Marine Biology

Posted by John Blatchford

Captain James Cook made three Pacific voyages 1768-71, 1772-75 and 1776-80. He sailed in sturdy ships built in Whitby (the Endeavour on the first voyage, and the Resolution on the last two). He charted New Zealand and Eastern Australia, mapped the Pacific coastline of America and sorted out the geography of much of Polynesia - including the Cook Islands. While he is best known for this navigational work his voyages also contributed much to astronomy, botany, anthropology as well as other branches of science.

Scurvy

Captain Cook lost few sailors on his long voyages at a time when scurvy usually killed many. He did not actually discover vitamin C or its role in the disease, but he fed his crews fresh vegetables and regularly gave them orange juice to drink. (Much later the British Navy was to realise the importance of oranges and keep them in barrels onboard naval vessels. They were packed and stored green to confuse enemies. They were mistaken for limes – hence the slang word ‘Limeys’, originally used for British sailors and later applied to all Brits!).

Whitby

Cook’s three major expeditions began in Whitby, and his two best known ships were built there – but he was not born there and rarely stayed in the town. Cook’s life was an interesting one, and he rose from humble origins to become a famous naval sea-captain. Along the way he was a grocer, common sailor and merchant seaman.

I live half the year in Great Ayton (where Cook grew up) and am surrounded by memories of him – so writing about some of his discoveries is only natural!

Posted by John Blatchford

Recent Articles

I have decided to write a few articles about my area – initially Whitby, York and the North York Moors, followed by the amazing aquarium in Hull. In the future I will expand my horizons to look at some of the many small towns and villages in East Yorkshire that are worth a visit. These articles try to give some information that might be of use to tourists, but if you need further information it is always possible to email me – that goes if you would like me to cover any particular place or activity too! In a similar way I have decided to write about a couple of public aquaria (London, and Venice) including some visitor information.

Article Images

I have tried to find good pictures for all my recent articles, but it is sometimes difficult. If you are a keen photographer – or get a camera for Christmas – you might have (or get) a suitable image. In the same way that I have been asking people to contact me with article requests I would be pleased to receive .jpg images that would brighten articles up a bit (these could be sent to me as email attachments). Presumably the photo would also be a request along the lines of: ‘what is this?’ or ‘could you write about this animal?’.

Posted by John Blatchford

The Natural History Museum and Aquarium in Venice

The aquarium is near the heart of Venice, making it a good place to begin exploring, and my own recent weekend in Venice naturally included a trip there. It is true that I left this visit until the last day, but on reflection my advice to other tourists would be to begin at the museum. Vaporetti or Traghetto travel is fun, but equally importantly it rapidly introduces the visitor to canal transport and gives fabulous views of the city.

The London Aquarium

Right in the centre of London, and next to the London Eye – what better place to start? Getting there from the hotel will introduce the visitor to the ‘Tube’ system or the famous red London Bus (unless rich enough to go everywhere by taxi!). Visits to the aquarium and eye can be booked online in advance, so they provide a ‘safe’ starting point. Most places of interest are an easy walk from the aquarium, but simply getting there will have introduced the visitor to other modes of transport.

Comparing The Two Aquaria

London Aquarium has many different tanks and houses creatures from many different habitats worldwide, and is an ‘educational’ visit. The single (large) marine tank in Venice specialises in the fish of the lagoon, and provides a good introduction to the species that will be seen later in the fish-market and when eating out!

Posted by John Blatchford

Marine Conservation and Poor People

Efforts to protect the marine environment have been shown to benefit some of the poorest inhabitants in the Asia Pacific Region (‘Nature’s Investment Bank’ – The Nature Conservancy, November 2007). This is partly due to the direct economic benefits of increased tourism, but the fishing also improves in a sustainable way. People are better off, healthier and feel better about themselves – and, of course, the special protection also benefits the habitats.

Wildlife Refuges in America

It is not only the poorer parts of the world that can benefit – according to Banking on Nature 2006 wildlife refuges in America give a huge boost to local economies. Once again this is partly due to ecotourism, where people come to look at the creatures, and to visiting hunters (and fishermen).

