In the Bahamas, Invasive Fish May Become Dinner to Restore EcosystemAugust 10, 2009 – Text by Alyson Sheppard; Photograph: Wolcott Henry, National Geographic Animals Populations of lionfish, a football-size predatory fish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, are exploding in coral reefs in the Bahamas, threatening to destroy native fish schools and the local snorkeling, diving, and kayaking businesses. “With the quantities of lionfish that we’ve found in…
Go Green: Geoengineering – The Unnatural SolutionJune 10, 2009 – Text by Andy Isaacson Earlier this year, a team of scientists dumped several tons of iron into the Atlantic Ocean off the Chilean coast, hoping to fuel a massive algae bloom (algae eat iron), which would in turn suck up massive amounts of CO2 from the air. Instead, shrimp wolfed down the algae, causing yet…
Preserving Paradise on the Isles of ScillyAugust 31, 2007 – Only about 2,000 people live on the Isles of Scilly, a group of small, rocky islands that lie off Land’s End in Cornwall, England. Despite being 28 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, the islands enjoy a mild climate in which palm trees flourish, and the Scillonians raise flowers and vegetables for the London market.…
Bus2Antarctica Video: Lima on WheelsFebruary 06, 2010 – Andrew Evans offers a glimpse of skateboarding culture in Lima, Peru. As I was wandering Peru’s capital city, I found myself drawn to Miguel Grau Park in the neighborhood of Miraflores. The view of the Pacific Ocean from the top of such high cliffs is simply enchanting–and what did I find on the other side?…
Ever since there have been whales, there have been Osedax worms eating their bonesApril 19, 2010 – When whales die, their massive bodies slowly sink to the ocean deaths where they provide a feast of riches for bottom-dwelling scavengers. These “whalefalls” are ecosystems unto themselves with thriving communities of living things all eking out an existence on the giant carcasses. These scavengers even include a group of worms called Osedax or “bone-eaters” […]
Obama Creates New National TrailJuly 22, 2009 – President Obama recently signed a bill that would create a trail from Montana’s Glacier National Park (above) to the Pacific Ocean at Washington’s Cape Alava. The 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail is part of the “dream of a transcontinental pathway across America,” according to Ron Strickland, who proposed the Pacific Northwest Trail in 1970.…
Twisting the cuttlefishJune 17, 2009 – The “common cuttle-fish.” From Mysteries of the Ocean. About three decades before On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection would forever change biological science, the aspiring young naturalists Pierre-Stanislas Meyranx and Laurencet submitted a paper on mollusks to France’s prestigious Academie des Sciences. For weeks they waited for a patron from within […]
Small Ship Family CruisesApril 09, 2010 – Last week Rainer Jenss reported on good cruising options for families. This week, he looks at some great small-ship cruises. This week, I set out to investigate some cruising options for families other than the mega ocean liners that dominate the industry today. If you’re like me and love the idea of traveling by ship…
Green Screen: Saving Your Skin—And The ReefsJune 24, 2008 – Sunscreen may spare your skin, but when it inevitably rinses off in the waves, it’s an eco-nightmare. Up to 6,000 tons of the goop end up in oceans every year, according to a 2007 Italian university study, and the chemicals are bleaching coral reefs at an alarming rate. Two Mexican marine parks have banned traditional…
Laelaps Movie of the Week: Jaws 3-DNovember 03, 2007 – During the 1990’s I can scarcely remember a time when one television station or another wasn’t playing at least one of the four JAWS movies, TBS, TNT, or WPIX often devoting an entire day to films about killer oceanic creatures. Still, of the four films JAWS 3 (or 3-D, if you like) was one of […]
Get Lost: Four Must-Do Hawaii AdventuresFebruary 03, 2010 – Photograph by Michael Dyches, My Shot, see more island wallpaper like this.Last night ABC aired the highly-anticipated two-hour premiere of the final season of Lost. Shot on the island of Oahu, the show stirred a large amount destination envy as the survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 hacked through dense jungle, hiked impossibly steep cliffs…
Gasp! My new article on global warming and oxygenAugust 05, 2010 – It’s becoming increasingly clear that global warming may trigger many changes beyond the obvious change in temperature. Earlier this year I wrote about how rising carbon dioxide is driving down the pH of the oceans, with some potentially devastating consequences. Today in Yale Environment 360 I look at a potential change that’s also starting to […]
The Shoulder Bone's Connected to the Ear Bone…October 15, 2008 – [10/16/08 Correction appended: see end of post] When our ancestors moved ashore some 360 million years ago, they underwent a lot of changes as they evolved from ocean-swimming fish to land-walking tetrapods. For one thing, they needed feet instead of fins. Paleontologists have discovered a series of fossils that document the early evolution of limb […]
Repost: Twisting the cuttlefishJune 04, 2010 – The “common cuttle-fish.” From Mysteries of the Ocean. About three decades before On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection would forever change biological science, the aspiring young naturalists Pierre-Stanislas Meyranx and Laurencet submitted a paper on mollusks to France’s prestigious Academie des Sciences. For weeks they waited for a patron from within […]
Surveying the Kid-Friendly CruisesApril 02, 2010 – Rainer Jenss surveys the field of cruise ships offering packages for families. I probably caught the wanderlust bug the moment I stepped on the S.S. Michelangelo, a classic Italian Line ocean liner that relocated my family and me to the United States in 1970. I was only six years old back then, but I remember…
Pacific Islands and Oceania ToursApril 20, 2010 – See our roundup of the best guided expeditions in the Pacific and Oceania.