Other sites&blogs for Information!!

So if you guys have any more questions about marine life or biology or anything you can go to sites such as;

http://www.allthesea.com/

http://www.animalport.com/animal-information/sea-animal-information.html

You could also go look up some other blogs such as;

http://fishid.com/marinelifeblog/

http://marinelife.about.com/b/

Caution!! Penguin's Waddling!

Have you ever wondered why penguins waddle? Well, let me just say we have!

Although penguins glide through water with the greatest effort, on land, they are very clumsy creatures. When it comes to walking, for penguins they expend twice as much energy as any other terrestrial animal the same size. For penguins, the way they walk is in a waddle sort. Research shows that this is most efficient way for penguins to get around on dry land.

According to Roger Kram, from the University of Colorado, he stated;
"Our hunch was that if penguins are trying to move forward, but expend energy rocking side to side with this awkward, roly-poly, back-and-forth movement, then it's got to be wasted energy," Kram recalls. "But what we found is that they are inefficient because of their short legs and big feet, and waddling is a means to cut their losses."

Now, if you really stop and think of all the reasons they could waddle, it all comes down to this, waddling appears to help penguins conserve the kinetic energy they generate with calories when they walk!

Mermaids!!

Another question we had in our comments were what other ocean animals are in movies. Well, here's one that has some debate. The little mermaid!!! Many people do not believe that there really are mermaids yet there are some people named Hannah!!! A Mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, and Asia. Mermaids are associated with the Sirens of Greek mythology and with the Sirenia, a biological order which comprises dugongs and manatees. Historical sightings by sailors may have been the result of misunderstood encounters with these aquatic mammals. Plus their good looking, especially Ariel from the little mermaid.

Kaleidoscope of Water!

  

So, we got a comment asking why water appears as different colors in different environments. Well, small quantities of water appear colorless to the human eye yet, when its in larger quantities of water the tint becomes a darker blue.
Lakes and oceans appear blue for many reasons. One reason is that the surface of the water reflects the color of the sky. Some parts of the sea water can influence the shades of blue that the water looks, and that's why it can look greener or bluer in some areas.
 The water that is in swimming pools (contains chemicals) that have white painted walls and floor will appear as a turquoise color. The deeper the pool the darker the color. Scattering from suspended particles also play a big roll in the color of lakes and water. A few tens of meters of water will absorb all light, so without scattering, all bodies of water would appear black. Although the color of water has a lot to do with the way the light hits, it also looks very different depending on the angle you look and the height you are looking in the water.

Just Keep Swimming!

We are more then positive that you have ALL heard of the movie Finding Nemo. And we are pretty sure that you know on of the famous fish named, Dory. Well have you ever wondered what kind of fish she actually is? If so she is known as a blue surgeon fish. They are also known as a Blue Hippo Tang. The blue surgeon fish can grow up to 31cm long. They are usually found in the range of East Africa to Indonesia. Just like all reef dwelling creatures, the protection of coral reef ecosystem is essential to continue the species of blue surgeon fish. These fish, when they are young, they prefer to hide in the branching corals, and are typically found at a depth of 2-25 meters in the ocean.

If anyone has any ideas as to what else you would like to know, comment beloww!(:

Its Turtle Time!!

       This picture above is a Green Sea Turtle that is surfacing to get some air, yet sea turtles are almost always submerged in water. Putting that into consideration, that means that the sea turtle have developed an anaerobic system of energy metabolism. All an anaerobic system is, is a form of respiration using electron acceptors other then oxygen. When surfacing to breath, a sea turtle can quickly refill its lungs with a single explosive exhalation and rapid inhalation. Sea turtles have large lungs which a good thing because, with the large lungs the lungs have adapted to permit rapid exchange of oxygen and to avoid trapping gases during deep dives. 

       As horrible as it is to say, humans have a big impact as to why the Green Sea Turtle is on the endangered species list.  Human action presents both intentional and unintentional threats to the species' survival. Intentional threats include continued hunting and egg harvesting. More dangerous are unintentional threats, including boat strikes, fishermen's nets that lack turtle excluder devices, population and habitat destruction.

   
       The Green Sea Turtle has just as much of a right to be on this plant as us people do. Except their habitat is much different then ours. We live in house and I'm sure you all know that turtles live in the ocean. A Green Sea Turtles moves across three different habitat types depending on their life stage. The turtles lay their eggs on a beach. Mature turtles are mostly in shallow, coastal waters with lush green bedding. Adults on the other hand, are usually in inshore bays, lagoons, and shoals with lush sea grass beading. Turtles usually spend most of their first five years in convergence zones in the open oceans. Young Sea Turtles are rarely seen because they swim in the deep, pelagic waters. They usually swim at 1.6-1.9mph. Pretty slow but hey were talking about turtles aren't we!?

The Amazing Great Barrier Reef

 

Have you ever heard of the Great Barrier Reef? It is located off the shores of Queensland, Australia.  Well if not this reef is the largest coral reef in the world. Did you know that you can see it from outer space? Pretty cool huh? It is the worlds biggest single structure made by living organisms.  The reef is built by many billions of tiny organisms known as, Coral Polyps. This reef is a pretty amazing site!