Red drum have an ability to produce a drumming sound on their air bladders which is how they got commons name. Learn who what other fish share this characteristic with them here. Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum …
Marine & Freshwater Environmental Education
Follow BCS on Twitter
My TweetsWant updates on BCS posts?
Scroll through the BCS archives …
Learn more on …
Random posts from BCS …
How can you tell if that fin bobbing up and down in the distance belongs to a dolphin or a porpoise?
From far away you can probably only see the fin, right? The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin will have a dorsal fin that is hooked while the Atlantic Harbor Porpoise will have a triangular dorsal fin. If you are closer you will see other differences. For instance, the dolphin is about 7-12 feet as an adult while […]
Angela loves sea turtles as well as cats!
Anglea Kinsey does a wonderful job of being compassionate to the feline population as she plays the role of Angela Martin on the show ‘The Office’. But did you know she also demonstrates equal sympathy for the plight of sea turtles as a spokesperson for Oceana? Back in December, Angela Kinsey and Racheal Harris (The […]
Getting to know three … Bivalve edition
Ever know instinctively that some animals are ‘related’ and just can’t pinpoint their similarities? On the third day of every month I explain three features that are common among three animals of a certain group. Of course, generally each group has more than three representatives and even many more similarities and then even more differences, […]
Five fun ways for the kids (and, you!) to share a love of nature this summer
Antarctic Art Contest: Students and professionals alike are invited to submit written or visual pieces about the WAIS Divide. Specifically, it’s suggested that pieces focus on water isotopes, CO2 and methane gases, radar imagery, or imagery of ice samples. Deadline is October 1st. Children’s Art Mangrove Calender: Elementary-aged school children invited to create art expressing […]
How do female terrapins navigate to a nesting site?
The answer is “very carefully”. Female terrapins need to look for a spot above the high tide line to lay a nest for their eggs (They lay on average 2 clutches of approximately a dozen eggs each summer). The challenge is getting to a spot on the beach above the high tide line (dunes are […]
No more fish in the sea
From Good (an on-line web magazine dedicated to enabling individuals, businesses, and non-profits to push the world forward) an infographic detailing the decline of popular fish species in the last 50 years. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the Untied Nations calculates how many fish are left in the ocean by counting how many fish […]
What makes up the ‘salt’ in salt water?
I am writing this as a very long overdue expansion to a post that I wrote November 25, 2008, “What happens if I swallow salt water?“. The pertinent information lacking was the composition of the salt in salt water (my sincerest apologies). The salt in salt water is: 77.6% table salt; 10.88% magnesium chloride; 4.74% […]
Maryland moves closer to banning microbeads
Reported on the Baltimore Sun’s B’More Green blog, “Consumer products such as toothpaste and cosmetic scrubs containing tiny plastic “microbeads” could be banned from store shelves in Maryland after 2018 under a bill unanimously approved Thursday by the state Senate”. These means that if the bill passes the House, “Maryland will be the second state […]
How do fish float?
There are a few different answers – depending on what type of fish we are asking about. The most sophisticated types of fishes – bony fishes – have a swim bladder. These fish can inflate their swim bladder with gas from a special gas gland. The gas is basically oxygen from the fish’s blood. Bony […]
Who has the longest commute in the sea?
An animal lives to eat and breed. In order to do this, some animals that call the ocean habitat ‘home’ have to travel great distances to find food or reach a particular breeding ground. Here is a breakdown of some of the most impressive migrations in and around the sea. Perhaps the longest migration of […]
Resources & more …
Flickr photos …
What people are saying …
- Robert Emahiser on Why you should never walk on dunes
- Lesa on 10 brief facts on bioluminescence
- Lisa on Limulus Love
- Beach Chair Scientist on 17 facts about the wee sea potatoes
- Bernard Rejterada on 17 facts about the wee sea potatoes
- Brian on What is the difference between a summer and winter flounder?
- Inbound marketing on 15 facts about the Portuguese man-of-war that’ll have you saying “Didya know…?”
- Donnie Huckabee on Wordless Wednesday | Shell art
- John on Why you should never walk on dunes
- ItzJaylaD on What I know about whale sharks
Top posts & pages from BCS …
- Hurricane vs. Cyclone vs. Typhoon
- A House for Hermit Crab
- How to handle a horseshoe crab
- Snot's your house
- Wednesday Wisdom: Various quotes (Alaska scenes)
- A naturalist's must-see destination: Fossil Hunting at Bayfront State Park in Chesapeake Beach, MD
- Belly biology creates lasting memories
- Five awful puns about courtship in the sea
- Horseshoe crabs confirmed as members of arachnid family
- Beyond the bag: Other plastics being banned
Speak Your Mind