Wave Power

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Narwhals

     The unicorn of arctic waters must be a fascinating site up close. Male narwhals have a huge tusk that seems to come out of its head, just like a unicorn. This makes scientists wonder what the purpose of the tusk is. Some suggest it helps them hunt. Talking about food, narwals hunt bottom dwelling fish in the winter and cod as well as other fish in the summer. These whales are usually between 3.5 to 4 meters long if you don't count the tusk. Like many whales, narwhals are social creatures living in groups that have between 15 to 20 members.  

Coral

     If you don't know what coral is, I get you. I have spent years hearing about coral reefs without knowing what coral is. They may seem like one big rock or shell, but that is true only if you look from a distance.

    A coral colony contains many polyps. Polyps are technically animals. They have tentacles that search the water for plankton to kill and hunt and a gut to digest the food. Although they hunt, most of their sugars come from algae living in their cells. These algae can photosynthesize enough for themselves, so they pay some rent and give the polyp some sugar. If the polyps survive and don't get put into somebody's living room collection (I can't be talking), they make identical clones. The result is a system of polyps.

How Coral Reefs Are Made

      Coral reefs are home to 25% of marine life on our planet while covering less than 1% of the ocean floor. These complex reefs are basically made of skeletons of hard coral. A coral polyp has a skeleton made from calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is made as calcium from the water mixed with carbon dioxide. As the coral grows taller, the skeleton on its base grows with it. New coral is then able to grow on the skeleton. This way a coral reef can grow several centimeters per year.

Horseshoe Crabs

     Horseshoe crabs are old. Like realllly old. When I say realllly I mean reeaallllllllllllllly old. The specie is about 100 million years old. That's older than the dinosaurs, but even crazier, I did the math and that's the combined age of 1,562,500 average aged American grandmas!  

They are not real crabs, they have 10 eyes (like my 5th grade teacher), and their gills let them stay out of water for 4 days. Horseshoe crabs use their sting ray like tails to steer through the water. 

When I was swimming, I saw garbage on the seafloor and I dove down to retrieve it. It actually turned out to be a horseshoe crab. (No offense Horseshoe Crabs) It looked like a bloodsucking monster, but in reality we are the blood suckers. You see, medicine needs their blood for vaccines, so we take them out and drain some of their blood. Without restrictions however, we may severely weaken them, turning them into past-tense.

Check out some videos at Deep Marine Scenes - YouTube

Deep Sea Mining

      There is an ongoing debate about whether deep sea mining is good or not. Deep sea mining can help provide us with material for almost anything but many of you have probably heard that it destroys the seafloor.

    Because the mining uses something that looks like a humongous robotic vacuum, which creates an underwater sandstorm, many tend to argue that it destroys the seafloor, and we are only starting to study the deep seafloor. The people on the other side of the argument say that mining the ocean will be better than the times that we mined on land, like when people mined for nickel in Indonesia, causing over 1 million acers of land to be deforested. Deep sea mining could also help our need for metals in a net-zero future they say.

In conclusion, scientists must keep researching these areas of interest.

 

How Clownfish And Anemones Form Amazing Relationships

     Anemones are fish killers, their tentacles pop out, waiting for a fish to swim by so that they can sting it to death. But there is one exception, meet the clownfish! They are able to slowly and painfully gain immunity by letting the anemone sting it in small quantities, they than get a free home that protects them from predators. What does the anemone get? Apart from getting protection from predators, anemones get free litter removal and some of that nice tasty brown stuff that comes out of the clownfish's butt. 

Mud Volcano

 Watch a satisfying mud volcano.

Hydrothermal Vents

 Watch the life living near these "underwater geysers".

Bottom Trawling

    Bottom Trawling is a type of fishing where a net scrapes along the bottom of the ocean forcing all marine life to go into their nets. They often try to catch shrimp and squid but are unprecise and messy. In some cases this means that over half of the marine life caught is thrown back out into the sea, dead or dying. The result is an ocean bottom stripped of life that will take years to be repopulated by it's original inhabitants.

Sea Slug

    The 1.2 inch blue angel is actually a devil in disguise. Let me explain. 

These swimming sea slugs love to eat venomous creatures like jelly fish. This is because they can use the stinging cells of the creatures they eat for their personal defense by storing them for later. These angels can make humans feel pain like they have never felt before, or even kill them. If the venom reaches your blood, it can simulate an allergic reaction blocking the airways, suffocating you. In case you've never almost drowned, it's not a pretty way to die.

Cuttlefish

 Watch as a cuttlefish hypnotizes its prey.