GOLDEN SHARK CAUGHT OFF COAST OF COSTA RICA

 REAL CLEAR SCIENCE : GOLDEN SHARK CAUGHT

Excerpt: One spectacular example of this is a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) caught and released by sports fishers off the coast of Costa Rica in August 2024. Not only was this shark not its usual brown cookie-dough color, but it was vividly orange-colored – with white eyes, to boot.

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WHY IS THIS SHARK THAT LOOKS TO BE THE COLOR OF A GOLD FISH ORANGE? sHE LIKES WARM WATER TOO!

Click on the link to see the photo!  Almost unbelievable!

PANAMA : OCEAN WATERS DID NOT RISE SEASONALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS : TERRIBLE CONCERN THAT OCEAN SYSTEM IS COLLAPSING

NEWSROOM PANAMA : FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS

Excerpt: For over 40 years, seasonal upwelling in the Gulf of Panama has followed a consistent pattern. Between the end of the calendar year and early spring, trade winds from the north push surface waters offshore, drawing cooler, deeper water upward. The process delivers nutrients that stimulate phytoplankton growth, forming the foundation of the marine food web. .................

In early 2025, that system failed. No cold water rose to the surface. No spike in surface chlorophyll was recorded. Ocean surface temperatures remained elevated through the season. According to data collected by scientists aboard the S/Y Eugen Seibold, a research vessel jointly operated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Max Planck Institute, the vertical movement of water that characterizes the upwelling was entirely absent. The study documenting the event, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms it as the first complete suppression of the upwelling in the observational record. Researchers noted that this shift eliminated a key stabilizing mechanism in the region’s marine ecosystem and exposed vulnerabilities in the broader ocean-climate system.

Winds Weaken, With Cascading Effects

At the center of the disruption was a collapse in atmospheric drivers. The northern trade winds, normally responsible for triggering the upwelling process, were significantly weaker in early 2025. As a result, surface waters remained in place, and the temperature differential needed to initiate vertical mixing did not materialize. The absence of cooler waters had immediate ecological effects. Without an influx of nutrients, phytoplankton production declined sharply. Satellite observations confirmed reduced chlorophyll-a concentrations throughout the Gulf of Panama during the period when biological productivity typically peaks.

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Go to this important article which is excellent to learn about how this is supposed to work, and the effect on the sea creatures - including starvation!

SPERM WHALES ARE IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATION WITH EACH OTHER EVEN AS THEY HUNT

BBC COM : SPERM WHALE PHONETICS check out the video too!

EXCERPT: Sperm whales live in multi-level, matrilineal societies - groups of daughters, mothers and grandmothers – while the males roam the oceans, visiting the groups to breed. They are known for their complex social behavior and group decision - making, which requires sophisticated communication. For example, they are able to adapt their behavior as a group when protecting themselves from predators like orcas or humans.

Sperm whales communicate with each other using rhythmic sequences of clicks, called codas. It was previously thought that sperm whales had just 21 coda types. However, after studying almost 9,000 recordings, the Ceti researchers identified 156 distinct codas. They also noticed the basic building blocks of these codas which they describe as a "sperm whale phonetic alphabet" – much like phonemes, the units of sound in human language which combine to form words.

...........................Pratyusha Sharma, a PhD student at MIT and lead author of the study, describes the "fine-grain changes" in vocalisations the AI identified. Each coda consists of between three and 40 rapid-fire clicks. The sperm whales were found to vary the overall speed, or the "tempo", of the codas, as well as to speed up and slow down during the delivery of a coda, in other words, making it "rubato". Sometimes they added an extra click at the end of a coda, akin, says Sharma, to "ornamentation" in music. These subtle variations, she says, suggest sperm whale vocalisations could carry a much much richer amount of information than previously thought. 

2025 UNITED NATIONS OCEAN CONFERENCE TAKING PLACE NOW

WMO INTERNATIONAL : UNITED NATIONS OCEAN CONFERENCE 2025 NOW 

Excerpts: The UN Ocean Conference from 9 to 13 June, is co-hosted by the governments of France and Costa Rica. It is expected to adopt a political declaration and registry of voluntary commitments – called the Nice Ocean Action Plan to conserve and sustainably use the ocean” in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14 on life above and below the water.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles of Costa Rica joined UN secretary-General Antonio Guterres in calling for more science-based action to protect ocean health which is so vital to planetary health.

