Visit the beaches of Florida at the right time of year and you just might see one on its annual migration. Arching frown, bald-headed, mottle-skinned, slow-moving, and needing help to get back on its feet. And if he’s lucky, he might even see a turtle. With long stern faces, leathery-looking skin and toothless beaks for mouths, sea turtles look a lot like the cutest possible version of your aging grandpa. But unlike that old fart, legend has it that age has no effect on sea turtles. Wait, what? Are Turtles Immortal? With people, aging is clear. You’re born cute and over time, it gets worse. Ou ..read more

Of course we watched it, everyone watched it. And just like you, we’re enamoured with Joe Exotic—as a character at least. The animal abuse is a little too hard to let slide, and it’s pretty clear that he’s not the only problem in the tiger world.  But at least he’s the most entertaining problem, everyone else is just a mullet-less hack with too many teeth. Did Carole Baskins feed her husband to tigers? Is Doc Antle a cult leader? We’re not here to say (although we’re feeling strong “yes” vibes). We just want to talk about our tigers, the tigers of the sea. “Ride the tiger, you can see his ..read more

Roughly 85% of all plant life is found in the ocean. With as much as 80% of all life on Earth living in the oceans, the math there seems to check out. What’s wild about this number is that only a small fraction of the oceans is inhabitable by plant life. Where Do Plants Grow in The Ocean? Almost all ocean plants grow in the Euphotic Zone, the upper 200 meters. This depth is referred to as the “Sunlight Zone” because sunlight penetrates through it.  Plants make their food through photosynthesis, a process that requires 4 things: Water – Plenty of that in the oceans. Carbon Dioxide – About ..read more

One of the biggest challenges with eating seafood is that it tastes like seafood. The best compliment people ever seem to give fish is when it tastes, “just like chicken.” Which, of course, raises the question – why not just eat chicken? Yet, most people won’t relent. For whatever reason, you all want to keep chowing down on fish, octopuses, or gross, well-armoured booger-like “delicacies” oysters, scallops, mussels and clams.  Okay, that’s enough, I won’t give you too hard a time. After all, if you’re here, you’re at least looking for how to eat seafood sustainably. Give yourself a pat ..read more

The 3rd largest “land” mammal on Earth spends 2/3rds of its life in the water, and that’s just the start of the enigma. They have canine tusks like a narwhal, the hooves of a pig, the BMI of a killer whale, the hip-to-waist-ratio of a manatee, and the harems of an elephant seal. So what exactly are hippos? The answer to that question has been changing for thousands of years. The Ancient Greeks gave them the name hippopotamus, meaning “river horse.” And sure, they’re pretty blatantly not horses, but centuries later Marco Polo famously mistook a rhinoceros for a unicorn – humans spent a long ..read more

You’ve scraped them off your boat, picked them off the beach, or stared at them cautiously at their plate. They have a tough outer shell and a gooey inside that looks like toothpaste had a baby with a slug. And naturally, people are gross enough to eat all of them. If nothing else, you recognize their shells from the little mermaids bra: Wait, did Tarantino direct The Little Mermaid?For as much as they’re similar, a quick side-by-side glance is enough to tell that they aren’t the same. So what’s the difference between clams, mussels, scallops, and oysters? Top left: Clam (photo cre ..read more

We’re venturing off our normal route to talk mythology. Sure, science and myths don’t always play well together, but there’s a lot you can take away from mythology. In this case, you see a culture that respects sharks and understands that they play a mutually beneficial role. Right off the bat, the title is a little misleading. In Hawaiian mythology, there are a lot of gods. And among them, there are plenty of sharks. But, to keep things simple we’re taking a look at 7 of the main ones. These are the Hawaiian shark gods, together, they are the Guardians of the Ocean.  Aumakua Befo ..read more

The deep sea shares some similarities with space. It’s cold, it’s dark, and in the deeps, no one can hear you scream.  There’s also extreme pressure and minimal access to food. Altogether, these challenges have churned out some insanely interesting (aka creepy) critters. It makes exploring the deep sea infinitely cooler than the depths of space — come at me NASA. But one of the biggest challenges for deep sea exploration is one that we share with the animals that live there. There’s no sunlight. So how do deep sea creatures see in the deep? There are a lot of different approaches to s ..read more

If it wasn’t already obvious from Janice’s laugh, then someone should probably fill you in — the writers of Friends want you to feel pain. Oh. My. God. GIF from Friends GIFs The beach house episode has become the go-to advice for jellyfish sting first-aid, even though the advice is dead-on wrong.  Monica gets stung by a jellyfish and everyone argues on who gets to pee on her. And straight-up, that’s just wrong. Alright, alright, no one’s trying to kink-shame here, so we’ll rephrase that. It’s the wrong way to treat a jellyfish sting. Why You Shouldn’t Pee On Jellyfish Stings You ..read more

Recently, the pocket shark has been making the rounds. But now, it’s official, this is a whole new species of shark. It’s been dubbed the American Pocket Shark (Mollisquama mississippiensis), and it’s awesome. The American pocket shark is also called – if you aren’t in a hurry – the Western North Atlantic Ocean Kitefin Shark. It’s in the squaliformes order of sharks that date back about 153 million years, some of which exhibit bioluminescence (cool!). So far, we’ve only found one of these little fellas. This one was found by NOAA researchers while looking studying sperm whales. And to be ..read more