Image (c) Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.
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Marine & Freshwater Environmental Education
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What’s in your medicine cabinet affects aquatic life
Yup, that’s right – what is in your medicine cabinet (e.g., anxiety medication, birth control) affects not only us, but animals in streams, lakes, and even the ocean. As the President’s Cancer Panel noted in a 2010 report, “Pharmaceuticals have become a considerable source of environmental contamination, this is why experts recommend the use of […]
It’s as easy as A, B, Sea: O for Operculum
Operculum is the hard scalelike cover of the gills of bony fishes. Cartilaginous fishes (such as sharks, skates and rays) all lack a gill cover. Image (c) www.webs.lander.ed
What lives in the spooky burrows on the beach?
The answer is appropriate for this time of year … those quarter-sized holes are the home the ghost crabs or fiddler crabs. Ghost crabs emerge to scavenger upon anything they can get including crabs or clams, bugs or insects, plants or dead stuff (detritus). The burrows are personal territories (i.e., not colonies like on Meerkat […]
UDub’s Dewey Decimal System of Ichthyology
I always love to share a new resource. When I stumbled upon the fish collection at the University of Washington I became extremely jealous. Don’t get me wrong … my undergraduate school had many other amazing attributes that were gems for studying fish (being situated next to an ocean in the middle of the pine […]
Tomorrow: Ocean released by National Geographic
Tomorrow the National Geographic Society releases a special edition ‘Ocean‘ magazine that takes an in depth look at the world’s oceans ecosystem including breathtaking pictures and a pull out of the “Our Water World”. As they put it “Here’s your chance to dive below the surface and examine a dynamic, interdependent ecosphere that is rarely […]
What is the second largest reef in the world?
Interesting question. The top three largest coral reef ecosystems in the world are: 1) Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia 2) Belize Barrier Reef 3) Florida Keys Reef Ecosystem A coral reef ecosystem relies on teamwork between the coral animal (a type of cnidarians) and an algae called zooxannthellea.
Wednesday Wisdom: Gertrude Ederle
Find more great ocean and conservation quotes here and please feel free to share with your friends and family! Also, ask away! If you have a question about something you found on the beach or just something you’re curious about just send an email to info@beachchairscientist.com or tweet us!
Where do seagulls nest?
It is interesting to think that seagulls may want to rest at some point, but they tend to want to re-energize somewhere safe inland (i.e., old boat yards, rock jetties, water towers, etc.) – not necessarily near the dunes or on the beach. Seagulls are full-grown when they leave the nest. They have to be […]
Farting on a school bus – bad; Farting as part of a school of herring – ok
Recently two Ohio middle school boys were suspended from riding the bus for farting on the bus. If these boys were part of a school of herring they’d have no repercussions. In fact, they’d be making the grade in language arts. Back in 2003 an article published in the U.K. science journal Biology Letters explained […]
Break it down. It’s hammertime … (doooo doo doo dut .. doo dut ..doo dut.)
The hammerhead shark has evolved the interesting looking skull cap to accommodate its extra collection electrosensory organs. All sharks do have these electrosensory organs, but, the hammerhead has a bit more than the average shark species. The electrosensory organ are useful for traveling far distances in the open ocean. It is like a internal GPS […]
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- Robert Emahiser on Why you should never walk on dunes
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I think it weighs 21.4 pounds