Jellyfish have human-like eyes

One set of eyes on box jellyfish detect color and size of objects

A set of special eyes, similar to our own, keeps venomous box jellyfish from bumping into obstacles as they swim across the ocean floor, a new study finds.
Unlike normal jellyfish, which drift in the ocean current, box jellyfish are active swimmers that can rapidly make 180-degree turns and deftly dart between objects. Scientists suspect that box jellyfish are such agile because one set of their 24 eyes detects objects that get in their way.
“Behavior-wise, they’re very different from normal jellyfish,” said study leader Anders Garm of Lund University in Sweden.

The eyes of box jellyfish are located on cup-like structures that hang from their cube-shaped bodies.
Whereas we have one set of multi-purpose eyes that sense color, size, shape and light intensity, box jellyfish have four different types of special-purpose eyes. The most primitive set detects only light levels, but one set of eyes is more sophisticated and can detect the color and size of objects.
One of these eyes is located on the top of the cup-like structure, the other on the bottom, which provides the jellyfish with “an extreme fish-eye view, so it’s watching almost the entire underwater world,” said Garm, who will present his research at the Society of Experimental Biology’s annual meeting, in Scotland.
To test if these eyes helped the jellyfish avoid obstacles, Garm put the jellyfish in a flow chamber and inserted different objects to see if the jellyfish could avoid them. While the jellyfish could avoid objects of different colors and shapes, transparent objects proved more difficult.
“They can’t respond to the see-through ones,” Garm said.
Because jellyfish belong to one of the first groups of animals to evolve eyes (the phylum Cnidaria), Garm said, understanding how their eyes operate will show scientists what eyes were like early in evolutionary time.

Tsunami hits Solomons; 8 reported dead

HONIARA, Solomon Islands - A powerful undersea earthquake Monday in the South Pacific sent a tsunami several yards high crashing into the Solomon Islands, devastating at least one village, officials and residents said.
Police and residents said a wave about 10 feet high struck the western town of Gizo, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction. A man who answered the telephone at the Gizo police station said there were initial reports that eight people, six of them children, had been killed by the tsunami but they were still unconfirmed. The phone cut out abruptly before the man gave his name.
Gizo resident Judith Kennedy said water "right up to your head" swept through the town.
"All the houses near the sea were flattened," she told The Associated Press by telephone. "The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake," she added. "A lot of houses have collapsed. The whole town is still shaking" from aftershocks.
The
U.S. Geological Survey' said the quake measured magnitude-8.0 and struck at 7:39 a.m. about 6 miles beneath the sea floor, 217 miles northwest of the capital, Honiara.
The Pacific region from Australia to Hawaii went on high alert for several hours after the quake struck between the islands of Bougainville and New Georgia, though officials canceled a region-wide tsunami warning after the danger period passed.
Gizo, a regional center, is just 25 miles from the earthquake's epicenter.
Another witness in the town, dive shop owner Danny Kennedy, estimated the height of the wave at 10 feet.
"I'm driving down the street — there are boats in the middle of the road, buildings have completely collapsed and fallen down," he said in a telephone interview.
"We're just trying to mobilize water and food, and shelter for people at the moment because ... in the town alone there's going to be between 2,000-3,000 homeless. It's not a very good scene at the moment."
Harry Wickham, who owns a waterfront hotel in Gizo, said the damage was widespread.
"The waves came up probably about 10 feet and swept through town," he told Australia's Nine Network television by telephone. "There's a lot of water damage and a lot of debris floating around," he added.
"Ten feet of water washing through town — you can imagine what damage it has done here."
Julian McLeod of the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office said there were unconfirmed reports that two villages in the country's far west were flooded.
"Two villages were reported to have been completely inundated," McLeod told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We have received reports of four people missing."
A town in the west, Munda, was believed to be badly damaged, officials and the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. said, but communications were difficult and details were not confirmed.
The Hawaii-based Pacific
Tsunami' Warning Center reported the quake at magnitude 8.1, and said a temblor of that strength could cause a destructive tsunami and issued a warning bulletin for the Solomon Islands and neighboring Papua New Guinea.
It ordered a lower-level "tsunami watch" for other places, including most South Pacific countries, but later canceled the alert. The center said a 6-inch wave had been reported in Honiara.
Police Sgt. Godfrey Abiah said in Honiara that police in Gizo had received warning about a possible tsunami and were helping people leave the town for higher ground when the wave hit.
"We have lost radio contact with the two police stations down there and we're not getting any clear picture from down there," he told The Associated Press by telephone.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Deli Oso, said the quake was felt in Honiara but there were no reports of any damage.