Mexico Increases Protection of the Monarch Butterfly

In November 2007 President Felipe Calderon announced further cash to improve sites for overwintering Monarch Butterflies. ‘These butterflies … are regarded as one of Mexico's natural wonders and this season we hope to receive 230,000 tourists’ said the president.

These three examples show that intelligent conservation work can benefit local people as well as the species and habitats of prime concern. Sometimes it is the tourist money that is useful, and at others the improvement of the environment is equally important.

(See also my article about Apes and Gorillas in the 'New Scientist' archive.)

Posted by John Blatchford

Winkles and Seaweeds

In my article about doing a transect on the rocky shore I have included some links to a few of my other articles and blogs that could be helpful (zonation, tides, winkles and seaweeds). I deliberately avoided mentioning barnacles there because their identification can be difficult and counting them is tedious to say the least! Barnacles are, however, still my own special interest – see ‘Barnacle Heart’ – and I will probably write an article or two about them and their zonation on the shore (my only article about barnacles so far has been about cirripedes in general – a sort of quick survey of the types.) Wesley Rouse has written a very nice article about how you should plan a research project which uses the distribution of barnacles on the shore as its example.

Other Shore Animals

One of the problems with working on rocky shores is the fact that there are so many different animals there. For transect work you need to limit the number of species you try to count, and you should make sure you are confident about their identification before you begin. Winkles and seaweeds are good to start with, but if you have a bit more time then maybe include the barnacle species and the dogwhelk (which eats barnacles and is important in determining their lower limit on the shore). I found this really nice YouTube Video - dating from the 1950’s – which shows most of the animals and plants you are likely to encounter, and although the accent might amuse you the information is excellent.

Request Articles

If you would like me to write an article about any particular shore creature or study technique then either join in the discussion or email me.

Posted by John Blatchford

‘Ming’, an ancient clam (Arctica islandica), was caught off Iceland in October 2007, aged at 405-410 years. This makes it (the sex of this individual was not reported) the oldest living animal recorded so far. It is not clear how long this clam might have lived if it had not been dragged from its ocean home, but 400+ years is not too bad!

Ageing

Any animal that can live for centuries might be sitting on a few secrets, and a charity in England has given the researchers a £40,000 grant to look into the matter. Richard Faragher, a gerontologist at Brighton University, said: ‘We need to find out how it retains muscle strength, remains cancer-free and keeps its nervous system intact over such a long period of time.’ He also said ‘It has the most boring life’ – so maybe it won’t be all good news when the clam’s secrets are revealed!

Climate Research

‘Ming’ was dredged up as part of a study looking into recent climate change. These clams show growth-rings in their shell rather like tree-rings (this was how his/her age was determined), and the study of other very old clam shells has produced detailed climate records.

The name ‘Ming’

This individual clam was nicknamed ‘Ming’ after the Chinese Dynasty (1368 to 1644.) - it must have first settled on the ocean floor around 1600!

Posted by John Blatchford

When anyone in my family made a ‘huffing – puffing’ sort of noise, after running around or doing heavy work, my dad would say ‘you sound like a grampus’. As I grew up I realised than none of us knew what a ‘Grampus’ was – not even my dad! I quizzed him on this and he said that is was something his mother had always said – he was just repeating it. This begins to make sense when I tell you that my grandmother’s father sailed most of the oceans back in the nineteenth century, and that he therefore almost certainly came across Risso’s Dolphin and heard it ‘blow’ (sailing warships can be very quiet places at times). In his day – Risso’s Dolphin had only recently been described and named, so the thing he saw and heard was called a ‘Grampus’.

Pelorus Jack

When scientists try to explain Pelorus Jack’s behaviour (see the article ‘Risso’s Dolphin and Pelorus Jack’) they often say things like: ‘he was possibly an infant bereaved before weaning which might explain his unusual behaviour’ and ‘ he was simply enjoying getting a ride from ships that passed through his home range’. This might well be true, but I prefer to think that he knew what he was doing and simply enjoyed helping sailors! Dolphins often help other dolphins when they are in trouble, there are many reports of dolphins coming to the aid of humans in the sea, and they are certainly intelligent enough to realise that there are people on boats. I don’t think it is too ‘far-fetched’ to imagine some individual dolphins (with free time on their hands – or should that be flippers) deciding to ‘help out’.

