WaterNotes

It occurred to me today, while standing at the edge of the lagoon, that I’ve become so wrapped up in all the conservation issues present in this resource that I may be losing the ability to appreciate it as most other people do: as a tremendous natural area of water, fish, and sunshine.  It makes me [...]

Humboldt penguins are one of the threatened species found hopping around the beautiful Pacific edge of South America.   Interestingly, they were named for an explorer and naturalist whose observations about the diversity of life as it approaches the equator has apparently sparked two hundred years worth of puzzling and proposals of explanations for the phenomenon.  Simply: [...]

I tried to draw the planet today.  I actually took a marker to whiteboard and attempted to freehand a globe with the continents.  Its not as easy as you might expect.  And it was sort of hilarious the points where I became impossibly confused.  The familiar coastlines of the US didnt give me one moments worth [...]

For the past few weeks I’ve noticed a common thread in my approach and attempts to relate information about wildlife to the public.  In my quest to make things digestible I often resort to applying logic.  Why do some species of dolphin swim upside down?  Well, its complicated.  We think it has a lot to do [...]

Tropical storm Fay rolled through central Florida towards late afternoon today.  Schools were called off – this is their first week back – but I reported to work.  I wish I wore wetsuits; I could have used them while splashing through puddles. The concept of a “calm before the storm” is probably centuries old.  I pondered [...]

  I’ve interacted with an interesting slew of animals as a naturalist and aquarist.  Giant Pacific octopus?  Check.  Seahorses, seadragons, urchins, horseshoe crabs, cat sharks?  Check.  Stingrays, dolphins, snakes, scorpions, kookaburras, red-tailed hawks?  Check.  Macaws, African gray parrots, eels, venomous fish, and an assortment of turtles?  Check.  A sea turtle?  Check.  Penguins of several species?  [...]

  Marine mammals and reptiles (and even some birds like shearwaters) have to hold their breath if they want to dive down for food in the ocean environment.  Its rather amazing how long some of them can go without fresh air.  Bottlenose dolphins can go about ten minutes, walruses can manage twenty, harbor seals can [...]