Coral Reefs

This video is absouletely beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OA7yJgx5Ck

Canada Scales Back Seal Hunt Because of Poor Ice

March 30, 2007 — By David Ljunggren, ReutersOTTAWA --

The number of young harp seals that Canadian hunters can kill off the east coast this year will be cut by a quarter, mainly because of poor ice conditions where the animals give birth, officials said Thursday.
The federal fisheries ministry also promised stricter controls on hunters to stop them killing more than their quota. The seals are either shot or clubbed to death on ice floes in a hunt that animal rights protesters say is inhumane.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans set this year's seal quota at 270,000 animals, down from 335,000 in 2006. It estimates the east coast harp seal herd is around 5.5 million.
The hunt had been set to begin March 28 but no start date has yet been announced. The first stage takes place on ice floes to the south of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence.
Officials and animal rights activists said earlier this week there was very little ice to the south of the islands and that many more pups than usual had drowned. The seals use the ice floes to give birth to their young.
"There are poorer ice conditions than usual in the southern Gulf ... the area that we are concerned about is significant but it is one small piece of the overall hunt," said Kevin Stringer of the ministry.
"The decrease this year is very substantial ... we think it's an important move and is sustainable."
The hunt around the Magdalen Islands usually accounts for around 20 percent of the overall catch. Most seals are killed off the coast Newfoundland, further to the north.
Stringer said hunters would still be allowed to kill seals south of the Magdalen Islands.
"It's appalling ... they're actually talking about allowing the hunt in the southern Gulf to proceed to wipe out the few remaining seal pups there," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States.
"I think it shows that the Canadian government has a clear agenda to exterminate seals and nothing is going to divert them from that course," she told Reuters.
Stringer said it was possible that around 90 percent of the pups born in the southern Gulf this year could die but said if this were the case, it would not necessarily have a big impact on overall seal herd health.
"Seals pup for 15 or 20 years so what happens in one specific part of the hunt in one specific year needs to be considered in this broader perspective," he told reporters on a conference call.
Stringer said that to ensure seal numbers stayed healthy, hunters who caught more than their share would have their quota cut next year. The amount of time hunters can spend on the ice would be cut to allow inspectors to make sure quotas had not been exceeded, he added.
Ottawa also decided that the next proper survey of harp seal numbers would be carried out in 2008 and not in 2009 as originally planned.
"With harp seals facing a growing threat from global warming and poor ice conditions, continuing the hunt at the unsustainable level announced today is nothing short of irresponsible," said Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

My Favourite Beach

Martinique Beach is the longest white sand beach in the province. It is located in Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S

Officials find dead whale in Annapolis River after spring thaw

BRIDGETOWN _ Officials here found a dead whale this week in the Annapolis River with the arrival of the spring thaw.
Bridgetown mayor Art Marshall says officials suspect it could be the same whale that was spotted a couple of times in the river last fall.
They think it was a sperm whale calf that weighed between one and two tonnes.
He says firefighters used their zodiac to pull the whale to an area where it was loaded on a truck.
It was then taken away an buried.
It's not the first time a whale has made it through the tidal power plant in Annapolis Royal and into the river, but officials believe it's the first one that didn't make it back out.

