Search Results

A distinguished portrait of Joe Moody, the head aquaculturist at Whitby Lobster Hatchery & today’s interviewee. Credit to Joe Moody. Recently, we were very fortunate to sit down for an interview with Lobster Aquaculturist & Ocean Conservationist, Joe Moody! Joe Moody is the Head Aquaculturist at Whitby Lobster Hatchery, a conservation initiative dedicated to the European Lobster. He leads the organization’s hatchery initiative to increase the European Lobster population. In today’s interview, we sit down with Joe to discuss his passion for the sea, his education, his work with the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, & his advice to passionate people looking to make their way in the field in a comprehensive 18-question interview. Before delving into today’s interview, please note everything said has been edited for clarity, & that the opinions of our interviewee do not necessarily reflect the opinions & values of our organization. With that being said, let us delve into the contents of the interview! The Contents Of The Interview Questions About His Passion: 1. What sparked your passion for the ocean, & marine science? I know it’s super cliche, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to become a marine biologist. Instead of watching cartoons like a normal kid, I loved watching nature documentaries, particularly those focused on the ocean. David Attenborough’s Blue Planet is a personal favourite of mine, I found it so fascinating how many unique-looking and unique-acting creatures there were. I don’t know if you’re the same, but even with all you know about the ocean & the things that live in there, every now & again you’ll see something & go, “How does that work? How has evolution led you here?” I think it started way back in school. Every time we’d get a personal project to do, I’d always find a way to make it about the ocean. My mom tells me this story from when I was in year four, I was about eight years old. We had an aspirations board outside of our classroom where you put what you wanted to be in the future. Amongst all the classic childhood jobs, athlete, pop star, whatever, right in the middle, there was me listing marine biologist. I probably knew I wanted to be a marine biologist before I knew how to spell it. 2. What sparked your passion for aquaculture, & aquariums? It’s quite a new passion. Aquaculture wasn’t something that we covered much during our university course. My only real exposure to it was that I kept crabs for my dissertation project. I did a feeding experiment with them, we kept them in what's called a “Crab Hotel”, but that was it. The name glamorizes it slightly, it’s just a big stack of tanks where you can keep lots of crabs with water flowing between them all. As with all aquaculture facilities, the goal is to keep the animal alive & healthy, so there wasn’t any room service in the crab hotel. There was something quite amazing about getting to watch a creature so closely. It was never really anything I considered taking forward, because we didn’t really know about it. All I knew was that I wanted to do something hands-on, & my passion was conservation. I didn’t realize that aquaculture was such a great way to marry those two things. 3. What is your favourite terrestrial, or marine animal personally, & what is your favourite marine or terrestrial animal that you have worked on? It probably isn’t surprising that my favourite animal that I’ve worked with is most certainly the European lobster. I guess this is the case with any animal that you spend a lot of time with. When you witness them every day, you notice little nuances in their behaviour, & they’re just so fascinating. They’re absolutely amazing. For the sake of argument, I have some honourable mentions. When I was a kid, I was in awe of how big things could get. I loved marine megafauna. The Blue Whale deserves an honorable mention. I loved anything that looked sort of weird & unusual. I had a bit of a Moray Eel obsession for a moment. If I had to choose one that wasn’t a lobster, I would go with the Blue Shark. A striking photograph of a European lobster (Homarus gammarus) in one of the facilities at Whitby Lobster Hatchery. Credit to Whitby Lobster Hatchery. Questions About His Career: 4. What university did you attend for your undergraduate degree, & was there any particular reason you chose that university? I studied Marine Science at Newcastle University in the North of England. There are many reasons why I wanted to study there. On the first day I visited, I completely fell in love with the course. Despite what I said before, there was a short period where I reconsidered what I was going to study at University. I wouldn’t go as far as to say my secondary school talked me out of Marine Science, but they definitely encouraged me to study something a bit less niche, something more employable. I went to the university to check out their biochemistry course, but after seeing the course, & talking with some of the lecturers there, I made up my mind that it was marine science that I wanted to do. I also liked that it was close to home. Newcastle, & where I’m from in Yorkshire, share the same stretch of coastline. As a result, they generally have quite similar geography & habitats. I’ve always been interested in the local marine environment, I think it’s really underappreciated. I think a lot of people see the North Sea as a cold, grey, dull place. I mean it is cold, especially today, it’s freezing, & it is quite grey, but it’s not dull. If you look below the surface, there are so many beautiful & interesting creatures under there. They may not be as colourful as their coral reef cousins, but you shouldn’t judge a person on looks. You should judge a person on their personality & actions. I think the North Sea is the same, but the North has a great personality. 5. How did you come to work at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery? I had quite unfortunate luck of graduating from a university course in the year 2020, straight into a global pandemic. I had a master’s planned, I was going off to Zanzibar to study the life history of the Halavi Guitarfish. Of course, because of the pandemic, it was postponed multiple times, then eventually indefinitely. With all of the unknowns of the pandemic, I had to put my life on hold a little bit. You know, I was constantly hoping that the next set of restrictions would lift, & I could go do this amazing project. It never quite did. I felt a bit low, & a little bit nervous. I thought maybe I was wrong to choose a subject I was passionate about over something more employable. All of this was happening between rejection letters & ignored job applications. It wasn’t great. I was scrolling through jobs one day, & I saw an advert for head aquarist at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery. I thought “Oh, what the hell is the Whitby Lobster Hatchery?”, I’d never heard of it, so I was instantly intrigued. Not only was it a unique project, but it was local to me as well. As I read more & more about the job, I realized that I was far from the experience that was needed. I sent over my CV & my cover letter anyway, & I didn’t get the job obviously, but it did put me in touch with them. I asked if they took volunteers, & they did! I remember walking in on my first day & thinking, this can’t be right. This can’t be the place. We have a small native marine aquarium attached to our hatchery called the Discovery Center. At the time I arrived, it was still being built. I hadn’t got lost, I had found the right place. It just didn’t look like the kind of place that released lobsters. I volunteered there every Friday for the better part of a year, & slowly became more independent. Eventually, I did full solo days as a volunteer. Then in April (2024), a part-time position came up for the busy breeding period, & they asked me! So I quit my previous very boring shelf-stacking job in a supermarket, & here I am now! Haven’t looked back since. 6. Over the course of your career at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, you’ve held 3 positions. What positions have you held, & how did you work your way up to becoming head aquaculturist? It all happened very quickly. My title was simply Aquarist in the first part-time job offered to me. My job was to look after the life support system, feed the lobsters, count larvae, & other proper good hands-on stuff. Then, at the end of the 2024 season, the current head aquarist moved on, which left me as the only hatchery employee at that point. My role shifted over the winter period to what’s called a Hatchery Technician, which reflected the kind of shift in the work. The hatchery goes into the decommission stage over the winter which involves completely draining the system, cleaning the pipes, & making sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. That’s why my title sounded more technical as I wasn’t looking after lobsters at the time. Once I was done decommissioning stuff, I had experience in all aspects of the hatchery. As 2025 rolled around, I got my promotion to Head Aquaculturist, & I went full-time then. I think the biggest change wasn’t in the work that I was doing, but in the jump in responsibility. I wasn’t only in charge of hatchery things anymore, I was now in charge of volunteers & stuff. It’s been a fun challenge. I’ve enjoyed developing a much wider set of skills, a much wider set of skills than I thought I ever would when I first started volunteering. No offence to anyone who volunteers. 7. Illuminate the work you all do at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery. How would you describe the work of the to all those unfamiliar? To put it simply, we’re a conservation charity that hatches, rears, & releases the Juvenile European lobster back into the North Sea. We have a small aquaculture facility which is located in Quayside. The process starts with the fishermen. We take egg-bearing female lobsters, which we call hens. We hold them in our tanks, where they will eventually hatch. When they hatch, we count them & move them into our development room. There, they’ll stay for about two weeks or so. Soon, they’ll reach a point during their development where they’ll change to their third or fourth stage. Between stages three & four, they undergo quite a significant morphological change. During stage three, they are small & curled up, almost shrimp-like. They gradually change into what essentially is a mini-lobster, so their claws stick out in front of them, & their tails curl out behind them. They can actively swim, feed, & find places to hide. They will stay in our facility until it is time to release them. To release them, you want a nice calm day. We focus on keeping the environment controlled & clean, which ensures the lobsters we release are as healthy as possible. There are a few different ways we release them. The best way & the way we release most of them is by sending out a dive team. We’ll send them off with divers to different shipwrecks off the coast. Some of them, we will take on a boat, & stick a long tube off the edge to pour them down. We want to release them at the bottom, as the vast majority of predation will occur from pelagic fish or seabirds. So, we send them straight to the bottom where they can find places to hide. The final release we do each season is a public-focused shore release from Whitby & the surrounding beaches. We’ll take some of the trays, & advertise our releases so the public can come along. We will release them into rock pools with plenty of seaweed-covered sandy bottoms. As soon as they are released, they’ll want to hide. It’s like saying goodbye to your many, thousands of children. 8. What is the goal of your work, & how does it impact the local marine ecosystems, as well as fisheries? One of the most important aspects of what we do is conservation. You can split that conservation into two branches. The European lobster is a keystone species in our local habitat. They play an important part in the marine food web. They are omnivorous scavengers, which means they’ll eat just about anything, preferably dead things. They clean up the sea essentially. They add lost energy back into the food chain, so they play a very important role. Despite Whitby’s relatively small size, it is a huge lobster fishery. It’s the third largest in Europe after items after its neighbours, Scarborough & Bridlington. Lobster is super important commercially. The reason we want to ensure there is a future in lobster fisheries is that, as techniques go, potting is relatively sustainable. To start, it’s a static fishing gear, which means once it is released it will cause minimal damage to the seabed, much less than a trawl or a dredger which kind of tears it to pieces. It’s quite sustainable in that sense. They’re selective too. By law, any pot that is released must have an escape gap. That escape gap is designed so that any lobster that is undersized can crawl out of the pot if it finds its way in. That takes away the stress of being hauled up. If an undersized lobster is hauled up, it’s obviously thrown back again. There’s also significantly less bycatch, as other animals can escape too. Whitby’s been a fishing port for years & years. They’ve caught things like whitefish, & tuna. When fisheries collapse, fishermen don’t just stop fishing. That’s their living. So, they’ll move on to something else. Everything they’ve caught near here has had more pronounced unsustainable impacts on the local marine environment. That’s one of the reasons why we want to ensure the lobster fishery survives. I think one of the unique things about us is that what we do is not at odds with exploitation as conservation so often is. Our project shows you can do both. You can take from the sea & put back into it in a sustainable way. We’re really pleased & lucky that the fishermen have got behind what we do. We want to play a part in making sure that fisheries remain sustainable for the next generation, & hopefully future generations to come too. 9. What does a typical day for you consist of? Quite poetically, I guess it follows a lobster larva as it develops in our hatchery. They’re fed artemia, also known as brine shrimp or sea monkeys. We harvest them every single day. The fresher the feed, the more nutritious it is for our lobsters. We harvest about five million artemia every day, which sounds like a lot, but they are tiny. Once the first feed’s harvest, we chuck it in the tanks. If you imagine the hatchery as three rooms, the first room is the live feed room, the second is the hen room, & the third is the development room. We move from the live feed room into the hen room next, to start catching the freshly hatched larvae. The European Lobster is nocturnal. Most of its activity, including hatching, occurs at night, which means we leave the tank empty on an evening, & come back to find thousands of larvae. It’s not a continuous process, thankfully we only have to count once a day. At the height of the season, you can see up to 10,000 larvae per day, which is a lot. It’s a lot for one person to count, especially when you’re doing it by hand, which is how we do it, with a clicker, & nothing else. It can take a long time, & if you’re unlucky, you’re on your own & you’ve got 10,000 larvae to count. Once we’ve done that, we move into the development room, which is where they’ll spend the majority of their time with us. We put them into one of 12 large upwelling tanks. We call them that because the water comes in from the bottom, creates a nice flow, & keep them moving. We check on these upwelling tanks every day for lobsters that have reached stage four. Lobsters are natural cannibals at all stages of their lives. When they molt to stage four, as I mentioned before, their tail flips out so they’re much better swimmers, & they gain use of their claws, so they become a significant threat to any larvae who haven’t molted yet. Once they hit stage four, we move them into what are known as aqua-hives, which are these big cylindrical tanks that can hold trays. Each of these trays holds 135 individual cells, one per lobster, & that’s where they’ll stay until they’re released. If you have any time left or any time between counts, that’s usually spent on system maintenance. Things like cleaning pipes, siphoning, or changing filters. The system must remain clean, so you can raise the lobsters in an environment that is close to ideal. Sometimes you can squeeze in a few emails too. 10. Take us through the lifespan of a lobster born in your facility. What does each stage of life look like, & what is the average mortality rate? They’re very small during all of the life stages in the hatchery. They start super duper small as an egg which is attached to the female’s abdomen which is below her tail. They start jet black in colour, & over the span of 9 months go from a jet black to a rusty red, which means they’re ready to hatch. We don’t tend to hold them for that time. The fishermen bring us those rusty red colour eggs, which reduces their handling time with us. Once they hatch, they collect in little tanks where we count them. They’re about half a centimeter, maybe less. The first three stages are somewhat similar, though they can be distinguished by size. Behaviour-wise, all three of them are planktonic. They can’t do very much in the way of swimming. They can grab things with their claws, but they awkwardly droop down from their body. They’re passive suspension feeders at this stage, so they eat whatever comes to them. When they reach stage four, as I mentioned before, they go through quite a significant morphological change into that mini-lobster, & grow to about 2 centimeters. They become active swimmers at that point, which is when they become a danger to the other ones. That process in the hatchery is about 2 weeks in the hatchery, in the wild it is about 4 weeks. In the wild, the mortality rate is incredibly high, so lobsters are what’s known as R-strategist breeders. They have large broods, but little to nothing in the way of postnatal care. It’s a strength in numbers sort of thing. The goal is to hatch as many as you can & hope that one or two of them survive. The high mortality rate is somewhat by design, but it doesn’t make the actual numbers sound any less shocking. The vast majority of mortality will happen in the first three stages. So, the most vulnerable stages of their lives are the ones we keep them through the hatchery during. We’ve managed to get the survival rate to about 9% in the hatchery, from hatch to release. We’re happy with that. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but compared to the wild, it’s not bad. 11. On average, how many lobsters are born in your facility annually, & how many lobsters are released annually? Last year (2025), we managed to release over 20,000 lobsters, which was our biggest year! We’re super happy with that. We did 9,000 in 2023, & 15,000 in 2024. We’re hoping that number keeps climbing. We’ve released about 44,000 total. Based on our survivor rate last year, we probably saw about 200,000 lobster larvae come through the hatchery. 12. What education programs do you have at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, & how do you attempt to involve the community in your work? We do a lot of work with school groups. That’s probably our biggest one. They come in pretty regularly to visit the Discovery Center where we teach them about all the creatures you can find in the tanks. We talk about the hatchery process as well, & tell them the importance of what we’re doing. We’ve had over 100 in the last year, & a lot of them are local. It’s always great seeing them thinking, & in awe of the stuff in the tank. It’s super rewarding. We also give talks to local groups, & institutions, which are a bit more in-depth. They always go really well, & we host stalls as well at local events. There’s one coming up in the next few months called the Fish & Ships festival which celebrates Whitby’s fishing heritage. We will have a little stall there, & talk to people about what we’re doing. I think it’s important to me to inspire, & take pride in the local marine environment. It’s something I’m passionate about, whether it’s showing off the local marine life in the aquarium, or talking about the work we do with the lobster. It always ends up being a highlight for me when we get to share what we do, & teach. 13. What research programs does the hatchery partake in or support? We’ve previously worked with dissertation students. We’ve had some students come & volunteer with us before their dissertations. They’ve loved the hatchery & the idea of raising lobster. They’ve come back to us later on, & based their project on the facilities we have. One (research project), looked at feeding behaviour in juvenile lobsters, & another looked at stress responses in mother hens. They used a heart rate monitor that stuck to the back of the carapace, which was really cool. I originally envisioned myself going into research, as I think a lot of people who studied marine biology did. So, it’s always exciting to get involved in that. Another great thing is that the results of those experiments can be very useful to us. They can inform stuff about the hatchery process. It’s a nice two-way thing, people doing their dissertations get to do something unique, & we get useful data out of it. We’ve also done external projects. Back in 2024, I looked at the water quality in the River Esk, which runs through Whitby. It’s great to know the water chemistry when we are releasing our lobsters. I mean, we don’t release them into the river, we release them into the ocean, but all of the water there will eventually make its way to the sea. So, knowing what’s happening out there is useful for informing our release sites. We’re also currently working with local fishermen & York University to co-design a project to create a device that the fishermen can stick to their pots. The goal is to give fishermen a way to collect data themselves in a simple accessible way, so they can use the data as well. What’s the point in collecting data if the people who need it most can’t use it? 14. How are volunteers involved with the operations of the hatchery? If someone wanted to become involved in volunteering with the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, how would they approach contacting you all? Volunteers are so incredibly important to the work we do. I can’t stress how important they are. The hatchery staff is a team of two. There’s my colleague Amber & me, that’s it. Between the two of us, we can get the job done, but it wouldn’t leave time for anything else. So, we wouldn’t have time for all of the outreach, & research projects that I mentioned if it weren’t for volunteers dedicating their time to us. We’re so lucky to have found ourselves with such a dedicated team. An extra special shout out to our weekly regular volunteers. We absolutely could not do it without them. They’re integral to the work we do. I hope some of them are reading & hearing how important they are. If you wanted to get involved yourself, we’ve hosted loads of volunteers. We’ve got different ways you can do it. You can do it in week blocks, or you can do it regularly such as once a week. We’re always looking for more volunteers. If you head over to the website (https://whitbylobsterhatchery.co.uk), there’s a super simple volunteer application form. Just pop in your name, contact details, a few details about why you want to volunteer for the program, & your background in marine science maybe. That’ll come straight through to me. Summer’s the best time to come, as I mentioned, that’s the lobster breeding season. There’s loads to do in the summer, many hens to tend to, & larvae to count. 15. What is the biggest triumph, or proudest moment you have had in your career thus far? That’s a tough one! There are two that stand out, hatchery-specific. I mentioned before that we hit 20,000 larvae last season. That was way beyond what I expected us to achieve, & way beyond the target I set for myself, which was essentially to break last year & hit 15,000. It was my first full season in charge of the hatchery, & I still felt like I was learning the ropes. That was one of our proudest moments. The second thing that I’m most proud of is the team we’ve built over the years. We’re a very weird, wonderful, & varied bunch. We’ve all got our own skills & strengths. We’ve got different roles in the Hatchery & Discovery Center as a result, & somehow it just works! It’s such a joy to work with all these amazing people. That takes it, I’m the most proud to be a part of a dedicated, knowledgeable, & overall lovely team of people. All brought together through the love of lobsters. I’d say my most proud thing is the people I work with. They’re great. 16. I’m sure you’ve experienced as many challenges & setbacks in your career as you have leaps forward. What is the biggest challenge or hurdle you have faced in your career thus far, & how did you overcome it? I’ve always kind of struggled with my self-confidence. I think that has definitely held me back before. Especially when I first took charge of the hatchery operations when I was a hatchery technician. My first job in that role was the decommission process, which was something I’d never done before. I was on my own. Amber, whom I mentioned before, my colleague, hadn’t started on the hatchery side yet. She was still working in the Discovery Center, so everything was on me. Having responsibility doesn’t pair very well with low self-confidence. I learned a lot, I learned that I could do it. That decommission set us up for the biggest season we’ve had yet. It’s something that I’ve been working on, trusting in myself that I know what’s best for the hatchery & for the lobster. There are definitely still times where I think “God, what am I doing?”, & I get imposter syndrome. That probably won’t ever go away, but hey, I’m having a good time. 17. Do you have any advice for young passionate aquarists, people interested in marine conservation, or young marine scientists? Keep at it. Your passion will take you so much further than you think, & so much further than anyone will tell you it can. Get yourself out there. Go to conferences & career fairs. Talk to people. As minor as it seems at the time, it will eventually build you up a base of experience & contacts, & it will show off your enthusiasm for this line of work. I was at an event earlier this week at my old university, showing off careers, & volunteering opportunities that were focused in the marine sector. When you’ve got limited vacancies, from an employers perspective, to have met someone face to face before offering any further offers is a huge comfort. As crazy as it sounds, I don’t think it was my degree in marine biology that got me this job. I’m sure it helped, but, I was more dedicated myself to the work. I kept pushing, asking to learn more & eventually when a paid position came up, I was the top candidate. It might take a while, but eventually you’ll find what you’re looking for. 18. Do you have any final words about your passion for the sea, the work done at the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, lobsters, the ocean in general, or aquarium science? There’s so many ways that we can look after & care for our oceans, not just to protect them, but to work in harmony & exploit them in a sustainable way. What we do at the Hatchery is niche & unique, but there are so many organizations out there doing whatever they can to help the ocean. Help those organizations out in any way you can, be it money, time, or showing an interest. Perhaps this one’s more relevant to anyone listening in the UK, but learn more about your local marine environment on the surface. It may not be as exciting as the California coastline, but if you look below the surface, which you should always do in the ocean, there are just so many colorful, interesting, & wonderful things living on your doorstep. The ocean has always played an important part in my life. It was the first thing I remember having a deep obsessive interest in. I work by the sea. I feel calm by the sea. I proposed to my girlfriend by the sea. It’s a very special place for me. I’ve chosen a career that helps me give something back, as a thank you in a way for what it’s done for me. It’s quite a lot for a load of water. I love the ocean, & I hope that inspires people to also love the ocean. A gorgeous photograph of Whitby Lobster Hatchery as seen from Pier Road. Credit to the Scarborough News. Directories / Credits https://whitbylobsterhatchery.co.uk Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

