If you want to understand why the coral reefs of the Caribbean went from wonderful to wasteland, a lot of the ecological change seems to hinge on a plague that nearly wiped out Diadema sea urchins in 1983. With that idea…
Science
Underwater crop circle-building pufferfish officially described as Torquigener albomaculosus
Pufferfish seem to make headlines for all kinds of interesting behaviors from chasing lasers, apparently mourning the loss of a friend, and especially for helping dolphins to get high. But no pufferfish behavior garnered more attention than the elaborate “underwater…
Strange fish will scare the pants off you
With rows of needle-sharp teeth and a strange body shape, the frilled shark is built to give you nightmares and could be described as a living fossil. A group of fishermen got a rare glimpse of this prehistoric-looking creature when…
Meet Sepios, a robot that swims like a cuttlefish
The strange looking four-finned robot doesn’t look like much until it is placed in the water when its fins start undulating and it begins to dance through the water. Inspired by the movements of cuttlefish, Sepios is a unique robot…
What’s in a name?
Scientists are often pretty whimsical in their own way when it comes to describing a new species for science. To the undiscerning amateur like us, we may find scientific names cumbersome, made up of an unpronounceable mass of consonants with an unearthly…
The Phoenix Effect gives us reason to be hopeful about wild corals
On any given day it is easy to come across news of how the ocean is in danger, coral reefs are dying, and the sky is generally falling in regards to the outlook for corals on this planet. That is…
Aquapods are already leading the charge in offshore fish farming
We thought long and hard about the relevance of a fish farming story to our readers but the saga of Aquapods is a compelling one. You see, we tend to think of fish farming as the kind of thing that…
Really get to know Scleractinia with the free Coral Finder Toolkit movies
Corals can be quite difficult to identify for the uninitiated, and even certain groups can be quite challenging to differentiate from each other. We are always super motivated to find the latest and greatest new corals, either in the wild,…
US Navy’s new robotic shark is cool and a bit creepy
The US Navy has a new weapon straight out of an Austin Powers movie — a robotic shark. The Navy’s new tool, dubbed GhostSwimmer, is an underwater drone designed to look and swim like a real shark and the motion…
Friday Smorgasbord: Giant lobsters, ocean surprises and rooms with a view
A great meal or fuel for a nightmare? Biologist Forrest Galante got quite the surprise when he was diving for lobsters off the coast of Anacapa Island in California as he came across this ginormous 70-year-old, 12-pound monster of a…