Clapping for Cousteau!

I think a good way to end this blog for this semester is to pay tribute to the man who made SCUBA diving what is it today, and provided us with a way to explore the mysterious world of the oceans: Jaques Cousteau

My favorite quote from him is "Man is bolted to earth, but man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free."

"Jacques-Yves Cousteau (11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997)[1] 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"

Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members. Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician." He was, in reality, a sophisticated showman, teacher, and lover of nature. His work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans.
His work also created a new kind of scientific communication, criticised at the time by some academics. The so-called "divulgationism", a simple way of sharing scientific concepts, was soon employed in other disciplines and became one of the most important characteristics of modern TV broadcasting.

Calypso is a ship that Jacques-Yves Cousteau, one of the most important researchers in oceanography, equipped as a mobile laboratory for field research.

here is a site for the Cousteau Society http://www.cousteau.org/jyc.html

and a you tube video of Cousteau and his ship Calypso. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDAbZ1lQ-Bk&feature=related

Great-now im going to be scared about swimming in lakes!

FRESHWATER SHARKS

Someone once told me about these freshwater sharks in Lake Nicaragua and I always meant to look it up, but forgot of course. However Lake Nicaragua isn't the only place that has freshwater sharks, although it is the most common and the largest. The most common freshwater shark is a bull shark, and on rare occassionthey have even been spotted in the Mississippi River. It certainly makes you think twice about swimming in freshwater lakes.

Bulls make their way into freshwaters to keep their newborn pups safe from harm. They don't mate or actually give birth in freshwater -- they do this in nearby tidal creeks that have a mix of salinity. The freshwater lakes and rivers provide safety for their pups, which would be hunted by larger predators in the ocean. Bulls have a physiological feature that separates them from other sharks and allows them to process freshwater and saltwater by manipulating the amount of sodium and urea that their bodies need. Urea is the waste produced by the body when proteins are metabolized. When bull sharks reduce the amount of salt and urea in their bodies, they are able to adapt to various levels of salinity in water bodies. How do they accomplish this? By peeing a lot -- roughly 20 times as much as when they're in the ocean. When bulls swim into freshwaters, they need to achieve a balance of saltwater to freshwater that still allows them to function normally. They're able to reduce the concentration of salt and urea in their blood by increasing their urine production, which is expelled in a much more diluted concentration than it normally would be. However, this overworks the kidneys of the bull shark, forcing it to travel back and forth between the ocean and inland waters.
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/bull-shark2.htm

heres a you tube link for a video on bull sharks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9kkfX1d6N4

Ever heard of Jellyfish Lake??

I had never heard of this lake until tonight, and aparantley it is a well known dive site.

The dive site exists off the island of Palau in the South Pacific. "Jellyfish Lake, known to Palau's natives as Ongeim'l Tketau, is one of over 70 similar saltwater lakes in the islands and contains over ten million jellyfish that have descended and evolved from a common ancestor, the spotted jellyfish. Jellyfish Lake is completely isolated, but in the distant past, it had an outlet to the ocean. The outlet was closed off and the high jellyfish population was isolated and started to feed on quickly-reproducing algae. Contrary to popular belief, the jellyfish of Jellyfish Lake do have small stinging cells, or nematocysts. However, because the stinging cells are so tiny, their sting is not detectable on most human tissue, so tourists can enjoy swimming with them much closer than would be possible anywhere else."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish_Lake

FACT: In two episodes of Survivor (Survivor: Palau and Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites), as a reward for winning a reward challenge, winners got to swim in Jellyfish Lake.

Natiluses

This term was mentioned today in class and I had no idea what its was, so....

Nautilus belauensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Cephalopoda
Subclass:Nautiloidea
Order:Nautilida
Suborder: NautilinaAgassiz, 1847
Family: NautilidaeBlainville, 1825

"The nautilus is similar in general form to other cephalopods, with a prominent head and tentacles. Nautiluses typically have more tentacles than other cephalopods, up to ninety. These tentacles are arranged into two circles and, unlike the tentacles of other cephalopods, they have no suckers, are undifferentiated and retractable. The radula is wide and distinctively has nine teeth. There are two pairs of gills.
Nautilus pompilius is the largest species in the genus. One form from western Australia may reach 26.8 cm in diameter. However, most other nautilus species never exceed 20 cm. Nautilus macromphalus is the smallest species, usually measuring only 16 cm"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus

Whale Shark - "Harmless Heavyweight"

I'm going to Honduras this summer and diving on the reefs, and found out that there is a good possiblity of seeing a Whale Shark while I'm diving...so I wanted to find out a little bit more about them!

The whale shark is the biggest fish in the world! It can grow up to 65ft long and can weigh over 10 tonnes! However, it doesn't use its teeth to eat, it swallows tonnes of plankton, just like some other whales. Its mouth however can be up to 4 feet wide...thats almost as big as I am tall...wow

"If you were accidentally scooped up by the whale shark you would find yourself being spit back out through an interesting process called gastric eversion. The whale shark actually turns its stomach inside out and spits it out through its mouth, ejecting the entire contents." GOOD TO KNOW...not that i'm planning on getting swallowed by one, but you never know.

Ok...so is it a WHALE or a SHARK??

"Scientists have determined that it is a species of shark, because of its skeleton (composed entirely of cartilage), and its tough, leathery, scaleless skin. People called it a whale shark because of its enormous size (like a whale), not because it's a type of whale."

Check out this website with info on it and a cool video too.

http://www.extremescience.com/BiggestFish.htm

What is the difference between a fathom and a league??

I've never been quite clear on measures of distance when I heard the words fathom and league. Here is the difference! Its definately a good thing to know!


WHAT IS A FATHOM?A fathom is a unit of length in Standard English that is used to measure ocean depths. It is approximately 6 vertical feet. To get the total depth in feet from fathoms given, just multiply by 6. For example, 500 fathoms = 500 x 6ft. = 3,000 feet.

HOW FAR IS A LEAGUE?A league is also a unit of length (or distance) that is used to measure ocean depths. It is not used in science, but in literature. One league = 3 miles (or 4.8 km).

http://www.extremescience.com/ocean-zones.htm

Caribe

I found this case study about what could possibly be the mysterious "Caribe" titled: SEABATHER'S ERUPTION: REPORT OF FIVE CASES IN SOUTHEAST REGION OF BRAZIL

There are a few pictures of the rash on this website, but I didn't want to put them on my blog....

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0036-46652001000300011&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en
CHECK IT OUT!