Filter Feeders providing carcinogens to the food chain

A suspension-feeding Octocoral, an Indo-Pacific Menella 

Filter feeders are animals that consume by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialised filtering structure.

A filter feeder, also known as a suspension feeder, is any animal that obtains food by filtering water for nutritious particles. The strategy of filtering small particulate matter out of the water has been occurring for over 400 million years, when suspension feeding was quite common in what is know as the Palaeozoic era.

Filter feeders range from the very small (krill) to the largest living animal, the blue whale which eats other filter feeders for food, namely zooplankton.

Generally the smallest of the Filter feeders are sea floor dwellers that soak up a mixture of mud and sand and a thin film of slime or ooze accumulates as a sort of pap at the interface of the water at the bottom, together with what other detritus might be mixed within it.

Pinger alarm system helps prevent "Cetacean By-catch"

Every year thousands of unintended marine mammals lose their lives by becoming entangled and or strangled in commercial fishing nets and lines. This is known as “Cetacean By-catch”.

Marine scientists estimate that more than 300,000 Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises (Cetaceans) accidentally drown in fishing nets every year. "Cetacean by-catch is a global problem and represents the single largest survival threat to many marine mammal populations around the world."

Scientists at the Future Oceans research laboratory in Queensland, Australia have developed a small but clever acoustic alert gadget that emits sound waves, tuned to alert Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises to the presence of fishing nets. These devices called Pingers have been scientifically proven to be the only known solution to significantly reduce cetacean by-catch.

Arapaima, the world's largest freshwater fish

With regards to human consumption of fish we can no longer safely use the expression,  "there's plenty of fish in the sea" since more than ever most of the world relies on official quotas and more than ever we're attempting to preserve many species in their natural habitats by farming.

Just as in the organised world the native populations are in the process of observing this same idea, none more so than the people hunting wild species of arapaima, a long slender torpedo-shaped black fish with red markings that lurks in the Amazon river of Brazil. Possibly the worlds largest freshwater fish, can reach up to 15 feet (3m) in length and weigh as much as 200 kilograms (440 pounds). The arapaima are very unique among fish since they breathe air with their very primitive lung, and for this reason are known by the common names "pirarucu" in Portuguese and "paiche" in Spanish.

"Because they rise to the surface to breathe every 5 to 15 minutes, they are easy to locate and fishermen harpoon them to sell their valuable meat or to feed their families. That combination of high value and vulnerability has led to widespread depletion of their populations and they are now listed as endangered" (Sciencedaily).

Often referred to as the "Cod of the Amazon", since the natives often salt and dry the meat, rolling it into a cigar-style tied package and can be stored for a long time without rotting, which is very important in a region where few have refrigeration. 

Whilst the arapaima of South America are threatened with extinction due to overfishing they are "also threatened by deforestation, because the fish prefers to swim into flooded forests during the wet season to spawn and guard their young. The young are vulnerable to predators and need to find cover among the flooded vegetation". (newswatch)

Whilst they may remain on the critical list of endangered species in the Amazon, as a way of preserving the species: "The arapaima has also been introduced for fishing in Thailand and Malaysia. Fishing for this species in Thailand can be done in several lakes, where one often sees arapaima over 150 kg landed and then released". (Wikipedia)

E.T. Walrus can't yet quite sing, nevertheless

some of you may have remembered the Beatles singing I am the Walrus, well E.T. Walrus has retorted with his own wide range of entertaining vocalizations in this short video.



E.T. has had the good fortune of having learned these sounds at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, WA. USA and his rather formidable daily diet of 90 pounds of fish daily, likely assisted his memory whilst sustaining his good form.

E.T. is named for his wrinkled resemblance to alien in the popular 1982 movie "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."

Aquadom, Worlds Largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium

represents an engineering architectural marvel, situated in the lobby of the Radisson SAS luxury hotel in Berlin.  This extraordinary aquarium is made of acrylic glass, 51cm thick, 25m high, 12 metres in diameter holding 1 million litres of salt water with a salinity of 3.3 %. weighing in  2000 tons when filled.

Visitors rooms in the hotel face the external body of the aquarium whilst an immersive panoramic experience can be had for viewers travelling within the core's elevator.

The Plastic Paradise Promo Documentary

"Scientists and health experts reveal that chemicals in many of the plastic products we take for granted are toxic and potentially to blame for epidemics of cancer and other diseases."

Almost everyday of our consumerist lives we purchase something in plastic, albeit as an object of use, wrapping or a container. Some of us are likely concerned with how we discard the used plastic items, but perhaps too many of us don't give it much thought as to how we dispose of the used materials and clearly see nothing wrong with discarding it into waterways. As all water and what it carries drifts, down and out into the ocean currents it consequently travels to a place now known as the Great North Western Pacific Garbage Patch. Some commentators refer to this location as an island, and although there maybe some truth in that a great deal of the refuse also gets lodged on many sandy beach islands within the area.

