OCEANA : PROTECT ENDANGERED SPECIES WITH LEGAL ACTION : 10% OF GLOBAL FISH CATCH IS DISCARDED

OCEANA CAMPAIGNS : SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES 

EXCERPT: Did you know that one of the most impactful ways to protect endangered ocean species is to prevent them from being unintentionally caught up in fishing gear?

About 10% of the world’s global fish catch is discarded. And each year, fishing gear kills or injures millions of non-targeted animals as bycatch, including sharks, whales, dolphins, fish, and sea turtles, some of which are vulnerable or endangered ocean species.

In recent years, Oceana has helped to ban the deadly shark fin trade in the United States and Canada. Oceana is continuing to work to reduce bycatch and protect important species like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from destructive fishing practices and other human caused threats.

Oceana and our allies have won more than 75 victories to protect threatened and endangered ocean species, including sharks, sea turtles, and whales.Did you know that one of the most impactful ways to protect endangered ocean species is to prevent them from being unintentionally caught up in fishing gear?

About 10% of the world’s global fish catch is discarded. And each year, fishing gear kills or injures millions of non-targeted animals as bycatch, including sharks, whales, dolphins, fish, and sea turtles, some of which are vulnerable or endangered ocean species.

In recent years, Oceana has helped to ban the deadly shark fin trade in the United States and Canada. Oceana is continuing to work to reduce bycatch and protect important species like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from destructive fishing practices and other human caused threats.

Oceana and our allies have won more than 75 victories to protect threatened and endangered ocean species, including sharks, sea turtles, and whales.

PLAYFUL

 

JOHNNY MORRIS SEA TURTLE RESCUE CENTER SPRINGFIELD MISSOURI WORKING WITH LOGGERHEADS

WONDERS OF LIFE : JOHNNY MORRIS : AQUARIUM : MISSOURI

Sea Turtle Rescue Center

Wonders of Wildlife's Sea Turtle Rescue Center is welcoming 8 new loggerheads to our rehabilitation center this month.

The Midwest's only Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center will be a temporary home for these loggerheads over the next few months. Our team of animal care experts will be helping them around the clock to recover and rehabilitate before being released them back into the wild.

AMAZING MERMAID and MERMAN ART AND POETRY WEBSITE! MERMAIDS OF EARTH

MERMAIDS OF EARTH - ART AND POETRY  Philip Jepsen has published a book too... 

Excerpt: This rich cultural heritage involving mermaids spans millennia and many corners of the Earth, from New Zealand and Australia, through Asia, Greece, much of Europe, India, Latin America, North America and more. The Statues section of the site is dedicated to the surprisingly large number of mermaid sculptures around us, both in public places and private collections, all over the world. Some are astoundingly beautiful, and many have a story out of legend or folk lore, or a great story on how they came to be.

I've collected a lot of excellent photos on these, data on who created them, why they are where they are, when they were created, the stories or legends that inspired them, and of course exactly where they are located – if available to the public – so they can easily be visited.

OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE : SO MANY INTERESTING ARTICLES!

OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE : BROWSE ARTICLES

Here's a sampling of current titles!

France's 'lacklustre' bottom trawling plans "a missed opportunity"

UK government claims "overdue bottom trawling ban" will benefit all

Offshore oil and gas is threatening marine life "at every step"

Samoa protects 30% of its ocean with new marine spatial plan

Hot limpets: Humble shellfish harbour climate change secret

Siren here:  TODAY DO ONE THING THAT WILL HELP PRESERVE OUR OCEANS AND THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS THAT LIVE IN THEM!

SUNFISH HAS TRUNCATED TAIL - TOPS OUT AT 5000 POUNDS - BUT VULNERABLE TO EATING PLASTIC BAGS BECAUSE THEY MAY SEEM TO BE JELLIES

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM on THE SUNFISH

Excerpt: Because molas spend so much time drifting near the ocean surface, they are vulnerable to fishing boats that use drift gillnets. Gillnets usually don't kill molas immediately, but they cut into their skin, scrape off their protective mucus and flood their gills with air.

