The website called Worldometers keeps track of various statistics in real time and is reporting the number of species that have gone extinct so far this year at 65,616 as of today.
I would bet that this number relates somewhat to the figure for toxic chemicals released by industries into our air, land, and water this year (tons) which stood at 4,630,443 when I viewed it just a moment ago. It actually kept changing as I watched it.
Watching those counters tick by on those statistics is a real eye-opener. I wondered how many species of marine life were on the endangered species list and might soon be making the counter go up. According to EndangeredSpecie.com, here is a sampling of a few species on that list:
*Sea-lion, Steller (=northern) (Eumetopias jubatus)
*Seal, Caribbean monk (Monachus tropicalis)
*Seal, guadalupe fur (Arctocephalus townsendi)
*Seal, Hawaiian monk (Monachus schauinslandi)
*Seal, Mediterranean monk (Monachus monachus)
*Whale, blue (Balaenoptera musculus)
*Whale, bowhead (Balaena mysticetus)
*Whale, finback (Balaenoptera physalus)
*Whale, humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae)
*Whale, right (Balaena glacialis (incl. australis))
*Whale, Sei (Balaenoptera borealis)
*Whale, sperm (Physeter macrocephalus (=catodon))
*Salmon, chinook (Sacramento R. winter run)Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
*Salmon, chinook (Snake R. spring/summer run)(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
*Salmon, chinook (Snake R. fall run)(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
*Salmon, sockeye (=red, =blueback)(Snake R., ID, stock)(Oncorhynchus nerka)
*Sturgeon, shortnose (Acipenser brevirostrum)
I would like to find a list of all marine life that are threatened. Looks as though I may have to gather this list together myself when I have the time in order to include only marine life.
There seems to be no problem counting the statistics, but when do we start really counting the ways species are going extinct and how many solutions there might be?
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sea Cow Gets Herded Back Out to Sea
One of my favorite marine animals is the manatee. I confess, if it were possible, I'd love to hug 'em and plant a big kiss on their noses.
A manatee, or sea cow, was rescued today by a group of Filipino fishermen that got trapped by low tide on the shore of Palawan island's Puerto Princesa city. This manatee was one of the largest surviving members of the Dugong Dugon subspecies which is endangered.
Read the article here.
Let's hope Enero or January in the Tagalog language, as the fishermen nicknamed her, will have a long and tranquil life back where she belongs.
I cannot imagine the standards of beauty that early sailors might have had when they thought manatees were mermaids. Were women in that day so ugly that their faces could be mistaken for a manatee's? At any rate, manatees became part of the order "Sirenia" which means "siren." Sirens were half-woman creatures that could lure sailors into danger and ultimately, death. The other name for the manatee, which is sea cow, seems to be quite a more appropriate fit in my mind.
Manatees can live up to 50-60 years. They grow to about 9-10 ft. long and weigh on average about 1,000 pounds. They are hunted in South and Central American countries, but the leading cause of death for a manatee is boat collisions or getting tangled in fishing nets. Of course, pollution is affecting this mammal as much as it is others. Get some interesting information on manatees at All About Manatees.
If you are ever in the Columbus, Ohio, area, consider a visit to the Manatee Coast at the Columbus Zoo to visit the current residents of this beautiful manatee exhibit. Their aquarium is built to house up to five full-grown manatees, and they have recently transitioned more from performing the role of rehabilitation and release to medical conditioning and research for manatees.
Other resources for manatees are:
Save the Manatee Club
Manatee Cam
West Indian Manatee
Watch these Manatees give butterfly kisses:
oceanography
A manatee, or sea cow, was rescued today by a group of Filipino fishermen that got trapped by low tide on the shore of Palawan island's Puerto Princesa city. This manatee was one of the largest surviving members of the Dugong Dugon subspecies which is endangered.
Read the article here.
Let's hope Enero or January in the Tagalog language, as the fishermen nicknamed her, will have a long and tranquil life back where she belongs.
I cannot imagine the standards of beauty that early sailors might have had when they thought manatees were mermaids. Were women in that day so ugly that their faces could be mistaken for a manatee's? At any rate, manatees became part of the order "Sirenia" which means "siren." Sirens were half-woman creatures that could lure sailors into danger and ultimately, death. The other name for the manatee, which is sea cow, seems to be quite a more appropriate fit in my mind.