Midway Atoll is one such island and here in the video below, TV host and Filmmaker Angela Sun shows how riddled with plastic waste the Atoll has become. Angela is  on a personal quest of discovery to uncover the mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and in so doing illustrates the growing toxic confetti that causes the depletion of many marine animals.

"She encounters environmental activists staging elaborate stunts to raise awareness and legislators struggling to address the problem. She investigates the hidden truth about recycling and attempts to contact the leaders of a powerful petrochemical industry in control of our limitless production and consumption of plastic, an industry that does not take kindly to questions about oceans filling up with its garbage."



The video above is a promo and Angela Sun believes that if she can complete her documentary film, she can greater  influence, empower and motivate others into further forms of positive action. Thus, she needs more funds to complete her project and is seeking donations via her website.

Coral Gardening: Ecological Remediation of fast disappearing coral reefs

Large areas of the world’s oceans are experiencing devastation caused by coral bleaching. According to Clive Wilkinson of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network:   “…May, June, we started seeing massive bleaching in the Andaman Sea side and then in the Gulf of Thailand and now it is appearing to spread across through Indonesia and up into Vietnam and Southeast Asia. And it will possibly start to affect Taiwan and southern Japan very soon.”

You might think its tides floods and disasters that are chiefly to blame for coral reefs fast disappearing, but nay its largely due to human interventions like global warming and overtly heavy industrialized or exploitative fishing, depleting the ocean of a huge range of fisheries.

Jonathan Clay directed and produced this documentary video for the BBC Natural History Unit, and its about an amazing pilot project in Fiji that is bringing damaged coral reefs back to life.



Judging by the success of a few Fijian divers, in the above video, it now appears to be up to science researchers, marine engineers and governments to upscale this ecological remediation technique !

Go here for more information on the project featured in the above video.

Underwater whale watchers encounter Humpback pod off Lahaina, Maui

The video abruptly begins from inside an Atlantis Submarine where passengers are experiencing with gasps of glee and excitement a school of humpback whales rollicking around the bough and port of the ship.

According to the notes accompanying the video:
The submarine tour guests witnessed a competitive group behavior by the humpbacks in which the males were vying for the attention of a female that swam around the submarine for 45 minutes. In 20-plus years of dives, Atlantis Submarines guests have seen a lot of Hawaii's marine life, but this undersea show by the humpbacks was a first!

"Humpback Whales have sleek (smooth and shiny) gray bodies that point down towards their snout (nose). They have a tail fin, a very small dorsal (back) fin, and 2 small flippers (fins). Whales can weigh up to 50-60 tons (1ton equals 2,000 pounds) and its size can be 50-55 feet. Humpback Whales got their names from hunters for moving the way it does when it dives or rolls over. Before it dives it inhales air and water. When it goes under water it exhales the air and water." via

Shark Whisperer trances a predator and holds it in his lap

Some people may view the subject of the video below as animal abuse but others may think that it's cute that a tenacious predator can be made docile, if only by an experienced shark whisperer from Cuba.

"After diving for 35 years, Dr. David E. Guggenheim, the "Ocean Doctor," takes his first dive with many sharks in Jardines de la Reina, Cuba as part of a collaborative research and conservation project. What he sees when he surfaces he still can't believe !"

The video was made as part of the ongoing research for the Ocean  Foundation by 1planet1ocean  which,

"is a nonprofit organization, founded to explore, restore and sustain the oceans through strong international partnerships, offering solutions to the problems our oceans face."



In case you weren't aware its Shark week, visit this page to make some cool shark portraits of yourself and or check out more video's about sharks.

Nine legged Starfish does somersaults

Here we see a scuba diver revealing a starfish submerged in the seafloor. After the diver flips the critter over it moves into a plant like form then slothfully regains composure.

Starfish have no sharp demarcation between arms and central body, and usually move using their tube feet rather than wriggling movements of the whole arms, except after its been flipped.

Starfish belong to the classified group Asteroidea a species of the Phylum Echinodermata.  The starfish we see here is a Luidia Maculata. Tidechaser has some gorgeous images of the critter and its cousins here.

Most starfish are carnivore predators, feeding on sessile or slow-moving prey such as mollusks, clams, snails  and other starfish.


The color of the water in this video is so green and clear, it feels so scrumptious, unlike the nasty environmental degradation presently thwarting the Gulf.

Rocketboom's Molly Meme Takes us on a spin of the Darwins

The image you see here is of Darwin island the smallest island in the Galapagos Archipelago. From there, Molly Meme takes us through a cool series of visual snapshots into the many things, mountains, sharks, frogs, islands and software all likely attributed with the famous Charles Darwin, the great realizer of Evolution.

