Oarfish (Regalecus glesne)
Courtesy Public domain via WikimediaWatch rare video and read the BBC science report of the bizarre oarfish caught on camera swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) are rarely seen in action and can grow over 50 feet in length. Scroll further down the page for rare video of manefish (Caristius macropus) behavior.
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Sea anemone: Vancouver Aquarium
Courtesy Danielle BauerIn the latest census of ocean biodiversity, scientists from the United States and France have counted more than 5000 new species of marine life living in the extreme depths of the Earth's oceans. The zone beneath the 656-foot level - the depth where sunlight no longer reaches - used to be thought of as a "barren zone", but instead is teeming with strange and wonderful creatures that feed on the organic debris that rains down from above. The research is being led by Robert Carney, a professor of oceanography at Louisiana State University.
LSU website story
Story on MSNBC
Census of Marine Life website
Those darn sperm whales: Video captures them stealing a free lunch
Sperm whales might just be those mean kids of the ocean who shake you down for your lunch money. Or, they may simply be pretty smart hunters who've figured out how to get the better of human technology and steal fish off of commercial fishing lines in the ocean. Watch some amazing video (below) of a sperm whale "cleaning off" a fishing line.
Here's a link to the National Geographic report on this phenomenon.
Song sung blue: Blue whales, the largest creatures on Earth, have a voices that are getting deeper and deeper. Only males make sounds, and it's thought that they're lowering their voices to better attract females.
Courtesy NOAAWatch out Barry White, you’ve got some serious competition in the low-octave vocal range.
Researchers are finding that the songs of male blue whales are getting much lower, by as much as 30 percent, over the past 40 years. (Through this link you'll be able to hear some actual blue whale sounds, sped up fast enough so our ears can actually hear them.) Most blue whale vocalizations are so low that human ears can’t hear them. And the frequency drop is being witnessed in blue whale pods around the globe.
Male blue whales are the lone vocalizers of the species, and it’s thought their rumblings are designed to attract mates – again pretty much like Barry White.
So why would the pitches of their sounds decrease so much in a relatively short period of time?
One theory is that a deeper voice comes from a larger, more desirable male. As blue whale populations are on the rebound, there is more competition between males to attract females to mate with, ergo, leading the males to drop their vocalizations to even deeper tones.
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