The ocean faces many threats from pollution to climate change. In this new series “Disasters at Sea” we will be covering environmental disasters and their effects on marine systems. In this, the first article of the series, we're covering one infamous environmental disaster that sparked the beginning of the environmental movement of the 1970s and led to the creation of America’s first Earth Day: the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969. The Disaster: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969 Bird’s eye view of the oil spill from platform Alpha 1969. Credit: Vernon Merritt III / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images On January 28th, 1969 at 10:45am, an oil rig five miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California blew out. The rig, platform Alpha, was operated by Union Oil and on the day of the spill, pipe was being extracted from a 3,500 foot deep well. During this extraction, pressure increased on the casing of the upper well and was not compensated for properly with drilling mud. An emergency attempt to cap the burst only succeeded in increasing the pressure within the well, leading to an explosive burst of natural gas that not only split the casing but also created cracks along the seafloor.  From the time the well burst and the seafloor cracked until the spill was eventually contained, three million gallons (80,000 to 100,000 barrels) of crude oil spewed into the Pacific Ocean. After eleven days the well was capped, but by then the oil had spread to over 800 square miles of ocean and some oil continued to seep from between seafloor cracks for several weeks. Between Santa Barbara and Ventura, 35 miles of coastline were coated in oil up to six inches thick.  The Impact ​ Seabird covered in oil. Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images For the marine life living in the contaminated zone, the spill was catastrophic. 3,600 seabirds died, washed ashore alongside numerous marine mammals from dolphins to sea lions and elephant seals. Oil clogged the blowholes of cetaceans. Intertidal organisms suffered an estimated 80-90% mortality rate.  The Santa Barbara Channel is considered a biodiversity hotspot as it hosts a thriving marine ecosystem with numerous endemic species of fish, seabirds, marine mammals, and plant life. It is considered one of the most beautiful stretches of US coastline and has been referred to as the “American Riviera". As the oil spread and choked out the pristine landscape and wildlife, its devastation spurred outrage. It was the largest oil spill in United States history at the time (third largest today). Its impact on marine life was monumental. Its impact on local communities, activists, and U.S. environmentalism was even bigger. Recovery: The “Get Oil Out!” Movement / Birth of Earth Day Straw soaks up crude oil along the coast after the oil spill. Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images In the aftermath of the spill, local volunteers mobilized with cleanup efforts, wildlife rehabilitation, and environmental activism. 3,000 tons of straw soaked up oil along the shore while contaminated sand was trucked out of the area. Over 5,200 large dump truck loads were hauled away. From the ocean surface, skimmer ships removed layers of oil. Planes overhead dumped chemical dispersants and detergent over the sea to break up larger oil clumps. Marine life washed ashore or found floating along the coast was cleaned and treated at temporarily established animal rescue stations to remove the contamination from their feathers and fur. These efforts were taken by people of all ages and backgrounds as Santa Barbarans jumped into action, their passion loud enough to reach the entire nation.  People took to the streets to push for stronger environmental safeguards that would prevent future similar disasters. Numerous environmental organizations were formed during this time, including the grassroots movement “GOO!” which stands for “Get Oil Out!”. They called for the end of offshore oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel. The Environmental Studies department at the University of California Santa Barbara was established the following year, one of the very first universities to have such a program. Images of dying wildlife, silent black waves, and oil stained beaches spread in newspapers and televisions across the country. The disaster marked a tipping point in the public’s attitude toward the environment. As Silent Spring by Rachel Carson became a bestseller a few years earlier, as concerns over nuclear fallout and cancer risk increased, as discussions about herbicide and public health spread, the Santa Barbara oil spill catalyzed an already growing public concern.  President Nixon himself visited the scene, stating that “the Santa Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American people.”  The Environmental Protection Agency was established the following year, and public pressure from the oil spill helped pass the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts in 1972. From this disaster at sea came a silver lining — a push for environmental protection at the national level. Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin senator, also visited Santa Barbara during this time. The devastation he saw directly inspired his idea for a national “teach-in” on the environment. He felt that the youth’s activism towards social and political issues could be channeled toward preserving the natural world too. He selected April 22nd, a date convenient for students as it fell between Spring Break and finals, for the teach-in. In 1970, this teach-in became the first Earth Day and was celebrated by 20 million people demonstrating for environmental action.  Conclusion This year marks the 56th Earth Day. It is an annual reminder of the interconnectivity between humanity and nature. The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 serves not only as a cautionary tale for what can occur when our natural world is disregarded as an afterthought, but it also serves as an inspiration for what can be accomplished when we take action to prioritize environmental and marine preservation.  Citations / Directories Citation 1: “A Brief History of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill and Earth Day”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival. https://www.sbearthday.org/history-of-earth-day  Citation 2: “The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective”, Written by Keith C. Clarke, & Jeffery Hemphill, & Published in 2002. Published by the University of California, Santa Barbara. https://people.geog.ucsb.edu/~kclarke/Papers/SBOilSpill1969.pdf  Citation 3: “‘The Ocean Is Boiling’: The Complete Oral History of the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill”, Written by Kate Wheeling & Max Ufberg, & published on April 18th, 2017. Published by Pacific Standard. https://psmag.com/news/the-ocean-is-boiling-the-complete-oral-history-of-the-1969-santa-barbara-oil-spill/  Citation 4: “Decades After the Oil Spill That Inspired Earth Day, Are We Prepared for the Next One?”, Published by Lindsay Key, & Published on April 21st, 2021. Published by Columbia University. https://lamont.columbia.edu/news/decades-after-oil-spill-inspired-earth-day-are-we-prepared-next-one  Citation 5: “History of GOO!”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Get Oil Out. https://www.getoilout.org/about  Citation 6: “How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day”, Written by Lila Thulin, & Published on April 22nd, 2019. Published by Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-oil-spill-50-years-ago-inspired-first-earth-day-180972007/  Citation 7: “Santa Barbara Oil Spill: 1969 California”, Written by Jack Doyle, & Published on February 22nd, 2016. Published by Pop History Dig. https://pophistorydig.com/topics/santa-barbara-oil-spill/  Citation 8: “Our History”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown date. Published by EarthDay.org. https://www.earthday.org/history/  Citation 9: “See the impacts of 1969 oil spill off the coast”, Written by Unknown, & Published on January 23rd, 2019. Published by the Ventura County Star. https://www.vcstar.com/picture-gallery/news/special-reports/outdoors/2019/01/24/see-impacts-1969-oil-spill-santa-barbara/2661708002/  Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A gorgeous photograph of Phang Nga Bay, Thailand. Credit to yatra.com. Phang Nga Bay is a bay on the southern coast of Thailand, between the mainland & Phuket Island. It is well known for its small islands dotted around the bay, limestone formations, underwater caves, & mangrove forests. Many divers flock to the area each year to photograph marine animals, swim in the bay, & take in the surreal beauty around them. There are many areas for swimming, kayaking, snorkelling, & picnicking on the islands in the bay & on the mainland coastline bordering the bay. It is common for tourists to travel between Phuket, & the Phang Nga, as the drive is approximately 1 hour & 54 minutes under optimal circumstances. Many tourists travelling the coast of Thailand will pass through the area for a day trip, to enjoy the beauty of the area. The entire bay is protected as a marine protected area as part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. In addition to its beautiful landscape, the island is extremely biodiverse. The bay is filled with many beautiful ecosystems, ranging from mangrove forests to coral reefs. One of the popular creatures of the area, is known as the Giant Oceanic Manta Ray. We published an article about this species on the 10th of this month, & it can be found by typing “Manta Ray” into the search function of our website. In this article, we will be discussing the salinity, tides, temperatures, marine geography, & depth of the oceans surrounding Phang Nga Bay, the most prominent marine ecosystems of Phang Nga Bay, the marine flora & fauna of Phang Nga Bay, & finally how ocean acidification & rising oceanic temperatures are affecting Phang Nga Bay. With that being said, let us delve into this gorgeous Thai paradise! The Salinity, Tides, Temperatures, Marine Geography, & Depth of The Oceans Surrounding Phang Nga Bay Unfortunately, the salinity of Phang Nga Bay is unmeasured. The salinity of the Indian Ocean where the bay is located ranges from 32 parts per thousand, to 37 parts per thousand. Salinity is measured in 1000-gram increments of water, & for every 1000 grams of water, a certain amount is salt. This measurement is called parts per thousand, or practical salinity units. There are not many recorded brine pools inside the bay, & there are very few salt deposits. The tidal charts for Phang Nga Bay can be found on many websites, including https://www.tideschart.com, https://nashaplaneta.net, & https://nashaplaneta.net. The tides of the bay usually do not rise above 3.54 meters (11.61417 feet), & sit below 0.27 meters (0.8858268 feet). The oceanic temperatures can be found on similar websites, such as: https://www.seatemperature.org, & https://www.tideschart.com. Using the data given by these sources, the average yearly temperature is approximately 29.316666666667° Celsius (84.7700000000005929° Fahrenheit). At this temperature, no wetsuit is needed to comfortably swim. There is very little riptide in the bay, & few dangerous currents that pose a threat to humans. Although there are rip currents, they are very minor. The bay is safe for swimmers, & is not very polluted. There are very few environmental hazards in the bay that would limit swimming. Both snorkelling & scuba diving are incredibly popular in the bay. Kayaking is also fairly popular, with kayaking tours being particularly popular in the areas with limestone caves. The bay has a fair amount of coral, & is relatively shallow. The deepest part of the bay is approximately 40 meters (131.234 feet) deep. Most areas consist of a mud or sand sea bottom. The entire bay is protected as a marine protected area, as a part of the Ao Phang Nga National Park. The Most Prominent Marine Ecosystems of Phang Nga Bay Ecosystem Type No. 1: Mangrove Forest Coastal mangrove forests are a particular kind of forest, that adorn the shoreline of the bay. A mangrove forest is a type of forest that grows in saltwater or brackish environments, in the intertidal zone. They often have exposed tree roots, known as aerial roots. These forests are incredibly important to biodiversity, for terrestrial, oceanic, & avian creatures. The forest provides shelter, food, & a spawning ground for many different species. Additionally, they provide a buffer between the land & the ocean for storms, such that if a hurricane or storm were to occur, the mangrove forest could absorb some of the damage. The mangroves also protect against flooding from storm surges. Many trails can be found leading through these forests, which attract many ecotourists. The two major species of Mangrove Tree found in this area are Rhizophora apiculata (Tall-Stilt Mangrove), & Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (Large-Leafed Orange Mangrove). Ecosystem Type No. 2: Fringing Coral Reefs Coral reefs are massive structures of coral polyps, typically located along the ocean floor. These coral reefs act as a breeding ground, hunting ground, spawning ground, & shelter. There are various kinds of coral reefs, the most important of which are atoll, barrier, & fringing. The coral reefs in the bay are of the fringing kind, meaning that they grow directly against the shoreline, without a significant water barrier. Unfortunately, there is no report or compendium of marine species that inhabit the coral reefs of Phang Nga Bay. A snorkeler above the shallow coral reefs of Phang Nga Bay, Thailand. Credit to andamanseakayak.com. Ecosystem Type No. 3: Sunken Caves Sunken Caves are common in Phang Nga Bay. These caves are located underwater, & extend into cave systems occasionally. These caves largely serve as shelter for marine animals, & the majority of them are located on the western side of the bay. The Documented Marine Flora of Phang Nga Bay Unfortunately, it is not clear what species of seagrass or algae inhabit the bay. For this reason, we are going to instead dedicate this section to the mangrove trees of the area. Mangrove Tree No. 1: Rhizophora Apiculata (Tall-Stilt Mangrove) Rhizophora Apiculata is a species of Mangrove Tree native to the Indo-Pacific, & Australia. The tree has a light to dark greyish bark, with beautiful 4-petalled yellow flowers. The shape of the tree is conical. Individual trees in this species range from 16 meters to 30 meters in height. It is not endangered internationally, it is endangered in specific countries. Mangrove Tree 2: Bruguiera Gymnorrhiza (Large-Leafed Orange Mangrove) The Large Leafed Orange Mangrove is a species of mangrove tree native to the Indo-Pacific, Indian Subcontinent, & Polynesia. The tree is very recognizable for its large leaves, & its dark red to black bark. It produces large Red or Orange flowers, with yellow centers. Individual Trees themselves are between 16 & 20 meters tall. A breathtaking photograph of kayakers kayaking through a mangrove swamp in Phang Nga Bay. Credit to ambitionearth.com. The Documented Marine Fauna of Phang Nga Bay Though Phang Nga Bay is extremely biodiverse, there have been no animal surveys of the bay yet, meaning we do not have a comprehensive understanding of the marine animals that inhabit the bay. Species such as Mobula birostris (Giant Oceanic Manta Ray), Rhincodon typus (Whale Shark), Eretmochelys imbricata (Hawksbill Turtle), Chelonia mydas (Green Sea Turtle), & Lepidochelys olivacea (Olive Ridley Sea Turtle), are all commonly found in the bay. In addition to being biodiverse, the bay is also a haven for an endangered species of porpoise. The bay is home to the Black Finless Porpoise, an endangered species of Porpoise found in the Indian & Pacific Oceans. How Ocean Acidification, & Rising Oceanic Temperatures Are Affecting Phang Nga Bay Ocean acidification is caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, largely because of human-caused burning of fossil fuels, & deforestation, for the past 150 years. When carbon dioxide contacts seawater, it forms carbonic acid. Carbonic acid gives off positive H+ ions, which causes increased oceanic H+ concentrations & decreased oceanic pH. When the ocean has decreased pH, it effectively acidifies. When this happens, it causes conditions that will eat at the shells of bivalves, stress out & eventually bleach coral, & utterly destroy seagrass patches. As of 2026, it is not clear if ocean acidification is affecting the coral reefs of Thailand. More long-term monitoring data is needed to make a conclusive determination, which is currently not available. If current trends continue, then ocean acidification will likely devastate the coral reefs of Phang Nga Bay. Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Ao Phang-Nga National Park - Thailand's most famous marine protected area”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Retrieval Date: April 30th, 2024. https://asean.chm-cbd.net/ao-phang-nga-national-park-thailands-most-famous-marine-protected-area Citation No. 2: “Mangrove forest in Phang Nga Bay, Andaman Sea, Thailand”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Peapix. Retrieval Date: April 30th, 2024. https://peapix.com/bing/39122 Citation No. 3: “Rhizophora apiculata Blume”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Flora & Fauna Web. Retrieval Date: April 30th, 2024. https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/3/2/3265 Citation No. 4: “Large-Leafed Orange Mangrove”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Mangroves. Retrieval Date: April 30th, 2024. http://www.mangrove.at/bruguiera-gymnorhiza_large_leafed-orange-mangrove.html Citation No. 5: “Bruguiera Gymnorrhiza”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Flora & Fauna Web. Retrieval Date: April 30th, 2024. https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/3/2/3260 Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A photograph taken of the verdant lush Great Abaco Island, featured in the Bahamian extension of today’s map. Credit to seaglassfound.com . Today’s nautical chart is a timeworn 189-year-old map of the Eastern Coast of the United States, from Florida to Massachusetts. The chart is extraordinarily large, being 122 inches long & 29 inches wide. It includes a rare extension featuring a chart of the Bahamas. It is in fantastic condition for its time, & has minor soiling consistent with use during sailing. In today’s article, we are going to examine this antique map, discuss it, & perform an analysis of it. With that being said, let’s delve into the cool waters of the Atlantic! The Chart A magnificent antique Nautical Chart of the East Coast of the United States, as well as the Bahamas. It was first designed & published by Edmund M. Blunt in 1826, & later revised & republished in 1837. Credit to raremaps.com This chart focuses on the East Coast of the United States with an extension into the Bahamas. It includes numerous important harbours, estuaries, & capes, such as Charleston Harbour, Port Royal, St. Mary’s River, Cape Fear, Cape Lookout, Cape Hatteras, Winyah Bay, Lewiston Bay, Havana, & St. Augustine. It also includes several important islands, such as Cumberland Island & Amelia Island. There are approximately 16 compass roses strewn across the map. There are numerous descriptions for different locations such as “Dead shells”, “The river lies in deepest water”, “White sand with black and yellow specks and fine white shells”, “This cape appears like a round hill, “Sunken rock”, “Sand & shells”, & “The current here is directed by the wind”. Each of these remarks would have been extraordinarily useful to sailors of the era, & provide a unique insight into the natural landscape. The Bahamas extension is a rare addition, which extends from Florida to the Bahamas. The extension contains much information such as information about water depth, shore composition, local currents, & even lighthouses. A small lighthouse titled “Revolving light”, can be seen on the southern tip of Great Abaco Island. Another lighthouse can be seen near modern-day Nassau. Moving up the East Coast, a comment about the Highlands of Navesink can be seen. “There are two lighthouses on the Highlands of Navesink, the northern one showing a fixed, the southern one a revolving light.” Long Island can be prominently seen at the extreme right of the map. The chart is in amazing condition, with minor soiling consistent with being used on a ship. An Analysis Of The Charts A photograph of the cartographer who designed the chart, Edmund March Blunt. Credit to the Blunt Family. This chart was designed, & created by Edmund March Blunt (1770 to 1862). The chart was originally illustrated in 1826, & had additions in 1837. Edmund March Blunt was an American cartographer, chartmaker, hydrographer, & bookseller, best known for his guide “The American Pilot”, which detailed every American port at the time of publishing in 1796. In response to this immense success, he later published 21 subsequent revisions, each with important updates. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential hydrographers of the 19th century in the United States. It is titled “ To The Members Of The Nautical Institution And Ship-Masters' Society Of The City Of New York, This Chart, Extending From Lat. 40°15 N., Long. 72°15 W., to Lat. 22°35 N., Long. 80°25 W., Is Respectfully Dedicated / By Their Obedient Servant Edmund M. Blunt . . . 1826 . . . Additions to 1837 ”. Although originally dedicated to the Marine Society of New York, the title was later changed to reflect the founding of the Nautical Institution & Ship Master’s Society. Interestingly, this chart was published in a series by Blunt’s Publishing House from 1820 to 1827. It was originally published in 1826, & later revised in 1837. This chart was originally manufactured for civilian use. It is extremely accurate for the era, with scarcely a headland, island, reef, or rock being left off. Upon considering the incredible quality & detail of the chart, the publishing house it belongs to, & the time it was manufactured in, it was manufactured using lithography. Lithography is a method of printing that arose in the 1820s, & remained the most popular method of printing in both color & grayscale until the early 1960s, when more efficient methods became available. Although it has existed since the mid-1790s, it took a long time to gain popularity in Europe due to technical difficulties, & only began gaining commercial popularity in the early 1820s. It is still widely used for certain kinds of printing, such as fine art printing today, however, digital printing is far more common. In the lithographic method, the artist will draw directly onto a printing surface, such as zinc, or copper, until they are satisfied with the drawing. After this, the surface will be covered with a chemical etch, which will bond it to the surface. With this process, the blank areas will attract moisture to the plate & repel the lithographic ink, while the areas that are drawn on will hold the ink. Water is then wiped onto the unpainted areas to help prevent the ink from deviating. After the image is inked, the paper is laid over it & covered with a tympan, & the tympan is pressed down. Finally, these materials pass through the scraper bar of the litho-press. Afterward, an exact copy of what was supposed to be printed is revealed. Directories / Credits All credit for this map analyzed today goes to Rare Maps, a California rare & antique maps store. To purchase this chart, antique atlases, or other cartographic objects, please visit www.raremaps.com . To be clear, this is not an advertisement for Rare Maps, as we do not have a partnership with them. Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcasts Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

Recently, our head writer had the privilege of sitting down with the extraordinary Dr. James Lindholm, Marine Biologist, Seafloor Landscape Ecologist, Professor, Environmental Policy Advocate, Researcher, Author, & Ocean Conservationist! Dr. James Lindholm is a marine biologist, scientific diver, seafloor landscape ecologist, professor, environmental policy advocate, researcher, author of the Chris Black marine fiction series, & ocean conservationist. He is well known for his illustrious career with CSUMB, his work in environmental policy, his ocean fiction series featuring marine biologist Chris Black, his work in ocean conservation, his work in benthic ecology, his work assessing humanity's effects on the ocean, & his work in coral reefs ecology. In today’s interview, we sit down with James to discuss his research across a variety of fields, his trips to the Aquarius Undersea laboratory, his vast experiences underwater, his passion for the sea, & his advice to young curious marine biologists looking to make their way in the field in a comprehensive 25-question interview. Before delving into today’s interview, please note everything said has been edited for clarity, & that the opinions of our interviewee do not necessarily reflect the opinions & values of our organization. With that being said, let us delve into the contents of the interview! A photograph of Dr. James Lindholm preparing to go diving. Credit to Dr. James Lindholm. The Contents Of The Interview Questions About His Passion: 1. What sparked your passion for marine science & the ocean? That’s a great question, it’s an interesting one. I think many of us have been asked this question more than once. I had a father who was a scuba diver & a mother who was a surfer, but neither of them was doing those things by the time I was born, so we don’t entirely know where my motivation came from. It appears that I was fixated on the ocean at a very early age, like pre-kindergarten. My parents met on a diving boat off the coast of Santa Barbara. My dad was diving & my mom was out doing what we call bubble watching, she wasn’t diving that day. That was their first date. It was interesting, I saw my father’s gear in our garage. I remember being preschool age & walking around looking at the tanks, I knew the drawer that had regulators & things like that in it. I can smell the neoprene still now, from that garage all those years ago. I’ve asked this question of other people, & we’ve done a little research & found many people describe this phenomenon of being preordained to do something, but I don’t think science has an answer for it. 2. Was there any particular person, place, moment, or piece of media that assisted in sparking your passion? There have been many people who’ve helped spark the passion along the way. From elementary school, I remember there was someone in high school, & then grad school kind of set me off on the direction that I am now & have been for the last 30 years. It reminds me of the importance of mentors, because I’ve had a lot of them, & they’ve helped shape how I think about the world, & many of the activities that I do. With respect to other things, I look at what motivates our students now, & it’s funny. None of them would recognize any of the popular culture that motivated me back in the day, so it’s not even worth mentioning. I played with toys that were action figures, & scuba divers. I watched every movie that had marine themes, & many of them in the 70’s weren’t very good, but it was fun to watch them nonetheless. I think by & large, I was always the kid who wanted to get wet, who came back from the field trip soaking wet for some reason. What I benefited from was having a few key mentors along the way who nudged me along & enabled that enthusiasm. I saw Jaws when I was very young, I think I was seven when it first came out. My dad was adamant that I did not see it because he didn’t want me to get afraid of going in the ocean. Then my mom took me to it, & she got in big trouble, & it stands as one of the most impactful movies in my life. There’s a lot more going on obviously now, but back then it was quite an impactful movie for me. 3. What sparked your passion for marine fiction? Well, I was an early reader, & I read everything I could find. My first book is dedicated to my mom, because she was feeding me books. I was reading spy novels, & other thrillers much earlier than you would probably want someone reading those. I started early. There weren’t a lot of marine-themed books in those days, they’ve increased over time. It always occurred to me that if I ever were to write something, I would try to weave in tales of undersea adventure. That’s how that came to be. I read a lot of different things. I’ve read a lot of legal thrillers over the years. I’ve read medical thrillers. I’ve read a lot of spy thrillers. One of the things I find engaging about the books I’ve read, particularly series where you follow the same characters through multiple adventures, is that they offer you enough insight into the legal world, the medical world, or the spy world to keep you engaged. The good ones don’t overwhelm you with the content, because a lot of the time that gets a little tedious. It occurred to me that I hadn’t aspired to write novels. I write a lot of research papers on science. What I want to do is write a novel that’s engaging, hopefully exciting, & then insert & contextualize it by placing my characters in undersea situations. You learn a little bit on the side, but you’re not being browbeaten on the topic. I’ve been working at the intersection of Science & Policy for a long time. Years ago, this was more common, but once upon a time there were groups that formed to help train scientists to talk to policymakers. If we were going to Washington D.C. to brief Congress or to go to the White House, this group would help us prepare our presentations & think about talking points. It’s far more common now, but that training, the focus on your audience, learning who you’re talking to, & tailoring your message because everybody has these different expectations & different aptitudes, kind of drove my enthusiasm for science communication over time. I see these novels as an extension of that science communication effort because I get feedback from readers that they enjoy a little bit of science tossed into the story. I’ve been fortunate to travel all over the world, & a lot of people come up to me & say “I always wanted to be a marine scientist!”, but they didn’t enjoy calculus, or chemistry, or they found the laboratory classes too overwhelming. It struck me that there is a natural audience of people out there who are interested in the marine environment, but are not scientists themselves. The way to connect with them is to give them enough to connect with whatever enthusiasm they had, but not to overwhelm them with details. 