Also shown us in the video are "South America map, Mt. Darwin, cordillera darwin4, cordillera darwin glacier, cordillera darwin panorama, marinelli glacier, Darwin Sound, mac os 10.6 box, apple tv, iphone, Thomas Henry Huxely pic, Orca, Darwin OS screen1, Darwin OS screen2, Darwin X-Men, Darwin comic art1, Darwin comic images, helicopter over island, galapagos islands map, tesla hat, tierra del fuego sat image, South America sat image."






More Rocketboom episodes available here;

Eating Raw Crayfish contracts severe parasitic infection

Have you consumed any raw crayfish from rivers or streams lately ? You might be wondering why your experiencing fever, coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath and or extreme fatigue, then your most likely to have caught a very rare and severe parasitic infection, known as paragonimiasis.

Doctors have recently diagnosed a rare parasitic infection in six people who had consumed raw crayfish from streams and rivers in Missouri.  Washington University infectious diseases specialist Gary Weil, MD, professor of medicine and of molecular microbiology, who has treated some of the patients, believes that many other people out there, may have contracted the disease.

Consuming almost any type shell or crab or crayfish from fresh water rivers and streams will likely contract an infection via a half inch (8cm) oval shaped parasitic worm that travels down ones intestines to the lungs. Worse still it could continue travelling to the brain causing severe headaches or vision problems, or under the skin, appearing as small, moving nodules.

Some patients experienced a buildup of fluid around the lungs and around the heart. One patient even had his gallbladder removed, to no avail. The infection is generally not fatal, and is easily treated if properly diagnosed. But the illness is so unusual that most doctors are not aware of it. Nevertheless once the disease has been diagnosed, treatment is easily managed with tabs of praziquantel and recovery takes hold within a few days.



Although Crayfish are common throughout North America, where hundreds of species live in rivers, streams, lakes and ponds there are other variant strains of the disease throughout East Asia, South america and Africa.

Argonaut Octopus: the submarine airship

Two Museum Victoria researchers look to have solved a mystery about the Argonaut octopus that has kept scientists since Aristotle deep in pursuit of working out why it has a shell.

Octopus expert Mark Norman and research biologist Julian Finn have discovered that the female Argonaut uses its shell to collect air from the surface to use as ballast in the waters below. The female octopus creates a shell by secreting calcium carbonate from one of its arms
around herself after mating with the tiny male, whose tentacle penis breaks off and remains in the female. The thin white brittle shell that forms is called the paper nautilus.

Finn and Norman filmed and photographed live animals in the act of trapping their air bubbles into their shell and using it to control very precisely their movement as it weaves its way through the ocean like a tiny submarine. The researchers are continuing to collect data about the Australian species and openly invite your participation with details about how you could help them.

The video we see here was shot by Yasushi Okumura, Japan Underwater Films.

The Gorgonian or creeping bush

is an amazing animal that has the appearance of a plant and is known as the Gorgonian, or more commonly referred to as a sea whip or sea fan.

Its branching rays resemble the head of mythical monsters - the Gorgon, with snakes instead of hair. Hence it got its name.

The Gorgonian feeds on small particles of plant and animal organisms or their excreta, and is found throughout the tropics and subtropics and therefore is likely one of the marine species currently under threat by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ?

You may not find the music track of the video very appealing and it seems somewhat unusual if not down right obtuse to the listing glide of the fonds of the sea fan, but you can simply turn the sound off !

Read more about the Gorgonians here.

Gulf Oil Volcano devastation grows at an alarming rate

Alabama resident John Wathen together with volunteer pilot Tom Hutchings, from the Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies made a flyover video over the area where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank.

This polluting environmental disaster of unimaginable proportions, will no doubt go down as the largest and worst oceanic oil and gas spill ever - the gulf appears to be bleeding a red mass of floating goo. One estimate suggests "that the volume coming out of the hole is in the order of 4 barrels per second (around 350,000 barrels per day." And to think, a $500,000 switch could have prevented this, phew !

But wait there's more - The Natural Gas emissions are astounding as well.

"The Natural Gas doesn't just bubble to the top of the ocean and release into the air. It is absorbed into the water, like air is absorbed, and actually creates oxygen depletion. Hence, the emission of natural gas of these volumes into the sea is producing a significant area of Oxygen depleted water in the Gulf of Mexico which may be very large threat to fisheries and other wildlife in the area." VIA

As you watch the close up video of the hole remember the pipe is 5 feet in diameter. Watching this makes me shudder with disbelief, and shudder even more wondering if the hole could Embiggen anymore ?



Hey, without wishing to be alarmist, but what is going to happen when the hurricane season emerges ? Maybe help create habitat destruction of an immense order ?


Read more of the latest stories about the Mexican Gulf oil spill here.

