WaterNotes

Long ago I posted on mercury contamination in beluga whales.  New research shows us the problem with toxic chemical accumulation in our apex ocean predators extends to sperm whales with habitat ranges far larger than the Arctic Ocean belugas call home.  Over a thousand whales were sampled over a five year period, revealing levels of [...]

What can a 400 year old northern right whale bone tell you? Apparently, a heck of a lot. New research published in the journal Conservation Genetics was written up by the BBC just today about northern right whales.  These are the highly endangered species that migrates off of Florida’s coastline at this time of year. [...]

Over the years I’ve heard, and even shared, many theories and points of conjecture to explain the ubiquitous question about hammerhead sharks: what in the name of Poseidon is that headshape for? Some of the more interesting of the swirling theories included: Increased surface area for sensory organs and enhanced ability to interpret, understand, and [...]

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 [...]

A report released in Polar Biology had an interesting incident involving an overeager king penguin to relate.  Apparently a researcher happened upon a particular king that had decided he was ready to raise some offspring.   Since it was too early for king penguin breeding season, the adult went after his neighbors’ chick which belonged to a pair of skua [...]

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 [...]

I tell my students all the time: It might seem that we collectively know a lot about the wildlife that inhabit our oceans. However, the truth is that for every question we can answer there are hundreds, even thousands, of questions that no one can answer.. yet. Basking shark biology, and the enduring mystery of [...]