4. What sparked your passion for scuba diving? I think there’s no single answer to that question. I started surfing long before I was a diver. My experience with the ocean for many years was as a kid surfing. I had a few really cool experiences snorkelling at various points & realized “I think that scuba diving might be the way for me to do it.” When I finally got certified to scuba dive, I immediately, both literally & figuratively dove into the ocean & never looked back. I’ve been diving all over the world, & here at CSUMB (California State University, Monterey Bay) with a colleague, I started what is now the largest university dive program in the country. We’re training over 400 students a year, in a variety of different courses culminating in scientific diving. It’s been a career-long experience for me. 5. What is your favourite terrestrial, or marine animal personally, & what is your favourite marine or terrestrial animal that you have worked on? It’s tough to narrow them down, it’s so hard to avoid being cliché because all of the animals I’d probably choose are ones that most people have thought about. I’ll tell you a couple if that is okay. One of the things I’ve been fortunate enough to do is I’ve done a lot of surgery on fish, surgically implanting transmitters so we could track their movements over time. Much of this work is done underwater. I have to hold these fish in my hands while I’m anesthetizing them, & conducting surgery on them. Then I swim them around until they wake up in my hands, & swim away. It’s really neat. I’ve done this to many species. From the moment we trap them underwater, remove them from the trap, anesthetize them, do the surgery, & have them swimming around in the water, it takes a little over 2 minutes. It was very quick, it’s a nice thing to do underwater. It’s not major surgery, you’re slicing a small incision along their ventral line on the bottom of the fish, inserting the transmitter, & then using sutures similar to surgery on humans to stitch them on. You also put an external tag on them that has an ID code, then finally swim it around & release it. Probably the most compelling fish that I’ve done this to on the California Side is called the California Sheephead. The males get very big. In the Caribbean, the blue parrotfish is a uniformly beautiful blue. Watching these fish wake up & swim away has endeared them to me, so I love sheep-head & parrotfish. The surgery is more impactful for some fish than others. We have to constantly remind my students that for the purposes of discussion, we’re all human beings, & look at how widely variable our responses to anything are. So why would you expect every single blue parrotfish to respond identically? I’ve found a great deal of variability, some of the fish find it traumatic, & I’m not wild about that, but it’s something we have to do. Also, like many of my students, I’m a fan of great white sharks. I’ve had several encounters with them over the years, I don’t work with them as a rule, but I enjoy them. Questions About His Career: 6. What university did you attend for your undergraduate degree, & was there any particular reason you chose that university? I chose California Polytechnic State University, at San Luis Obispo. I chose it largely because I like doing outdoor activities all the time. I grew up in the area, & I wanted to keep doing all those activities. Cal Poly was a fantastic university that provided me with the opportunity to do all the things I like to do outside. I went from preschool through undergraduate within a 25-mile radius. It was great, I loved going to Cal Poly. The Cal Poly learning by doing mantra set the stage for the rest of my professional career for sure. That was very engaging to somebody who’d spent all their time out in the water getting wet & dirty. The idea of learning by doing the thing that you’re interested in was super compelling. Indeed our marine science program here (CSUMB), is in a very real way, informed by that experience at Cal Poly all those years ago. I think Post-Covid, there’s certainly a push to get as much online content as possible because people got used to doing things like school sitting on their beanbag in their pyjamas, & they still want that. Maybe that works for some majors, but for ours, I think that would deprive our students of these critical connections that are made by being on, around, or in the environment where organisms occur. 7. What university did you attend for your master’s degree, as well as P.h.D, & was there any specific reason you chose that university? I’d gone to school for so long in the same area, so I took a couple of years off between undergraduate & graduate school. I surfed & dove a lot, & helped my friends open a restaurant. I kind of looked around to see what my options might be. I really wanted to go to a place in Massachusetts called Woods Hole. It’s out on Cape Cod in Massachusetts where the first private research laboratory in the country, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the National Marine Fisheries Laboratory, & the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) all coexist. It’s this concentration of marine science effort. Being a Californian & not having spent much time on the East Coast, Woods Hole called to me. I enrolled in a Master’s Program at Boston University because they had a program where you could study in Woods Hole, but it was still administered by Boston University. I was always planning to come back to California when I was done with my Master’s degree, & see what I could figure out. By the end of the first year of my master’s, I’d met a couple of different faculty members, & gotten to know them very well. Over the summer, I applied for the PhD program, so the second year of my Master’s degree was my first year of my PhD. So, I stayed, & I never looked back! I ended up living in Woods Hole for a year & a half, which was great. My dad’s family was from Cape Cod, so I was able to drive further out onto Cape Cod to visit them periodically. It was rather quiet. I’m from a small town, & I grew up outside of San Luis Obispo, so the small-town environment was perfect for me. This little community by the ocean with all kinds of world-class marine science going on was fantastic. The Marine Biological Laboratory where the laboratory & our classes were had this incredible library with iron spiral staircases & catwalks with books. Spending time late into the night in the archives doing science was extraordinary as a graduate student. For a variety of reasons, primarily related to the colleagues that I began working with, I ended up moving down to Connecticut for a while to finish my research there, even though I was still a student at Boston. 8. What was the first research project that you led, & what was the first research project that you participated in? There were a lot of projects that I got involved with at various levels. The first consequential leading project for me was with this colleague who was on my P.hD committee. He was one of those mentors I was referencing earlier, his name is Dr. Peter Oster. He’s an emeritus professor at the University of Connecticut. When I started working with him, we would go out on long three-week research cruises. There was a cruise we went out on, on a large NOAA vessel, & we were cruising around & doing science all week. He got off the first week, & left a colleague & me in charge. Now we’re up on the bridge, talking with the captain about where we’re going to put the ROV. That was really exciting & compelling. I realized on that cruise that that is what I wanted to do for sure. That project was using ROVs to study fish interactions with the seafloor, & that set the stage for much of the rest of my career. When I was in grad school, our understanding of human interaction with the marine environment was very two-dimensional. We would eat the things that came out of it, & maybe frolic in the shallow waters a bit, but few people understood what was going on deeper. Shark week was a big thing, but it wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. The internet was not as out of control as it is now. People didn’t have an understanding of what it looked like down there, including me! Using a remotely operated vehicle in 400 meters of water, & being able to see animals doing things in the environment that I’ve never been able to see before was super compelling. A colleague of mine, Dr. Elliot Norris, worked for the Carter Administration many decades ago. He was one of the people who coined the term biological diversity. He drew this interesting analogy about what we understand in the marine environment versus what we understand on land. If we had to survey land the same way we survey the sea, we would have spent much of human history sampling water, flying over forests in the fog, dropping a net down into the forest, dragging it through the forest, bringing it up, & dumping it out to see what we found. Imagine you did that, you would find flowers squished up at the back of the land. You might find some hummingbirds also squished up at the back of the net, but you would miss any ecological connection between the hummingbird & the flower. For much of human history, if we did any marine science at all, it was dredging things up from the bottom, & dumping them out on deck to look at what we found. That’s still an interesting way to do science, & you can learn a lot that way, but you miss a lot of the ecological relationships. By taking an ROV, a submersible, or a variety of other tools down deep, you’re able to see the animal in the environment in which it occurs, the insights are extraordinary. 9. Take us through your research regarding the landscape ecology of fish. What research have you done in this niche? I’ve been at it for a while, & it’s been all over the place. Fundamentally, since mid-grad school I’ve been interested in how fish living on (Benthic) or near the sea floor (Demersal) interact with the seafloor, & how they leverage habitat. This is one of the things that captivated me so much during those early ROV cruises. I’ve been slowly trying to understand different attributes in different ecosystems as to how animals interact with the seafloor. Sometimes that means participating in mapping efforts to collect topographic maps of the seafloor. Then you take an ROV or a submersible out, & you’re able to target particular areas because you know what the relief of the seafloor looks like. Then with video, still photographs, & sometimes physical samples, we study. In New England, we study a species of Acadian rockfish called Sebastes fasciatus. It’s one of the only three rockfish species in the North Atlantic. What’s interesting about New England is that its continental shelf is super wide, much wider than the West Coast. Also, they don’t have nearly as much rocky substrate as we do. When the last glacier moved down during the last ice age, the Laurentide glacier, it came down & basically ended right around Cape Cod. When it receded, it dropped all the boulders that it had ground up as it was moving southward. Offshore Massachusetts you have what otherwise would have been a deep muddy or sandy bottom, all of a sudden you have these long linear piled boulder reefs. So, you have this extraordinary habitat right in the midst of a flat sand or mud plane. We were able to use ROVs to find those reefs, & study fish interactions with them. People often refer to the sea floor as a desert. It is not! There are enormous amounts of activity. It is true with respect to the types of fish I’m interested in that the more structure you find, the more fish you’ll get, along with a higher diversity of fish. Understanding why they’re there, & answering the questions “Did they grow somewhere else then move there?”, & “Were they spawned here?”, are all very important. During my research, we would tag fish at each boulder reef, which were typically a few miles apart. Afterwards, we would record their movement between each boulder reef in order to look at migration patterns. We found that a third of animals stayed at the reef where we tagged them. Another third were recorded moving back & forth between islands, while the last third moved off & left the area completely. We’ve also done studies looking at genetic shifts in habitat usage. We looked at a species on the West Coast that is very interesting, it’s called a lingcod. It’s a large predator that eats fish & invertebrates. If you asked what habitat lingcods live in, most people would answer “rocky reefs”, & they would be right. Although they would be right, you have to think about how they occupy habitats at different stages in their life. 10. Part of your career has been spent researching anthropogenic impacts on the ocean, primarily through fishing. What research have you done in this regard, & what conclusions have you come to? This has been a very interesting subset of my research. I stayed in New England for about 10 years total. There’s a lot of bottom trawling in New England, or at least there was at that time. Having spent so much time out underwater, I’ve looked at how animals relate to topographic structure & biogenic structure a lot. I should clarify that topographic structure is a physical structure like rocks, reefs, or sand waves. On top of those are anemones, sponges, & things that provide additional three-dimensional relief up in the water column. Then I started working with a colleague on how towing a net over the seafloor impacts the habitats where fish live. When you trawl, you’re not only potentially extracting a lot of fish, you’re also altering the environment in which those fish are produced. It’s a double whammy to those species. I’ve done a number of projects on both the East Coast & the West Coast trying to understand how trawling impacts the seafloor. I think one of the coolest results of that project is the recognition that you need to match the tool to the environment, & that no tool is itself necessarily bad. I’m not anti-trawling or anti-fishing by any means. I eat fish, many of us do, & there aren’t too many ways to get fish. In fact, right now there is no way for us to get fish without some kind of environmental impact. Trawling is one of those potential environmental impacts. What we’ve done from a research perspective is try to understand how different types of gears interact with different habitats, & what the different levels of environmental impact are. We found a place off the coast of Morro Bay out on the continental shelf. We did a long-term study with the Nature Conservancy & we towed the net across the bottom in certain areas more than 10 times, in some areas once or twice, & then we had a control where there was no trawling. In certain habitats, we could see no difference between the intensely trawled, the moderately trawled, & the untrawled. This suggests that certain habitats are reformed frequently by swells, tides, & stormed. Others are more long-term, so you need to from the vantage point of a manager match the gear & effort to the type of environment. For example, if you tow a trawl through a rocky environment in deep waters with deep-sea corals. Those corals take 1,200 years to get to their height, so when you knock them down, that’s it for them. Now you’ve damaged an environment that either won’t recover, or won’t recover for at least another thousand years. Alternatively, you could tow in an adjacent habitat where it’s shallower & every time a storm comes through, the sand wave habitat is restructured. Maybe allocate some trawling to this area, & do something else in the deep sea . 11. How has scuba diving assisted your scientific research? Scuba is an awesome tool. I love it, but it is a tool, & it’s not perfect for every application. If you’re studying large marine mammals, scuba diving is probably not the tool for you. If you’re working in 400 meters of water, scuba diving is not the tool for you. Scuba diving has a certain type of application. Within that context, it puts the marine scientist in the environment where the animals occur. I think that is invaluable. My preference as somebody who studies fish ecology on the sea floor is to be there. That’s my first goal. If I can’t be there on Scuba, then a sub is the next best option because I’m there, though I’m constrained a little bit. If I can’t do a sub, then an ROV where I’m getting live feedback to the surface is my next option. I want to be able to see what’s going on. Scuba diving has been transformative in our understanding of how marine communities work. Before scuba diving was introduced, we were doing a variety of old-school things like towing nets. Now we know so much more by virtue of scuba diving. A photograph of Dr. James Lindholm scuba diving under the sea. Credit to Dr. James Lindholm. 12. How has using both underwater videos, & photographs shaped your work? I’ve been doing a great deal of imagery based work now for maybe 30 years on multiple coasts all around the world. There are many, many benefits to it. One, you’re in the environment observing the animal. Two, the video or still photographs become a snapshot in time of what the ecosystem looked like. One of the things that’s pretty cool is that you can go back to those still photographs or videos & ask questions a decade later that you weren’t thinking of at the time. The paper I was talking about earlier which one of my grad students wrote on Lingcod, that project was the result of multiple videos taken from multiple projects up the coast. They were not dedicated towards Lingcod, but because of the ROVS which were on the Seafloor, we got data from Lingcod on them, & produced a very interesting coast-wide study. You wouldn’t have been able to do that without video, or it would have been much more expensive. Video & still photos have enabled us to understand how animals interact with their world, & to see them doing it. I’ve spent my whole career trying to engage a non-scientific audience. That’s varied widely over the years. When I was doing a lot of ROV work, we oftentimes were working from converted fishing vessels. When we’d have an ROV in the water, I’d put a screen in the wheelhouse where the captain is. We would have captains seeing the seafloor that their families had been fishing for decades for the first time. It was interesting to see their fascination with the habitats. You know, they understood it in a particular way based on the feel of the way their gear was moving over the seafloor. They had a type of knowledge that’s very different than what science provides, to see the seafloor visually for them was very compelling & exciting. As the internet developed, I’ve developed a variety of different portals where video is available for people to check out. More recently, immediately pre-COVID, I started exploring virtual reality as a research tool. We have some divers who come to CSUMB who are set on a career in diving & doing marine science. Then, several of them have had health issues set in, including things like late-onset epilepsy. We call epilepsy a contradiction to diving. They can’t dive anymore. My initial enthusiasm for VR was to think “If I took a camera down & swam sections of the seafloor like a diver does, could people collect the same type of data from a virtual environment, of a 360 environment inside a headset?” A graduate student did this for his thesis, & what we discovered was that yes, you can. You can capture essentially the same information from a VR environment. Right around this time, COVID shut us down. I had a graduate class in fish ecology that needed to do a project & we still had three months left of the semester. So, I swam with a VR camera around several kelp forests in Monterey, & provided imagery to my students. They did a project collecting data from fish using VR. As COVID continued, I worked with a colleague of mine Dr. Corin Slown to develop a high school curriculum based on it. We’ve taken that high school curriculum around to a wide variety of high schools, as far away as the Canary Islands. It’s not passive. You don’t watch a movie & see things, nobody tells you what you are seeing. You swim an area of the ocean & are challenged to collect data like a scientist. It’s kind of a scavenger hunt. We give them an ID book & they watch them, & we give them a list of fish they have to find. It’s mission-oriented, & they enjoy that. We have undergraduates using video to study the sea floor. We have high school students who have continued to broaden it. Now, we’ve been working locally with juvenile halls. We have a Juvenile Hall in Monterey that we have brought the curriculum to. 10 of the students really took to it. They were super enthusiastic & became very adept at collecting data from imagery. They approached me about a new long-term project, & we decided to do what I think is a novel approach to citizen science. We had them adopt a kelp forest in Monterey, & my students & I go out to collect VR imagery. Then, we bring it to the Juvenile hall where the students collect data. They then produce summary analyses that will display on a website. These students are incarcerated & are prevented from coming to the ocean, yet via VR, they’re going to not only be exploring the undersea world, but they’re going to be collecting data that helps us manage it. We also have a project going with a local hospital where we’ve recorded 30 to 40-minute dives at interesting locations around the world, like a part of Cuba that’s closed off to everybody, Indonesia, or a kelp forest off the Channel Islands. Patients in great pain can sit with a headset on & watch with calming music in the background, & just take a dive. We’ve had patients who deferred pain medication, like stage four cancer patients, who deferred pain medication while they’re on the headset. Over the course of my career, I’ve been to the White House, I’ve briefed Congress, I’ve been to the State House in California many times, & I’ve dealt with international governments, but to have people in great pain relieved a bit as a consequence of the work that we’ve done is an extraordinary feeling. To have these at-risk incarcerated youth have the opportunity to do some of these things, there’s no comparison to that in my career. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done to date for sure. I’ve fortunately avoided hospitals for most of my life, but I have been put in there once or twice. Everybody has been touched by this. Somebody in their families has had cancer or some kind of debilitating illness. My dad passed away from cancer, & I observed it, it was terrible. The idea that I could bring somebody calmness who was experiencing pain like I saw my father experiencing is very important to me. 13. What work have you done in relation to marine policy? Well, it’s extremely frustrating & super challenging. Most of the time my colleagues joke that you know, you should go running & screaming in the other direction. One of the analogies I’ve seen is that if you eat sausage, you don’t want to watch a documentary about how your sausage is made. If the guy who was stirring the pot of sausage fell into the pot & is now a part of your sausage, you don’t want to know. That analogy is used a lot with respect to the political process. I think it’s very apt. I’ve seen the process first hand, it can be quite frustrating, it can be frustrating & difficult in ways that you would never expect. My colleagues & I joke a lot that much of our work has been better received outside of the United States. I was at a conference in Canada, & I was approached by two managers from South Africa. A month later I was in South Africa helping them work on some trawling projects. Everything’s more complicated here. I was very fortunate early in my career to go to the White House to help draft language for an executive order that President Clinton signed. That was a very exciting early experience. That executive order created a nationwide marine protected area network. There was a website you could go to dedicated to it called mpa.gov, which is now gone. You cannot find any more. That was a high point in my early career. I got to go to Congress & talk to people on both sides of the House & the Senate. I got to see the types of questions they ask, which are not always the ones you expect. I’ve seen things scuttled by the attitude of one person in the room. I’ve also seen things happen as a result of one person in a room. Oftentimes, you hope when you conduct science, that the paper you write is read by the right people, & those right people develop reasonable laws based on your science. What you learn very early on is that nobody reads your papers except other scientists & maybe some staffers. You have to spend a lot of time distilling your work to make it accessible to the staffers & elected representatives. 