ΛΟΝΔΙΝΟ. Μια ολόκληρη άγνωστη «κοινωνία» θαλασσίων ειδών ανακαλύφθηκε στα βάθη του Ατλαντικού ωκεανού, εκεί όπου το φως του ήλιου δεν φθάνει ποτέ. Μεταξύ των θαλάσσιων ζώντων «θαυμάτων» που εντοπίστηκαν από επιστήμονες που εργάζονται για την Απογραφή της Θαλάσσιας Ζωής- πρόκειται για έναν οργανισμό που «επιθεωρεί» την πανίδα και τη χλωρίδα των ωκεανών- ήταν ένα γιγάντιο ον που μοιάζει με χταπόδι, θαλάσσια όντα με πτερύγια που μοιάζουν με αφτιά ελέφαντα, καθώς και μικροσκοπικά οστρακόδερμα που λάμπουν σαν χρυσά κοσμήματα. Οι θαλάσσιοι βιολόγοι έμειναν έκπληκτοι μπροστά στην ποικιλία των ειδών που ανακαλύφθηκαν κατά τη διάρκεια μιας υποβρύχιας αποστολής σε βάθος 5.000 μέτρων από την επιφάνεια της θάλασσας, όπου έχουν πλέον εντοπιστεί συνολικά 17.650 είδη του βυθού.
Ενα από τα πιο παράξενα είδη που βρέθηκαν ήταν ένα σπάνιο δείγμα ενός χταποδιού με πτερύγια το οποίο ονομάζεται κοινώς Dumbo, καθώς κολυμπά κουνώντας ένα ζευγάρι πτερυγίων που μοιάζουν με αφτιά ελέφαντα. Το συγκεκριμένο είδος έλαβε ωστόσο την ονομασία Jumbo Dumbo, καθώς μπορεί να φθάσει σε μήκος τα δύο μέτρα και σε βάρος τα έξι κιλά- πρόκειται για το μεγαλύτερο δείγμα τέτοιου είδους θαλάσσιου ζώου που έχει εντοπιστεί ποτέ. Το Jumbo Dumbo συνελέγη μεταξύ 1.000 και 3.000 μέτρων κάτω από την επιφάνεια του Ατλαντικού ωκεανού, σε μια υποβρύχια οροσειρά γνωστή ως ΜεσοΑτλαντική Ράχη.
Στην ίδια περιοχή βρέθηκαν και άλλοι οργανισμοί με μέγεθος μόλις λίγων χιλιοστών οι οποίοι τρέφονται με θαλάσσια… απομεινάρια (από νεκρό πλαγκτόν ως υπολείμματα από κουφάρια φαλαινών).
Στο πλαίσιο της αποστολής οι επιστήμονες χρησιμοποίησαν αυτόνομα, μη επανδρωμένα υποβρύχια για να εξερευνήσουν τον σκοτεινό βυθό του Ατλαντικού σε ακτίνα αρκετών χιλιομέτρων. Σε αυτά τα μεγάλα βάθη εντόπισαν, για παράδειγμα, ένα παράξενο, μακρύ πορτοκαλί ον που μοιάζει με ψάρι και το οποίο ονομάζεται Νeocyema (πρόκειται για το πέμπτο δείγμα του συγκεκριμένου είδους που ανακαλύπτεται σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο). Συνέλεξαν επίσης περί τα 680 δείγματα μικροσκοπικών ζώων που ονομάζονται κωπήποδα και ζουν μέσα στα πλαγκτόν, ωστόσο ήταν σε θέση να ταυτοποιήσουν μόνο επτά εξ αυτών. Τα υπόλοιπα φαίνεται να είναι νέα είδη για τους ειδικούς, συμπεριλαμβανομένου ενός το οποίο έλαμπε σαν… χρυσό.
O πως ανέφερε ο Ρόμπερτ Κάρνεϊ από το Πολιτειακό Πανεπιστήμιο της Λουιζιάνας που ήταν εκ των επικεφαλής του προγράμματος, «προκειμένου να επιβιώσουν στα μεγάλα βάθη τα ζώα ανακαλύπτουν πολλούς και διαφορετικούς τρόπους προσαρμογής. Υπάρχει μεγάλη έλλειψη πληροφόρησης σχετικά με την “άβυσσο” των ωκεανών. Πολλοί πίστευαν ότι είναι αφιλόξενη σαν την έρημο. Ωστόσο αποδεικνύεται ότι πολλά είδη ζουν εκεί».

