WaterNotes

Lilo & Stitch is one of Disney’s most charming tales and one of my favorites since I identify so strongly with stubborn, imaginative, headstrong and fish-loving Lilo.  In the opening scenes you see her feed an orange reef fish a peanut butter sandwich, and then go on to explain to her dance instructor why Pudge [...]

Forgive me, but I’m having a very hard time lately with all the recent attention given to the ethics and morality of keeping wildlife in zoos and aquariums (or “captivity”). Not only have we been raising questions concerning large social and intelligent animals like dolphins and whales, we are now raising concerns about other [...]

The aftereffects of our unseasonable cold snap over the last two weeks are still rolling in here in Florida.  I have not seen a lot of dead fish in the Lagoon system on my outings but significant fish kills have been reported from saltwater estuaries as well as freshwater lakes and canals due to the [...]

How did I miss this news?! In 2008 three new species of seahorse were described! The smallest of the three: Hippocampus satomiae, from scattered areas within Indonesian reefs near Derawan, the Lembah Strait (of northern Sulawesi), and northern Borneo.
Florida boasts H. zosterae, known as the dwarf seahorse, clocking in at the size of a nickel [...]

While on a mission to find images of southern right whales I happened upon Dennis Buurman’s beautiful online gallery of marine mammals from the coasts of New Zealand.  Take a look at the images he presents including dusky dolphins, Hector’s dolphin, sperm whales, albatross, fur seals, and other ocean wildlife.  Just gorgeous.

Chris Stallings of Oregon State University published a paper in PLOS One this past week that took a close look at predatory fish populations in Caribbean coral reef habitats over varying levels of human population density (and resulting impact from so-called artisanal fishing). The findings are consistent with reports that we’ve seen before: where there [...]

While browsing the incredible array of offerings over at ThinkGeek.com I stumbled into the R2 Fish Training School. Most marine educators already have fish swimming in their classrooms. How fantastic would it be to impress your students with this training program? I think I need it. My clownfish – Starsky and [...]