of the 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital.

Seals, pelicans and other birds rest in a harbor on a bank of rocks.

A Gathering of Seabirds and Seals

A menageries of seabirds (including cormorants and pelicans) and seal gather on a rocky outcrop. The photo is a still from The Changing Sea, part of the 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival, which was held in Washington, DC in 2011. See more pictures from the festival's movies.

A bright red sea anemone clings to rocks underwater.

Red Anemone Clings

A still from The Changing Sea, part of the 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital.

A fish from a deep underwater expedition sits preserved on a bed of ice.

Fish on Ice

A still from Mysteries of the Deep, part of the 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital.

Searching for Crustaceans in the Deep Sea

In this video Smithsonian research zoologist Dr. Martha Nizinski takes viewers with her as she searches for crustaceans in the deep sea. She's particularly interested in finding squat lobsters, which despite their name, are actually crabs. On this dive in the waters off Curaçao, she discovers some living on a sunken piece of wood.

The Making of 'The Bright Beneath'

Follow an artist from inspiration to installation in this short video. It features the work in the exhibit, "The Bright Beneath: The Luminous Art of Shih Chieh Huang," at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Huang created the installation of light-filled, animated objects after a careful study of bioluminescent marine animals in the museum's collection.

Researching Invasive Species Near the Panama Canal

If you want to study invasive species in the ocean, the Panama Canal offers a lot to explore. The ships passing through can inadvertently transport plants, animals, and even parasites from the Atlantic into the Pacific, or the reverse direction. Some species stow away in ballast tanks, others cling to ship hulls.

Demonstrating an Earthquake's Seismic Waves

On August 23, 2011 a 5.8 earthquake emanated from the little-known Central Virginia Seismic Zone. The epicenter was near Mineral, VA, but the tremor shook homes, schools, and office buildings in Washington, DC, including Smithsonian Institution buildings, and beyond.

Video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau)

A video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau) swimming in the Pacific off the Republic of Palau. Jiro Sakaue, a Japanese research diver, first discovered the new genus and species in a Palauan reef cave in 2009.

Trash on the Beach and in the Ocean

While conducting field work in Curaçao in 2011, Smithsonian researchers encountered trash along remote beaches and deep in the water column. This video gives a brief glimpse of some of the marine debris they found. Read about how the experience inspired one of the researchers to make changes in her daily routine.