14. What are you currently working on at California State University, Monterey Bay? Lots of different things! I have a project I started way back in 2000. A colleague & I were on an island off the coast of Venezuela called Bonaire. It’s part of the Dutch Antilles. It’s a small tropical island. We sent an ROV down there, & we chartered a boat for 14 days. At the end of the 1st day, our ROV had broken beyond our scientists' ability to fix it. So we kicked it, sent it home, & we had 13 more days with the boats. We went to a pub, spoke about it, & came up with a plan. We started a project looking at how coral reef fishes cooperatively feed. Some of it is called “facilitative group foraging”. People had previously studied how it results in benefits to individual fish who participated in the group foraging. We started studying how the species richness, & reef biodiversity influenced group foraging. What we found in Bonaire was that at selected reefs, the more animals were group foraging, the higher the reef biodiversity was. Now, 26 years later, we have done this all over the world & found interesting commonalities across systems. My next trip is back down to that area in Curaçao in June to continue working on this project. We’ve done this in the Indian Ocean, South Africa, Indonesia, the Galapagos, Cocos Island, & Australia. It’s rather interesting, & illuminating. I have several projects that leverage the incredible diving we have here in Monterey. We have a deep water canyon in Carmel that comes up about 200 yards from the shore. So you can dive into Carmel Canyon, which is pretty extraordinary. I have a project working on an island in Southern California called San Clemente Island. It’s owned by the Navy. At the northern end of the island, there’s a military exclusion zone where you’re not allowed to go because they do military exercises. It’s where Navy SEALS practice their skills. We have been working there for 15 years now, trying to better understand how the military exclusion zone provides what we call de facto protection for the marine environment. Those are areas not closed to protect animals, but the fact that Navy SEALS are blowing things up means that fishing boats can’t go there. The fish community doesn’t seem to care that stuff’s being blown up. All they care about is that fishing isn’t going on. What we’re seeing is the benefits to the fish community of a de facto closure. One of the first examples of this is a place called Merritt Island. There’s a reserve there that encompasses the area offshore Cape Canaveral. Due to all the sensitive things happening at Cape Canaveral, nobody can fish. At some point, somebody said, “Hey, wait a minute, there are more fish, & they’re bigger!” That laid the foundation for discussion about de facto protection. 15. Throughout your career, you have participated in an astonishing 6 missions to the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory in the Florida Keys. What were these missions for, & how would you describe the experience? It was incredible. It was a highlight of my career for sure. I did six missions. For four of of them I was saturating (staying underwater), & for the other two I was the leader of the mission, but I was working from the surface. For the four times I was living there, I dove for a 10 day period. That’s more than a month of my life underwater. It’s extraordinary, there’s no comparable experience in my life. One of my favourite stories that I love to tell that has nothing to do with science is that my first mission to Aquarius began on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, at 8:30 AM. So 15 minutes before the planes hit the World Trade Center was when my first mission started. For 10 days my colleagues & I were underwater. Now, we had connection to the world, we had a laptop down there that had wireless, so we were able to see what was going on, but we were underwater for the first 10 days. For a lot of my generation who sat at home for 10 days, nobody was flying anywhere, & nobody could travel anywhere. Everyone was just watching the tors fall over, & over, & over again. We missed all of that. When we went under there was one world, & when we came up, it was a totally different world, & it’s never been the same world since. The day that I flew from Florida to Boston was the first day that planes were allowed back up in the air. I’ll tell you, that was the most tense flight I've ever had. Everybody was looking at each other. I had a headache by the time I landed. It was a two-&-a-half-hour flight, very short, but everybody was watching & wondering if anything was going to go wrong. I had this profound headache when I landed. From a scientific perspective, once I did the first mission, I understood what you could do there. So, I started writing proposals to do more work there. Three months later, I was back for a fish tagging project, & the following year again to tag more fish. You can spend eight to ten hours a day diving from this lab, that’s an incredible amount of time to collect data. When you live underwater, you don’t come to the surface, you get to spend more time underwater doing more science than ever before. There is also an opportunity to do fish tagging. In other areas of the world, when you don’t have an undersea laboratory, you hook the fish underwater & you bring it to the surface. The temperature & depth change is quite stressful on the fish. Then, you bring it onto the boat, & you put it in an anesthetic bath. I’ve done all this & the animal gets about 10 times the anesthesia it needs. Finally, you tag it, you put it in this release device, & send it hack into the deep hoping it’s going to resume normal activity & not be eaten. In Aquarius, I was able to catch them right outside the habitat, hand-select the ones I wanted to tag, anesthetize them in two to three minutes, tag them, swim them around in my hand, release them, then watch them swim away after. I have a video of a hogfish that I tagged feeding on the seafloor two minutes after it was released. Six minutes before it was swimming around, it was anesthetized it had surgery conducted on it, it was revived, it’s eating again, & it had resumed its behaviour. From a science perspective, you’ve put an 800$ to 1,000$ tag in it, you want to see it doing its normal thing as soon as possible. A fantastic photograph of Aquarius Undersea Laboratory from the exterior. Credit to the NOAA. 17. What work have you done in relation to marine conservation? MPAs have been one of the primary focuses. I’ve been a strong advocate for marine protected areas as opposed to restoration efforts. I think we have a better track record of letting nature do what nature does best rather than trying to tweak it to produce some outcome that we’re interested in. I appreciate MPAs because there’s an opportunity to close an area off, & you don’t necessarily get the outcome that you’re interested in, but you’re allowing nature to do what it does best. I have done a lot of outreach efforts to try to bring other audiences into the marine environment, & there is a conservation element there. I’ve also participated in many briefings tor policy makers as well as staff, & various NGO’s in Sacramento that have conservation implications. We did a briefing several years ago on fishing, for instance, that highlighted the fact that if you want fish, there are really only 3 ways you can get fish in the United States. You can have wild-caught fish which is associated with challenges, you can have aquaculture which is associated with challenges, or you can import things, which has a high carbon footprint & is oftentimes troubling. Any way to get fish in the United States has consequences. Rather than demonizing any particular one, what are the trade-offs we are comfortable with? One of the largest issues for my students right now is desalination plants. They point out all the troubling things about desalination where you’re drawing in seawater that’s bringing in organisms, & impacting populations that are drawn in. I understand that. Then I suggest, okay, where’s our water going to come from if we don’t have that plant? Oftentimes, they don’t have an answer. We have to think about that. I asked them, how many of you protested the road you drove in today on? The answer is obviously that no one protested the road, but what is a road? A road is a habitat fragmentation device. Roads disrupt the movement of terrestrial animals all the time, but humans have accepted their presence in order to do things. I think we need to contextualize & understanding any new thing we demonize. We need to contextualize that into all the trade-offs we’re already accepting into our lives. I think it’s important from a conservation perspective that we need to talk about conservation, not preservation. Preservation is closing things off, leaving them as they are, & not touching them. Conservation is about reconciling the natural world with human needs. Questions About His Books: 18. Avoiding spoilers, is the title & basic plot of your book series? My goal was always to tell a story involving interesting characters that are put into difficult situations seeing how they respond. My first book was set up here in Carmel-by-the-Sea off the Monterey Peninsula. It was called Into A Canyon Deep (2017). It puts a team of scientists out doing research into direct interaction with bad people. They’re out doing ROV work, & there are bad guys who have been dumping waste offshore, & bad things ensue. I’ve also been interested in book series that get to follow a team of scientists or a team of characters over time, & watch how they develop. The next book takes some of the same team to South Africa where again, they are doing science, & they come into contact with some hard actors, this time the legacy of apartheid. They go next to the Galapagos off the shore of Ecuador, & there things go south because of some pirates. The next one features an undersea laboratory, very much like Aquarius, but it’s deployed in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of the Southern End of the Florida Keys. In that case, the mission to the habitat is threatened by political forces. It’s the same core group of people across all four books. They are put into difficult situations, & respond in different ways. That’s the kind of book I’ve always enjoyed reading. I feel these books are perfect for reading on a plane, reading at the beach, or reading a few chapters before you go to sleep at night. I’m not aspiring to great literature. I’m more interested in a fun story that keeps you moving through it. I think some of the best compliments I’ve received were from a friend of mine who sent me a picture of her husband reading, & then she said “This guy never reads!” Now she can’t get him to sleep because he’s reading the book. One of the book covers for “Into A Canyon Deep”, the first book in the Chris Black fiction series written by Dr. James Lindholm. 19. Who is Chris Black, & what is his role in the book series? He’s a scientist who does similar stuff to what I do. His close friend, Mac Johnson, with whom he grew up with. Mac was a Navy SEAL then was injured in combat, had to leave the service, went back to school for an engineering degree, & ends up being an ROV technician in the same group that Chris works. Much of the story of the four books that I’ve written so far is about their friendship, their history, & how together they solve problems. Other people come & go. A little bit like life, there are people that you run into frequently, then there are some that touch your life once & you don’t hear from them again. So, you see those kinds of characters come & go as the adventures unfold. I am about 75% of the way through the fifth book which is going to introduce a similar type of story, but it’s a new set of characters. I’m hoping it will come out sometime in 2027. That’s with a new publisher. It’s a diverse group of people, some are characters, while some are more serious than others. They’re also younger in this case. The new hero, his name is Magnus Gray. He’s had some life experiences that have affected him very early on in his scientific career, so he attacks problems a little differently than a more established scientist would. One of the things I say for sure is that no character in any of my books maps 100% onto any one person. Inevitably some of the attributes of my characters reflect my own perspective or experience I’ve had. I have also had the great joy of working with some real characters over the years. They all show up in different ways in different characters in different parts of the book. Some of their stories show up too. I always attribute those stories to my colleagues in the afterward of the book. I am not Chris Black, nor am I Magnus Gray. There is no Mac Johnson. Many of my colleagues or students have reported seeing parts of themselves in some of the characters. Something I’ve enjoyed is something I informally call revenge fiction. That’s where I if they disappoint me, or are unfavourable to me, a character that relates to them may have something very bad happen to them. I threaten them with that, which is really fun. I haven’t done it yet, but I like to threaten it. 20. Has your career in marine science shaped the way that you approach writing, & if so, how? I think broadly where my career is influenced by some of my stories, the anecdotes that find their way into the stories are often experiences that I have had. The years have accumulated as have the stories. A lot of these stories find their way into fiction as side notes in the story that are fun & interesting. Once I started writing, every place I went, I started to think about what story could be associated with this location. To that extent, my career, where I’ve gone, & the types of experiences I've had, have found themselves in my novels so far. For instance, the book I’m working on now is a two-parter. The first half takes place on an island offshore of Costa Rica called Cocos Island. It’s 400 miles offshore, it’s way out there. It is the place that Michael Crichton identified as the place for Jurassic Park. It’s also the place with the highest density of elasmobranchs in the world. It’s also historically a place back in the 17th & 18th centuries where piracy was happening, & people allegedly buried treasure out there. A gorgeous photograph of Cocos Island, Costa Rica. Credit to scubadivingflamingo.com . 21. What has been your biggest triumph or proudest moment across your entire career? I would definitely answer that differently at different times in my career. From a policy standpoint, going to the White House & helping with that Executive Order was a high point. Diving at Aquarius was also a high point. Getting to travel around the world & work in remote places that most people only get a chance to see on film or on the internet has been a high point. We spoke about helping cancer patients, & helping incarcerated students. The highest point of all, I’m a father to the daughter, & she is one of the things that makes me the proudest. Even though I have a job that could be done 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I compromised, I was able to work around it. I was able to be present for lots of her activities. I missed very few of her soccer games that I coached, dances, or water polo games. When she was 10, we made her a scuba diver. She’s been all over the world with me diving & is now studying to be a scientist herself. To be honest, the highest point in my career is the ability to do that & engage her in it too. It has been rewarding & fun. 22. I’m sure that you have faced just as many challenges & setbacks as you have leaps forward, what has been the biggest hurdle or challenge that you have faced across your career, & how did you overcome it? You don’t always overcome, you learn to work around many things. I tend to say the most impressive thing about me is my list of rejections. I have an impressive list of rejections whether that be grant applications, rejected peer-reviewed articles, & publishers. I was not prepared for how hard it is to get a publisher. The funding climate has changed fundamentally, which has made the type of research I do, which is generally very expensive work offshore with ROV’s, a bit more complicated. We’re still trying to figure out how to deal with that. Thankfully, if funding gets tougher, we have focused work that can be done relatively inexpensively, such as leveraging the living laboratory of Monterey Bay to do projects right there, 20 minutes from campus. We still have money coming in various ways, & we’re making small dollars go further. The fact that we fail far more often than we succeed sounds like a cliché, but it’s absolutely true. Just like anybody else, we’re out there doing science while life is happening to us. People are dying, marriages are falling apart, & people are trying to work through it. 23. What is your advice to new marine scientists, aspiring ocean professionals, & those looking to enter the world of marine fiction? With respect to science, whatever drew you to marine science, cling to it. If it was a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium & you fell in love with otters, cling to that. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll spend the rest of your life working with otters, but remember what drew you to it. Come into science with an open mind. I didn’t enter graduate school to study the landscape ecology of fishes, yet here I’ve spent a career doing it. Keep an open mind, stay motivated by what’s interesting to you, & understand you may go in a wide variety of different directions. The world is full of people with good intentions, but good intentions only bring us so far. I’m a strong advocate for getting into some kind of STEM-based training. In addition to your good intentions, you can bring a real skill set to the table to help solve our problems. If you’re not great at calculus, mathematics, or chemistry, there are different ways to support the marine environment. As for marine fiction, I would say if you have a passion for writing, go for it. Prepare yourself for a challenging endeavour if any kind of fiction is your goal. 24. Do you have any final words about marine science, ocean fiction, your research, or the beauty of the ocean? There’s nothing as impactful to me as the ocean. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in & experience the ocean, I would encourage you to do so. It can be transformative. It’s not always easy, it’s humbling, I’ve nearly been killed in the ocean multiple times because it’s Mother Nature at its finest. I’ve found interaction with the ocean to define my whole life. My interaction with my daughter, my professional career, & much of my fictional interests. Many of the activities I do all happen around the ocean. I think the coastline of California provides a venue for understanding the ocean that is better than many places on the planet. I think despite that, we still need a lot of help in California. It’s a very well-studied place, but we still know very little overall. There’s plenty of work to be done if you’re motivated. A fantastic photograph of Dr. James Lindholm at the controls an ROV named Beagle. Credit to Dr. James Lindholm. Directories / Credits https://www.jameslindholm.com Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A magnificent giant oceanic manta ray, sprawled out in the ocean, along with a female diver. Credit to Citrus Reef. This month’s article series will be discussing the gorgeous region of Phang Nga Bay. Phang Nga bay is a bay on the southern coast of Thailand, between the mainland & Phuket island. It is well known for its small islands dotted around the bay, limestone formations, underwater caves, & mangrove forests. Many divers flock to the area each year, to photograph the marine animals, swim the bay, & take in the surreal beauty around them. There are many areas for swimming, kayaking, snorkelling, & picnicking on the islands in the bay, & on the mainland coastline that borders the bay. It is common for tourists to travel between Phuket, & the Phang Nga, as the drive is approximately 1 hour & 54 minutes under optimal circumstances. Many tourists travelling the coast of Thailand will pass through the area for a day trip, to enjoy the beauty of the area. The entire bay is protected as a marine protected area as a part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. In addition to its beautiful landscape, the island is extremely biodiverse. The bay is filled with many beautiful ecosystems, ranging from mangrove forests to coral reefs. One of the popular creatures of the area, is known as the giant oceanic manta ray. The giant oceanic manta ray is the largest species of ray in the world, with the second largest being the Reef Manta Ray. This species is extremely large as its name implies, getting to the astonishing 30 feet long. Though they are large, they are not very temperamental animals, & are gentle giants of the ocean. They are passive animals, & don’t bother divers unless they are provoked. They have very long tails, & do not have poisonous barbs on them. Manta rays are not venomous, & cannot sting divers. The giant oceanic manta rays are a decent source of eco-tourism for the region, as many people wish to swim with them in a natural setting. In this article, we will be discussing the discovery & life of the giant oceanic manta ray, the mating tactics, techniques, habits, procedures, practices, & strategies of the giant oceanic manta ray, the distribution of the giant oceanic manta ray, & the scientific detailings of the giant oceanic manta ray. With that being said, let us delve into this gentle & fascinating behemoth of the ocean. A gorgeous photograph of a scuba diver & giant oceanic manta ray. Credit to the Garden & Gun Magazine. The Discovery & Life Of The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray Giant Oceanic Manta Ray’s were discovered in 1798, by German Naturalist & Taxonomist, Johann Julius Walbaum. As mentioned in the Introductory paragraph, Giant Ocean Manta Ray’s are able to reach up to 30 feet (9.144 meters). in length. Their maximum weight is approximately 3,600 pounds (1632.933 kilograms). Unfortunately not much is known about their longevity, however they are believed to live up to 45 years old. Manta Ray’s are far more intelligent then most fish species. An example of this is that they are able to create mental maps of their environments using visual cues, & use them to navigate. Additionally, they have some level of self awareness, as when put in front of a mirror, they don’t attack it, or respond to it as if it is another individual. Of all fish, their brains are some of the largest both physically, & relative to their bodies. Their brain’s are very developed as well, with the parts of their brain responsible for learning being especially developed. Giant oceanic manta rays have mild temperaments, & are generally extremely relaxed. They can be rather playful on occasion, & are generally curious creatures. They only become aggressive if provoked, & rarely cause serious issues for humans. Individuals are often territorial, & stay in the same area throughout their life. It is not clear whether or not they will attack other rays in defence of their territory. Individuals are known to congregate when feeding. Manta rays will have a cruising speed of 14.5 miles per hour (23.33549 kilometers per hour), however if faced with a threat, they can swim as fast as 22 miles per hour (23.33549 kilometers per hour). They swim by oscillating their fins up & down, which propels them forward. Depending on fast they wish to swim, they will oscillate their fins faster, or slower. This type of swimming is called undulatory swimming. They are incredibly graceful as well as agile with their swimming, being able to navigate the water column with ease. Similar to sharks, manta rays remain buoyant by storing extra oil in their livers, that weighs less than the water around them. It is currently unknown to science how manta rays sleep. They seem to be in constant motion, gliding through the ocean with a sophisticated ease. This is because in order to absorb oxygen from the water, water has to always be going over their gills. If they stop moving, they begin to suffocate, & eventually pass away. Giant oceanic manta rays are filter feeders, meaning that they feed on microorganisms such as plankton, copepods, decapod larvae, cephalopod larvae, fish larvae, shrimp, & occasionally small fish. They are not cannibalistic at any stage in their lives. They feed by opening their large mouth, & having organisms simply fall into their mouth. Although they are cathemeral, they will consume the most at nighttime. With such a large body weight, they must consume between 55 & 75 pounds of food per day to survive. Due to their massive size, very little is able to predate upon them. The few predators that are able to fight them fairly, are orcas, humans, & large sharks. Giant oceanic manta rays have large diamond shaped bodies with elongated wings, small eyes, wide mouths, ventrally placed gill slits, & are usually black or grey with a white belly. Unfortunately, they are classified as endangered by the IUCN Red List. They were last accessed on November 12th, 2019, & have a population trend listed as decreasing. The Mating Tactics, Techniques, Habits, Procedures, Practices, & Strategies Of The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray Giant oceanic manta rays breed via sexual reproduction, & have 2 distinct sexes. They are not naturally hermaphroditic. Their breeding system is polygamous. Of all the Elasmobranchs, they reproduce the slowest. Both male & female individuals will sexually mature at 8 to 9 years of age. There is a specific breeding season for Manta Ray’s, that being Late December to Mid-April. During breeding season, they will congregate in large gathering’s known as mating balls. Once a female has found a male, they will breed via internal fertilization, in which they will have a sexual union. After this the male will not have any role in the children’s, or the females life. Giant oceanic manta rays are ovoviviparous, meaning that they gestate children in eggs, however they gestate the children inside of the mother. The mother ray will gestate her child for 1 year, & give birth to a single pup. It is rare to have twins, as the children must be a certain size at birth to ensure survival, & there too little room in the mothers womb to comfortably allow for that. After giving birth, the mother will provide no further care to the baby, & the little ray will swim off into the ocean, ready to take on the world. She will wait at 1 to 4 years until she has another child. The Distribution Of The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray This species is found all around the world in both temperate & tropical regions between the 35° Parallel North & the 35° Parallel South. They currently inhabit the Indian, Atlantic, & Pacific Ocean. They are not migratory animals, & will stay in the same areas throughout their entire lives. Giant Oceanic Manta Ray’s inhabit areas as shallow as 10 feet (3.048 meters) & as deep as 3,280.84 feet (1,000.000032 meters). The Scientific Detailings Of The Giant Oceanic Manta Ray Giant Oceanic Manta Ray’s arose during the early Miocene, approximately 23 million years ago. Due to the fact that they have a cartilaginous skeleton instead of a calcified skeleton, it is very difficult for them to fossilize. There are only 3 sediment beds in the world with giant oceanic manta ray fossils, 1 of which is in South Carolina, & 2 of which are in North Carolina. Manta rays, similar to sharks, are known to have remoras attach to their backs. The 2 most common remora species that attach to the manta ray are Remora remora (Common  remora), & Echeneis naucrates (Slender sharksucker). Remoras are not the only species that enjoy hitchhiking with manta rays, as 11 other species of fish have been identified to swim along side the Manta Ray for long distances. Contrary to popular belief, giant oceanic manta rays do not have venomous stingers, & cannot hurt humans in that way. Individuals have very small reduced teeth, that are minimal in the digestive process. The only purpose of these teeth is to direct plankton & water into their mouth. Their phylum is Chordata, meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics all species under the phylum of chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either In adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include, a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal Slits, & a post-anal tail. Their class is Chondrichthyes. This is a class of fish that are primarily composed of cartilage. This class can be compared to the class Osteichthyes, which is a class of fish who are primarily composed of bone. A few universal characteristics for any fish in the class Chondrichthyes is that they all are jawed vertebrates, they have paired fins, paired nares, scales, & a heart with chambers in a series. Their order is Myliobatiformes, which is an order of Batiods. This order comprises of all living rays. Their family is Mobulidae, an order of pelagic rays. The majority of species in this family spend the majority of their time in open ocean, instead of on the ocean floor. Their genus is Mobula, a new genus of ray. This genus contains the 2 largest species of Manta Ray on Earth. Their binomial name is Mobula birostris. A striking photograph of the giant oceanic manta ray in the sunlit sea. Credit to WiseOceans. Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Giant Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Oceana. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://oceana.org/marine-life/giant-manta-ray/ Citation No. 2: “Manta ray brainpower blow other fish out of the water”, Written by Amy Mcdermott, & Published on July 25th, 2017. Published by Oceana. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://oceana.org/blog/manta-ray-brainpower-blows-other-fish-out-water-10/ Citation No. 3: “Giant Manta Ray” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Save our Seas Foundation. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/species/giant-manta-ray Citation No. 4: “All About The Mysterious Giant Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Published on December 28th, 2020. Published by Manta Ray Advocates. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://mantarayadvocates.com/how-do-manta-rays-sleep/ Citation No. 5: “Oceanic Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Last Updated in 2022. Published by the International Union For The Conservation Of Nature. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/198921/214397182 Citation No. 6: “Manta Ray Behaviour”, Written by Hannah Brown, & Published on April 12th, 2023. Published by Sea Paradise. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://www.seaparadise.com/manta-ray-behavior/ Citation No. 7: “Manta Birostris”, Written by Nancy Passarelli & Andrew Piercy, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Florida Museum. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/manta-birostris/ Citation No. 8: “Oceanic Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Manta Trust. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://www.mantatrust.org/mobula-birostris Citation No. 9: “For manta rays, parasitic hitchhikers can be a pain in the rear, study finds”, Written by Elizabeth Claire Alberts, & Published in July, 2021. Published by Monga Bay. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/for-manta-rays-parasitic-hitchhikers-can-be-a-pain-in-the-rear-study-finds/amp/ Citation No. 10: “Giant Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the National Atmospheric & Oceanic Administration. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/giant-manta-ray Citation No. 11: “Giant Manta Ray”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Save Our Seas. Retrieval Date: April 26th, 2024. https://saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/species/giant-manta-ray Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

