Blooms In The Baltic

Sharks – like this sandbar shark in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary – have several adaptations that make them excellent predators. 

Specialized organs called ampullae of Lorenzini help sharks sense electric fields in the water generated by other fish. Their eyes, too, are specially adapted: all shark eyes have a tapetum lucidum, a layer of mirrored crystals located behind the retina, allowing them to see in in low light conditions and up to ten times better than humans in clear water. 

Despite these adaptations, sandbar sharks and other sharks typically pose little threat to humans. We’re more dangerous to them than they are to us! 

(Photo: Nick Zachar/NOAA) 

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of a sandbar shark.]

“ Volcan Osorno with Lago Llanquihue / Chile .”

Hatfield Marine Science Center:

Sashay the Pacific Giant Octopus Gets Released Sashay, our stunning and extremely friendly Visitor Center octopus was released back into the wild on November 26th. After being gently introduced into the Yaquina Bay, she temporarily crawled onto land. This gave her human fans a final opportunity to say goodbye.

This type of behavior has not been seen at any of our previous releases and was an unforgettable moment for all who witnessed it. While it was difficult to bid this beautiful animal adieu, we want our octopuses to have the opportunity to reproduce and finish their lives in the wild. We hope you enjoy these photos!

Photos by Volunteer James Upton

One Month

One month down

Cultural differences

Language barrier

On Friday, my first month in Costa Rica ended and marked the beginning of my second month here. Over the course of this month, I have noticed a lot of differences between Costa Rican culture and U.S. culture, although there are probably more that I have not noticed because I have not thought about them. Personal space and your personal bubble do not exist in the way they do in the U.S. It is common to hug and kiss people on the cheek as a sign of greeting and farewell, which as someone who likes their personal bubble, is taking a bit of time to get used to. It is very common for men to catcall, whistle, honk their horns, and stare at women walking, although every time that I have seen it, that's all it was. It makes me think that instead of men just lacking in all forms of self control, it is more of a cultural norm to do it and it would be out of place for men not to do it. Although, it still makes my female friends from the U.S. very uncomfortable for obvious reasons. Rules of the road really just seem like suggestions and it seems that drivers make up their own rules as they go, including motorcycles and scooters that always pass cars, buses, trucks, SUVs, etc... when they shouldn't. Most classes at the university are only once a week and there is a lot less busy work and a lot more group work. It is acceptable for people to show up late for classes and events (tico time), however, it does not apply to my science classes.

By far, my biggest struggle has been the language barrier. Looking back at a month ago, I can tell that there has been at least a subtle increase in my proficiency with Spanish. I try to listen and follow my professors, my parents, and other people that I encounter, but at times I can't understand what they are saying, although my listening skills are still a lot better than my speaking skills. I try to talk as much as possible but my problems are when I don't a word I need and cannot get around (although today I had a conversation about my opinion genetic modification with classmates for fun and it went really well) and if I don't have anything to say, I usually don't say anything. To mediate this, I've tried to force myself to talk more with mixed success. But I have learned that even if I understand 95% of what everyone says, the only way my speaking will improve is if I speak as much as I possibly can, knowing that I will make a lot of mistakes in the beginning.

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At 'America First Energy Conference', solar power is dumb, climate...

Pumping carbon dioxide into the air makes the planet greener; the United Nations puts out fake science about climate change to control the global energy market; and wind and solar energy are simply "dumb".

These people not only vote, they’re the same ones paying $$$ to promote pro-fossil fuel candidates.

I honestly see it as no exaggeration to say that the fate of the planet rests on how - and if - we vote.

Darwin is most famous for his theory of evolution. But did you know that much of his life’s work was influenced by his time at sea? 

In the spirit of Darwin Day, here is one of his observations of bioluminescent plankton while aboard the HMS Beagle on October 24, 1832:

“The night was pitch dark, with a fresh breeze. — The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful & most beautiful appearance; every part of the water, which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, & in her wake was a milky train. — As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright; & from the reflected light, the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens.” Charles Darwin

Learn more about Darwin’s connection to the ocean from this article at the Ocean Portal.

Photo Credit: unknown, Turin Museum of Human Anatomy

Prionace glauca by migueldesigns It’s no exaggeration to say the blue shark is one of the most beautiful sharks swimming in the earth’s waters today. It stands out with its slim, elongated, torpedo-shaped body and beautiful swimming style. Sadly, this shark species is among the most highly fished sharks around. Humans catch it for its fins, meat, oil, and as a display animal because of its beauty. About 10 million blue sharks are killed by humans every year! As a result, this shark is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Blue sharks have a deep blue back with white underbelly, large eyes, and long pectoral fins. It has a particularly strong and unique sense of smell.

Before

Dad: Money  

Mom: Host family, packing enough, and safety  

Me: all of the above and traveling outside the U.S., social norms, language barrier, academic environment, courses, people, and anything and everything that I forgot to mention.  