Officials find dead whale in Annapolis River after spring thaw

BRIDGETOWN _ Officials here found a dead whale this week in the Annapolis River with the arrival of the spring thaw.
Bridgetown mayor Art Marshall says officials suspect it could be the same whale that was spotted a couple of times in the river last fall.
They think it was a sperm whale calf that weighed between one and two tonnes.
He says firefighters used their zodiac to pull the whale to an area where it was loaded on a truck.
It was then taken away an buried.
It's not the first time a whale has made it through the tidal power plant in Annapolis Royal and into the river, but officials believe it's the first one that didn't make it back out.

The Skeleton Coast

After todays class I came home interested to find out more about the Skeleton Coast. I found some really mazing pictures!
For more information and more great photos you can visit the following link : http://www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com/

Winter weather 'confuses salmon'

By Martin Cassidy BBC NI environment correspondent

Irish salmon stocks are being hit by the effects of climate change with scientists on the river Bush in north Antrim discovering warmer winters are triggering a false start to the annual migration with disastrous consequences.

Warmer winter weather is confusing the salmonIt is the king of fish but even the mighty salmon is feeling the heat generated by climate change

And on the river Bush scientists say that warmer winters are confusing the young salmon.
Believing it is springtime, the juvenile fish are leaving the safety of the river and heading out to sea where many perish.
Richard Kennedy, one of the scientists at the Bush Salmon Station, says the timing of the annual migration of the young fish is crucial to their chance of survival.
"Ten years ago the first smolt that would have left the river Bush would have done so towards the middle to the end of April, but that seems to be changing and now first departures can be as early as the beginning of March," says Richard.
Out in the Atlantic, life is bleak for those young salmon.
Greedy gulls have quickly learned that the migration is now starting up to six weeks earlier and see the trickle of young fish as easy prey.
Migration
Nature intended migrations to be concentrated so as to give predators a narrow window of opportunity.
But now the seals are also picking off the young salmon as they head out into the Atlantic.
Usually around a third of the young fish which leave the river Bush survive to return here the following year to spawn
But now with warmer winters triggering a false start to the migration, only six in every 100 salmon make it back here to breed.
And that's not the only problem facing the river Bush. Climate change is also hitting the salmon in another way.
High rainfall is also swelling the river in winter and early spring, washing the delicate salmon fry away.
Gerscham Kennedy of the Bush Salmon Station has been recording increased spring flows and says that heavy rain in April is a particular problem.
People in Bushmills remember their river thronged with fish but in just 30 years the salmon stock has registered an alarming decline.
Last year, only 1,000 fish made it back here to spawn.
And like other rivers, the salmon in the Bush now face yet another man-made challenge.

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Here is just one more example of how climate change is affecting our environment. These salmon are thinking that its spring earlier than usual because of the warming water. Then, they head out to sea where it is much colder and difficult for them to survive. And as for the ones who do survive, many of them are being eaten by gulls and seals. This is just one example of the chain reaction that global warming and climate change are having on our environment.

Dubai's Man-made Island Rises Out of the Ocean, Set to Open to First Residents; 'World's Latest Landmark'

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Nov 5, 2006 17:47 EST)

Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island off Dubai, is bracing for the arrival of its first residents, even as questions remain about the environmental impact of the mega-projects under way in the Gulf city state.
"These projects are a positive thing for the country" since they have propelled Dubai to world fame, said environmentalist Ibrahim al-Zu'bi. But "they are introducing more people, so it's more pressure on the natural resources," he told AFP.

A few miles from Palm Jumeirah, shaped like a palm tree and the first of several artificial islands rising off the coast, work is continuing on "The World", a cluster of some 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet's nations. "The World," which is due to be completed end-2008, and three "Palm" islands are the work of Nakheel, a government-controlled property developer.
Nakheel recently announced that it would hand the keys of 3,900 flats and villas on Palm Jumeirah to their owners by year's end, some six months behind schedule.
The last to take delivery of their properties on the five-by-five-kilometer (three-by-three-mile) island will be running more than a year behind schedule. Prices for the most luxurious villas on the island, whose construction kicked off five years ago, top four million dollars.

