2/24/24
WHERE IS THE LARGEST AQUARIUM IN EUROPE? BELIEVE IT OR NOT.... GENOA 400 ANIMAL SPECIES 200 PLANT SPECIES
Known as a historical seaport, why should I be surprised?
The Genoa Aquarium offers its guests an engaging and exciting visit experience, which promotes the conservation of aquatic biodiversity.
Furthermore, the Educational Services of the Aquarium, through a rich proposal of activities for the school world, experiences collateral to the visit for families, the development of scientific communication along the route and specific awareness campaigns, guide visitors in knowledge and understanding of the main environmental problems.
2/22/24
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 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.
2/18/24
OCEAN ECOLOGY NETWORK : AFRICA - ASIA - THE SOUTH PACIFIC and THE MIDDLE EAST : MARINE TURTLES PROJECT
Link to this site and you can hear the podcast by Dr. Manjula Tiwari.
The Ocean Ecology Network partners with Wildlife Without Borders and NOAA.
2/16/24
WHAT'S A BLUE DRAGON STINGING SEA SLUG ?
EARTHRANGERS SEA CREATURES How many of these have you heard of? Great photos!
Check out that Glaucus Atlanticus!
Excerpt: The glaucus atlanticus, aka. the “blue dragon” is a type of stinging sea slug! They actually float upside down on the waves: their blue bellies face up to match the surface, and their silver backs face down to blend in with light shining down. To us, they look like surfing UFO’s!
2/14/24
2/10/24
NOAA PRINTABLE VALENTINES for the OCEAN CONSCIOUS
Free for you to download - NOAA Valentines....
Here's the link! NOAA EDU: DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE VALENTINES
ROSES ARE RED
THE OCEAN IS BLUE
THIS SEA TURTLE WANTED
TO SAY HI TO YOU!
2/7/24
WORLDS LARGEST DEEP SEA REEF - MIAMI to CHARLESTON - 6.4 MILLION ACRES : THIS IS AMAZING!
DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : REEF TEEMING WITH UNKNOWN SPECIES article my Matthew Phelan
Excerpts: Marine scientists have found and mapped the world's largest known deep-sea coral reef: a hidden ecosystem roughly the size of Vermont teeming with new species.
The discovery was the painstaking product of 23 submersible dives and 31 multibeam sonar mapping surveys, researchers revealed, all in the service of charting the Atlantic ocean's deep-set Blake Plateau.
The plateau's deep-sea or cold-water coral ecosystem stretches nearly 311 miles from Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. And it's east-to-west width reaches passed 68 miles in some regions.
Unlike shallow ocean coral, which feeds itself in part via the photosynthesis of zooxanthellae algae, and can be harmed by the heat of climate change, this D. pertusum coral filter feeds off floating biological particles, like dead cells and microorganisms.
And, like a pale cave fish, this cold-water coral is an eerie spectral white.
2/4/24
OCEAN POLLUTION : EPIC RAIN STORMS, RIVERS, and CRUISE SHIPS
As we wait on a deluge of rain, possibly as much rain as is usually expected in a six month period, in just two or three days, as people in various parts of Southern California - Ventura County, Sun Valley in the San Fernando Valley, and Long Beach in Southern Los Angeles County, are asked to evacuate or be prepared for flooding, I'm confident that the home I live in will not flood. However, these storms always end in pollution being rushed into the ocean. Two rivers, the San Gabriel and the Los Angeles empty into the Pacific not far from here. Rivers are the way that most plastic pollution enter the ocean. However, I also believe that cruise ships are using the ocean as a toilet and dump. I believe that the massive ships that hold thousands of passengers are responsible for killing marine animals both by dumping, by collision, and by fuel pollution.
Intense rainstorms are the result of Climate Change. Here at Siren's Link to Sea BlogSpot, I use the term Climate Change rather than Global Warming, because I'm not entirely convinced that we aren't actually moving into another Ice Age.
2/2/24
1/31/24
POINT VICENTE WHALE COUNT by AMERICAN CETACEAN SOCIETY : CHECK OUT TODAY'S COUNT or VOLUNTEER TO BE A SPOTTER
There is still time to volunteer.
The whale count is sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the AMERICAN CETACEAN SOCIETY and is staffed by trained volunteers from that society as well as the Cabrillo Whalewatch Program. They record weather data once an hour and watch for whales from Point Vicente (where there is a lighthouse) from December 1st through late May, seven days a week.
Excerpt: Spotters also detail migratory behaviors observed, including breaching, spyhopping, rolling, courtship, apparent nursing, possible feeding, and interaction with kept and with other marine mammals. Participants also note possible human impacts on gray whales, including boat interactions, possible harassment incidents, and entanglements. In addition we identify and record behaviors of any other marine mammals that utilize these waters including common dolphin, Pacific bottlenose dolphin, Pacific white-sided dolphin, Risso's dolphin, northern right whale dolphin, Dall's porposide, sperm whales, minke whales, humpback whates, blue whales, fin whales, California sea lions, harbor seals, northern elephant seals, and southern sea otters.
1/30/24
HOW BAD WILL THE SEA LEVEL RISE BE FOR CALIFORNIA? SURFRIDER FOUNDATION RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT ON BEACHES
SURFRIDER ANNUAL REPORT Not just the Pacific or California... but California got an 'A'.
Go to the FULL REPORT. Washington state improved. Florida and New Jersey got worse.
Go to the GUIDE to see what change you can make.
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Remember that the BEACH ecology impacts the OCEAN and EVERY MARINE ANIMAL IN IT!