Posted by John Blatchford

I was visiting Edinburgh Zoo earlier in the year and spent a little time (as usual) with the lemurs. You pass through a gate system and walk along a path surrounded by natural vegetation. If the lemurs feel in the mood they come out of their warm house and muck about in the garden, right next to visitors. They are very inquisitive little creatures (lemurs not visitors) and approach very closely.

Edinburgh Zoo - Visitors and Lemurs

When I was in the enclosure there were a couple of lads walking through displaying all the customary ‘urban superciliousness’ often associated with adolescent males (we call them ‘hoodies’ in England, but they are known as ‘neds’ in Scotland – neither term affectionate!). What amused me was the way that the urban swagger rapidly turned into confusion and concern as the furry little beasts came closer. The ‘neds’ ran away to recover their composure.

Edinburgh Zoo – Visitors and Penguins

It was very interesting to see these two young men again outside the penguin enclosure when the penguins came out for their daily walk among the public. I think I saw genuine awe in their faces (youths not penguins). This changed me a bit and I realised that children brought up in urban environments have little chance to come into contact with animals other than cats and dogs. It is only when confronted by wild (or semi-wild) animals that people develop a full appreciation of the natural world.

Edinburgh Zoo – Education

The conservation work of the zoo is obvious and well explained, but I cannot help that the close exposure to unusual living things is also very important.

Posted by John Blatchford

I could have written this article (Horsehair Snakes) in the ‘Marine Biology – Marine Life’ section since the 5 Nematonectid species are parasites of crabs and shrimps, but I chose ‘Fish and Insects – Other Invertebrates’ because the majority of the Nematomorha have adults that live and reproduce in water and larvae that parasitise land or freshwater arthropods. None of the phylum have been much studied and little is known about the biology of most species, but this might change now that it has been discovered that they are able to produce chemicals capable of altering arthropod behaviour (watch YouTube Video).

Vector Behaviour

It is known that many parasites have evolved ways to control the behaviour of their host – to manipulate it to their own advantage – and now that research has shown how this control works in the case of the Horsehair Worms there will be attempts to find out how vectors of human diseases (such as Mosquitoes for Malaria and Kissing Bugs for Chaga’s Disease) are manipulated. This could turn out to be very important.

Controlling Insects

In the future it might even be possible to produce chemicals that are capable of altering the behaviour of pest insects – persuading them to avoid crop plants for example!

Academic Research

I think that this is a very good example of a situation where purely (useless?) academic research unexpectedly throws up something very useful. It provides an excellent argument for the funding of research projects that do not seem to have any immediate benefit and are purely ‘for interest’.

Posted by John Blatchford

Vertical Zonation

‘Seaweed Zonation’ looks at one example of the phenomenon of ‘vertical zonation’ on the rocky shore, but the article could just as easily have been written about barnacles or winkles. The common factor here is that the rocky shore provides a complex series of challenges to living things – in clearly defined vertical zones. The top of the shore is almost terrestrial while the bottom is almost completely marine – between these extremes there is a whole series of ‘strips’, each with its own marine/terrestrial balance. These zones can be described with reference to tidal phenomena or by referring to the organisms that live there – for example we can either talk of the ‘splash zone’ or the ‘Chthamalus stellatus zone’.

Horizontal Zonation

As we move along the shore horizontally we can move from sheltered bays to exposed headlands. The effects of this exposure to increased wave action will have a dramatic influence on the types of plants and animals that can survive. Very exposed rocky shores are often dominated by barnacles which cement themselves very firmly to the rock, while sheltered shores have a dense algal cover which makes life very difficult for the filter-feeding barnacles. In between these two extremes the balance of plants/grazers – predator/prey – will depend on other factors such as slope, aspect (which direction the shore faces) and of course vertical height above low water.

An experienced marine biologist will be able to tell much about a shore simply by observing the organisms that live there and it will often be possible to say that a particular shore experiences very strong wave action – even on the calmest of days.