Archive for the ‘aquatic’ category

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News With Bite…

August 5, 2012

– – In yet another shark attack, fifty-year-old Christopher Myers was attacked Monday by what was believed to have been a great white shark while he and his son were swimming about 400 yards offshore at Ballston Beach in Truro, Massachusetts.  He suffered four puncture wounds on each lower leg, and had surgery to repair torn tendons.  Treated at a Boston hospital, Myers will be returning home with a cast on one leg and bandages on the other.

This was the first great white shark sighting in the area since 1936; three weeks ago, a great white was spotted trailing a kayaker at Nauset beach, about 25 miles south of Monday’s attack.   Four shark sightings have occurred this summer off the coast of Cape Cod, with the increase in shark presence attributed to a growth in the seal population…

Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, aquatic

Comments: 4 Comments

Artificial Jellyfish!

July 28, 2012

– – I’m sure that you’ll all be pleased as punch to learn that scientists in the U.S. have created a free-swimming artificial jellyfish!  I, for one, know that when at the ocean, I can never have enough of them bumping against me in the tide or lying on the beach.

It gets stranger, too; the team members built the replica using silicone as a base on which to grow heart muscle cells that were harvested from rats.  They then used an electric current to shock the created Medusoid into swimming with synchronised contractions that mimic those of a real jellyfish!  I swear that I am not making this up…

The finding serves as proof of concept for reverse engineering a variety of muscular organs and simple life forms.  As jellyfish use a muscle to pump their way through the water, the way that they function is similar on a basic level to that of a human heart.  Such similarities reveal what you need to do to design a bio-inspired heart pump.

Synthetic life is an emerging field of science that until now focused on replicating life’s building blocks.  Now instead of just building a cell, researchers at Caltech and Harvard University have built a beast!  

Categories: animals, aquatic, cool things, Invertebrates, research, science

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Shark Pursues Kayak Near Cape Cod!

July 10, 2012

– – You could practically hear the theme from Jaws playing, and a kayaker almost wound up as shark kibble in a real life drama that played out off of Nauset Beach near Cape Cod, Massachusetts recently.

One wonders what thoughts ran through the head of first-time kayaker Walter Szulc about 100-150 yards out in the water when he turned to see a shark’s fin closing on him about ten feet away.   A surfer was first to point out the shark, and hundreds of helpful people on the beach were yelling, “Paddle, paddle, paddle!”  Ironically, Szulc had teased his young daughter a short time before about being afraid to go into the water due to fear of sharks, assuring her that the risk of such was very low.–Well, paddle was what he did, “like no tomorrow,” and Szulc’s escape from the 12-to 14-foot long great white shark  was successful.

This was the third great white sighting in Cape Cod in the past couple of weeks.  Experts feel that sharks are being drawn to the area because of a spike in the gray seal population, which has grown from 10,000 to more than 300,000 due to protections being put in place.


Categories: animal occurrences, animals, aquatic, environmental, furry
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The Lusca…

June 21, 2012

– – I think that the appeal of giant mollusks, cephalopods in particular, is that they are so non-mammalian as to be almost alien.  Add to that the reported immensity of the lusca with an 85-foot span, and you have something rather impressive.  

An old episode of Destination Truth (2009) got into the search for a lusca off the Island of Andros in the Bahamas.  “Blue Holes” exist there as openings to a maze of underwater tunnels, with caverns starting at a depth of about 140 feet and diving depths going to around 175 feet.  Chief investigator Josh Gates found area sea captains there reluctant to charter in search of what is essentially a giant octopus, so it became necessary to venture forth in their own boat.  Armed with a FLIR thermal imager, Josh went diving in the murky water and perceived something huge in one cavern that he explored; on the surface, a disturbance was likewise perceived in the water  near the expedition boat.

While nothing further came of the investigation than this, the point was made that the deep tunnels reported to be the lairs of the lusca have never been cataloged, and that such a creature could conceivably exist there…

Categories: animals, aquatic, cryptozoology, unexplained, unidentified
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Attack of the Killer Shrimp!

May 2, 2012

– – Some people have bucket lists of things that they want to do before they “kick the bucket,” that is, die…but I have a list of things to be worried about or afraid of, and I’ve just added something to that list…Run, ’cause there’s an invasion of Asian Tiger Shrimp!  I can see a Saturday night movie on the SciFy channel coming out of this, folks…

Now Asian Tiger Shrimp are not hideous mutants or skilled in the martial arts, although I could see them developed as potential adversaries for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are, however,  jumbo shrimp, which as George Carlin pointed out was an oxymoron.  These are big suckers, measuring up to thirteen inches long and weighing up to a quarter pound, and they are cannibalistic…that’s right, shrimp that eat other shrimp.- -Isn’t that redundant?

Also known as tiger prawn, the black-and-white striped creatures are showing up in the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast coast, and are preying on smaller, native sea life as well as competing for resources and carrying  diseases…a triple threat, if you will.  Scientists don’t know exactly how the Asian variety got to the Gulf Coast, but marine ecologists are looking into the shrimp’s DNA for clues, with breeding in the local waters or conveyance by ocean currents possibilities.

