May 2013
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March 2013
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January 2013
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December 2012
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October 2012
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September 2012
8 posts
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Watchjtotheizzoe:
Watch helplessly as this mussel is slowly & inexorably consumed by a sea star. Oh yeah, you’re watching from inside the shell.
This is so cool! You might not know this about sea stars, but certain species have the ability to invert a portion of their stomach and digest their prey from outside their body. If you’re an invertebrate, you can’t exactly crack open a shell the way a...
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June 2012
1 post
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May 2012
12 posts
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April 2012
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Sea Urchins by Jean Painlevé
Jean Painlevé is one of my favourite filmmakers and biologists. I remember the first time I ever saw his work as a child, as well as the mixture of fear and fascination and reverence it made me feel—the same feeling I have when I think of the ocean. He ignited in me a deep and passionate aesthetic appreciation for underwater life. Incidentally, this blog is named after one of his films.
One of...
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Fish Smell Fear Via Chondroitin
Aquatic animals use chemicals to communicate with each other, as water is an excellent medium for this type of communication. Hypersensitive to their environment, fish use chemical communication to receive and relay information about food, mating, and predation.
Scientists and aquarists have long known that fish, when wounded, release a substance that warns nearby fish of potential danger (when...
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New England Aquarium Welcomes Baby Nautiluses
The New England Aquarium announced yesterday the birth of three new baby nautiluses in the Deep Pacific Coral Exhibit. Reproduction in captivity is very rare for the nautilus, so this is kind of a big deal!
Here is a photo of one of the babies next to a human hand:
And here is what a nautilus looks like as an adult:
The nautilus belongs to the cephalopod family, along with the octopus and...
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Are Corals Alive?
My boyfriend and I had been meaning to visit the Royal Ontario Museum for months now. We finally went, after they just recently made Tuesdays free for post-secondary students (and those who still have a student card). We mostly loitered in the natural history section, looking at the taxidermy and animal replicas. One of my favourite things there was a large saltwater aquarium that housed a...
February 2012
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Aquaculture: Fish Farming in a Nutshell
Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic lifeforms for human consumption. It produces about half of all fish that is eaten worldwide.
As wild fish populations steadily dwindle, and fishery catch sizes continue to shrink, humans’ unwavering demand for ocean produce has fuelled a large market for fish-farming.
Is it better to eat farmed fish than wild-caught fish? It is impossible to say for...
December 2011
6 posts
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November 2011
6 posts
“The sea is an immense desert where man is never alone, for he feels life...”
– Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
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August 2011
5 posts
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