Another hazard to the mola are discarded plastic bags. When these wind up in the ocean, they float at the surface and look a lot like a jelly — a mola's favorite meal. If the mola doesn't choke as it sucks the bag in, the plastic can clog the fish's stomach, slowly starving the animal. Helping the mola is one more reason to carry your own shopping bags with you to the store — and make sure any plastic bags you use are properly disposed of.

The mola is listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

ROBERT E. FULLER COMBINES ACTIVISM WITH ART : HUMPBACK WHALES IN ALASKAN WATERS

A few months ago I started watching Robert. E. Fullers YouTube channel.  What an amazing person! This short video on humpback whales is just one of his very many.  If you follow his channel you'll learn how to help birds survive by building safe nesting spots for them, and so much more.  Robert is also fine artist who sells his work.

BRINE POOLS IN THE RED SEA : HYPER SALINITY and MICROBES : ANTI CANCER PROPERTIES

NATURE COM : BRINE POOLS IN THE RED SEA 

Excerpt: Despite their rarity and diminutive size, brine pools present intense oases of macrofaunal and microbial biodiversity in a deep-sea benthic environment that otherwise lacks in number and variety of species. Deep-sea brine pools are of intense scientific interest since their pervasive anoxia, low pH, and hypersalinity represent one of the most extreme habitable environments on Earth, perhaps offering clues to first life on our planet, and guiding the search for life beyond it. The significance of Red Sea brine pools has been further amplified with the discovery that the extremophile microbes that inhabit them can yield bioactive molecules with therapeutic potential, including antibacterial and anticancer properties

HAPPY SPERM WHALE

 

SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE : WOULD YOU LIKE TO APPLY TO TRAVEL ON A RESEARCH VESSEL?

SCHMIDT OCEAN ORG 

SCHMIDT OCEAN ORG : THRIVING ECOSYSTEM ON DETACHED ICEBERG

The ICEBERG was as big as CHICAGO... and on the sea floor...

Excerpt: An international team on board Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea rapidly pivoted their research plans to study an area that was, until last month, covered by ice. On January 13, 2025, an iceberg the size of Chicago, named A-84, broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf, one of the massive floating glaciers attached to the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet. The team reached the newly exposed seafloor on January 25 and became the first to investigate an area that had never before been accessible to humans.

SEE THE PICTURES!

A large sponge, a cluster of anemones, and other life is seen nearly 230 meters deep at an area of the seabed that was very recently covered by the George VI Ice Shelf, a floating glacier in Antarctica. Sponges can grow very slowly, sometimes less than two centimeters a year. Therefore, the size of this specimen suggests this community has been active for decades, perhaps even hundreds of years.

FIRST TIME COLOSSAL SQUID SEEN BUT IT'S A TEENAGER!

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE COLOSSAL SQUID IN SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN 

EXCERPT: 

The stunning 4K video film, captured in the deep sea by California's Schmidt Ocean Institute, shows the rare creature's transparent body and eight pink tentacles.

Colossal squid can grow up to 23 feet (7 metres) and weigh as much as 500kg, making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet.

But this specimen, which looks like a delicate glass sculpture, is just a 'teenager' – measuring 11 inches (30cm).

Dying colossal squid adults have previously been filmed by fishermen, but the species has never been seen alive at depth before.

Expedition chief scientist, Dr Michelle Taylor at the University of Essex, called the footage 'stunning' and 'beautiful'.

Siren here!  Check out the video on the website I linked to....  I wonder if the scientists will be able to find this particular creature again when it is more grown!

THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE SEA by LEWIS BLACKWELL : FANTASTIC PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Fantastic photography and important text, Lewis Blackwell is the photographer.

Loved this book!

RED LOBSTER