An idyllic photograph of Isla de la Juventud. Credit to Cuba Travel. In this article, we will be discussing the history of the intriguing cuban island, Isla de la Juventud. The name of the island roughly translates into the Isle of Youth, & Rejuvenation. Isla de la Juventud is an island off the coast of Cuba, owned by the Cuban government. The island is approximately 213.88 nautical miles (396.10576 kilometers or 246.128708 miles) from the mainland North American Continent. It is the second largest island Cuban Island, only second to the main island. The island is approximately 2419.05 square kilometers (934 square miles or 597,760 acres). The island is south of Havana, & is the seventh-largest island in the West Indies as a whole. The official language of the island is Spanish, & tourism is high. Ecologically, the island is covered in Pine forests. The island is mild, & not as tropical as the rest of the Caribbean. The island is incredibly well known for its gorgeous beaches, never-ending nightlife, historic prisons, biodiversity, & its reputation as a pirate hideaway. The coastline of the island is extremely biodiverse, & filled with nature preserves & coral reefs. The coral reefs are very large, & are of the fringing kind. These coral reefs house many interesting creatures, one of the strangest being the Green Moray Eel. We covered this species on the 10th of this month, & the article can be found by typing “Green Moray Eel” into the search function of our website. The history of Isla de la Juventud is extremely intriguing, with a reputation as a pirates hideaway. It spans approximately 135 million years, beginning when Cuba began to form in the late Jurassic. The original indigenous inhabitants of the island are the Ciboney People, & unfortunately, the original culture has not been preserved very well. There is no official group for Ciboney descendants, & the culture is largely considered to be extinct. This was likely due to massive disease epidemics, & pressure from the Arawak & Spanish. This indigenous group is well known for their lack of a large-scale political structure, as well as a lack of governmental oversight. In this article we will be discussing the documented history of Isla de la Juventud, the indigenous aboriginals of Isla de la Juventud, the Most Destructive Natural & Man Caused disasters to affect Isla de la Juventud, & finally the Economic State of Isla de la Juventud. With that being said, let us delve into this Cuban Paradise. The Documented History Of Isla de la Juventud Before Colonization By The Spanish Historical Events From Approximately 135 Million Years Ago Isla de la Juventud as well as the rest of Cuba began forming approximately 135 million years ago, in the late Jurassic. The island as formed by the breakage of Pangea’s coastline, & how some of the coastline broke off then drifted into the area. Historical Events From Approximately 3000 B.C The Ciboney people began migrating to Cuba & the Surrounding islands approximately 5,000 years ago, from mainland America. They likely came via dug out kayak, instead of there being a land bridge. Archeologically, there are 2 major groups or cultures of the Ciboney people. The Ciboney of the northern area of the island, were known as people of the stone. This is due to the fact that their tools were largely made of stone. The Ciboney people of the south were known as the people of snails, as their tools were mainly made of the Strombus Gijas snail that is abundant in southern Cuba. All of their culture were hunters, gatherers, & fishermen. After Colonization By The Spanish Historical Events From The 1500’s After the arrival of Christopher Columbus, pirates began visiting the island to hide treasure & valuables near the coastlines & in the mountains. The first pirate to visit the island was the infamous Jean Francois La Roque, in 1543. The island was not used by the spaniards for much of anything for years. Many more pirates would visit over the years, including John Hawkins in 1565, & Francis Drake in 1586. Francis Drake visited the island many times prior to 1586, & is rumoured to have buried many valuables along the coast. Historical Events From The 1600’s The island was officially conquered in 1627 by Captain Hernando de Pedroso. Pirates would continue using the island in this century, with Pieter Hayn using the island for shelter in 1628. A year later in 1629, pirate Cornelius Cornelizoon Hol used the island as a station to attack Havana. He would repeat the action in 1638, in order to attack naval fleets being sent from South America. At least 6 more pirates would visit the island in the later half of the 1600’s. Historical Events From The 1700’s Pirates continued to regularly visit the island into the early 1700’s. The Spanish Earl of Ricia attempted to colonize the island, however he failed & had to return back to Spain. This was despite the island having an official owner, Domingo Duarte. The first official census was conducted in 1787, & 300 inhabitants were accounted for. In the same year, a small settlement was formed in modern day Nueva Gerona. Historical Events From The 1800’s Ex-soldiers began being deployed to the island from Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1831. This would help the locals ward off pirates who harassed the island. The first church on the island was constructed in 1847, & was named Nuestra señora de los Dolores. 2 elementary schools were also constructed, along with a hospital & a prison. This is when the island began to flourish, & truly began to have a community. Migration to the town exploded, & approximately 14 soldiers settled nearby the new Nueva Gerona. Barracks were built in 1850, & more soldiers came. The island was called the island of deportees by the Spanish Government, as they would deport those who desired political independence to the isle. Its name would soon change to the Isle of Pines, & would remain so until 1972. Cuba gained independence from the Spanish in 1898, & so did Isla de la Juventud. The next census occurred in 1899 & accounted for approximately 3,200 inhabitants. After Becoming A Part of Cuba Historical Events From The 1900’s Cuba officially became its own country in 1902, however Americans didn’t recognize that Isla de la Juventud belonged to Cuba until 1925. Approximately 500 American families moved to the region after the independence movement, as they saw many economic prospects on the isle. In 1913, there were approximately American 1,600 residents, along with the 3,200 Spanish residents. These residents increased the economic influence of the island by beginning farms, & fisheries services. In the Hay-Quesada treaty of 1925, the United States officially recognized that the island belonged to Cuba. Many U.S citizens would leave as a result of this, selling their land & stakes on the isle. In 1931, a prison named the Model Prison was constructed with the capacity for 6,000 inmates. The prison had horrific conditions, & 532 deaths were registered with in the first 4 years. A book was written by an ex-inmate who was imprisoned at the jail, called “Model Prison”. Many political prisoners were held at this island, & in World War 2, it was used for captured Japanese, Italian, & German soldiers. The prison was closed in 1967, & was legally declared a national monument in 1972. Modernly, the island has a population of 83,583 humans. The Indigenous Aboriginals Of Isla de la Juventud The Ciboney People Of Isla de la Juventud The Ciboney indigenous peoples lived all throughout the Caribbean. They lived throughout Cuba & as well as the greater & lesser Antilles. They were also known as the Siboney. Their language was unknown & it was a language was an isolate. They often stayed out of the way & lived on the coast lines. Their ambitions in relation to war & peace are unknown. They did not practice agriculture to our knowledge, instead opting to hunt & gather their supplies. Fishing was also popular for gathering food. They did not write anything down, so extremely little is known about them as the majority of them were gone before the Europeans arrived. Some of their primary sources of food were shellfish, turtles, & certain available island rodents. They also lacked in arts such as pottery & weaving. They may have originated from southern America in the areas of modern day Venezuela. If they were, they would have migrated to up to Cuba. Alternatively, they may have originated from the southern areas of modern day Florida. However, they did not have very apt maritime technologies. The Most Destructive Natural & Man Caused Disasters To Affect Isla De La Juventud Disaster No. 1: Hurricane Flora of 1963 Hurricane Flora was one of the deadliest Hurricanes to ever affect Cuba. It formed on September 26th, 1963 as a tropical storm in the Hurricane Convergence zone. At its peak, it reached Category 3 status. Its highest wind speed was approximately 149 miles per hour (239.792 kilometers per hour). Unfortunately, due to advisories not being sent out at the proper time, very few people had the opportunity to prepare for the hurricane. Hurricane Flora levelled At least 6,500 houses, & claimed the lives of at least 7,180 people. It cost approximately 528 million U.S.D to rebuild from, & forever scarred many lives. Disaster No. 2: 1932 Camagüey Hurricane The 1932 Camagüey hurricane is considered to be one of if not the most devastating hurricane to affect Cuba. The 1932 Camagüey Hurricane was a category 5 level hurricane that lasted from October 30th to November 14th of 1932. It caused a severe storm surge, & caused waves to reach 30 feet (9.144 meters) high. Additionally, it caused winds as quick as 175 miles per hour (281.635 kilometers per hour). It claimed the lives of approximately 3,103 people, & cost 40 million U.S.D in damages. The Economic State Of Isla Juventud The economic state of Isla de la Juventud is relatively stable. Their largest sources of revenue are tourism, fishing, citrus production, & grapefruit production. The Covid-19 Pandemic did heavily affect the economic development of the island, however it slowly has been recovering. Due to economic turnout not being as high as expected, the Cuban President began regularly visiting the province in 2024, to seek solutions for their development. He continues to actively tour various provinces to seek growth strategies & provide guidance to the labor forces on the island. A magnificent photograph of a natural coastal pool on the coast of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. Credit to Claire Boobbyer. Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “History”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://isladelajuventud-cuba.com/history.html Citation No. 2: “Isla de la Juventud Island, Cuba”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Trip Cuba. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://www.tripcuba.org/isla-de-la-juventud Citation No. 3: “1963- Hurricane Flora”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the University of Rhode Island. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://hurricanescience.org/history/storms/1960s/flora/ Citation No. 4: “Hurricane Flora 1963”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by University of the West Indies. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://www.uwi.edu/ekacdm/node/159 Citation No. 5:  “Monthly Weather Review”, Written by Unknown, & Published in August 1932. Published by the National Atmospheric & Oceanic Administration. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/mwreview/1932.pdf Citation No. 6: “Irma is first Cat 5 hurricane to make landfall in Cuba since killer storm of 1932”, Written by Mimi Whitefield, & Published on September 10th, 2017. Published by the Miami Herald. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article172355037.html Citation No. 7: “Cuban President Checks Economic Development Of The Isle Of Youth”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Radio Habana Cuba. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2023-05-23/cuban-president-checks-economic-development-of-the-isle-of-youth Citation No. 8: “Diaz-Canel visits sites of Economic Interest in Isla de la Juventud”, Written by Ed Newman, & Published on February 12th, 2024. Retrieval Date: April 23rd, 2024. https://www.radiohc.cu/en/noticias/nacionales/346864-diaz-canel-visits-sites-of-economic-interest-in-isla-de-la-juventud Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Pitfire Artisan Pizza Olivenbaum Music Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A vibrant photograph of Isla de la Juventud's luscious coastline. Credit to Trip Advisor. In this article, we will be discussing the oceans surrounding Isla de la Juventud, an island off the coast of Cuba. The name of the island roughly translates into the Isle of Youth, & Rejuvenation. Isla de la Juventud is an island off the coast of Cuba, owned by the Cuban government. The island is approximately 213.88 nautical miles (396.10576 kilometers or 246.128708 miles) from the mainland North American Continent. It is the second largest island Cuban Island, only second to the main island. The island is approximately 2419.05 square kilometers (934 square miles or 597,760 acres). The island is south of Havana, & is the seventh-largest island in the West Indies as a whole. The official language of the island is Spanish, & tourism is high. Ecologically, the island is covered in Pine forests. The island is mild, & not as tropical as the rest of the Caribbean. The island is incredibly well known for its gorgeous beaches, never-ending nightlife, historic prisons, biodiversity, & its reputation as a pirate hideaway. The coastline of the island is extremely biodiverse, & filled with nature preserves & coral reefs. The coral reefs are very large, & are of the fringing kind. These coral reefs house many interesting creatures, one of the strangest being the Green Moray Eel. We covered this species on the 10th of this month, & the article can be found by typing “Green Moray Eel” into the search function of our website. Isla de la Juventud sits comfortably in the Atlantic Ocean, nearby Cuba. It has many seagrass meadows, & gorgeous underwater landscapes that hundreds of divers flock to each other. The island is extremely popular amongst marine life enthusiasts, divers, swimmers, & snorkelers. In this article, we will discuss the salinity, tides, temperatures, marine geography, & depth of the oceans surrounding Isla de la Juventud, the most prominent marine ecosystems of Isla de la Juventud, & the documented marine flora, as well as fauna, of Isla de la Juventud,. With that being said, let us delve into the gorgeous second largest island off the coast off the coast of Cuba. The Salinity, Tides, Temperatures, Marine Geography, & Depth Of The Oceans Surrounding Isla de la Juventud Unfortunately, the Salinity around Isla de la Juventud is unmeasured. The Salinity for the Gulf Of Mexico is usually 36 to 37.5 parts per thousand, or practical salinity units. The salinity nearby the island is likely to be close to the number. Salinity is measured in 1000 gram increments of water, & for every 1000 grams of water, a certain amount is salt. This measurement is called Parts Per Thousand, or Practical Salinity Units. There are not many brine pools close by the island, or major salt deposits. The tidal charts for the Isle can be found on many websites, a few of which are: https://www.tideschart.com , https://www.myforecast.com , & https://tideking.com . The oceanic temperature charts can be found on similar websites, such as: https://www.tideschart.com , & https://seatemperature.info . The yearly average temperature is approximately 27.733333333333° Celsius (81.9199999999994048° Fahrenheit). Using a wetsuit guide, the majority of people do not require a wetsuit to swim in water at this temperature, & should use a standard swim suit. Though there is not very much pollution, there are still venomous jellyfish around the island which can cause a hazard. The area is still considered safe for swimming, however swimmers should stay vigilant for jellyfish, as well as sharks. Although sharks aren’t very dangerous, swimmers should still avoid provoking them. There is a nature reserve on the island, which includes the coastal area around it. This is the only nearby Marine Protected Area at the time of publishing. Snorkelling & Scuba diving are incredibly popular around the island, as the area has lively coral reefs. Kayaking & Surfing are also fairly popular, & are done all around the island. The most popular beaches for these purposes are as follows: Playa Larga, Playa Bibijagua, Playa del Estudiante, & Playa Punta de Piedra. The Most Prominent Marine Ecosystems Of Isla de la Juventud Ecosystem Type No. 1: Fringing Coral Reefs As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, the island has many fringing coral reefs around it. Coral reefs are considered to be on of the main hubs for all marine life, & used for practically everything. The type of coral reefs around the island are fringing instead of barrier, meaning that they are directly against the island, & do not have a section of ocean of ocean as a barrier between them & the island. Coral reefs are mass structures of coral polyps, typically located along the ocean floor. These coral reefs act as a breeding ground, hunting ground, spawning ground, & shelter. There are various different kinds of coral reefs, the most important of which are atoll, barrier, & fringing. The coral reefs in the bay are of the fringing kind, meaning that they grow directly against the shoreline, without any kind of barrier. The coral reefs of the island are shallow, & are positively enraptured with marine life. It is unfortunately not clear what species of coral inhabit Isla de la Juventud. Ecosystem Type No. 2: Mangrove Forests Approximately 20 percent of all forested areas across Cuba are designated Mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are coastal forests that grow in brackish or saltwater, that create a unique ecosystem for both terrestrial & aquatic organisms. These areas are incredibly important to fish eating mammals. The mangrove trees can be found along saltwater or brackish rivers, & along coastlines. There are approximately 4 different species of mangrove tree found on the island, those being Rhizophora mangle (Red Mangrove), Avicenia germinans (Black Mangrove), Laguncularia racemosa (White Buttonwood), & Conocarpus erectus (Buttonwood Mangrove). Ecosystem Type No. 3: Intertidal Zones Intertidal zones are located along the coastlines, & are exposed to air at low tide. These zones are where the ocean meets the shoreline, & contrary to popular perception, are absolutely teeming with oceanic life. From crabs to bivalves, this ecosystem has a unique variety of marine life, as well as a unique variety of features. These zones generally have species from the phyla Echinodermata, Arthropoda, & Mollusca in them. Additionally, these zones may have tide pools. The Documented Marine Flora Of Isla de la Juventud Unfortunately, there is very little public information about the algae or seagrasses of Isla de la Juventud. For this reason, we are going to dedicate this section to delving into the Mangrove Trees of the island. Mangrove Tree No. 1: Rhizophora Mangle (Red Mangrove) Rhizophora mangle is a species of mangrove, found in estuaries & mangrove forests. The tree is well known for having aerial roots, meaning that its roots are exposed to air at the trees maturity. The tree has a very low salt tolerance, & is able to withstand fairly high temperatures. This species is distributed in both brackish water & freshwater. They are not able to withstand cold temperatures very well. Individual trees are able to grow up to 80 feet under proper circumstances. The bark of the tree is either bright red or gray, & their flowers are small, yellow, & bell shaped. Mangrove Tree No. 2: Avicenia Germinans (Black Mangrove) Black mangrove is a tree popularly found in the topics, & is able to get up to 61 feet tall. Though they are able to reach such astounding heights, they usually do not surpass 50 feet. Unlike red mangrove, they do not have aerial roots. They are commonly planted along waterways to protect the natural landscape from boat wakes, hurricanes, & wind. Their bark is a dark green or gray colour, & their flowers have a yellow center & four white leaves. Mangrove Tree No. 3: Laguncularia Racemosa (White Mangrove) Laguncularia racemosa is a species of mangrove tree commonly found along the coasts of North & South America. It is named white buttonwood for the fact that it has special glands that cause its leaves to appear white. The tree is able to reach heights of 20 feet at most. Their bark colour is a pale brown, & their flowers are on long green stems, with small white petals extending off to the side. Mangrove Tree No. 4: Conocarpus Erectus (Buttonwood Mangrove) Buttonwood Mangrove is a species of mangrove tree commonly found along the coastline of Florida & Cuba. The tree is able to reach dimensions of 40 feet tall, & 20 feet wide. The tree is usually asymmetrical. The bark of this tree is smooth in texture, & pale grey in colour. The flowers of the tree are small & green, being at least half an inch (1.27 centimeters) in diameter. The Documented Marine Fauna Of Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud is without a doubt one of the most biodiverse islands of Cuba. Using a platform called iNaturalist, a list of marine species that inhabit the island has been compiled. The link to this list is attached below, & is categorized by taxonomic group. https://www.inaturalist.org/places/isla-de-la-juventud#taxon=47178 An enchanting photograph of Isla de la Juventud's coastline. Credit to vistarcuba.org . Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Wetsuit thickness & temperature guide”, Written By Mark Evans, & Published On April 24th, 2023, at 3:05 PM. Published By Scuba Divers Magazine. Retrieval Date: April 20th, 2024. https://www.scubadivermag.com/wetsuit-thickness-and-temperature-guide/#Scuba_diving_wetsuits Citation No. 2: “Beaches on Isla de la Juventud”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Cuban Travel Agency. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.cubantravelagency.org/beaches-on-the-isla-de-la-juventud Citation No. 3: “Beaches on Isla de la Juventud”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Trip Cuba. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.tripcuba.org/beaches-in-isla-de-la-juventud Citation No. 4: “Rhizophora Mangle”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RHMA2 Citation No. 5: “Rhizophora Mangle” Written by Melina Takvorian, & Published in 2022. Published by Animal Diversity Web. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rhizophora_mangle/ Citation No. 6: “Red Mangrove: Rhizophora Mangle”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the National Wildlife Federation. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Red-Mangrove Citation No. 7: “Avicennia Germinans”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=AVGE Citation No. 8: “Concocarpus Erectus: Buttonwood”, Written by Edward F. Gilman & Dennis G. Watson, & Published in 1993. Published by the Southern Group of State Foresters. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/tree_fact_sheets/conerea.pdf Citation No. 9: “Laguncularia Racemosa” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Retrieval Date: April 21st, 2024. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LARA2 Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Pitfire Artisan Pizza Olivenbaum Music Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