"By early to mid-December, there will be people living right on the Palm," a spokesman for Nakheel told AFP, asking not to be named. The arrival of the first residents on the island will follow a publicity blitz starting November 9 in London, where a huge airship chartered by Nakheel will overfly the city's landmarks in order "to show that the Palm is the world's latest landmark," the spokesman said. Repeats are planned in Paris, Milan and Rome, reflecting the key role played by European investors in the real estate boom in Dubai, which is a member of the United Arab Emirates. A similar publicity stunt will take place in Cairo. Work is meanwhile also continuing on two other palm tree-shaped islands even bigger than Palm Jumeirah. One, Palm Jebel Ali, is jutting out into Gulf waters to the west. The other, Palm Deira -- planned to be 18 kilometers (11 miles) long and nine kilometers (five miles) wide but still in its early stages -- is emerging to the east.
In the case of "The World," Nakheel's task is confined to bringing the islands up from the Gulf's shallow waters, leaving it to buyers to develop them within strict guidelines, chiefly in relation to the height of buildings.

Nakheel says 50 percent of the islands have already been sold, with price tags ranging from 15 to 40 million dollars. But several years after the launch of the island ventures, their consequences on the marine environment remain a matter of debate.
"The environment is very important to us," said Adnan Dawood, a Nakheel spokesman.
Before the man-made islands began taking shape, the zone attracted migratory fish, Dawood said. Today "you have fish where there was no fish before, because now they have a habitat," he said.
"Fifteen new species of fish have made this (The World) their habitat... Today you can (even) see dolphins," he added.
Zu'bi, who serves as director of the Emirates Diving Association's environment department, was skeptical about Dawood's assertions.
While admitting that the ventures have positive aspects -- "new beaches, new diving sites, dolphins" -- he chided developers for lack of communication. "We are open to work with them in a positive way (but) they ignore us," he said.
"When it comes to the environment, you can't be as fast as you want. You have to compromise things. Things are going fast here," Zu'bi said in reference to the breakneck speed at which Dubai is growing.
"What happened in Europe in 50 years is happening here in five years," he said.

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Wow! What will they come up with next!?!

Although they very briefly mention in this article that this is actually a good thing for the environment (???), I am sure that the negatives outweigh the positives. The introduction of new species may not necessairly be a good thing, as they could negatively affect the species that are already present there....or there is a risk that they will not survive in this environment . And Im sure that the amount of destruction to the landscape outweighs all of the positives. This may seem like a good idea for now, but with the climate changing and the risk of sea level rise these Islands could be wiped out before long.

Under the Ice Sheet

Under the former Larsen ice shelf east of the Antarctic Peninsula, deep-sea sea cucumbers and stalked feather stars were ubiquitously found in shallow waters. These animals usually inhabit far greater water depths.

The main aim of the current Polarstern expedition to Antarctica is the investigation of marine ecosystems under the former Larsen ice shelf. This "white spot" with regard to biodiversity research gave rise to the following questions: What kind of life actually existed under the former floating ice shelf which was up to several hundreds of meters thick? What are the prospects for the future after the collapse of the ice shelf? Obviously, prosperous life did not exist in the area where the Larsen B ice shelf broke off three years ago. This is surprising since Antarctica's seafloor communities are known for their rich assemblages of sessile sponges, cnidarians and moss animals. Instead, underwater video footage and catches of towed sampling gear revealed the dominance of typical deep-sea animals and corresponding life forms.

Here, sea cucumbers and stalked feather stars are the main representatives. These deep-sea inhabitants belong to a group called echinoderms. Until now, stalked feather stars have only been found sporadically and then only below 800m water depths in this sector of Antarctica. But locally in the Larsen B region, they occurred rather frequently at depths of merely 200m. "During my nine expeditions to Antarctica, the only time I have seen the two most abundant species of sea cucumbers was below the far bigger Filchner-Ronne ice shelf further south." This second encounter brought back chief scientist Julian Gutt's memories of his first trip to Antarctica and his PhD thesis 21 years ago. Preliminary results show that a unique macrofauna exists in conjunction with the ice shelf. The sea cucumber Elpidia is probably the most prominent deep-sea animal but is also known to occur in shallow Arctic waters. Maybe this is the reason why this animal is aptly named glacialis (icy) especially with regard to our confirmatory findings on the opposite pole – Antarctica.

