WaterNotes

It’s no secret here at WaterNotes that I have very mixed and rather strong feelings regarding animals – and particularly cetaceans – living in zoos and aquariums. (If you missed it, here’s my take.) The documentary The Cove never sat evenly with me. As an insider in the community of zoological parks, and one with [...]

One of the most interesting partnerships I’ve ever seen captured on film… a labrador retriever and a bottlenose dolphin, frolicking in a bay.

Things have been more than distracting this summer so for those of you still checking in, forgive the lapse in posts. However, since I’m still on hiatus while I roam the wilds of Florida with my camp students, feast your brain on this very interesting essay published by Orion: A Mind In the Water.  It [...]

Peter Tyack of Woods Hole took the TED Mission Blue folks through a spectacular view of the acoustics of whales and dolphins in his talk during the voyage. It was recently posted to TED.com and it may be my new favorite TED talk ever!  I am floored by the graphic representations of sound waves produced [...]

Plastic Pollution Coalition has a brilliant guerilla-style grassroots campaign unfolding in Vancouver at the moment. Plastic Manners is also providing coverage and reactions from the public on the giant plastic six-pack ring found entangled across several of the marine-themed statues that grace the city.  I find the campaign brilliant and inspiring.  It’s hard to deny [...]

The Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit posted this really interesting photo of an IRL dolphin with a bite pattern across its back.   Many of my students believe that if dolphins are in the area then sharks won’t be, but this photo certainly proves otherwise.  I’m tempted to walk around with it in my pocket and [...]

I’m pretty much speechless about this one. We hear about these impacts on our wildlife and we can theorize that baleen whales will scoop plastic plankton alongside the real stuff, but to see evidence of it really brings home the size of the situation we’re in.