And if Asian Tiger Shrimp team up with Asian Carp, we could have seafood that would eat you…or at least take your computers for their young!  I’m paying protection money while I still can…

Categories: animal oddities, animals, aquatic, environmental, science
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Icelandic River Monster?

February 15, 2012

  – – A video reportedly showing an apparent subarctic anaconda snaking its way upstream through Iceland’s Jokulsa River as shot by a 67-year-old farmer has been subjected to an analysis in which the position of the monster’s head were matched up with relation to static reference points.  It was concluded that the “monster” was actually stuck in one place on the river, with moving water creating the illusion of a swimming snake.

The object is thought to be a fishing net or long piece of cloth caught on a branch or a rock lying beneath the surface of the water.  The serpentine shape is caused by chunks of ice hanging onto the net.

Iceland does have a legendary Lagafljot Worm, the Icelandic equivalent of the Loch Ness monster…but this was no Nessie cousin.

Categories: animals, anomalies, aquatic, cryptozoology, mysteries, strange
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Another Ogopogo Sighting?

November 11, 2011

 – – There are large, blurry, out-of-focus monsters out there stalking the landscape!  One is Ogopogo, Canada’s version of the Loch Ness Monster, sightings of which have been reported since at least the 19th century by thousands.- -Well, a man visiting British Columbia’s Lake Okanagan has recently filmed a 30-second video which shows…gasp!…two long ripples in the water in a seemingly deserted area of the lake!  The man making the video notes that what was shown in the footage was not a wave but was of a darker color, and that it did not move parallel with the waves.

Now Ogopogo is most commonly described as a 40- to 50-foot-long sea serpent, sometimes seen with humps, which is believed to have its origins in legends of native Canadian Indian folklore.  The name “ogopogo” originates from a 1924 English music hall song called, “The Ogo-Pogo:  The Funny Fox Trot,” an apparent disparaging reference to my dancing ability. Despite a number of high-tech searches of  Lake Okanagan by submarines and other underwater gadgets, no evidence of Ogopogo has ever been found.   Lake Okanagan does, however, have tens of thousands of  submerged logs floating just under its surface, and most sightings are attributed to misidentified logs or common animals such as otters.  So color me skeptical, but the notion of a residential monster is extremely cool…

Categories: animals, aquatic, cryptozoology, unexplained, unidentified
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Cyclops Shark!

October 25, 2011

  – – It looks like it’s made of rubber, but it’s real…an albino fetal Cyclops shark cut from the belly of a pregnant dusky shark in the Gulf of Mexico this past summer.  Shark researchers have examined the preserved creature and found that its single eye is made of functional optical tissue…it’s unlikely, however, that the malformed shark would have survived outside of the womb. 

Less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded in sharks.   Cyclopia is a rare developmental abnormality in which only one eye develops,  and it has been seen in a variety of species…

Categories: animal oddities, animals, aquatic, cool things, strange
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Liberating Lobsters…

August 10, 2011

 – – In Gloucester, Mass. on August 3rd (Wheel Turning Day),  a group of thirty Tibetan Buddhists bought 534 live lobsters from a seafood wholesaler, clipped the bands binding their claws, and then released them back into the Atlantic from a whale-watching vessel, saving them at least temporarily from the boiling pot.   Among those setting the lobsters free was a chef who no longer cooks live shellfish.  The Buddhists typically liberate masses of the expensive seafood a couple of times each year.

While the Buddhists recognize that the lobsters may be re-captured, it is felt that by the action, the lobsters have had a longer life, even if only by an hour.  Lobsters to the Buddhist are viewed equally with other life forms, with their happiness and suffering  just as important to them as it would be to higher life forms. 

And for the fishermen paid for their labors, it’s a win-win proposition…I dunno what the lobsters think about being captured and then released, but they may perceive it as a near-death experience…

Categories: animal rights, animals, aquatic, philosophy
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Unsinkable “Battleship?”

August 1, 2011

 – – More bad aliens are on the horizon, guys.  While sitting in the theater waiting to see Cowboys and Aliens and wondering why I was being subjected to a Buick commercial as minutes ticked by,  previews also aired,  including one for a movie not to reach the big screen until May of 2012.  The movie is called Battleship, and is loosely based on…the board game of the same name, with alien invaders thrown in as the antagonists.  Said aliens, “The Regents,” have come to Earth to build a power source in the ocean.  During their visit, the aliens encounter a navy fleet, and a very intense and dynamic battle ensues.  The teaser trailer shows a humongous USO emerging from the sea; “Prepare to fire!,” orders the commanding officer.  “Sir, which weapons?,” questions the subordinate.  “All of them,” responds the commander.

Now movies have been made about board and video games before, for example Clue and Mortal Combat.  Battleship will be one of the most expensive movies that Hollywood has ever made with an estimated budget of 200 million, and it carries the distinction of already having been cited by James Cameron (Aliens) as an example of the lack of creativity and viable story lines in Hollywood. 

 

I’m not worried about the outcome of this conflict, however.  We can always turn Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford or the SEALs loose on the aliens…

Categories: aliens, aquatic, movies
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