Manatees can live up to 50-60 years. They grow to about 9-10 ft. long and weigh on average about 1,000 pounds. They are hunted in South and Central American countries, but the leading cause of death for a manatee is boat collisions or getting tangled in fishing nets. Of course, pollution is affecting this mammal as much as it is others. Get some interesting information on manatees at All About Manatees.
If you are ever in the Columbus, Ohio, area, consider a visit to the Manatee Coast at the Columbus Zoo to visit the current residents of this beautiful manatee exhibit. Their aquarium is built to house up to five full-grown manatees, and they have recently transitioned more from performing the role of rehabilitation and release to medical conditioning and research for manatees.
Other resources for manatees are:
Save the Manatee Club
Manatee Cam
West Indian Manatee
Watch these Manatees give butterfly kisses:
oceanography
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monster of the Deep
The National Geographic News is reporting today that a Magnapinna squid was photographed by a Shell Oil underwater, remote controlled submersible on November 11. The sub was filming in what is called Perdido, one of the world's deepest oil and gas drilling sites located 200 miles off Houston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. This creature is rarely seen. Take a look at this monster, will you? It makes me shudder.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Whale Shark poo, the mother load
Scientists have filmed a video of a whale shark with its "pants down" defecating, an act rarely seen. First take a look at the whale shark, one of my favorite fish in the sea.
Then get ready to impose upon a shark's privacy, and watch this video:
You can also read the BBC article, Ocean motion caught on camera. This all explains just why this bit of poo is the mother load when it comes to information.
To scientists and other fish enthusiasts, the feeling is kind of like seeing your toddler use the potty chair for the first time. An event for celebration!
Then get ready to impose upon a shark's privacy, and watch this video:
You can also read the BBC article, Ocean motion caught on camera. This all explains just why this bit of poo is the mother load when it comes to information.
To scientists and other fish enthusiasts, the feeling is kind of like seeing your toddler use the potty chair for the first time. An event for celebration!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Calypso is being resurrected from the dead
Remember Jacques-Yves Cousteau's ship, Calypso? Well, she's not actually dead yet, but in fact, is on her way for a comeback as restoration has begun to transform her into a permanent museum of Cousteau's important contributions to ocean research.
From Wikipedia, here are important facts about Captain Cousteau and the Calypso:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (June 11, 1910 – June 25, 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. He was commonly known as Jacques Cousteau or Captain Cousteau.
The Calypso is the ship that he outfitted as a special research vessel, state-of-the-art for its time. Together with his crew, Cousteau produced more than 120 television documentaries about the sea.
The Calypso was:
•equipped as a mobile laboratory for field research and was originally a wooden-hulled minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, USA.
•made from Oregon pine.
•became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo after World War II.
•purchased in 1950 by the Irish millionaire and former MP Thomas Loel Guinness.
•leased to Cousteau by Guinness for a symbolic one franc a year.
•accidentally rammed by a barge and sunk in the port of Singapore on January 8, 1996.
•later towed to Marseilles, France, where she lay untouched for two years.
•towed to the basin of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where she was intended to be an exhibit, but family disagreements caused a long series of legal delays on the start of any restoration work.
•transferred to Concarneau on October 11, 2007, where she will be restored at the Piriou Shipyard and transformed into a permanent exhibit.
Here's a tribute to Calypso set to John Denver's 1975 song, "Calypso," which he wrote about the world famous vessel:
More historical information:
Translation of the video description: "Thanks to the association of the Friends of the maritime Museum, two former collaborators of the commander Cousteau came with the La Rochelle to find the team of mativi.fr to speak about Simone Cousteau, the first woman of the man to the red bonnet, which passed most of her life on Calypso. In front of the wreck of the old Jocelyne minesweeper which stagnates in water rochelaises since 1998 de Pass and Jean-Marie France takes you on board in their memories. Report Florent Loiseau, Raphaël Blachère and Jennifer To summon."
Watch a tour of the ship in her present state of disrepair:
Translation of the video's description: "Under the eye of the camera of mativi.fr, Calypso left the port of the La Rochelle where it had stagnated for 9 years, Concarneau direction to be restored there. The event took place on October 11 at 4 o'clock in the morning, one great moment of emotion. The day before, a hundred people had met around the wreck to wish him good voyage. Report Raphaël Blachère and Frederic Fleureau."