Today’s nautical chart is an ancient 185-year-old map of Australia & Tasmania. Australia was first recorded in European records by Dutch Captain Willem Janszoon, who was sailing aboard the Duyfken . Complete maps of the continent did not exist until the 1810’s, though partial maps were available before then. The map is moderately sized at 31.5 inches wide & 22 inches long. Shockingly for its time, the chart contains many vibrant colours such as pink, blue, teal, yellow, & orange. It contains numerous place names of different coastal settlements & towns along Australia, as well as information about local reefs, islands, & shoals. In today’s article, we are going to examine this antique map, discuss it, & perform an analysis of it. With that being said, let’s delve into the warm tropical waters of Australia! The Chart A striking antique nautical chart of Australia & Tasmania designed & published by James Wyld in 1841. Credit to raremaps.com . This chart focuses on Australia & Tasmania. Tasmania was referred to as Van Diemen’s Land, from 1642 to 1856. It was named after Anthony van Diemen, who was governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1636 to 1645. Tasmania was officially discovered by Abel Tasman under the commission of Van Diemen, & named the island in his honour. The chart was produced in London, England. It showcases many islands, shoals, & even the shipwreck of the HMS Pandora in addition to the primary landmasses. The HMS Pandora was a Porcupine-class British Naval Vessel used for hunting down the mutineers aboard the HMS Bounty. The ship wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791, with 78 of the 134 stationed aboard returning home safely, & the rest suffering a watery doom. Knowing the locations of the local shoals & islands would have been significant to any sailor of the era not meeting the same fate as the crew aboard the HMS Pandora. In addition to information about local shoals, it also features information on the local topography with comments such as “Cliff goes from 40 feet to 60 feet high”, “Sandy hills sprinkled with vegetation”, & “Very low coast thinly wooded”. It showcases dozens of place names from all over Australia & Tasmania. In Australia, it includes the 18 counties in New South Wales, & the 14 counties near Perth, then referred to as Western Australia. South Australia is depicted in the chart, though Victoria appears as an unorganized territory called “Australia Felix”. Tasmania is depicted with 9 counties on its eastern side. The map uses information gathered from early expeditions into Australia’s interior, particularly in its depiction of what is now Victoria, then referred to as “Australia Felix”, & the southern areas of New South Wales. Some of the results hail from the early expeditions of Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, a Scottish surveyor & explorer known for his exploration of Australia. The chart is in fantastic condition for its time, with no creases, burns, yellowing, or brown spots. An Analysis Of The Chart This chart was designed & produced by James Wyld the Elder, a British Geographer & Cartographer. Born in 1790, Wyld Sr. began his career as a mapmaker under William Faden. When Faden retired, Wyld Sr. took over, acquiring many plates in the process. He often signed his work “Successor to Faden”, which can be used when attempting to distinguish his maps from his sons. He was one of the most prolific mapmakers of the era, & was named geographer to King George IV, William IV, & HRH the Duke of York. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830, the same year his son took over his publishing house. Unfortunately, James Wyld the Elder passed away at the age of 46 on October 14th, 1836, as a result of overwork. His son, also named James Wyld, took up the business following his passing, & would go on to be Geographer to Queen Victoria, design a globe attraction 19 meters in diameter which was placed in Leicester Square, & have a successful career in Parliament. Interestingly, this chart was published as part of a series of maps of Australia. This series, published by Wyld’s Publishing House, began in 1833, & gradually showcased more information as more expeditions were launched into the interior & along the coastline. It is of great historical importance, & certainly played a role in the rapid development of Australia. This chart was manufactured primarily for civilian use. What it does depict is fairly accurate, though the majority of the Australian interior is left blank. Upon reviewing the quality, the publishing house, & time that the map was manufactured in, this chart was most likely manufactured using lithography. Lithography is a method of printing that arose in the 1820s, & remained the most popular method of printing in both color & grayscale until the early 1960s, when more efficient methods became available. Although it has existed since the mid-1790s, it took a long time to gain popularity in Europe due to technical difficulties, & only began gaining commercial popularity in the early 1820s. It is still widely used for certain kinds of printing, such as fine art printing today; however, digital printing is far more common. In the lithographic method, the artist will draw directly onto a printing surface, such as zinc or copper, until they are satisfied with the drawing. After this, the surface will be covered with a chemical etch, which will bond it to the surface. With this process, the blank areas will attract moisture to the plate & repel the lithographic ink, while the areas that are drawn on will hold the ink. Water is then wiped onto the unpainted areas to help prevent the ink from deviating. After the image is inked, the paper is laid over it & covered with a tympan, & the tympan is pressed down. Finally, these materials pass through the scraper bar of the litho-press. Afterward, an exact copy of what was supposed to be printed is revealed. It is extremely useful for making high-resolution prints in high quantities. A modern photograph of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. This photograph depicts Battery Point, Sandy Bay, the city of Hobart, & kunanyi / Mount Wellington. Credit to Loic Le Guilly. Directories / Credits All credit for this map analyzed today goes to Rare Maps, a California rare & antique maps store. To purchase this chart, antique atlases, or other cartographic objects, please visit www.raremaps.com . To be clear, this is not an advertisement for Rare Maps, as we do not have a partnership with them. Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

I. Abstract Coral Reef ecosystems support a wide variety of marine organisms and play a crucial role in the life cycles of many species, including sea turtles. This is because they provide habitat, food, and a breeding ground to a significant percentage of marine species. This paper focuses on the relationship between juvenile sea turtles and coral reef ecosystems. Juvenile sea turtles contribute to marine ecosystem balance and form an important link in ocean food webs. As they mature, these keystone species help maintain healthy coral reefs and seagrass beds. Additionally, their survival to adulthood ensures the continuation of populations that transport nutrients. This study reviews research articles to understand how coral reef ecosystems affect juvenile sea turtle survival, exploring the ecological relationship between the two species. Coral reefs provide shelter for juvenile turtles, while turtles help control overgrowing algae and seagrass that may otherwise harm coral health. Understanding this relationship is important as coral reef ecosystems around the world are increasingly threatened by climate change, coral bleaching, pollution, and human disturbance. If reef habitats decline, the juvenile sea turtles that depend on them may lose critical shelter and feeding grounds during a vulnerable stage of their development. Studying how coral reefs support juvenile turtles can therefore provide insight into the broader ecological connections that sustain marine biodiversity. By examining existing research on these interactions, this paper highlights the importance of protecting coral reef ecosystems to support both sea turtle populations and the complex marine communities that depend on them.   II. Introduction Coral reefs are among the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth, supporting a remarkable variety of marine life. Although they cover less than one percent of the ocean floor, coral reefs provide habitat for approximately twenty-five percent of all marine species. These ecosystems are formed by corals, which are colonial marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Cnidaria and the class Anthozoa. Individual coral polyps secrete calcium carbonate, gradually building the hard structures that form reef systems over time. The complex physical structure of coral reefs creates shelter, feeding grounds, and breeding areas for numerous marine organisms, making them essential for maintaining marine biodiversity and ecosystem stability.   Sea turtles are among the many marine species that interact closely with coral reef ecosystems. These large marine reptiles play important roles in maintaining the health and balance of ocean habitats. Different sea turtle species rely on a variety of marine environments throughout their life cycles, including open oceans, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. For example, the Hawksbill Sea Turtle is strongly associated with coral reef habitats, where it feeds primarily on sponges and other reef organisms. Similarly, the Green Sea Turtle contributes to the maintenance of seagrass ecosystems by grazing on marine vegetation. Through their feeding behaviours and movement between habitats, sea turtles influence nutrient distribution and help maintain the balance of marine ecosystems.   One of the most critical periods in a sea turtle’s life cycle occurs during the juvenile stage. During this period, sea turtles transition from early oceanic habitats to more active foraging environments. As they grow in size, juvenile turtles begin establishing feeding territories and must locate reliable sources of food and shelter. However, this stage is also one of the most vulnerable phases of their lives, as juveniles face numerous threats from both natural predators and human activities such as boat collisions, bycatch in fishing gear, and plastic pollution. Coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs may provide important feeding areas and shelter that help juvenile turtles survive this vulnerable stage. Understanding how coral reef ecosystems support turtles during this stage is therefore important for studying juvenile sea turtle survival.   III. Life Cycle and Juvenile Development in Sea Turtles  Sea turtles pass through five distinct stages during their life cycle: hatching, juvenile development, foraging, mating, and nesting. Among these phases, the juvenile stage represents a key transitional period in which turtles move from the open ocean to coastal feeding habitats. The life cycle begins when female sea turtles lay eggs on sandy nesting beaches, where hatchlings later emerge and make their first journey toward the ocean. After hatching, young sea turtles typically wait until nightfall before making their way to the water in order to reduce the risk of predation. Hatchlings often orient themselves by moving toward the natural light reflecting off the ocean horizon. Once they reach the water, waves carry them several metres offshore, after which they begin an intense swimming period that can last for nearly twenty hours as they move toward deeper ocean waters.   After emerging from their nests on sandy beaches, hatchling sea turtles enter the ocean and begin a period often referred to as the “lost years.” During this time, young turtles drift with ocean currents and remain in pelagic, or open-ocean, environments. They feed on floating organisms such as plankton and small invertebrates while avoiding numerous predators. As sea turtles grow larger, many species gradually move away from pelagic environments and begin to occupy coastal habitats such as coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and shallow lagoons. This transition marks the beginning of the juvenile stage, when turtles develop more active foraging behaviours and rely on productive coastal ecosystems for food and shelter.   Juvenile sea turtles represent a developmental stage in which turtles continue growing and begin to establish more stable feeding patterns. During this period, turtles increase significantly in size and strength while learning to forage more efficiently within coastal environments. Unlike hatchlings that drift with ocean currents, juvenile turtles actively search for food and suitable habitats. Their diet varies depending on the species, but may include algae, seagrass, sponges, and small invertebrates found in coastal ecosystems. As juveniles mature, they gradually develop the behaviours and physical capabilities needed to survive independently in these environments. Coastal habitats play a critical role during this stage because they provide both nourishment and protection. Ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and shallow lagoons offer abundant food sources while also providing shelter from predators. The complex structures of coral reefs create hiding spaces where juvenile turtles can avoid predators such as sharks and large fish. Because juvenile turtles are still growing and remain vulnerable to many threats, the availability of healthy coastal habitats strongly influences their survival and development.   IV. Importance of Coral Reefs for Juvenile Turtles Coral Reefs are amongst the most biologically productive ecosystems despite occurring in nutrient-poor waters. Their productivity is primarily credited to the symbiotic relationship that reef-building corals have with the photosynthetic algae zooxanthellae. Through this mutualistic relationship, corals obtain energy produced via photosynthesis while providing algae with shelter and nutrients, creating an efficient system that supports rapid growth and reef construction.    After entering coral tissues, zooxanthellae perform photosynthesis using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and dissolved nutrients from the surrounding water. Through this process, the algae produce organic compounds such as glucose, glycerol, and amino acids. A substantial portion of these products is transferred directly to the coral host, providing the majority of the coral’s metabolic energy. This steady energy supply allows corals to grow, reproduce, and build calcium carbonate skeletons that form the structural foundation of coral reefs.   In return, the coral provides the algae with a protected environment and access to metabolic waste products such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen compounds, which the algae use for photosynthesis and growth. This efficient recycling of nutrients allows coral reefs to maintain prominent levels of productivity even in waters that are otherwise low in available nutrients.   The energy generated through this symbiotic system not only supports individual coral colonies but also fuels the broader reef ecosystem. Rapid coral growth and reef-building create complex three-dimensional habitats that support thousands of marine species, making coral reefs one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth.   In addition to symbiosis, coral reef ecosystems sustain high productivity through efficient internal nutrient cycling. Organic matter produced by corals, algae, and other reef organisms is rapidly consumed by fish, invertebrates, and microorganisms within the reef community. Waste products generated by these organisms, including nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, are subsequently broken down by bacteria and other microbes. These nutrients are then reabsorbed by primary producers such as algae and symbiotic zooxanthellae, allowing them to continue photosynthetic production. This rapid recycling of nutrients minimizes the loss of essential compounds to surrounding waters and enables coral reefs to maintain high biological productivity even in oligotrophic, or nutrient-poor, marine environments.    The high productivity and structural complexity of coral reef ecosystems also make them important developmental habitats for juvenile sea turtles. The abundance of algae, sponges, and reef-associated invertebrates supported by reef productivity provides critical food resources for young turtles as they grow and develop. In addition, the complex three-dimensional structure of coral reefs provides shelter and refuge from predators, allowing juvenile turtles to forage and rest within protected habitats. Coral reefs and other shallow coastal ecosystems therefore function as important feeding and refuge areas for many marine turtle species during their juvenile life stages before they migrate to other marine habitats as adults.   Coral reef ecosystems are essential developmental habitats for many juvenile sea turtles after they leave the open ocean. Following the early pelagic stage, many young turtles migrate toward coastal environments where reefs provide abundant food and structural refuge. These nearshore habitats allow juveniles to forage more efficiently and avoid predators while they continue to grow. Research suggests that juvenile sea turtles may spend several years to more than a decade within these developmental habitats before reaching maturity and joining adult breeding populations. The availability of productive reef habitats during this period is therefore critical to the long-term survival of sea turtle populations.   The high biological productivity of coral reefs supports diverse food resources that are essential for juvenile turtle growth. Reef ecosystems sustain dense populations of algae, sponges, molluscs, and crustaceans that serve as primary food sources for many turtle species. For example, hawksbill sea turtles primarily feed on reef sponges, which can make up more than 70% of their diet, while juvenile green sea turtles commonly graze on algae and seagrasses found near reef systems. Access to these nutrient-rich food sources allows juveniles to increase body mass and energy reserves during critical growth stages.   The broader ecological importance of coral reefs further highlights their role in supporting juvenile turtle populations. Although coral reefs occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor, they support approximately 25% of all marine species, making them one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. This biodiversity creates complex food webs and habitat structures that benefit many reef-associated organisms, including developing sea turtles. However, coral reefs are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, and coastal development, which may reduce the availability of critical habitats for juvenile turtles.   V. Threats to Coral Reef Habitats Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly threatened by a range of environmental and human-driven pressures that have accelerated reef degradation worldwide. Rising ocean temperatures caused by global climate change represent one of the most significant threats to coral reefs. When ocean temperatures rise beyond normal seasonal limits, corals experience physiological stress that disrupts their symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae. As a result, the corals expel these algae, causing a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Because zooxanthellae provide the majority of the coral’s metabolic energy through photosynthesis, prolonged bleaching can weaken or kill coral colonies if normal conditions do not return.   In addition to climate-driven bleaching, human activities along coastal regions have further contributed to the decline of coral reef ecosystems. Pollution from agricultural runoff, sewage discharge, and plastic waste can introduce harmful chemicals and excess nutrients into reef environments. These pollutants may stimulate the growth of algae that compete with corals for space and light, ultimately reducing coral growth and survival. Coastal development and land clearing also increase sediment runoff into nearby waters, which can smother coral colonies and reduce the sunlight necessary for photosynthesis. Over time, these combined pressures can significantly degrade reef habitats that support a wide range of marine organisms, including juvenile sea turtles.   Overfishing and destructive fishing practices have also contributed to the degradation of coral reef ecosystems. Certain fishing techniques, such as blast fishing and cyanide fishing, directly damage coral structures by breaking apart reef formations or poisoning reef organisms. Even less destructive fishing methods can disrupt the balance of reef ecosystems when fish populations are heavily depleted. Many reef fish play essential roles in maintaining ecological stability, particularly herbivorous fish that graze on algae. When these fish populations decline due to overfishing, algae can grow rapidly and outcompete corals for space and sunlight, further weakening reef systems.   The loss of coral reefs has significant consequences for marine biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Because reef systems support a sizeable proportion of marine species, their degradation can lead to widespread declines in fish, invertebrates, and other reef-associated organisms. Coral reefs provide complex physical structures that serve as habitat, breeding grounds, and feeding areas for many marine organisms. As reef structures break down and biodiversity declines, the intricate food webs and ecological interactions that sustain reef ecosystems become increasingly unstable.   For juvenile sea turtles, the decline of coral reef habitats may reduce the availability of critical food sources and protective shelter during an important stage of their development. Reef ecosystems provide access to algae, sponges, and small invertebrates that support turtle growth while also offering structural refuge from predators. When coral reefs are damaged or lost, these feeding grounds and shelter areas may become less abundant or disappear entirely. As a result, juvenile sea turtles may face increased competition for resources and greater exposure to predators, which could ultimately reduce their chances of surviving to adulthood.     VI. Discussion The findings explored throughout this paper highlight the strong ecological connection between coral reef ecosystems and the developmental success of juvenile sea turtles. While sea turtles occupy a wide range of marine habitats throughout their lives, the juvenile stage represents a particularly sensitive transition in which individuals shift from open-ocean environments to coastal feeding grounds. Coral reefs often serve as important developmental habitats during this phase because they provide a combination of structural refuge and abundant biological resources. Unlike the relatively sparse environments of the open ocean, reef ecosystems contain complex physical structures and diverse communities of organisms that allow juvenile turtles to find both food and protection within a relatively concentrated area. One important factor that makes coral reefs suitable juvenile habitats is their three-dimensional structural complexity. The branching corals, crevices, and reef frameworks create sheltered microhabitats that can reduce predation risk for smaller marine organisms, including young turtles. Juvenile sea turtles are still developing swimming strength and foraging efficiency, making them more vulnerable to predators compared to adults. The physical architecture of coral reefs can therefore function as a natural refuge, allowing juveniles to rest, forage, and grow while remaining partially protected from larger predators such as sharks and large predatory fish. In addition to structural protection, coral reefs support a wide range of organisms that form the dietary base for many juvenile turtles. Reef environments contain dense communities of algae, sponges, tunicates, and small invertebrates, which are consumed by species such as green turtles and hawksbill turtles during their juvenile stages. These food resources are not evenly distributed across marine ecosystems, meaning that reef-associated habitats may significantly influence juvenile growth rates and overall health. Access to nutrient-rich feeding grounds during this developmental period can help turtles build energy reserves that support migration, maturation, and eventual reproduction later in life. However, the dependence of juvenile turtles on reef habitats also highlights the broader ecological risks associated with coral reef degradation. Many reef systems around the world are experiencing increasing stress from climate change, ocean warming, coral bleaching events, coastal pollution, and destructive fishing practices. As coral cover declines and reef structures break down, the ecological functions that support marine biodiversity may also weaken. Reduced habitat complexity can lead to lower species diversity and fewer available feeding opportunities, potentially limiting the resources available to juvenile turtles during critical growth stages. The relationship between coral reef ecosystems and juvenile sea turtle development, therefore, illustrates the interconnected nature of marine conservation challenges. Protecting sea turtle populations cannot be addressed solely through measures such as nesting beach protection or fisheries management. Instead, it also requires maintaining the health of the ecosystems that support turtles throughout their life cycle. Coral reefs represent one of the most important of these systems, acting as productive coastal habitats that support not only turtles but thousands of other marine species. Understanding these ecological relationships helps emphasize that conservation strategies must operate at the level of entire ecosystems, rather than focusing on individual species alone.     VII. Conclusion Coral reef ecosystems play an important role in supporting the survival and development of juvenile sea turtles. As turtles transition from pelagic environments to coastal habitats, reefs provide productive feeding grounds and structurally complex environments that support growth and reduce vulnerability to predators. These conditions make coral reefs valuable developmental habitats during a critical stage of the sea turtle life cycle. At the same time, the dependence of juvenile turtles on reef habitats highlights the broader ecological connections within marine ecosystems. Healthy coral reefs sustain diverse biological communities and food webs that support a wide range of species, including developing sea turtles. When reef ecosystems decline, the ecological functions that support these organisms may also be disrupted. As coral reefs continue to face increasing pressure from climate change, pollution, and unsustainable human activities, protecting these ecosystems becomes increasingly important. Conserving coral reef habitats can help maintain the environmental conditions necessary for juvenile sea turtle survival while also supporting the stability and biodiversity of marine ecosystems as a whole.   VIII. References 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2024, December).  Why are coral reefs important? https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coralreef-climate.html 2. Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. (n.d.).  Corals and sea anemones (Anthozoa). https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/corals-and-sea-anemones-anthozoa 3. Coral Reef Alliance. (n.d.).  How reefs are made. https://coral.org/en/coral-reefs-101/how-reefs-are-made/ 4. World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.).  Sea turtle . https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/sea-turtle 5. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (n.d.).  Hawksbill turtle. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/hawksbill-turtle 6. Florida Museum of Natural History. (n.d.).  Tell me about: The importance of seagrass meadows to sea turtles. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/tell-me-about-the-importance-of-seagrass-meadows-to-sea-turtles/ 7. SEE Turtles. (n.d.).  Sea turtle migration. https://www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-migration 8. The State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT). (n.d.).  Threats to sea turtles. https://www.seaturtlestatus.org/threats-to-turtles 9. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2024, June).  How do sea turtles hatch? https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/turtle-hatch.html 10. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (2023).  Sea turtle hatchling orientation and disorientation. https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/sea-turtle/lighting/disorientations/ 11. Gatto, C. R., Jones, T. T., Imlach, B., & Reina, R. D. (2022).  Ontogeny and ecological significance of metabolic rates in sea turtle hatchlings .  Frontiers in Zoology , 19 (6). 12. Bolten, A. B. (2003).  Variation in sea turtle life history patterns: Neritic vs oceanic developmental stages . In  The Biology of Sea Turtles Volume II .  CRC Press. 13. Musick, J. A., & Limpus, C. J. (1997).  Habitat utilization and migration in juvenile sea turtles.  In  The Biology of Sea Turtles .  CRC Press. 14. Knowlton, N. (2001 ).  The future of coral reefs . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 15. Smithsonian Institution. (2022).  Coral reef ecosystems . Smithsonian Ocean Portal. 16. Hughes, T. P., et al. (2017).  Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals . Nature. 17. Birkeland, C. (1997).  Life and death of coral reefs. Chapman & Hall. 18. International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2001).  Marine turtle conservation and management techniques. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2001-086.pdf 19. Heppell, S. S., Snover, M. L., & Crowder, L. B. (2003).  Sea turtle population ecology . In  The Biology of Sea Turtles Volume II .  CRC Press. 20. Meylan, A. (1988).  Spongivory in hawksbill turtles: A diet of glass.  Science,  239 (4838), 393–395. 21. Bjorndal, K. A. (1997).  Foraging ecology and nutrition of sea turtles . In  The Biology of Sea Turtles.  CRC Press. 22. Hoegh-Guldberg, O., et al. (2007).  Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification . Science,  318 (5857), 1737–1742. 23. Moberg, F., & Folke, C. (1999).  Ecological goods and services of coral reef ecosystems.  Ecological Economics, 29 (2), 215–233. 24. León, Y. M., & Bjorndal, K. A. (2002).  Selective feeding in the hawksbill turtle, an important predator in coral reef ecosystems.  Marine Ecology Progress Series. 25. Selby, T. H., et al. (2019).  Habitat use and reef selection by juvenile hawksbill turtles.   Marine Biology.