The ocean absorbs more than 90 percent of excess heat from human activities. Ocean warming and glacier melt is accelerating sea-level rise. Record ocean temperatures and acidification are inflicting severe and long-lasting damage.

This is having a tsunami-like impact on sustainable development of the ocean and resulting in billions of dollars of damage to the Blue Economy.

SEA TURTLES AS A KEYSTONE SPECIES : SEE TURTLES : WORKING IN CENTRAL AMERICA and THE CARIBBEAN : AN EXPANSIVE WEBSITE

"If a keystone species is removed from a habitat, the natural order can be disrupted, which impacts other wildlife and fauna in different ways."

SEE TURTLES

SEE TURTLES is a science-facts website that I know you will find fascinating and take some time with.  You will learn the things you can do to help protect this necessary species of marine animal.

Here are some excerpts from the site.

1. Don’t buy souvenirs or other items made from critically endangered hawksbill shell.

2. Help Heal The Climate: Climate change affects the health of coral reefs which are vital to the hawksbills survival. A warming planet also skews sex ratios in baby turtles

3.  Avoid eating seafood or choose responsibly caught seafood. Sea turtles are vulnerable to commercial fishing methods like trawling, longlines, and drift gillnets, becoming unwanted catch (also known as "bycatch") that is discarded like trash.

4.  Just say NO to plastics! Sea turtles and other ocean life mistake plastic as food and ingest it. An estimated that more than 100 million marine animals die each year as a result of eating or getting entangled in plastic.

7. Turtles dig the dark! Sea turtles need dark beaches for nesting and for navigating their way to the ocean. Light from beachfront development can deter females from coming ashore to nest as well as lead newly born hatchling away from the water and towards danger.

9. Choose sunscreen carefully. Chemicals in some types of sunscreen can damage coral reefs and pollute turtle habitat. Avoid any sunscreen with "oxybenzone" and look for brands labeled as "Reef Friendly" & avoid sprays that pollute the sand where turtles nest. 

PROTECTION FOR THE GIANT CONCH OF MEXICO - YUCATAN PENINSULA - MEXICAN CARIBBEAN

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY : PROTECTION SOUGHT FOR MEXICO'S GIANT CONCH 

Excerpt: The Banco Chinchorro Biosphere Reserve in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is one of the last remaining fishing areas in the Mexican Caribbean, where more than 90% of the country's queen conch production is harvested.  Despite policies involving bans, minimum harvest size and catch quotas, fishing pressure and uncontrolled poaching in recent years have decreased queen conch populations, which are now considered over-exploited. The Mexican National Fisheries Chart describes the fishery as "in deterioration."

MERMAID BRIDE? SHE BELIEVES HERSELF TO BE so SHE GOT MARRIED UNDER THE SEA!

DAILY MAIL - MERMAID OBSESSED BRIDE - SOAKED WEDDING DRESS   Susana Zamos married Jovany Garzon  IN the Caribbean Sea.  "Some guests swam to the wedding while others arrived by boat.:

SHIPWRECKS - HURRICANES - AND TREE RINGS : WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

WASHINGTON POST - ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS - CLIMATE CHANGE

EXCERPT:

To study shipwrecks, the new research drew upon historical records of no less than 657 wrecks of Spanish ships in the Caribbean between 1495 and 1825 — a period that started just after Columbus’s first expedition to the new world. All of the storms that were inferred to have wrecked these ships occurred prior to the earliest year in today’s official Atlantic hurricane database, which is kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and begins in 1851.... But to strengthen the analysis, the researchers also cross-referenced the shipwreck history with data from the rings of pine trees growing in the Florida Keys, which can also provide a record of hurricane history.

THE REAL PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN : FILM REVIEW

THE REAL PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN is a DVD that was put out in 2005 by A and E TV and there are many films out with the name or similar so...  What this film will reveal to you is that pirating in its day was like corporate theft today - people got hired to do it and people got away with it all the time. Pirating was considered fair game.  It was considered unfair that Spain got all that gold and stealing gold off a ship was prime activity.  Pirates could be hired.  Pirates were sometimes female.  And some of the most famous pirate characters we hear about today were not hiding out when they were on land.  They were celebrated.

You may want to see this film or read on the subject of pirates and women pirates and compare it to what you see in the famous Disney series "Pirates of the Caribbean."