2/11/25
DOLPHINS FOUND TO HAVE FENTANYL IN THEIR BODIES and OTHER DRUGS
Excerpts: The researchers found fentanyl — a painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine – in 24 of the samples, including all post-mortem specimens taken from the six dolphins that had died. The sedative meprobamate and the skeletal muscle relaxant carisoprodol were also found in the marine mammals' blubber.
More than a quarter of Earth's rivers have also been found to contain pharmaceuticals at levels higher than what's considered safe for aquatic organisms, with their waters contributing to concentrations of pollutants in marine environments.
Siren here! I feel sick!
7/28/23
SEA TURTLES CAN TALK! GABRIEL JORGEWICH-COHEN'S RESEARCH PROVES IT and THE ORIGIN OF VOCALIZATION IN ANIMALS
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN : CHATTY TURTLES and THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL VOCALIZATION
Listen to the clicks and grunts at this link.
Excerpt: Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen: I did fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon with a researcher that published one of these first papers showing that turtles can communicate acoustically, and that inspired me. So I went back home, and I got a piece of equipment, and I started recording my own pets. And I discovered that they were producing sounds as well, and the species I had were not known to produce sounds......
11/12/22
THE GENERATOR THAT TURNS PLASTIC TRASH INTO EDIBLE PROTEIN : THE FUTURE INSIGHT PRIZE
NEWSWEEK - GENERATOR - PLATIC - PROTEIN By Georgina Jadikovskaall from a bit more than a year ago,
Excerot: Two U.S. scientists have won a 1 million euro ($1.18 million) prize for creating a generator conet that turns plastics into protein.
The 2021 Future Insight Prize went to Ting Lu, a professor of bioengineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Stephen Techtmann, associate pofessor of biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University, for their project. It used microbes to degrade plastic.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE FUTURE INSIGHT PRIZE:
2/12/15
SIX FOOT LONG EEL LIKE FRILL SHARK CALLED "A LIVING FOSSIL"
EXCERPT:
With its gaping, tooth-filled mouth and its slender, eel-like body, it’s not hard to see why scientists think the frilled shark may have inspired ancient tales of sea monsters. Looking like something out of a nightmare, the deep-sea creature is rarely seen. But fishers in Australia pulled one up this week.
The frilled shark is often called a “living fossil” because it is thought to have changed little in about 80 million years. The fish also bears a resemblance to ancestor species that lived during the time of the dinosaurs...
2/11/15
FRILL SHARK LIVING FOSSIL TURNS UP IN AUSTRALIAN FISHERMENS NET
This link has photos and videos!
EXCERPT:
Fishermen in Australia were stunned last month when they hauled up a shark so strange-looking that it's been called a "living fossil"--300 teeth and all (scroll down for photos).
The super-rare frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) showed up in the nets of a trawler operating near in waters off Victoria, Australia, The Telegraph reported.
2/4/15
HOW ROSE COLORED SEA SLUGS CAN HELP PREDICT EL NINO RAINS
EXCERPT:
Hopkins’ rose nudibranchs , as the sea slugs are known, travel as larvae at the whim of warm ocean currents, floating to the bottom as they grow during their first couple months. There they feed exclusively on a pink-colored bryozoan — a diminutive aquatic organism known as a “moss animal” that clusters in colonies — which grows all the way up to British Columbia and imparts the Okenia rosacea‘s remarkable color. Goddard knew that spotting the nudibranchs in high numbers near Morro Bay in mid-January was significant, since they usually hunt down in Southern California. They reminded him of the flourishing pink populations he’d seen near Santa Cruz during 1977’s weak El NiƱo.
After Morro, Goddard headed up to Monterey to check the tidepools. Along with reports from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, the Bodega Marine Laboratory, and San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, his hypothesis was confirmed: The little creatures were everywhere, as far north as Humboldt — sometimes by the dozens per square meter....
2/1/15
11/22/14
FEMALE ORCA WHALES FOLLOWED BY A DRONE : SOME STARVED TO DEATH
Some of the whales appeared to be skeletal and some died at sea.