This species, its bigger "sister" Scotoplanes globosa and other relatives according to their feeding mode are referred to as grazers. Myriads of single-celled algae that sink down to the seafloor are literally grazed by herds of sea cucumbers. The oceanographer Enrique Isla is excited about further processing the collected data back in the Marine Sciences Institute (ICM) in Barcelona. "Our measurements of environmental parameters of the sediment and the water column will contribute to answer the question, why there are such similarities between habitat use of the deep-sea and below the former ice shelf." Scientists on this expedition will meet again in autumn in Barcelona to work on a synthesis of various results combining the different aspects of ecosystem components. This workshop will be hosted by the ICM and is supported by the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML). Marine ecologist Julian Gutt is looking to the future: "The minute we have a better understanding of how ecosystems under the ice shelf work we might dare to put forward prognoses how biodiversity on the seafloor changes with respect to ongoing atmospheric warming".

*** This article was taken from http://www.ocean.com/resource.asp?locationid=1&resourceid=6922&ProdId=2866&CatId=1&TabID=&SubTabID=

10 Interesting Ocean Facts!!

1. Mount Everest (the highest point on the Earth's surface 5.49 miles) is more than 1 mile shorter than the Challenger Deep (the deepest point in the ocean at 6.86 miles).

2. Water pressure at the deepest point in the ocean is more than 8 tons per square inch, the equivalent of one person trying to hold 50 jumbo jets.

3. The worlds oceans contain nearly 20 million tons of gold. If all the gold suspended in the world's seawater were mined, each person on Earth could have about 9 pounds of gold.

4. The Great Barrier Reef, measuring 1,243 miles, is the largest living structure on Earth. It can be seen from the Moon.

5. By 2010, 80 per cent of people will live within 60 miles of the coast.

6. The total length of the world's coastlines is about 315,000 miles, enough to circle the Equator 12 times.

7. If all the world's ice melted, the oceans would rise 200 ft (66 mtr). 10,000 years ago the ocean level was about 330 ft (110 mtr) lower than it is now.

8. 90% of all volcanic activity on Earth occurs in the ocean. The largest known concentration of active volcanoes (approximately 1,133) on the sea floor is located in the South Pacific.

9. Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.

10. Some scientists estimate that the oceans contain as much as 50 quadrillion tons (50 million billion tons=50,000,000,000,000,000) of dissolved solids. If the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth’s land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 m) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building.



*I found these facts at http://www.savethesea.org/STS%20ocean_facts.htm along with many others, but I posted these 10 because they were the ones that sparked my interest the most!

Dead Sea Plight Spurs Bike Rally

January 09, 2007 — By Associated Press
JERUSALEM -- Several hundred cyclists are expected to take part in a ride around the Dead Sea in Israel, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.
The Jan. 27 event is designed to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the Dead Sea, which is shrinking. The sea contains the saltiest water in the world at the lowest point on Earth, about 1,200 feet below sea level, and its water levels have fallen about three feet a year in the past 20 years.
In December, a Jordanian official announced that a study is now under way to look at the environmental and social consequences of building a canal to transfer water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.
Geological experts warn that the Dead Sea will disappear in 50 years if current trends persist. Registration details for the bike rally are at http://www.zimuk.co.il/event_2.asp?event_id19&langeng.
Source: Associated Press
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11987



Its frightining to think that the Dead sea will disappear in the next 50 years if we continue as we are right now. With the advancements in technology, and the increases in pollution and global warming its very possible that the end of the dead sea will come sooner than predicted! I think its really important that we read more articles like this and educate people on this subject, because the majority of people probably dont realize how serious this issue is.
-Kathryn