A Green Moray Eel (Gymnothorax funebris), snaking through the teal blue ocean. Credit to underwater photographer Micheal Ziegle. This month’s article series is going to discuss a small Caribbean island off the coast of Cuba known as Isla de la Juventud. This translates into English as the Isle of Youth, & Rejuvenation. The island is approximately 213.88 nautical miles (396.10576 kilometers or 246.128708 miles) from the mainland North American Continent. Isla de la Juventud is an island off the coast of Cuba, owned by the Cuban government. It is the second largest island Cuban Island, only second to the main island. The island is approximately 2419.05 square kilometers (934 square miles or 597,760 acres). The island is south of Havana, & is the seventh-largest island in the West Indies as a whole. The official language of the island is Spanish, & tourism is high. Ecologically, the island is covered in Pine forests. The island is mild, & not as tropical as the rest of the Caribbean. The island is incredibly well known for its gorgeous beaches, never-ending nightlife, historic prisons, biodiversity, & its reputation as a pirate hideaway. The coastline of the island is extremely biodiverse, & filled with nature preserves & coral reefs. The coral reefs are very large, & are of the fringing kind. These coral reefs house many interesting creatures, one of the strangest being the Green Moray Eel. The Green Moray eel is a large species of Moray Eel found in the western Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest species of Moray Eel so far. It is considered to be a true eel, meaning that it is classified under the order Angulliformes. Though they are commonly found in shallow water reefs, they inhabit waters as deep as 130 feet. They are generally found alone, & do not live in packs, or groups. In this article, we will discuss the life & discovery of the Green Moray Eel, the mating techniques, tactics, strategies, habits, procedures, & practices of the Green Moray Eel, the distribution of the Green Moray Eel, the scientific detailings of the Green Moray Eel, & the bite of the Green Moray Eel. With that being said, let us delve into this Underwater Beast. The Life & Discovery Of The Green Moray Eel The Green Moray Eel was first discovered by Camillo Ranzani, an Italian Priest, Professor, & Naturalist. He described the species in 1840, one year before his death. The maximum recorded length of a Green Moray Eel is 8 feet long, however individuals are usually closer to 5.5 feet long. Their maximum weight is approximately 65 pounds. There is no sexual dimorphism, & individuals look very similar regardless of sex. Individual’s lifespans range from 6 to 36 years. Though the Green Moray Eel is an understudied species, it is clear that they are more intelligent than most other reef fish. Green Moray eels are able to remember a diver for more than 2 weeks, & are able to show affection. Additionally, they are able to show jealousy over specific divers, who they deem to have a close relationship with. As a species, Green Moray Eels have existed since the Late Miocene, approximately 11 to 6 million years ago. In the wild, Green Moray Eels generally don’t interact with humans unless prompted. They can be rather vicious when provoked, & have been known to tear off divers fingers. They are territorial, & can become aggressive if humans or other eels intrude upon the little caves that they live in. Individuals are solitary, & don’t typically interact with one another unless they are breeding. Though moray eels are poor swimmers, they are incredibly agile, & are able to swiftly move through the water column. Moray eels are have very quick reaction times. This species does not have any fins, & is very smooth as well as flat. Though they lack fins, they are the only oceanic fish that are able to swim both forward & backward. They control their buoyancy by releasing chemicals in their blood that keep them lighter than the water around them. Moray eels are able to sleep by turning off half their brain, & moving themselves to an area where they feel safe. After moving to said area, they will sleep for a few hours at a time. Their eyes will remain open for this time, making it difficult to tell whether or not they are awake. The diet of a Green Moray eel largely consists of small fish, octopi, crabs, shrimp, & squid. During the day, they are ambush predators, & will simply wait for a fish to swim by instead of actively hunting it. During the night, they become incredibly active predators, & will actively go through the coral reef to find food. They locate food through scent, & have an incredibly strong sense of smell. Their metabolism seems to be normal. The primary predators of the Moray Eel are large Grouper Fish, Barracudas, & Sea Snakes. If attacked, occasionally, groups of Moray Eels will gather to attack the predator, & prevent the other Moray Eels from injury. Despite their name, Green Moray Eels are dark grey or brown, however underwater, they appear to be a yellowish-green. The reason for this is because they excrete a lot of mucus, that underwater, gives them the appearance of being yellow or green. They are incredibly smooth, with small eyes. As of 2026, they are ranked as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. They were last assessed on the 17th of August, 2011, & their ranking has not changed since. Their population trend is unknown. The Mating Techniques, Tactics, Strategies, Habits, Procedures, & Practices Of The Green Moray Eel The Moray Eel breeds via sexual reproduction, & has 2 distinct sexes. Moray eels are not hermaphroditic naturally. Their breeding system is polygamous, meaning that both males & females will take multiple partners each mating season. It is not clear when exactly they sexually mature. Their breeding season lasts from July to September, in which thousands of Moray Eels will congregate to breed with each other. It is also not how they initiate the release of eggs. When they do, females will release thousands of eggs, & males will release their sperm into the water nearby. Once the eggs are fertilized, the parents will have no involvement in their lives. Upon being introduced into the world, they have to fend for themselves. The Distribution Of The Green Moray Eel The Green Moray Eel is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from New Jersey to Brazil. In these areas, they live & hunt in coral reefs, living in small crevices throughout the reef. Though they can be found in shallow water coral reefs, they inhabit depths as deep as 130 feet (39.624 meters). The Scientific Detailings Of The Green Moray Eel One of the most interesting things about the Green Moray Eel is the fact that they have both an inner & outer Jaw. Green Moray Eels have an outer jaw, that they will use to clamp onto prey, this is the jaw that is visible to us. On the inside of their mouth, they have an inner jaw, that they will jerk forward to grab any food caught in their outer jaw. This way the food that gets caught in the outer jaw, gets pulled into the inner jaw. This allows them to swallow large prey, whole. They have very long flexible spines, & lack any kind of fins. Individuals have 2 rows of teeth on their upper jaw & one row of teeth on their lower Jaw. As moray eels don’t have gill covers, they constantly have to open & close their mouths to respirate. As of 2026, there are no recorded parasitic infections of the Green Moray Eel in captivity or the wild. Green Moray Eels produce a mucus like substance all around their bodies, leading to them feeling slimy to the touch. This mucus is also present in their mouth, & has a kind of toxin known as Crinotoxins in it. Though the effect of it is minimal, it is still toxic. This toxin cannot affect someone through their bite though, as Moray Eels are not venomous. Their phylum is Chordata, meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics all species under the phylum of chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either In adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include, a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal Slits, & a post-anal tail. Their class is Actinopterygii, which means that they are ray-finned fish. This also means that their actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements. This class comprises over 50% of living vertebrate species. Their order is Anguilliformes, which is the order of true eels. There are approximately 1,000 species categorized under this order, with 164 genera. Their family is Muraenidae, which is the family of Moray Eels. There are approximately 200 species categorized under this family. Species categorized under this family are almost exclusively marine, with there being very few freshwater moray eels. Their genus is Gymnothorax. Gymnothorax has approximately 120 species of moray eel categorized under it, & it is the largest genus of Moray Eel. Their binomial name is Gymnothorax Funebris. The Bite Of A Green Moray Eel Though divers commonly interact with Moray Eels, they are known to bite people. If provoked, a moray eel is able to bite off a person’s thumb with a 250 to 900 PSI. Below, will be a step by step guide as to how to deal with a Moray Eel’s bite. If you feel that you are in immediate danger or discomfort from a moray eel bite, then please seek medical attention. This guide is only to be used for minor Moray Eel injuries, & is not applicable or appropriate in all circumstances. Do not rely solely on this guide, & seek medical advice for personalized advice. With that being said, below is a guide to treating the Bite of a Moray Eel. Step No. 1: Remove Yourself From The Ocean. If you have not already gotten out of the ocean, then you must properly treat the wound. Step No. 2: Wash The Wound With Soap & Water. After removing yourself from the ocean, wash the wound thoroughly with soap & water. Step No. 3: Apply Pressure On The Wound To Stop The Bleeding. Apply light pressure on the wound with a cloth or a rag to stop the bleeding. Step No. 4: Apply Antibacterial Ointment. Apply Antibacterial Ointment on the wound, then cover it with a sterile bandage wrap. Step No. 5: If You Feel That Your Discomfort Level Is Too High, Consider Taking A Pain Reliever. Depending on your pain & discomfort level, consider taking an over the counter painkiller, such as Advil or Tylenol. These may help with pain, & possibly swelling. Step No. 6: Call Your Doctor. If you feel that you have not adequately dealt with the injury, do not hesitate to call your primary physician. Do not rely solely on this guide, & seek appropriate medical attention. A gorgeous Green Moray Eel darting across the ocean, near the sea floor. Credit to photographer P. Lindgren. Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Green Moray Eel” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the National Aquarium. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://aqua.org/explore/animals/green-moray-eel Citation No. 2: “Marine Encyclopedia Of Ocean Fishes: Green Moray Eel” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Oceana. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://oceana.org/marine-life/green-mo Citation No. 3: “Gymnothorax Funebris” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Florida Museum Of National History. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/gymnothorax-funebris/ Citation No. 4: “Green Moray Eel” Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Virginia Aquarium. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://virginiaaquarium.com/green-moray-eel Citation No. 5: “Gymnothorax Funebris” Written By Kyle Wilson, & Published in 2006. Published by the Animal Diversity Web. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gymnothorax_funebris/ Citation No. 6: “Sea Wonder: Green Moray Eel” Written by Unknown, & Published on February 14th, 2020. Published by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://marinesanctuary.org/blog/sea-wonder-green-moray-eel/ Citation No. 7: “What To Do About A Moray Eel Bite” Written by Corey Whelan, & Published on March 2nd, 2021. Published by Healthline. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://www.healthline.com/health/moray-eel-bite Citation No. 8: “What It’s Like To Be Bitten By A Moray Eel” Written By Michelle Pugh & Brook Morton, & Published on December 9th, 2018. Published by The Scuba Diving Magazine. Retrieval Date: April 17th, 2024. https://www.scubadiving.com/what-its-like-to-be-bitten-by-moray-eel Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Pitfire Artisan Pizza Olivenbaum Music Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A brilliant photograph of the colourful houses of Chiloe Island, Chile. Credit to Tales From The Lens. https://talesfromthelens.com/ In this article, we shall be discussing the oceans surrounding Chiloe, Chile. Chiloe Island, also known as the Greater Island of Chiloe, is an island in the Chiloe Archipelago off the coast of Chile. The island is located off the southern coast of Chile, & is the largest island in the Chiloe Archipelago. The island has a rather small population, that being 154,775 people. The island has an area of approximately 3,291 square miles (8,523.651). The island is vaguely shaped like a rectangle. The island isn’t well known outside of Chile, & generally doesn’t receive much tourism. Ecologically, the isle is incredibly biodiverse. The southwestern portion of the island consists of temperate forests, & swamps. Mountains adorn the island from the Northwestern area to the southeast area. The island consists of beautiful rugged coastlines, that border the Pacific Ocean, & the Sea of Chiloe. While the Western shores have a relatively straight coastline, the Northern & Eastern shores have hundreds of bays, inlets, & peninsulas. There are very few cities along the Western shores of Chiloe. The few cities that are on the island, are generally in capes, inlets, or small bays. The island has many whales, dolphins, & pinnipeds to offer ecologically. The island has a marginal sea named after it, called the Sea Of Chiloe. This is the only body of water separating the island from the mainland. The island is temperate, & generally cool as well as misty. The island’s rainforests & mountains are also temperate, & receive a fair amount of rain each year. The island is located off the southern coast of Chile, & is the largest island in the Chiloe Archipelago. The island has a rather small population, that being 154,775 people. The island has an area of approximately 3,291 square miles (8,523.651). The island is vaguely shaped like a rectangle. The island isn’t well known outside of Chile, & generally doesn’t receive much tourism. Ecologically, the isle is incredibly biodiverse. The southwestern portion of the island consists of temperate forests, & swamps. Mountains adorn the island from the Northwestern area to the southeast area. The island consists of beautiful rugged coastlines, that border the Pacific Ocean, & the Sea of Chiloe. While the Western shores have a relatively straight coastline, the Northern & Eastern shores have hundreds of bays, inlets, & peninsulas. The Salinity, Tides, Temperatures, Marine Geography, & Depth Of The Oceans Surrounding Chiloe Unfortunately, the salinity of the oceans surrounding Chiloe has not officially been measured yet. Salinity is measured in 1000 gram increments of water. For every 1000 grams of water, there will be a certain number of grams that are pure salt. This is how salinity or saline level is measured. There are also no ongoing factors that would lead to the salinity level being altered. The tidal charts for Chiloe can be found on a small amount websites, 2 of which are: https://www.tideschart.com , & https://tides4fishing.com . Generally, the tides do not go over 7.2 meters (23.622 feet) high, & do not go below -1.24 meters (-4.068241 feet). The oceanic temperature charts can be found on similar websites, including https://seatemperature.info , & https://www.tideschart.com . The yearly average oceanic temperature is approximately 12.008333333333° Celsius (53.6149999999993554° Fahrenheit). Using a wetsuit guide, it is recommended that those who swim, dive, or do oceanic sports in the water at this temperature should wear 7 millimeter thick full-body wetsuit, or an 8 millimeter thick semi-drysuit. While swimming isn’t very common around the island, kayaking, & occasionally diving is. There are very few rip currents, & the ocean is generally safe for swimmers, apart from being cold. The most popular beaches for swimming, kayaking, & related oceanic activities are currently: Playa Tongoy, Playa Arena Gruesa, & beaches along Parque Nacional De Chiloe. Pollution is very limited, & the water is generally very clean. As of 2026, there are no officially designated marine protected areas around the island. The Most Prominent Marine Ecosystems Of Chiloe Ecosystem Type No. 1: Intertidal Zones Intertidal zones are located along the coastlines, & are exposed to air at low tide. These zones are where the ocean meets the shoreline, & contrary to popular perception, are absolutely teeming with oceanic life. From crabs to bivalves, this ecosystem has a unique variety of marine life, as well as a unique variety of features. These zones generally have species from the phyla Echinodermata, Arthropoda, & Mollusca in them. Additionally, these zones may have tide pools. These zones are the closest to the shoreline, & are extremely rocky on Chiloe. Ecosystem Type No. 2: Kelp Forests Kelp forests are some of the largest ecosystems of Patagonia. Kelp forests are large areas of kelp, that stretch for miles & miles. Each kelp stalk ranges from 25 to 100 feet (7.62 meters to 30.48 meters) tall. There are between 25 & 30 species of kelp in each forest. These forests are paramount to the marine life of Patagonia, as they provide shelter, food, & areas to breed as well as spawn. In addition to being the summit of marine life, these kelp forests are cardinal to absorbing carbon dioxide. Similar to trees, kelp absorbs carbon, often at a much faster rate. Without these kelp forests, mitigating the effects of carbon dioxide emissions would be a much bleaker task. These kelp forests are usually found in areas no shallower than 27 feet (8.2296 meters), & areas no deeper than 179 feet (54.5592 meters). The Documented Marine Flora Of Chiloe Unfortunately, very little is known about the native marine flora of Chiloe. Occasionally, there are harmful algal blooms along the coastline. These harmful blooms are caused by the algae species Alexandrium catenella. Harmful Algal blooms are known to cause oxygen depletion in the water, & to release algae produced toxins. These will negatively affect the local wildlife, & render certain areas uninhabitable for multiple weeks or months due to the lack of oxygen. The Documented Marine Fauna Of Chiloe Chiloe Island is an incredibly biodiverse island, & is home to many unique terrestrial, avian, & oceanic creatures. These creatures not only contribute to a unique environment, but they bring in quite a lot of revenue for the island in ecotourism. There are many companies that will offer whale watching, penguin watching, & dolphin watching tours to both tourists & locals. These tours drive international & domestic tourists, as many would not get to see a penguin naturally otherwise. Many marine creatures are migratory or do not inhabit Chiloe year round. For this reason, tracking the exact amount of species in the area is extremely difficult. This is the reason why we are only choosing to include the most prominent marine animals in this article. The most prominent marine creatures found around the oceans of Chiloe include the following: Lagenorhynchus australis (Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin), Balaenoptera musculus (Blue Whale), Arctocephalus australis (South American Fur Seal), Mirounga leonina (Southern Elephant Seal), Otaria flavescens (South American Sea Lions), Grampus griseus (Risso’s Dolphin), Cephalohynchus commersonii (Commerson’s Dolphin), & Lagenorhynchus obscurus (Dusky Dolphins). The glorious coastline of Chiloe Island, Chile. Credit to photographer Kyle Little. Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Wetsuit thickness & temperature guide”, Written By Mark Evans, & Published On April 24th, 2023, at 3:05 PM. Published By Scuba Divers Magazine. Retrieval Date: April 9th, 2024. https://www.scubadivermag.com/wetsuit-thickness-and-temperature-guide/#Scuba_diving_wetsuits Citation No. 2: “Seabirds & Whales of Chiloe Island: The Diverse Marine Wildlife Of Northern Patagonia”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Far South Expeditions. Retrieval Date: April 10th, 2024. https://farsouthexp.com/portfolio/chiloe-whale-watching-tour/ Citation No. 3: “Marine Animals of Patagonia” Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Swoop Patagonia. Retrieval Date: April 10th, 2024. https://www.swoop-patagonia.com/visit/wildlife/marine-animals Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Pitfire Artisan Pizza Olivenbaum Music Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A striking portrait of marine scientist Richard Rathbun, the subject of today’s article. This article is part of our Marine Hall of Distinction collection. In this special collection, we discuss the marine biologists who have contributed most to marine biology & oceanography. We do this to commemorate these marine biologists & show gratitude for everything they have contributed to our oceans. Today's marine scientist is Richard Rathbun. Richard Rathbun was one of the most distinguished authorities on marine science in the 19th, & early 20th century. He was an essential figure to the development of the Smithsonian Institution, & was well known for his work with invertebrate zoology. He was extraordinarily accomplished in the fields of marine sciences, museum sciences, palaeontology, & geology. In today’s article, we will delve into his formative years & education, his personal life & career, as well as his achievements, awards, & accomplishments. With that being said, let’s plunge into the fascinating life of Richard Rathbun! His Formative Years & Education Richard Rathbun was born on January 25th, 1852, in Buffalo, New York. He was born to Charles Rathbun, & Jane Furey Rathbun. His father, Charles, was a descendant of a lineage of enterprising stone masons that immigrated from England during the early 1600's, & operated numerous successful quarries around the greater Buffalo area. He was educated as a young man in Buffalo Public Schools, & at the age of 15 years, began working as an overseer & financial clerk in one of his father’s quarries. Upon joining the quarry, he noticed that they would frequently stumble across Silurian-era fossils. This fascinated him deeply, leading him to spend his weekends, evenings, & even holidays researching palaeontology. This fervent interest led him to donate numerous fossils to the Boston Society of Natural Sciences, so much so that he was installed as the curator of palaeontology for their museum. In 1871, he met Charles Fred Hartt, a professor of geology at Cornell University. Dr. Hartt saw a fire in young Rathbun, encouraging him to join Cornell Universities geology program. Rathbun obliged, & entered the University that year, alongside the cohort of 1875. Dr. Hartt also assigned him the task of reviewing, & analyzing a collection of Devonian & Cretaceous fossils that Hartt had collected in Brazil, leading to the publication of his first paper “On Devonian Brachiopods of Erere, Province of Pará, Brazil”, in the bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. To prepare & gather information for the paper, he spent time under the guidance of James Hall. Soon after, he published “Preliminary Report on Cretaceous Lamellibranchs collected in the vicinity of Pernambuco, Brazil”, in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1874. For research purposes, he attended the lectures of the prestigious Alexander Agassiz, during the last year of his life. His Personal Life & Career After spending 2 years at Cornell, he decided to leave, deciding to work with the Museum of Comparative Ecology, as