See the video clip below of the start of her journey from La Rochelle. Although the video is quite dark, it marks the historic event of her first trip from port in many a year. The old girl can still float!
Keep track of the restoration of the Calypso at the Cousteau Society.
From Wikipedia, here are important facts about Captain Cousteau and the Calypso:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (June 11, 1910 – June 25, 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. He was commonly known as Jacques Cousteau or Captain Cousteau.
The Calypso is the ship that he outfitted as a special research vessel, state-of-the-art for its time. Together with his crew, Cousteau produced more than 120 television documentaries about the sea.
The Calypso was:
•equipped as a mobile laboratory for field research and was originally a wooden-hulled minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, USA.
•made from Oregon pine.
•became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo after World War II.
•purchased in 1950 by the Irish millionaire and former MP Thomas Loel Guinness.
•leased to Cousteau by Guinness for a symbolic one franc a year.
•accidentally rammed by a barge and sunk in the port of Singapore on January 8, 1996.
•later towed to Marseilles, France, where she lay untouched for two years.
•towed to the basin of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where she was intended to be an exhibit, but family disagreements caused a long series of legal delays on the start of any restoration work.
•transferred to Concarneau on October 11, 2007, where she will be restored at the Piriou Shipyard and transformed into a permanent exhibit.
Here's a tribute to Calypso set to John Denver's 1975 song, "Calypso," which he wrote about the world famous vessel:
More historical information:
Translation of the video description: "Thanks to the association of the Friends of the maritime Museum, two former collaborators of the commander Cousteau came with the La Rochelle to find the team of mativi.fr to speak about Simone Cousteau, the first woman of the man to the red bonnet, which passed most of her life on Calypso. In front of the wreck of the old Jocelyne minesweeper which stagnates in water rochelaises since 1998 de Pass and Jean-Marie France takes you on board in their memories. Report Florent Loiseau, Raphaël Blachère and Jennifer To summon."
Watch a tour of the ship in her present state of disrepair:
Translation of the video's description: "Under the eye of the camera of mativi.fr, Calypso left the port of the La Rochelle where it had stagnated for 9 years, Concarneau direction to be restored there. The event took place on October 11 at 4 o'clock in the morning, one great moment of emotion. The day before, a hundred people had met around the wreck to wish him good voyage. Report Raphaël Blachère and Frederic Fleureau."
See the video clip below of the start of her journey from La Rochelle. Although the video is quite dark, it marks the historic event of her first trip from port in many a year. The old girl can still float!
Keep track of the restoration of the Calypso at the Cousteau Society.
Rescuing Our Coral Reefs
An informative article appeared today on the BBC News site in regard to degrading coral reefs. The article, "Recipe for rescuing our reefs," was written by Dr Rod Salm who is director of The Nature Conservancy's Tropical Marine Conservation Program in the Asia-Pacific region.
You may reach their website here: The Nature Conservancy, which features a beautiful slide show presentation on their homepage entitled, "The Hidden Life of Coral." This organization works to protect our ocean's coral and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.
You may reach their website here: The Nature Conservancy, which features a beautiful slide show presentation on their homepage entitled, "The Hidden Life of Coral." This organization works to protect our ocean's coral and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.
Friday, August 29, 2008
It's all in that DNA
Prepare to be uplifted by Stuart Mitchell in his translation of a humpback whale's DNA into music. Here are the comments he has written along with this video on YouTube:
"The Mitochondrial (Ancestral) DNA sequence of a Humpback Whale translated into music by Stuart Mitchell. The melody is eternal in all species and has been passed on maternally for millions of years without a great deal of variation. This is the actual biological song of the Humpback.
"All royalties made from this work are re-distributed into Greenpeace for the conservation of this wonderful mammal."
To get a copy, visit:
Stuart-Mitchell.com
"The Mitochondrial (Ancestral) DNA sequence of a Humpback Whale translated into music by Stuart Mitchell. The melody is eternal in all species and has been passed on maternally for millions of years without a great deal of variation. This is the actual biological song of the Humpback.
"All royalties made from this work are re-distributed into Greenpeace for the conservation of this wonderful mammal."
To get a copy, visit:
Stuart-Mitchell.com
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