A CURATED COLLECTION OF SCIENCE FACTS AND DELICIOUS FICTIONS !

4/25/17

YOUR FISH TANK - DECORATIONS TO PUT IN - DECORATIONS TO KEEP OUT!

You may indulge your love of fish and your fantasies by creating an interesting décor in your home or office FISH TANK.  But did you know that you may be harming your fish and the environment when you use shells, coral, plastic, and other items that are sold in stores?


Growing up so many of my friends had  fish bowl, turtle bowls, and more sophisticated tanks with air and filtration systems to keep them fresh.  Besides colored gravel, it was common to see plastic trees, ferns, sea grasses, and other under water flora all made of plastic.  We thought we were giving our fish an interesting, though small and limited environment that they could swim around in.  Of course no one knows what goes on in the mid of a fish about being kept in captivity like that when it comes to living in close with humans.


These days we know that plastic leeches into water and food and that really we should be extremely careful not to drink out of it if the bottles have been in a hot car or in the sun.  We know that there are plastics inside the human body and we think they get there from the bottles that contain shampoo and conditioner, frozen meals, and bottled water.  However, we do have some choice.  Plastic doesn't break the way glass can and most of us don't want glass in our bathrooms - especially not in earthquake zones.   The harder the plastic the better.  We should not reuse plastic food containers.  If your store's bottled water gets to the shelf cool and within a week or so of being bottled, it's probably OK.


But if your fish are in a tank full of plastic decorations, no doubt that the plastic may be leaking into the water and that's the fish's total environment.  (And by the way many famous big aquariums have plastic decorations in their tanks too! So don't feel too bad!  Just change the stuff out!)


Then there are bags of shells and pieces of coral sold to put into the tanks.  If you already bought these things or picked them off a sea shore, OK use them.  By buying these, however, you encourage stores to keep selling them, and the only way to stop the destruction of shells and corals is to NOT BUY THEM!

4/12/17

RACHEL CARSON - PESTICIDES PIONEER




RACHEL CARSON, who became famous for just part of her body of work, a book called Silent Spring, which came out in 1962, was a woman who tried to make the wake up call that pesticides were poisoning the environment.  This marine biologist worked long and hard at her avocation, without making much money or becoming rich. Though her research followed scientific methods in her time, today no doubt she'd be a PHD.

Her focus was a bit more on the ocean environment first, what was happening under the water to animals like fish, but she couldn't deep sea dive, and eventually focused on the sea life that was closer to shore in tide pools.

This film shows you how DDT was marketed - almost as if it were good for the environment and our health!

This film also reveals that Carson was an intensely private woman, you could say a bit of a loner, who enjoyed research and having a rich studious life more so than being social.  She also had a battle with breast cancer.

I wonder if Carson ever linked her breast cancer with pollution, in particular pesticides!

3/28/17

DID A MERMAID OR MERMAI\N WASH UP ON A DESERTED BEACH?

DAILY MAIL - DEAD MERMAID DESERTED BEACH?  CHECK OUT THE PICTURES.  IT LOOKS LIKE A MERMAID TO ME!


"If it’s true, she had deserted warm tropical waters to swim among the oil rigs, fishing trawlers, crude oil tankers, ferries and cruise liners in the chilly North Sea."

3/4/17

ONE BOTTLE OR CAN AT A TIME

We've been picking up bottles and cans that we see when we take walks for years now.  One bottle or can at a time we pick them up, sort them in the garage, and then take them to the closest recycling place.  Sometimes the line there is long and it feels crazy to wait for fifteen minutes to an hour in order to come away with a few dollars, but we usually find other people in line want to small talk.

Each time you see a bottle or can that is NOT IN A CITY SPONSORED RECYCLING BIN, you should do the same.  Out walking the dog?  Take along a spare bag to put them in when you pick them up.  If you can lean down to pick up your dog's poo (which you should do!) you can lean down to pick up a bottle or can that someone else threw out of their car or left when the bus came.

Even though our garbage fees include recycling bins to separate bottles and cans from food garbage and yard waste, and even though we have a lot of people in the area looking for things they can recycle so they can buy food,  we still find them!

PICKING UP BOTTLES AND CANS and GETTING THEM INTO RECYCLING is one the easiest things you can do to be sure that these items don't make it into our oceans, lakes, rivers, and the ocean, where there are huge seas of plastic already floating and hurting the ocean ecology and sea life!

2/2/17

SIRENS LINK TO SEA BLOGSPOT - SINCE 2009 - AN 8th ANNIVERSARY

of Blogging here at Google's BlogSpot, about the ocean ecology, sea life, a mix of science facts and delicious fictions, with awareness of ocean ecology and environmental activism!  Enjoy looking through my archives!