Monday 2/25

Otter!!
Common name: Sea Otter
Scientific names: Lutrinae
Habitat: They are found on all different continents except for Austrailia and Antartica. They are found no more than 100 meters away from the water.

Reproduction: The otter becomes sexually mature in their second or third year, most don't successfully reproduct until the age of five or seven. The reproduction cycle of the sea otter is about 12 months, if the pup does not survive the mother may have postpartum estrus.

Prey: An otters diet consists of crayfishes, crabs, and other aquatic invertebrates; fishes; and frogs.  Giant otters mainly eat fishes and crabs. Others may feed on mulluskes, clams, mussels and snails.

Interesting facts:
1.) The male otters are often called meoweaters, females are called queens.
2.)They are the only species that doesn't have a mussle in the tail.
3.)They have the ability to create and use tools.

Friday 2/22

Mangroves

There are three types of mangroves, the Black Mangrove, the Red Mangrove, and the White Mangrove.

The black mangrove has specialized tubular roots that take in oxygen.  They stick straight up from out of the ground and these bristles are known as pneumatophores.  This is probably the most tolerant of salty conditions.
 Benefits (organism): Provides a breeding, nursery, and a feeding zone for the environment.
Benefits (humans): Used for fishing poles, charcoal, and honey from the mango blossoms.

The Red Mangrove is more tree like that have an aerial root system which stabilizes the trees.  The roots also contain a waxy substance to keep the salt out because their not tolerant of it.
Benefits (organisms): It applies to young fish that hide in the mangroves from bigger predators.
Benefits (humans): Takes the impact of storms and lessens it, also prevents sediment erosion also helps the fishing industry by keeping the young fish alive until they are big so humans can eat them.

The White Mangroves are the shortest of the mangroves and have un-buttressed roots.  The leaves have adapted from the salty environment by developing special glands that allow salt to pass from the inside the tree to the outside.
Benefit (organisms): Many insects eat the sugars extracted from the leaves.
Benefits (humans): Used for wood for fences, tools, and fishing poles.

Thurs. 2/21

Ocean Garbage Patch

The ocean garbage patch is found in the pacific ocean that is a a gyre of marine debris located roughly between 135 degrees W to 155 degrees W and 35 degrees N and 42 degrees N.  It has high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris.  All of this comes 80 % of land-based pollution  and 20 % of pollution from ships.  Some of these plastics end up in stomachs of birds and animals, including sea turtles, and albatrosses.  Many of the birds young dies because of the plastic being fed to it from the mother. Toxic chemicals are also eaten by many other marine creatures witch in turn are eaten by a larger predator.  Then some fish that we eat might also have these chemicals, so therefore it affects humans too.  The ways humans can fight off this garbage patch is creating organizations of clean ups and get lots of people to help.  And also to promote the idea of cleanup and to let people understand what littering does.

Wed. 2/20

Reptiles - Marine Iguana 
Scientific name: Amblyrhynchus cristatus
Sometimes called: Galápagos marine iguana
Marine iguanas are found in of course, the Galapagos Islands, but can also be found on the rocky shores, mangroves, or beaches.   These are the worlds only marine lizards. They can dive up to 50 feet and stay under water for about 40 minutes.  The have evolved blunt noses to help them feed on seaweed, a strong tale for swimming, and powerful limbs with strong claws to help them cling to rocks.  They also have a specific nasal gland that allows them to spew out salt from their system.  This animal is not endangered, however, they do face threats.  Things like predators such as hawks, cats, and dogs affect them. But mainly El Nino changing the coastal environment and depleting their food sources, causes the death of marine Iguanas by 50 percent.

http://www.arkive.org/galapagos-marine-iguana/amblyrhynchus-cristatus/

I chose this animal because I watched a special on the TV on the Galapagos islands recently and thought these marine iguanas were very interesting creatures.

Tues. 2/19

Ocean Acidification is when carbon dioxide is absorbed into ocean water and the ocean becomes very acidic.  When the ocean gets more acidic, the balance of molecules needed for organisms that have shells and skeletons is altered.  This causes the shells to of some sea creatures to dissolve or skeletons to be harder to create.  Animals like crabs, sea stars, plankton, and sea urchins etc. are impaired with ocean acidificaiton. When these animals suffer so do the creatures that eat them affecting the entire food web.  Humans are a huge contribution to ocean acidification from cars to factories making the CO2 in the air more abundant.  We can help by cutting back on how much we drive cars or putting limits on states to how long you can run factories maybe.
Three things I've learned
1. I had no idea that ocean could absorb carbon dioxide, I thought polluting the ocean just meant oil spills or something.
2.Our ocean is more acidic now then any point in history.
3. This will also affect our ecosystem by making it harder to find fish when fishing if the acidity becomes worse

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Friday 2/15

Karenia Brevis is a toxic dinoflagellate which has a significant role in producing harmful algae blooms or "red tides" like in places such as the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida.  Karenia Brevis is a microscopic, single celled organism that each cell has two flagella that allow it to move through water in a spinning motion. It produces potent neurotoxins collectively called brevetoxins, which cause neurological problems in other organisms, responsible for many die-off marine animals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karenia_brevis (only website containing it's characteristics that i could find.)


Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning is a condition caused by ingestion of brevetoxin, a neurotoxin which is given off by certain dinoflagellates.  Most of the brevetoxin is generated by Kerenia Brevis.  The Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning symptoms found in humans usually appear within one to three hours.  The person may feel tingling, numbingness and intestinal distress as the body processes the toxin.  Death would be normally rare.
  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-neurotoxic-shellfish-poisoning.htm  However, when marine animals are exposed to this toxin there are more sufficient deaths or it can cause the creature to be confused or mentally ill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesic_shellfish_poisoning#Possible_animal_effects This effects the Gulf coast economy by affecting what sea food is produced and eaten that could be poisonous.  Therefore it would slow the economy tremendously if this were to occur often.

Thurs. 2/14

5.) Plankton like phytoplankton rely on the sun for photosynthesis, the other type, zooplankton, feed on phytoplankton.

Five things we have learned about Plankton.

1.) Plankton makes up half of the worlds oxygen today.

2.)Plankton are divided into two distinct types:
- Phytoplankton: That are algae that live near the waters surface where there's sunlight to support photosynthesis.
- Zooplankton: Includes animals like crustaceans, jelly fish, and other animals that feed on plankton. Also eggs of larger animals are in this category.


3.) Plankton is large marine animal's main food source.  If plankton were to go extinct it would effect the entire food web and including our oxygen source.

4.) Plankton is the most abundant creature, besides bacteria, in the ocean.


5. Zooplankton is the smallest creature in the ocean. It's length ranges from one-tenth of a millimeter to four millimeters.

Wednesday 2/13

Killer Whale

The killer whale is one of the top predators of the sea.  It's scientific name is the Orcinus Orca. Their habitat is normally in all open oceans but most abundant in coastal areas and even more abundant in the Arctic and Antarctic Ocean.  Females become sexually mature around 15 years of age and males 15 to 21.  Many males become aggressive when trying to win females over, when they do the females will have one pup every  five years in what is called a Polyestrous cycle.  Killer Whales are the world's largest distributed cetacean species in the world.
3 Interesting Facts:
1.) They can grow up to as large as a school bus.
2.) They have 40-50 teeth that are up to four or five inches long.
3.) They live in families called "pods" with up to 40 other Killer Whales.
http://voices.yahoo.com/20-interesting-facts-killer-whales-5554625.html, http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/killerwhale.htm
The problems that face Killer Whales are declining fish populations such as Salmon that are 90% of an Orcas diet (Salmon are over fished and losing their habitats), toxic exposure from human pollution, and surface impact (ships colliding with the Orcas and polluting the sea with exhaust).
Lastly, I chose the Killer Whale because I think they're fierce but beautiful creatures and wanted to learn more about them.
http://www.whalemuseum.org/education/library/issues.html

Tuesday 2/12

Spotted Eagle Ray (replaces plankton race) 

I chose this animal to talk about because I think their spots are pretty and I wanted to learn more about there life style and what they eat.
Originally called Aetobatus Narinari, the Spotted Eagle Ray can grow up to at least 16 feet depending on their age. They're also named bonnet ray, duckbill, bonnet skate, and duckbill ray. The eagle rays feed mainly on bivalves but also eat shrimp, crabs, octopus, and worms, whelks and small fishes.(http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=58) These creatures also stay near coastal areas and reefs or bays and have predators like the hammer head shark, Bull Shark, Tiger Shark, and the Silver Tip Shark. At sea beds, eagle rays bury themselves in the sand because their spiracles and eyes help them to breath and see in such conditions. http://www.animalplace.net/fishes/spotted-eagle-ray-facts-characteristics-habitat-and-more/

Monday 2/11

HAB is a Harmful Algae Bloom that cell's multiply and produce harmful toxins which can harm many different marine animals or humans.  The causes of this can be anything from warm water temperatures that form phytoplankton such as Dinoflagellates   Man can prevent this if we work to protect the environment, clean up our oceans and stop spilling oil or waste into the ocean.  In the Gulf of Mexico, major Harmful Algae Booms were produced because of the excessive amount of oil that spilled.  It has affected the gulf coast by poisoning many different animal species and therefore affecting us because the fishing industries around there had to postpone selling their seafood.

Dinoflagellate:

Friday 2/8 Plankton

Plankton is very important to the marine life and to our own.  They are a very important to different marine animals providing 200 billion metric tons of food per year.  These creatures are also responsible for half of the earths photosynthesis absorbing 200 million tons of carbon dioxide.  This process is vital to producing oxygen, maintaining the worlds temperature, and for the ocean's ability to handle climate change.