well as be an assistant in zoology with the Boston Society of Natural History. He stayed in these roles from 1873, to 1875. During the summer months of these years, he volunteered under the guidance of Spencer Fullerton Baird, joining oceanic expeditionsl by the United States Fish Commission along the New England Coast. This sparked his connection with the Smithsonian Institution, as they took a prominent role in leading these expeditions. This connection would last for the rest of his life. In 1875, his mentor Professor Charles F. Hartt arranged for him to be appointed as a a geologist with the Geological Commission of Brazil. This allowed him to conduct a multitude of expeditions in the Bay of Bahia region, study the local fossils, the ethnology of the local people, & the coral reefs. A report on the geology & local coral reefs was published in 1878, through the National Museum of Sao Paulo. Upon returning to the United States in March, 1878, he donated a variety of Devonian & Cretaceous Era fossils to the United States National Museum. His connection with Spencer F. Baird lead him to entering the position of Scientific Assistant for the United States Fish Commission, a position which he stayed in until 1896. In 1880, as the United States National Museum was close to completion, he was transferred from New Haven, Connecticut, to Washington D.C. Upon being transferred, he would be appointed curator of marine invertebrates of the National Museum, while maintaining his position at the United States Commission of Fish. The administrative work assigned to Rathbun gradually grew until his mentor Spencer F. Baird’s death, in 1887. During research conducted in collaboration with marine scientist & professor A. E. Verill, Dr. Verill was made the official head of certain summer investigations with the Fish Commission. Although he was the technical head, Rathbun was the primary overseer of these collections, & handled day to day maintenance. He also worked to create duplicates of their marine invertebrate collection to send to other institutions such as museums, schools, & universities. Between 1880, & 1881, he was hired by the Tenth Census to research & report on the natural history & economic values of lobster, shrimp, crab, sponge, & corals. He contributed approximately 550 pages to this project, along with 106 plates. He would go on later to release similar papers on the decrease in lobster population, cultural value of lobsters, prawn & shrimp fisheries, fisheries in Washington state, fisheries in British Columbia, & giant squid. During the Great International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, he presented this catalogue of information regarding the economic importance of these groups, along with another catalogue discussing the scientific investigation of the ocean & freshwater areas. He also participated in the preparation & publication of reports for dredging stations for the United States Fish Commission. Around this time, he organized the Paris fur seal Tribunal, which involved yearly surveys to the Bering Sea to assess the Fur Seal population, & also served as the representative on the Joint Commission with Great Britain relative to the preservation of fisheries contiguous in the United States & Canada. In 1896, he left the Commission of Fish in favour of the Smithsonian Institution. He was apparently Assistant Secretary in 1897. Due to his administrative duties, from this point onward, he had little time for original scientific inquiry. In his capacity as secretary,  he personally oversaw the National Gallery of Art being built, & assisted in the ingenuity of powered flight by personally responding to an inquiry of the Wright Brothers. Unfortunately, on July 16th, 1918, Richard Rathbun passed away in his home in Washington D.C. He was married to Lena Augusta Hume at an unknown date, & together they had 1 son, architect Seward Rathbun. His contributions to the field of marine science & palaeontology were immense, & his work will not be forgotten. He is fondly remembered by many, & remains a respected scholar today. His Achievements, Awards, & Accomplishments He was one of the reasons for the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers, as he personally reviewed & orchestrated the delivery of pamphlets on aeronautics to their request in 1899. Orville & Wilbur Wright would go on to use their research to achieve the world’s first powered flight in 1903. He was the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, & personally oversaw the installation of the National Gallery of Art. He was a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science. He was awarded an honorary M.S. in 1893 by Indiana University, as well as a doctorate in science in 1894 by Bowdoin College. He was honoured by having a genus of Ronquil fish, Rathbunella, named after him, for his contributions to science. He was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Biological Society of Washington, the Washington Academy of Sciences, the American Society of Naturalists, the Boston Society of Natural History, the Fisheries Society of Finland, the Russian Imperial Society of the Acclimatization of Animals & Plants, the American Fisheries Society, & the American Association of Museums. A scholarly photograph of Richard Rathbun writing at his desk. Directories / Credits No. 1: “Richard Rathbun”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Prabook. https://prabook.com/web/mobile/#!profile/1103904 No. 2: “Richard Rathbun Launched Wright Brothers’ Research”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Smithsonian Institution. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_3900 No. 3: “Richard Rathbun”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Smithsonian Institution. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_2966 No. 4:  “Richard Rathbun Papers, 1870-1918 and Undated”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by the Smithsonian Institution. https://www.si.edu/object/richard-rathbun-papers-1870-1918-and-undated:siris_arc_217236 No. 5: “Richard Rathbun and His Contributions to Zoology”, Written by Wesley R. Coe, & Published in December 1918. Published by the American Journal of Science. https://ajsonline.org/article/136592-richard-rathbun-and-his-contributions-to-zoology No. 6: “Richard Rathbun”, Written by Marcus Benjamin, & Published on September 6th, 1918. Published by JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1641962 Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

Today’s nautical chart is an ancient 278-year-old map of South Asia, & the Indo-Pacific. Until the early 1500s, maps & information about South Asia were not widely available across Europe. As the ability to mass-produce maps grew across Europe, information from all corners of the world began to reach the continent. The map is moderately sized at 34.5 inches wide, & 20.5 inches long. Uncharacteristically for the time, the chart is brightly coloured with greens, reds, yellows, & teals used to indicate different regions. In addition to being brightly coloured, an elaborate cartouche with designs of cannons, drums, spears, swords, anchors, & flags can be seen in the lower left corner. In today’s article, we are going to examine this antique map, discuss it, & perform an analysis of it. With that being said, let’s delve into the tropical waters of South Asia! The Chart Itself A magnificent nautical chart of South Asia produced by Homann Heirs in 1748. Credit to raremaps.com . This chart is focused on the Indo-Pacific, & features modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, South China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, & the Philippines. Sri Lanka is referred to as “Ceilan”, as it was referred to as Ceylon until 1972. The entire chart is in German, as it was produced in Nuremberg, Germany. Between the 15th, & 18th centuries, Nuremberg was one of the scientific, & cartographic capitals of the world, with many charts produced in the city being used in other areas of Europe. The chart showcases hundreds, possibly even thousands of place names all over South Asia. From India, to Timor Leste, hundreds of coastal & inland cities are featured on the map. Additionally, the Tropic of Cancer is featured, labelled “Tropicus Cancri”. Apart from a few small brown spots around the sides, the chart is in magnificent condition for the time. An Analysis Of The Chart This chart was manufactured in 1748 in Nuremberg, Germany, by Homann Heirs. Homann Heirs was a cartographic house that operated from 1702 to 1848 in Germany. It was founded by Johann Baptist Homann in 1702, before being passed along to his son Johann Christoph upon his death in 1724. Christoph suffered an untimely death in 1730 at the age of 27, & the firm was inherited by Johann Michael Franz, & Johann Georg Ebersberger. This led to the name of the house being changed from “Homann Erben”, to “Homann Heirs”. It was known by a variety of names including but not limited to “Homanniani Heredes”, “Heritiers de Homann”, “Lat Homannianos Herod”, & “Homannschen Erben”. These names were primarily used for commercial publication in foreign countries. The firm operated until the death of its final owner, Christoph Franz Fembo in 1848. This chart was titled “Carte Des Indes Orientales dessinee suivant les Observations les plus recentes dont le principal est tiree des Cartes hydrographiques de Mr. D'Apres de Mannevillette”, which roughly translates to “Map of the East Indies drawn up according to the most recent observations, the main source of which is Mr. D'Apres de Mannevillette's hydrographic charts.” The chart was most likely manufactured for civilian purposes, rather than for military use. Considering the age of the map, it was most likely manufactured using the engraving method. In this technique, there are 4 roles, the mapmaker, the engraver, the printer, & the colourist. The first step in this process is that the mapmaker will go out & make a hand-drawn map of the area where the map will encompass. Effectively, the mapmaker is the informant who makes the first copy. After this, the engraver will create a design of the map in reverse on a metal, usually copper, surface. Usually, there would only be 1-2 plates used, however, it differs depending on the size of the map. After the copper plate is made, the printer will heat the copper panel, & then proceed to lather it with ink. They will then wipe the copper panel down to the point where the ink is only on the grooves of the panel. Thereafter, the printer will press damp paper onto the ink, & hang it up to dry. To conclude, the colourist will touch up the map & decorate it by adding in details, such as shorelines, docks, piers, rocks, & shoals. The result should be a detailed chart with colour, & depth, useful to any sailor of the era traversing the dangerous ocean. Directories / Credits All credit for this map analyzed today goes to Rare Maps, a California rare & antique maps store. To purchase this chart, antique atlases, or other cartographic objects, please visit www.raremaps.com . To be clear, this is not an advertisement for Rare Maps, as we do not have a partnership with them. Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Olivenbaum Music Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa

A magnificent photograph of Peale’s Black-Chinned Dolphin. Credit to Caroline Weir. This month’s article series shall be discussing the Patagonian Chiloe Island. Chiloe Island, also known as the Greater Island of Chiloe, is an island in the Chiloe Archipelago off the coast of Chile. The island is located off the southern coast of Chile, & is the largest island in the Chiloe Archipelago. The island has a rather small population, that being 154,775 people. The island has an area of approximately 3,291 square miles (8,523.651). The island is vaguely shaped like a rectangle. The island isn’t well known outside of Chile, & generally doesn’t receive much tourism. Ecologically, the isle is incredibly biodiverse. The southwestern portion of the island consists of temperate forests, & swamps. Mountains adorn the island from the Northwestern area to the southeast area. The island consists of beautiful rugged coastlines, that border the Pacific Ocean, & the Sea of Chiloe. While the Western shores have a relatively straight coastline, then Northern & Eastern shores have hundreds of bays, inlets, & peninsulas. In the waters off of these coastlines, lay a statuesque creature known as Peale’s Black-Chinned Dolphin. The Black Chinned Dolphin, also known as Peale’s Dolphin, is a species of dolphin found off the coast of Patagonia, & the tip of South America. They are found in both the Pacific & Atlantic Ocean. They are rather sociable creatures, & can be found in small groups roaming around near kelp beds. Individuals are commonly seen off the coast of Chiloe, playing in the water. They are extremely recognizable, as their underbellies are dark grey, while the rest of their body is black. Individuals tend to live in shallower waters, however they are known to inhabit waters as deep as 300 meters (984.252 feet). In this article we shall discuss the discovery & life of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin, the mating techniques, tactics, strategies, practices, procedures, & habits of Peale’s Black Chinned dolphin, the distribution of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin, & finally the scientific detailings of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin. With that being said, let us delve into this gorgeous & intelligent creature. The Discovery & Life Of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin The Black Chinned Dolphin was discovered in 1848, by scientific illustrator & naturalist Titain Ramsey Peale. Individuals are approximately 2.1 meters long once they have reached maturity. They weigh between 100 & 115 kilograms (220.462 to 253.532 pounds). There is slight sexual dimorphism in this species, meaning that males are slightly larger then females. Their life span has an average of 25, & generally individuals don’t live longer than 40 years. It is a well documented fact that dolphins are incredibly intelligent. Individuals are able to communicate their needs with each other & humans. They are also capable of learning tricks or mirroring other dolphins behaviours. Some studies suggest that dolphins are some of the smartest animals, only second to humans. They are incredibly social animals & seem to have almost their own language. Black Chinned Dolphins themselves are known to congregate in groups of 30 to 100 at a time, however these groups are very loose, & not fixed. They will make clicking noises towards each other in these groups, with each dolphin having their own personal call. Using brain size as a barometer, dolphins come in very close to humans in brain to body size ratio. They seem to be the second animals on this scale. However, the vast majority of the ocean is still undiscovered, so this very well may change. They have also developed a use for underwater echolocation. They use echolocation in order to hunt in particularly deep water or water with very low visibility. They also have excellent memories, they are able to remember the faces of their caretakers in certain areas like rehabilitation centers. They also will favour certain humans over others. They are able to crave or want attention from certain humans, this is most well documented in the Nasa-funded experiment known as “Dolphinarium”. In this experiment Margaret Howe Lovatt attempted to teach an adolescent dolphin “Peter” to speak English. This did not work as Peter became attracted to the scientist, & refused to be without her. He became territorial over her, becoming aggressive towards the male scientists she worked with. This proves that dolphins have the capacity to love in a sense, & to love things that aren’t their own species. In that same vein, they are able to feel jealousy. Dolphins in the wild don’t interact with humans very often, however when they do, they are generally playful & mischievous. Generally, individuals are not aggressive towards humans, however they are aggressive towards each other. Despite the majority of individuals not being territorial, dolphins are known to be incredibly & needlessly aggressive towards each other & other marine mammals. Dolphins as a whole have existed for approximately 10 to 15 million years. It is unclear how fast Black Chinned Dolphins is able to swim, however it is clear how they are able to swim. They swim by moving their tail flukes up & down through the water column, while using their pectoral fins to steer. They remain buoyant by storing extra fat in their bodies, as fat weighs less then water. This species is incredibly agile, & is able to swiftly maneuver through the ocean. Dolphins sleep by turning off half their brains, & resting straight up near the surface of the water. The reason for only turning off half their brain, is that they have to maintain consciousness if a predator or threat arrives. The diet of the Black Chinned Dolphin consists largely of squid, octopi, & shrimp. They are not cannibalistic at any stage in their development. It is not clear what their metabolic rate is, or how much they consume per day. They are active predators, & are diurnal creatures. Detection of prey is through echolocation for farther objects, & electroreception for closer objects. It is not clear what kinds of predators they have, or how their relationship with these predators change as they age. Their primary threat is pollution, rather than any marine animal. Peale’s Dolphins have sturdy & fatty bodies, with a slight curve in their beaks. Individuals have dark grey underbellies, with the rest of their bodies being black. Their dorsal fins are bow shaped. This species has been assessed by the IUCN Red List, & has been thankfully categorized as Least Concern. Their population trend is unknown. The Mating Techniques, Tactics, Strategies, Practices, Procedures, & Habits Of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin This species reproduces via sexual reproduction, & has 2 distinct sexes. They are not monogamous, & are instead polyamorous. Females will reach sexual maturity at 10 to 15 years of age, while males will reach it at 13 to 17 years of age. It seems that they do have a specific breeding system, that being October through April. It is not clear how exactly males & females find each other to copulate, however it is assumed that they congregate in large groups. Once the couple have engaged in copulation, the female will gestate it for 10 to 12 months. The male will have no part in the baby or the mothers life after this. The female will give birth to the baby live, & nurse the calf for 1 & a half years. The mother will only have 1 calf at a time, as they are absolutely massive. A mother might be able to have twins, however it is extremely rare, difficult, & complicated to do. The calves will rely on the mother for primary nutrition, however will begin hunting & digesting solid foods at 6 months to 1 year of age. The Distribution Of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin The Black Chinned Dolphin is found around the southern tip of South America, & is found as far north as Valdivia, Chile. They inhabit both coastal waters, & open oceans. They commonly live in inlets, & bays, however they avoid swamps & brackish water. The Scientific Detailings Of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphin Dolphins are quite infamous for a few things, however the main thing is that they are able to blow water out of a hole in the top of their head. The reason that they do this is because they have to breathe through their nostrils. They cannot breathe underwater like many other marine animals. To be clear, the water that they blow out does not come from the dolphins lungs. It is the water that already sits atop their head. They blow this water out to inhale, as they are able to only inhale through their blowholes. It is unclear whether or not this species any major parasites. If it does, these species are likely to be intestinal parasites, & skin parasites. Copepods are commonly found in dolphins as a group, however they have not been confirmed to parasitize this species. Black Chinned Dolphins have 1 row of small sharp teeth on both their upper & lower jaw, used for ripping into fish. Their bone structure is similar to most other Dolphins. Their blood is iron based, meaning that is red. It is believed that all dolphin species have evolved from an ungulate known as Pakicetus. This creature was a four-legged mammal that was able to walk on land 50 million years ago. Overtime, Pakicetus began to live around water, & adapted to do so. Over the course of 50 million years, the creature evolved to fully live in water. This is reason we have modern cetaceans. Their phylum is Chordata, meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics all species under the phylum of chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either In adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include, a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, & a post-anal tail. Their class is Mammalia. Mammalia is classified by the production of milk by the mother for their child to nurse, a neocortex which is a region of the brain, some capacity of fur or hair, & three middle ear bones.  There are currently 6,400 species categorized under the class of Mammalia. Their order is Artiodactyla. which are even toed ungulates. Species categorized under Artiodactyla are ungulates, hoofed animals which bear weight equally on two of their five toes, these toes are the third & fourth toes. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigal, or pointing posteriorly. Their infraorder is that of Cetacea. Key characteristics of this infraorder are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size & exclusively carnivorous diet. Another characteristic is their incredible social intelligence. There are roughly 90 species categorized under Cetacea. Their family is Delphinidae. This family consists of most oceanic dolphins. This family does not include river dolphins. Two characteristics of this order is that they are purely carnivorous & they are all usually incredibly social creatures. Some great examples of this are the fact that majority of these species live in pods or large groups. Their genus is that of Lagenorhynchus. Laegenorhynchus is a genus of dolphins that currently contains 6 extant species. This genus is polyphyletic, meaning that species in this genus come from mixed origin, & that the genus doesn’t include their most recent common ancestor. Their binomial name is Lagenorhynchus Australis. A pod of Peale’s Black Chinned Dolphins excitedly leaping through the air. Credit to Oceanwide Expeditions. https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/ Directories / Credits Citation No. 1: “Peale’s Dolphin”, Written By Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Oceanwide Expeditions. Retrieval Date: April 2nd, 2024. https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/to-do-amp/wildlife/peale-s-dolphin Citation No. 2: “Peale’s Dolphin”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Whale & Dolphin Conservation. Retrieval Date: April 2nd, 2024. https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/peales-dolphin/ Citation No. 3: “Peale’s Dolphin”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Animalia. Retrieval Date: April 2nd, 2024. https://animalia.bio/peales-dolphin Citation No. 4: “Peale’s Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus Australis)”, Written by Unknown, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Dolphins World. Retrieval Date: April 2nd, 2024. https://www.dolphins-world.com/peales-dolphin/ Citation No. 5: “Peale’s Dolphin Facts | Anatomy, Diet, Migration, & Reproduction” Written by Unknown, & Published by Whale Facts. Retrieval Date: April 2nd, 2024. https://www.whalefacts.org/peales-dolphin-facts/ Strategic Partnerships Reel Guppy Outdoors SharkedSkooler Marine Enthusiasts Podcast Cash Daniels Tides of Tomorrow The Open Book, Topanga Pitfire Artisan Pizza Our Loyal Patrons P. R. Ochoa