Above, I have listed my parents' and my own anxieties and fears about leaving the United States for the coming semester. I can still hardly believe that I am already a junior in college and I am about to begin this incredible yet also terrifying experience in one week. The entire process, from applying to study abroad through Susquehanna's GO Office and through IFSA-Butler to everything I have done since to prepare myself for this semester abroad is entirely new to me and my family.  

The same is true when I was applying to colleges, scholarships, and getting ready to leave for college. Since neither of my parents and my older brother went to college, I did not have any help from my family during my college application process, unlike some of my old high school friends. I never really thought about it during the process. Ever since late middle school and throughout all of high school, I was very academically independent. So when it came to applying to colleges, nothing change. I had a bit of help from my high school guidance counselor, but otherwise, I did everything on my own.  

Preparing to leave for college, however, was a slightly different case. Not only did I have to pack material items, but I tried to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for an experience that I really did not know much about. I did not grow up with stories of my parents' college experiences. Sure, I had older high school friends that went to college, but I never stayed in touch enough to hear about a full college experience. Many people say that college was the best four years of their lives, but aside from stereotypical representations of college, I did not know what I was in for.  

The same is true about studying abroad. All of my peers who have done it have said it was one of the best, if not the best, experience of their lives.  Sure, I have also heard stories, but for the most part, I do not know a lot about what I am in for. It's true that Susquehanna's Pre-departure class and IFSA-Butler have given me a lot of advice on what to do to prepare myself for this experience, but there are still so many things that I probably don't even know I will encounter. And I realize that is one point of the experience, but it does not bring comfort to someone who likes to plan out different aspects of their life every few months.  

All of the information-packed documents and packets that I've received from IFSA-Butler have been extremely helpful in quelling many of my anxieties, but I still have many more. And again, I know the point is that I will have to figure things out for myself, at this moment in time, it is still unnerving. On the contrary, six months from now, I bet I will feel just the opposite.  

Oh, have I forgotten to mention the questions? Oh the questions. Like me, my parents want to know what I am in for to comfort their own nerves, but like preparing for college, I simply cannot answer most of them or I can only answer them just after I find an answer to my own question that I posed.  

So a week from leaving, I've started packing (keep IFSA-Butler's packing list handy), and have most of my official documents in order. I get more anxious every day, but I know that what I am about to embark on will be an amazing experience.

None Like It Hot

By Joylette Portlock

July. Long known across the U.S. for fireworks, barbecues, and a desire to stay cool any way we can. Whether it’s air conditioning, swimming pools, beaches or popsicles, the dog days of summer are often reminders that as humans, our comfort depends on an experienced ambient temperature roughly somewhere between 59 and 77 degrees (Fahrenheit).

But what if, instead of 77, it’s a full 40 degrees more: 117 degrees, like it was in California on July 6? Or 105, like it was in Japan last week? Then, it’s more than an issue of comfort; our lives depend on finding a way to stay cool, and in fact more than a hundred people have perished in heat-related deaths globally already this year.

Life in this new age, the Anthropocene, is marked by many things, including a human-caused increase in global heat, commonly referred to as global warming, or climate change. Risk from heat (or wildfires, or floods) is no longer something we have to rely on the overwhelmingly strong scientific consensus about global warming to tell us; every year, climate change impacts are becoming more and more obvious to everyone, whether you have a degree in climate science or not.

Weather and climate are different. Weather is what happens on a day-to-day basis. Climate is the range of weather that we expect and consider normal (i.e., summer is hot) – but normal is changing.

Photo: Graph showing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and human population from We Are Nature, on display until September 2018.

We’re now up to over 400 consecutive warmer-than-average months and counting. Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collections, which span more than 140 years, can help show these shifts in many ways. One of the most important things we can do is to make connections and show the relevance between the basic scientific principles underlying natural phenomena and the evidence all around us; between what’s happening globally and what’s happening locally.

Photo: The growth of plants collected today versus 100 years ago in the same locations, shown in We Are Nature, corroborates the observation of increasingly earlier springtime by documenting earlier maturation of these species.

The globe’s increasing heat is a result of fossil fuel use, food production, and our land use practices. We need energy and food, of course; but it’s critical that we recognize that the systems we impact also impact us. It’s not just our actions, but our interactions with the world around us that are the story. To understand what’s happening and improve our interactions with nature, we have to look at the big picture, and work to meet our needs in ways that minimize disruption to the overall system.

As summer heat waves get longer, more numerous, and more intense (and it seems the whole world is on fire, with deadly fires everywhere from California to Greece to inside the Arctic Circle) one connection is obvious: our need to be cool.

Joylette Portlock, Ph.D., is associate director of science and research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She is also executive director of Communitopia, a nonprofit focused on climate change communication, and holds many other roles in the community.