Mad as a Marine Biologist

Showing 100 posts tagged marine

High-res Are any of you looking for work experience and skill development for marine conservation?  If you’ve done a science degree but haven’t got much work experience, or if you’ve done lots of work experience, but didn’t do a marine science degree, but still want to get into conservation - Zoox might be perfect for you. Doing the Zoox Experience Programme will give you intensive and unique training on the basics of marine conservation, then you embark on a six-week work experience helping to coordinate a real conservation project on the ground, and carrying out personal conservation projects aimed to develop the skills that you need to fill in on your CV!  This was my dream internship. Now it’s my dream job. Check it out!  www.zoox.org.uk

Are any of you looking for work experience and skill development for marine conservation? 

If you’ve done a science degree but haven’t got much work experience, or if you’ve done lots of work experience, but didn’t do a marine science degree, but still want to get into conservation - Zoox might be perfect for you.

Doing the Zoox Experience Programme will give you intensive and unique training on the basics of marine conservation, then you embark on a six-week work experience helping to coordinate a real conservation project on the ground, and carrying out personal conservation projects aimed to develop the skills that you need to fill in on your CV! 

This was my dream internship. Now it’s my dream job. Check it out! 

www.zoox.org.uk

High-res Whales Benefit From Action on Ocean Noise - by Pallab Ghosh Scientists are working to reduce the noise levels experienced by whales from North Atlantic shipping. The blare is making it difficult for the animals to communicate with each other, which in turn is affecting their ability to find food and mates. The researchers have persuaded shipping companies to change their routes in and around the Boston area. Sea captains use an iPad App that helps them to understand the locations of the whales and when to slow down. The change in operations has helped to lower the din. Scientists hope it will also limit the number accidental collisions. The waters off New England are a home to many species of whale. Many are now suffering because of increased noise levels. Research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) suggests that it has doubled each decade over the past 30 years. … Dr Mark Baumgartner of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution played me the sound of a passing container ship as a whale might hear it. It was a thunderous, unchanging drone. “How would you like to have that in your bedroom, your kitchen, your work all the time?” he asked plaintively. “That’s what the acoustic environment for whales is like all the time.” The effect is to reduce the range whales can communicate. … Social communication is necessary so that they can get together for important activities, such as mating, and it is unclear just what the ramifications of cutting off that communication will mean for them. But the ships are not just disrupting communication; they also collide with whales from time to time. Dr Dave Wiley who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has seen the consequences at first hand. “Our scientists found shattered bone and large hematomas which are indicative of a ship strike,” he told BBC News. Each year, there are one or two North Atlantic Right Whales stuck by ships in the area. Although that does not sound like a lot, it was enough to concern environmental groups because it is thought that there are just 500 of these animals left in the wild and mothers with calves get hit more frequently. BBC News

Whales Benefit From Action on Ocean Noise

- by Pallab Ghosh

Scientists are working to reduce the noise levels experienced by whales from North Atlantic shipping.

The blare is making it difficult for the animals to communicate with each other, which in turn is affecting their ability to find food and mates.

The researchers have persuaded shipping companies to change their routes in and around the Boston area.

Sea captains use an iPad App that helps them to understand the locations of the whales and when to slow down.

The change in operations has helped to lower the din. Scientists hope it will also limit the number accidental collisions.

The waters off New England are a home to many species of whale. Many are now suffering because of increased noise levels.

Research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) suggests that it has doubled each decade over the past 30 years.

…

Dr Mark Baumgartner of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution played me the sound of a passing container ship as a whale might hear it.

It was a thunderous, unchanging drone.

“How would you like to have that in your bedroom, your kitchen, your work all the time?” he asked plaintively. “That’s what the acoustic environment for whales is like all the time.”

The effect is to reduce the range whales can communicate.

…

Social communication is necessary so that they can get together for important activities, such as mating, and it is unclear just what the ramifications of cutting off that communication will mean for them.

But the ships are not just disrupting communication; they also collide with whales from time to time.

Dr Dave Wiley who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has seen the consequences at first hand.

“Our scientists found shattered bone and large hematomas which are indicative of a ship strike,” he told BBC News.

Each year, there are one or two North Atlantic Right Whales stuck by ships in the area. Although that does not sound like a lot, it was enough to concern environmental groups because it is thought that there are just 500 of these animals left in the wild and mothers with calves get hit more frequently.

BBC News

  • BBC

New PNAS Paper on Coral Resilience to Climate Change

climateadaptation:

A recent study(freePDF) from Stanford University published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) considers how some reef building corals resist the stress of warmer waters that has caused coral bleaching around the world.

Using comparative genomics, researchers found that the heat tolerant corals have prepared for heat by switching on a set of 60 particular genes. Other coral species have also been found to switch on these genes but only after stress has already occurred. Resilient Samoan corals, however, have these genes switched on all of the time.

The results of the study show that some corals have the ability to withstand future increases in ocean temperature and highlight efforts to protect these resilient places.

Learn more at: http://www.oceansciencenow.com/wp/. The full PNAS article can also be found online here.

High-res ichthyologist: Frogfish Camouflage Frogfish are the masters of camouflage, being able to mold their bodies to mimic sponges and corals. Some specimens even have filamentous patches simulating algal growth. The frogfish uses its invisibility as a hunting method - a it flickers a small lure above its mouth, attracting prey to the seemingly safe ‘rock’. It is able to swallow prey in as fast as 6 milliseconds. Rick Colllier on Flickr

ichthyologist:

Frogfish Camouflage

Frogfish are the masters of camouflage, being able to mold their bodies to mimic sponges and corals. Some specimens even have filamentous patches simulating algal growth.

The frogfish uses its invisibility as a hunting method - a it flickers a small lure above its mouth, attracting prey to the seemingly safe ‘rock’. It is able to swallow prey in as fast as 6 milliseconds.

Rick Colllier on Flickr