                                                        

                                                Diatoms and Dinoflagellates Differences: 
Diatoms are the most abundant type of photosynthesis organism in the ocean while Dinoflagellates are second.  Diatoms also are survive off the suns energy and is responsible for most of the earths oxygen while Dinoflagellates trap their food and sometimes use extendable tubes that suck out the insides of other cells.  Also, Dinoflagellates are responsible for some harmful effects of marine and human life producing toxins that make the animals sick, then make humans sick when they eat their seafood.

Thursday 2/7

The Moon Jellyfish

It's mainly called Aurelia Aurita, its other names are the common jellyfish or saucer jelly.

Adaptations: The body of the Moon Jelly adapted to absorb water oxygen by diffusion through it's skin because like other jelly fish it does not have a respiratory system with gills or lungs.

Endangered: No

Interesting Facts: The Moon Jelly fish is normally translucent white but can change colors to pink, purple or orange depending on their last meal.  It also has hair-like tentacles containing stinging cells to get food and protect itself.  They are also too small to bother most humans.

Why did you choose this organism:  I've never heard of a Moon Jellyfish and I think their small round shape is interesting.

Wednesday 2/9

I think the most important ship we've learned about in aquatic science is definitely the Meteor because it was the first ship to do ocean depth measurements using an electronic echo sounder.  It also then studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge using this new technology. Without this new discovery of technology, scientists wouldn't be able to improve on it in the future to make even better equipment to explore the ocean.

The Study of The Ocean- Jacques Cousteau

The history of oceanography has changed over time especially thanks to new minds and new technology.  Maps, soundings, and measurements of the ocean started to be made and new diving equipment helped divers explore the ocean more thoroughly.  One event that I think changed the study of Ocean significantly was Jacques Cousteau's creation of the breathing device called the Aqua-Lung in the 19th century.  It was the first open circuit underwater breathing device that reached worldwide popularity and commercial success.  He also created better equipment for filming underwater.  So he and his crew could film parts of the ocean people have never seen before.  This contributed greatly to the future because people soon perfected his Aqua-Lung and waterproof filming gear to learn more and study the ocean. Cousteau also created many different documentaries about the ocean life that led to the amazement and curiosity of many more oceanographers to follow him.  Thanks to his new creation of equipment and ideas for studying the sea, we now have great advancements in underwater technology and SCUBA gear.

Monday's Blog- 5 Reasons to Study the Ocean

Five reasons for why it's important to study the ocean is (in my opinion):

1. To understand where our resources come from and to how to preserve them. Things like fish, oil, and the importance of the sea food chain.  

2. Our future could soon rely on the ocean, it's not all the way explored and some possibly important minerals could be hiding below the ocean floor.

3. To understand how the ocean affects our weather and climate and how they change.

4.  There are probably thousands of shipwrecks just waiting to be explored, so the ocean is like a big underwater museum waiting to be discovered. 

5. To understand plate tectonics and the continental drift.

Friday's Boat Race

In Aquatic Science we had to create boats and try to make it travel straightly. When we tested, the finished product of ours it worked great! Check out the video bellow, we made it around 2:30-2:50 seconds for the three times tested. Our boats name is "Blew By You"!(:

Thur. Jan. 31, 2013- Building the Boat

Our next assignment was the boat race and it was very hard for us to find the right design.
We started off with two water bottles glued together with a pointy. The sail failed and went either left or right.

Next we designed two sails that was curved, one that was tin foil and one that was cloth.  We placed two old cut up credit cards as keels at the bottom of the boat as well. It worked better but still was not consistent.  It would either go straight or hit the wall most of the time.

Then we tried a roman noodle bowl with a water bottle sticking through a pencil in the middle. The water bottle acted like our sail and yes it went straight but it was really slow.

FINALLY we made another two water bottle boat with a tinfoil sail that was wider and put the keel at the back of the boat and it kept it straight! We tested it in my pool with a hair drier and it went straight. (the clips are not at the top now though, the pencils are glued on)

Wed. Jan. 30, 2013 Favorite Animal

(this is not included from the 2 weeks of fish ID, I was absent when I did this didn't get instructions) ...I am definitely a dolphin girl.  The dolphin has been my favorite animal ever since I was a little girl and they have always amazed me with how intelligent they are and how they work together to catch fish sometimes.  Dolphins live in social groups from five up to several hundred, sometimes scientists think they ride on the waves that a boat makes to conserve energy.  They also shed their skin every 2 hours making their skin very soft and allowing them live up to 40 years old. I have actually experienced dolphins up close and have ridden one before. It was an amazing experience I will never forget!

Tuesday Jan 29, 2013- Instruments

Their are many different types of instruments used for certain Oceanographers.  The most common used piece of equipment is the CDT (conductivity, temperature and depth).  It allows, specifically Chemical  Oceanographers, to see the structure of the water and collect water samples at different depths.