Scientists at The UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, the UNCW Center for Marine Science, the North Carolina Wildlife Commission, NC State CMAST, the National Parks Service, and the North Carolina Aquariums have been collaborating for quite a while to coordinate a sea turtle release. The day finally came last week, as members of the Peterson lab … Continue reading
Happy Friday everyone! Meet Tabitha, she’s a 6 year old first grader from Nebraska, and cousin of our friend Theo Jass. Tabitha loves sea turtles. Recently, she even received a sea turtle tracker for her birthday that allows her to track the movements of a rescued sea turtle that is now in the wild. Needless … Continue reading
“Training” wild sharks to eat lionfish might sound like a good idea. But what happens if they are actually being “trained” to attack divers? Since the lionfish invasion hit the news, people have suggested that native predators will eat and control invasive lionfish. For more information check out our previous posts The Great Debate: Predators … Continue reading
Written by UNC Graduate Student JP Balmonte. This is Juno, an 11-year-old male Beluga whale at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut! I got to meet him as part of my training as a Science Communications Fellow through the Ocean Exploration Trust at the University of Rhode Island. Tune in next week for more details … Continue reading
The above video might call to mind the “jellyfish forest” in a certain Pixar movie, but divers have nothing to fear from the eponymous inhabitants of Jellyfish Lake. (I’m pretty sure oceanographers can only mention Finding Nemo once every few months or they start to lose credibility, so you bet I waited for an optimal … Continue reading
If you ever played Sharks & Minnows in your middle school pool party days, you’ve mimicked recent research from the University of Hawaii and University of Tokyo: seeing the world from the perspective of a shark. But whereas your swimming pool shark was single-mindedly trying to “catch fish,” it turns out that actual sharks’ schedules … Continue reading
For this week’s photography Friday, we at UndertheC thought we’d indulge our love of GIFs–also known as the perfect marriage between photographs and film–with a collection of some of the best marine science-themed gifs. As our own Megan Schutt stated, “They’re like Harry Potter paintings, but in real life.” … Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day! Can you spot all three marine organisms in this picture? Vase Sponge The heart in our Valentine’s Day photo is actually a uniquely-shaped vase sponge. These sponges are usually found on coral reefs and can be pink, purple, or even fluorescent blue. As members of the Porifera phylum, these organisms lack true … Continue reading
An article posted late last night on the NYT website reports that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an independent Australian government agency whose purpose is to protect the Great Barrier Reef, has approved the dumping of 3 million cubic tons of sediment and dredging mud within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (a UNESCO … Continue reading
A study was published on Jan 21, 2014, the 50th anniversary of the IUCN Red List, that found a quarter of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction (more information here). Only 23% of these species are considered “safe” with the IUCN listing of “Least Concern.” You may think of sharks as threats to … Continue reading
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