Mesmerizing Sea Life

When a team of subsea explorers completed the deepest ever dive to a shipwreck earlier this year, the news was broadcast around the world. A team from Caladan Oceanic found the USS Johnston , which sank during an intense naval battle in 1944, to be astoundingly well-preserved, its guns still pointing in the direction of the enemy. A few days before making their record-setting trip, however, the explorers had carried out another descent to the seafloor, a dive that ended up being a few kilometers off the mark. Though they failed to find the wreck that day, they did find something else. Once footage from the excursion came in, Alan Jamieson, a deep-sea researcher from the University of Western Australia, sat in his office aboard the expedition ship scrolling through frame after uneventful frame, searching for anything that might be of interest. The two-person submersible, piloted by Victor Vescovo, the American investor who founded Caladan Oceanic, appeared to have glided past little mo

Even though self-decapitating is a sure way to die, some species of sea slugs chop off their head which is a life-saving exploit for them. Scientists discovered that slugs do this to remove internal parasites that have infested their bodies. The new ones will be generated from the head that has been detached. This degeneration takes about three weeks, during which time the growing slugs likely sustain themselves off sugars produced via photosynthetic algae that live within their skin.  Biology researcher Sayaka Mitoh, who specializes in Japanese sea slugs, one day entered the lab to find one of the creatures had decapitated itself and the head kept on moving and living. Then a couple more followed same. Then Ms Mitoh teamed up with Yoichi Yusa, an aquatic ecology professor to perform the phenomenon. They have cut off the heads of 16 japanese slugs of two different species. Out of which six have been regenerated and 3 of them have been succeeded and survived. One of them has decapitated

Scientists have completed the first map of the world's coral reefs to monitor and conserve an ecosystem that facing the threat of destruction by human activities and climate change. The Paul Allen Atlas combines over 2 million images using the local reference data to create a high-resolution map of coral reefs. The map provides a better way to understand and protect increasingly threatened coral reefs. Nearly 98000 square miles of coral reefs have been mapped up to the depth of 50 meters. It also collects data about the seafloor and ocean that interacts with the coral reefs, including wave turbidity and the presence of rocks and sand. “There are countries, organizations and government agencies in the world that don’t have a map of their reefs […] so these maps will help people by basically giving a baseline to better assess where the action is needed,” says marine scientist Chris Roelfsema, who led the mapping process for the Allen Coral Atlas, to Mongabay . “We can better make pl

Stories have been told for centuries and have been depicted across the world. This mythical sea creature often described as half-human and the other half with a fishtail. Many writers and artists have plagued efforts to bring life to this enormous beauty. Some even claim today, that they are present. An incident in Hawaii dazzles the tourists with an image of half-human and half-fish. When a group of people went on a dive near the "Kaiwi Point Mermaid", the diver master "Jeff Leicher" encountered a nude woman with long flowing hair and beautiful faces. He immediately captured the photo but it broke the surface and swam away. The photos have been investigated by the experts and say that they are genuine and have not been tampered with. In ancient history, mermaids depict both good fortune and disaster. Many legends have been revolved around this beauty. In Africa, tales exist about mythical water spirits called Mami Wata - Mother Of Water. A water spirit often accom

Blue hole is a marine sink hole formed during the ice ages due to erosion of lime stones terrains of rain and chemical weathering. In the later ages, sea levels have been raised and filled them with water. Some of these blue holes are immersed underwater makes them difficult to understand. Inside the blue holes, oxygen is scare and very little light is present only near the surface. Which tells that the species formed inside these blue holes use very less oxygen . In fact, some of the species use sulfate for photosynthesis. This makes us to learn how Earth has been millions of years ago without oxygen. This also helps us to know how life will be on other planets. But due to lack of accessibility and abundance, little is know about these holes. Some sink holes are several meters down, and for most of them the opening is very small. This makes a manual expedition necessary. But in the last years, almost 130 - 150 divers have died at an Egyptian blue hole. The great blue hole is the large

From ideas to creating, writing to editing, it's worth everything when I see my blog. It's been a year I created it, where I turned my passion for the ocean into a stream of words. Happy 1st birthday my baby blog.

Everybody knows that plants and trees produce oxygen for the earth. But, do you know that oceans and seas contribute more oxygen. Produced by marine plants, algae and single-celled organisms called phytoplankton. These may not be seen by the naked eye but produce more, which is not even close to the proportions produced by the trees and plants. The ocean produces oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis, which converts sunlight and carbon dioxide and can use as energy. One type of plankton, Prochlorococcus releases tons of oxygen into atmosphere. So small, that can millions can be present in a single drop of water. It produces 20% of the oxygen to the earth biosphere, which is more than the rainforests on land combined. Scientists mention that a single cell can give oxygen for one in every 5 breaths we take. Calculating the amounts of oxygen on oceans may vary because of the change in climate conditions, geographic location and with the tides. It is also important to remember that the