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SeaLife Macro 3X Closeup Lens for ReefMaster and Digital Cameras Scuba Dive Diving Diver Underwater Camera Authorized Dealer Full Warranty

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At the south end of Mission Blvd there are two beautiful parks,one facing the bay and the other facing the ocean and bordered on the south by the Mission Bay channel.On the ocean side are volley ball courts and a picnic area as well as the north channel jetty.The south sports bay access,a playground,and views in to Mission Bay,San Diego’s premier water playground.

fishing on the San Diego Bay

Bay side walkway in South Mission Beach

playground in South mission bay

San Diego bay from the south

San Diego bay from the south

looking east from South Mission Bay

flying seagull

Playground at the east side of South Mission

Playground at the east side of South Mission

picnic on the ocean in this family friendly park

Beach front on the pacific ocean

The north jetty

Hills of sand to protect homes from winter storms

hills of sand to protect homes from flooding in winter

looking north up th beach on the oceanfront

repairing the jetty finally after a winter storm

life guard towers lined up for off season storage

Sealife from Thomas Paul

Missing those summer dinners by the shore? Don’t fret. You can bring a bit of the beach home this fall with our favorite dinnerware plates from Thomas Paul.

These melamine plates are beautifully designed in the “Sealife” collection. Sold in sets of four, choose from 11″ dinner plates, 9″ side or salad plates, and 4.5″ coasters. Each set features a different group of sea creatures and it’s hard to choose a favorite! Okay, we at 365Beach are somewhat partial to the crab and octopus dinner plates…and we seriously cannot resist the adorable puffer fish side plate. Of course that means we’ve got to have them all!

All of the styles are available from various online stores but Utilities offers them for $15, $28 and $36 per set for coasters, side plates, and dinner plates. Plus, they offer a lovely 14″ sea turtle platter as part of the Sealife collection for only $18 – not bad!

Sea Turtle Platter from "Sealife" Collection

And, after a very busy summer, they assure us everything is fully in stock and ready to be delivered to your door – just in time for a clam bake or  intimate lobster dinner for your closest friends. 

We feel confident your friends will love being entertained on these custom-designed plates. By the way, if you’re not familiar with melamine, this is a classic (and sometimes controversial) material – a hardened plastic resin – that became popular for use with dinnerware because it’s not (easily) breakable and  is certainly outdoor-use friendly. However, these plates should be hand washed and not heated or microwaved. Still, it’s worth it.  Let us know what you think of these beautiful plates.

The Georgia Aquarium is the world’s largest with more than eight million gallons of fresh and marine water and more aquatic life than found in any other aquarium. With five unique galleries that take you on aquatic adventure around the globe, you are sure to see things you’ve never seen before! The Georgia Aquarium also offers an exciting and intriguing environment for special events, in our Oceans Ballroom. With two large aquatic observation windows, guests find themselves face-to-face with exotic fish and animals from every corner of the world. The Aquarium also features a ballroom, which can be rented for special events. For more information please visit the Georgia Destination Guide.

Sealife DC800 Pro 8.0 Megapixel 4 X Optical Zoom 2.7- Inch LCD Screen Underwater/Land Camera in Removable Housing with Digital Pro Flash Review

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7 Septiembre de 2009

At the north end of Dog Beach is the mouth of the San Diego River.Starting in the local mountains,The San Diego River flows through the foothills,Mission Gorge park,Mission Valley,and out into the Pacific Ocean.Once ignored by the locals,a new conservancy is restoring the river banks and building a pathway to the source.The river is not navigable,and is closed to boats as restoration of this fragile habitat takes place.The mouths leads up from the ocean to salt flats where many bird species live,including a protected nesting area for the least tern .

a great blue heron looks up river

overpass on the San Diego River

bird eating

Great Blue Heron

egret flying

view to Pacific Ocean

channel separater

A feral cat community lives by the river mouth

Least Terns on the shoreline

Terns in flight

a glance up river

Scarborough SEALIFE Centre, located on the coastal towns North Bay, is now home to a seal pup named Bruges after he was rescued from Whitby beach.

The SEALIFE Animal Care Team are busy looking after Bruges after the British Marine Life Rescue brought him to the centre.

