Today's Catch
Jun 8, 2011
It was a typical summer day in the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. Visitors were examining the giant squid and marveling at the life-size replica of Phoenix, the right whale . The only thing odd was the high number of blue-clad people milling about. And then surfing-music filled the gallery. The blue crowd began to jam out. A Roundnose Grenadier and orange roughy --...Read more
Jun 3, 2011
June 8th is World Ocean Day- a great time to celebrate all that the ocean does for us and focus on keeping it healthy for future generations. Visit the Ocean Portal's Find Your Blue page to start learning today about how your personal actions affect the ocean and how you can make make small changes to your daily routine to help protect it. You can also learn more by watching footage of sharks...Read more
May 23, 2011
Credit:Flickr user ianredan
Adaptation is the key word if you are looking to survive in a tide pool, a space that some scientists describe as the most competitive real estate in the ocean. Tide pools are exposed to the water's ebb and flow, and plants and animals must adapt to survive wave turbulence, desiccation stress, predation, and competition for space and food. Not enough real estate on the rocks? Barnacles , sponges...Read more
May 11, 2011
This short video takes you two hundred miles off the coast of Oregon and some 6,600 feet below the water's surface to observe the Dumbo octopus ( Grimpoteuthis bathynectes ). Little is known about this deep-sea creature, but if this footage doesn't inspire a whole cadre of budding teuthologists, we don't know what will.Read more
May 10, 2011
Credit:Jeffrey T. Williams/Smithsonian Institution
Some fish you can fry up in the pan, no questions asked. Others require a bit of research. Case in point: the puffer fish. Commonly known as fugu, some species contain toxins more deadly than cyanide. The Indo-Pacific puffer Lagocephalus cf. suezensis (pictured here) is among the more toxic. Ensuring that only the safe puffers make it to market is of concern to the U.S. Food and Drug...Read more
May 9, 2011
Credit:Smithsonian Institution
"The ocean is essential to all" is one of the Ocean Literacy Principles , and it seems to look more arresting when written in Korean calligraphy than it does in any computer font. Artist Myoung-Won Kwon shared his talents during a visit to the National Museum of Natural History. Kwon was one of many artists who participated in a May 2011 Smithsonian event celebrating Asian Pacific American...Read more
May 5, 2011
Credit:Mary Parrish
Rachel Caauwe was one of a dozen artists who spent a recent Saturday sketching specimens from the Smithsonian's musky-scented marine mammal collection . Here she's shown drawing the remains of a harbor seal ( Phoca vitulina ). The workshop, organized by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators , focused on larger whales. "I was quite overwhelmed by the scale of some of the specimens," said...Read more
Apr 26, 2011
The Encyclopedia of Life and Atlantic Public Media bring us a new installment of the podcast, One Species at a Time . Vacuumed up from its habitat a mile down in the ocean, the red paper lantern jelly may not look like much. Mostly water, it’s so fragile that once brought to the surface it’s reduced to a tattered blob in a jar. But this unassuming jellyfish has lessons for scientists. It’s...Read more
Apr 13, 2011
Credit:Christine Meng
Kids wax poetic in the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. To celebrate National Poetry Month, visitors on April 9, 2011 were invited to pen a haiku to the ocean blue. Seven-year-old Christine Meng--a true poet--took some creative liberties and expanded the form in a visual direction . To see more poems authored by children, read the "comments" section . Inspired? Submit...Read more
Apr 5, 2011
Credit:
Much of the carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere ends up in the ocean. As CO 2 levels rise, seawater becomes more acidic. This change in chemistry poses a serious threat to marine organisms including snails, corals , such as in the above photo showing a single bleached polyp, and fish. In the April 2011 issue of National Geographic , writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells the story of how...Read more
