For a creature that figures so well into European mythology, the Narwhal carries with it surprisingly few myths of its own. As its Linnaean taxonomic binomial infers, Monodon Monoceros (one tooth, one horn) the narwhal was described by Europeans as…
Category: Ocean Life
Acoustical Habitats and Aquatic Noise
I’ve just returned last week from the 2016 Aquatic Noise conference (AN2016), a gathering of souls who have taken it upon themselves to examine, poke, prod, regulate, and abuse our common interest in Marine Bioacoustics. This conference happens every few…
Expert Opinions
This week I have been hopping in and out of the Society of Marine Mammologists conference in San Francisco. This is an international event and brings mostly scientists from around the world to discuss all things Marine Mammal –…
Dolphin Speak
When we humans think of language it is typically in terms of transferrable meaning – “this sound means this idea or this thing.” This is likely an evolutionary adaptation incorporating our dependence on visuality and the consequences of time…
The Soul of the Sea
It is said that the origin of the word “soul” travels through the idea of “coming from or belonging to the sea,” because the sea was considered the stopping place of the soul before birth and after death. While there…
Ocean day today – all month long
The United Nations General Assembly designated today, June 8 as “World Ocean Day,” acknowledging a tradition set forth in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. In 2002 – a decade later, the…
Cuttlefish hearing – in living color
Cuttlefish are perhaps one of the more complicated critters you’re likely to encounter. Related to the squids and the octopus they have many of the same highly visual adaptation of being able to rapidly change color and even textures of…
There goes the neighborhood…
Today the Obama Administration, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), released the 2017-2022 five year offshore leasing plan. Although some areas in the Chukchi Sea were recently put “off limits” due to their importance for subsistence use by…
Understanding – and technology, catching up with need.
It was not so long ago that the unimaginable expanse of the ocean was considered so large that it was impervious to human impacts. Fish were thought to be an inexhaustible resource, and there seemed to be ample water volume…
BOEM’s egg laying – and what you can do
Our last newsletter about a private meeting between Government officials and the oil industry seems to have struck some nerves – in our community, and in the governmental officials who are either backpedaling, or sheepishly looking at the corners of…