But if you thought that this horrific accident was the first by BP oil, than think again. Science & Soul one of my blog roll friends shares with us his insightful history of the environmental diasters that BP oil has in the recent past, festooned upon the American continent.

FLIP: a unique marine research ship

is a ship that can operate in a horizontal or vertical position. FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform) is a 355 feet long open ocean research ship designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 degrees, resulting in only the front 55 feet of the vessel pointing up out of the water.

The novel vessel was invented more than 40 years ago by two Scripps scientists, Drs. Fred Fisher and Fred Spies, who needed a more quiet, stable place than a research ship to study how sound waves behave under water.

Apart from FLIP, all other ships bob up and down and roll side to side. Even when their engines are turned off, a ship's experimental equipment makes noise as it is heaved up and down in the water. When FLIP is in its vertical position it is both extremely stable and quiet.

Researchers study with the assistance of FLIP; The way water circulates, how storm waves are formed, how seismic waves move, how heat is exchanged between the ocean and the atmosphere, and the sound made underwater by marine animals.

Since its inception, without fail, FLIP  has been used in over 300 operations worldwide, and it is currently owned by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Plastic Kills Sea Turtles & an Hawaiian beach disaster

As if the environmental disaster currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico weren't enough of a man made catastrophe then watching this shameful story of the havoc and horror we have created with our everyday use of plastic. Plastic bottles, plastic cups and tops, bags plastic packaging


Seriously. Plastic lasts forever. plastic never biodegrades. Yet we use untold amounts of it  to make disposable objects that we discard after a short period of time, sometimes just minutes, or a few hours. This is not merely hazardous and cruel to all marine species but contributes greatly to the more broader problem of habitat destruction on an immense scale.



And as if that weren't enough check out the recent BBC video report on how oceanic plastic debris is turning an Hawaiian beach 'into plastic'.

You may ask just how might the world turn this form of pollution and killing of wildlife around ? Well, fifty years ago, every glass bottle you bought at the shop could be exchanged for a little money, Thus one  idea we can almost put into immediate action, might be to put pressure on policy legislators to make every product consumed in plastic, refundable !

Octopus Camera Operator

A free diver finds himself in an octopuses garden down at Wahine Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand, and ends up with an entertaining documentary of an octopuses desire for some fun.

"While trying to get video of a wild octopus, it suddenly dashed towards me and rips my shiny new camera from out of my hands, then swims off, all while the camera is recording! he swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter. after a 5 minute chase, I placed my spear-gun underneath him and he quickly and curiously grabbed hold of the gun as well, giving me enough time to reach in and grab the camera from out of his mouth. I didn't feel threatened at all during the whole ordeal. he seemed to be fixated on the shiny metallic blue digital camera. the only confusing behavior was how he dashed off with it like a thief haha. cheeky octopus."

Music by: Vincent Gillioz, Car Chase and Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones with, Octopus I Love You.

The video was filmed with: a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT2 (also called the DMC-TS2) in 720P movie mode. Filmed and edited by: Victor Huang.

The Axolotl is the luckiest animal in all of Mexico

now they have two songs about them. One from the gifted singer Yma Sumac who had an impressive 5 octave vocal range and exotic persona that made her an international sensation in the 1950s, (link).  Nevertheless, Axolotl's are cute but critically endangered Mexican mole salamanders. They're also adorable since they smile a lot.

One thing you probably didn't know about the Axolotl, though, is that they're neotenic, meaning that they basically look the same when they're old as when they were young.

The unique thing about the axolotl is that, under the right circumstances, they actually will metamorphose into what you and I think of as a typical, semi-aquatic salamander.

The axolotl can be induced to metamorphose by drinking salamander goo, and here's an almost surreal entertaining song about it by Rather Good's Joel Vietch.

Oceanic Acidification

I wonder how many of us are aware that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity ?  But it is only in the last couple of years that scientists have begun to realize the impact that global warming and the burning of fossil fuels is having on the biodiversity of our marine life.

The video here gives us a little window of information on the rise of acidification in earth's oceans and the profound affect its having on the food chain around coral reefs.

"for those hesitant to accept the science of climate change, one thing that may be easier to digest is the problem of ocean acidification. It doesn’t take rocket science or more than elementary biology to understand that all life needs balance to survive. Drastically tip the ecological scale too much and too fast in any direction, and you’re asking for trouble. This is why rising levels of acidification—largely due to the ocean’s being forced to absorb more carbon emissions—have many fishermen and scientists fretting:"

"the ocean is becoming more acidic because of carbon-dioxide emissions that are damaging coral reefs, decimating populations of tiny animals at the base of the food chain and eating away at the shells of clams, mussels, and oysters.” Source

If we aren't prepared to accept this and begin to act on cutting greenhouse emissions now, then this startling and deeply disturbing news puts at risk the future of our children's well being !