When he first arrived at the Scarborough family attraction, Bruges only weighed 12 kilos when at his age he should have been nearer 20.

Following Bruges to the rescue centre were Dallas and Tokyo. Tokyo arrived on the 7th August after he too was found on Whitby beach.

If you are staying at a Scarborough hotel then why not make trip to see Bruges, Dallas and Tokyo at Scarborough’s fantastic SEALIFE Centre.

After a nice break last week in which I let the magician entertain the kids for an hour, I had to put extra effort into this week to keep up the kids’ enthusiasm.

I debuted my new flannelboard story for  The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile. While I thought the sealife flannel creatures were great, the rhyme itself didn’t seem to be one of the kids’ favorites. I’ll have to practice my delivery.

We read How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon (Ill), which the kids liked after I told them the sequel Pirates Don’t Change Diapers would follow next week.

This weekend I went to a wedding in an aquarium. This is not a joke. It was amazing. It was in the Sealife in the Olympiapark in Munich. I’m now hard pushed to think of somewhere more original to have my own wedding. Not that I’m going to get married any time soon but a girl’s gotta think ahead!

We were handed drinks as we arrived and milled around outside for a while before being led to the aquarium itself. We didn’t go outside again because a storm broke and soon there was more water outside of the sealife centre than it it! The aquarium was open until midnight and the aquarium staff were also on hand to guide us through the wild and wonderful watery world. They had music playing through the aquarium and in some places they had set out bean bags so that you could chill and watch the sharks floating past overhead. Walking through a tunnel with a drink in hand and fish drifting over your head is a really very serene experience and completely different to the usual aquarium visits which usually involve being hustled along by a group of loud and disinterested schoolchildren.

Waiters wandered through the tunnels proffering fresh drinks whenever the GnTs were looking on the low side. Later on there was a multi-coursed buffet. The meal started with a delicious selection of hors d’oeuvres is various recepticles including cocktail glasses. This was followed by mini courses of salmon with boiled potatoes in holondaise sause, suculent mini lamb kebabs and a little chicken curry among other things. Then the massive strawberry and cream wedding cake was for pudding. Of course all of this was accompanied by however much of various colours of wine you fancied.

After the food we all trooped into the aquarium’s movie theatre to have the best man’s after-dinner speech. This was actually really funny, even for people who didn’t really know the husband. There was even a sing-a-long, typical Oktoberfest songs with the lyrics replaced appropriately.

Post-speech we all had time for one more wander round the fish (yours truly took loooads of photos of sealife) before the dancing started. Conny (the bride) is a colleague of mine and a group of us went from work. We made the office proud with our footwork on the dancefloor, and made some of the other guests stare a bit. Personally, I danced most of the night in bare feet, despite the stone floor, because after a while (typically), my shoes REALLY hurt. We danced the night away until about 4, at which point everything started to wind down and the slightly sozzled bride needed her bed.

Apparently this is at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan and its the second largest aquarium in the world.

Some facts:
The main tank called the ‘Kuroshio Sea’ holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Its just a sight to behold and I really want to just be there and see it…if you can (and I urge you) please click the video and watch this in the highest quality on youtube, its just a fantastic viewing.
- Jason

In 1931 Ellen Scripps donated to the state of California the area in La Jolla then known as the Cass Pool.It is a protected bay created by a seawall and was a great spot for small children to play and swim.In the subsequent years it was visited occasionally by seals and other marine life.The seals,after being chased from other ocean areas, decided this was a great place to live and have babies.And thous the controversy began,in the late 90’s a La Jolla lawyer sued to remove the seals and restore the pool back to a clean state. Here we are 10 years and thousands of dollars later and the seals remain.The stay/go dilemma remains,the city not able to afford to remove the seals,but the courts saying they must go.The currant plan is to broadcast barking dog sounds from 6am to 6 pm,which I am sure will go over real well at the retirement community across the street.The Governor may decide their fate by signing a bill to amend the original trust,but I’m sure more lawsuits will ensue.This is a great place to go seal watching,but the water is no good for swimming at this time.

Mother and baby

Mother and baby seal

seals

Mother and baby seal

seal

sad seal

playful seals

seals on the beach

seal

Sealife_Nemo_at_sink, originally uploaded by The 2artist.

…at the sink!