11/7/14
COMING UP - SOME ARTICLES THAT INVOLVE THE LATEST AMAZING SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY
10/2/14
ONE GREEN PLANET REPORTS ON WHALES AND DOLPHINS IN PRISON
EXCERPT: Depression, aggression, poor dental health, self-mutilation, vomiting, suicide attempts, drugs, illnesses – don’t these all seem like signs ultimately leading to death? According to a research study conducted in 1995 by Robert Small and Douglas Demaster, the annual mortality rate for captive dolphins was two and a half times higher than that of wild cetaceans. Sadly, not much has changed since then for the benefit of captive cetaceans. While wild killer whales have been known to live as long as 80 to 90 years, only two female orcas in captivity have passed the age of 40, and no males have lived longer than 35.
9/24/14
GREY WATER ! WHAT IS IT?
Greywater contains far less nitrogen than blackwater
Nine-tenths of the nitrogen contained in combined wastewater derives from toilet wastes (i.e., from the blackwater). Nitrogen is one of the most serious and difficult-to-remove pollutants affecting our potential drinking water supply.
Greywater contains far fewer pathogens than blackwaterMedical and public health professionals view feces as the most significant source of human pathogens. Keeping toilet wastes out of the wastewater stream dramatically reduces the danger of spreading such organisms via water.
Greywater decomposes much faster than blackwaterThe implication of the more rapid decomposition of greywater pollutants is the quicker stabilization and therefore enhanced prevention of water pollution.
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Can you use bath water or dish sink water to water your plants? Yes, with provisions!
9/21/14
9/18/14
KILLER WHALE POPULATION IN PUGET SOUND WASHINGTON SEVERLY ENDANGERED
EXCERPT: The population of endangered killer whales in the Puget Sound, off the US state of Washington, is on the decline so much so that their current recorded number is the lowest in the last 29 years. Birth of no new calves since 2012 and the natural death of two adult whales can be blamed for the decline.
9/17/14
9/13/14
DID HUMANS EVOLVE TO BE AWAKE ON FULL MOON NIGHTS TO COLLECT SEAFOOD?
EXCERPT:
7/8/14
AQUANAUT FABIEN COUSTEAU BACK ON DRY LAND AFTER 31 DAYS UNDERWATER!
The 46-year-old ocean explorer and documentary filmmaker finished his stint in an underwater lab 63 feet deep off the coast of Key Largo, Florida, on Wednesday, rising to the surface after a brief layover in a decompression unit. The project, called Mission 31, provided a platform to study oceanic pollution and climate change and their impact on wildlife, as well as to conduct scientific experiments on coral reef.
6/28/14
6/24/14
IS THERE AN UNDERWATER CITY 6 MILES OFF THE COAST OF MALIBU?
An excellent article by Lee Speigel explores a large strange formation like an undersea plateau that was discovered by viewers of Google Earth. Are Aliens living under there in a city or does science explain best?
An excerpt: "
"I didn't see anything special about it. I think it's because it looks like there's a flat surface and then, below it, it looks like there are these vertical columns, so somebody can say, 'Oh, this is the entryway to something special,'" said earthquake geologist David Schwartz of the U.S. Geological Survey.
"I think it's natural and is a part of the continental shelf," Schwartz told HuffPost. "It's just a complicated part of what's now offshore that has seen some erosion and, maybe, slumping when perhaps this was partially exposed when sea level was lower. This is a really major earthquake area and perhaps some of these features are a result of slope failures, due to shaking..."
6/4/14
SEA LEVELS ARE RISING! WILL YOUR CITY BE 10 FEET UNDER WATER? CHECK THIS SITE MAP!
"Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. A Climate Central analysis finds the odds of “century” or worse floods occurring by 2030 are on track to double or more, over widespread areas of the U.S. These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed. And compounding this risk, scientists expect roughly 2 to 7 more feet of sea level rise this century — a lot depending upon how much more heat-trapping pollution humanity puts into the sky."
5/24/14
HAS COLUMBUS' SHIP THE SANTA MARIA WRECK FOUND OFF HAITI?
Off the northern coast of Haiti and in only 10 to 15 feet of water...1492...a 15th century cannon.
"Explorer Barry Clifford said evidence that the wreck is the Santa Maria, which struck a reef and foundered on Christmas Day in 1492, includes ballast stones that appear to have come from Spain or Portugal and what looks like a 15th century cannon that was at the site during an initial inspection but has since disappeared." ... "Kevin Crisman, director of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University, said many Spanish ships sunk off Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and it will be difficult to confirm that this is the Santa Maria. The ship sank slowly in 1492 and the crew had time to strip it and remove valuable items that would help document the identity of the vessel."





