Pufferfish <( '.' )>

Biologists think pufferfish, also known as blowfish, developed their famous “inflatability” because their slow, somewhat clumsy swimming style makes them vulnerable to predators. In lieu of escape, pufferfish use their highly elastic stomachs and the ability to quickly ingest huge amounts of water (and even air when necessary) to turn themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to make them even less palatable.
A predator that manages to snag a puffer before it inflates won’t feel lucky for long. Almost all pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.
Amazingly, the meat of some pufferfish is considered a delicacy. Called fugu in Japan, it is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually.
There are more than 120 species of pufferfish worldwide. Most are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. They have long, tapered bodies with bulbous heads. Some wear wild markings and colors to advertise their toxicity, while others have more muted or cryptic coloring to blend in with their environment.
They range in size from the 1-inch-long dwarf or pygmy puffer to the freshwater giant puffer, which can grow to more than 2 feet in length. They are scaleless fish and usually have rough to spiky skin. All have four teeth that are fused together into a beak-like form
.The diet of the pufferfish includes mostly invertebrates and algae. Large specimens will even crack open and eat clams, mussels, and shellfish with their hard beaks. Poisonous puffers are believed to synthesize their deadly toxin from the bacteria in the animals they eat.Some species of pufferfish are considered vulnerable due to pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing, but most populations are considered stable.

Elephant Seals :D +trip to Ana Nuevo

There are two species of elephant seals, the northern and southern. Northern elephant seals can be found in California and Baja California, though they prefer to frequent offshore islands rather than the North American mainland.
Southern elephant seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters that feature brutally cold conditions but are rich in the fish, squid, and other marine foods these seals enjoy. Southern elephant seals breed on land but spend their winters in the frigid Antarctic waters near the Antarctic pack ice.
Southern elephants are the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet (6 meters) long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms). But these massive pinnipeds aren't called elephant seals because of their size. They take their name from their trunklike inflatable snouts.
When breeding season arrives, male elephant seals define and defend territories. They collect a harem of 40 to 50 females, which are much smaller than their enormous mates. Males battle each other for mating dominance. Some encounters end with roaring and aggressive posturing, but many others turn into violent and bloody battles.
Sea elephants, as these seals are sometimes called, give birth in late winter to a single pup and nurse it for approximately a month. While nursing their young, females do not eat—both mother and child live off the energy stored in reserves of her blubber. Females give birth to a single pup each year after an 11-month pregnancy.
Elephant seals were aggressively hunted for their oil, and their numbers were once reduced to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, populations have rebounded under legal protections (yay!).

That is my smarty pants awnser but since I had personal exsperience with the northern elephant seal I think i'll right about that. In febuary of my 8th grade year my family and I went to Ana Nuevo to see the elephant seals; they have a breeding ground right on the beach. Now when you hear their up to 20 ft long its hard to imagine being a few hundresd meters away from and animal that can waddle faster than you can run and kill you but those fears dident really cross my mind untill after I left. I dont think I can accuratley describe the awe I felt looking at these massive creatures but I can tell you that was the day all my uncretainties of whether I wanted to be a marine biologist flitted away and I knew that I had to have somthing to do with the ocean for the rest of my life. If i can find the pictures I took with the seals in the backround i'll post them but they might have been lost when my computer crashed :( (should have backed em up with mozy!) oh well.

starfish (sea star)

Marine scientists have decided to change the starfish’s name with sea star because, well, the starfish is not a fish. It’s an echinoderm, related to sea urchins. Sea stars dont have any brains or blood. Their "blood" is really filtered sea water! They are usually a little lareger than a tea cup and weigh about 11 lbs. the sea star can live up to 35 years in the wild. they are also carnivorous.

They have bony skin, which protects them from most predators, and many wear bright colors that scare off potential attackers. there are no freshwater sea stars, and only a few live in brackish (less saltey than see water but still not fresh water) water.

There are about 2,000 species of sea stars in all the world’s oceans, they live in all kinds of enviorments from tropic waters to freazing floor. The five-arm varieties are the most common, hence their name, but species with 10, 20, and even 40 arms do exist.

somthing eles the seastars can do that is entirly unique is consume prey outside of their bodys! they do this by first using the suction-cuped feet to pry open the clam or oyster and then through its mouth the star throws out its stomatch and entierly envelops its prey it then digests and withdraws its stomatch.

Along with their imfamous shape, sea stars are famous for their ability to regrow their lmibs, and in some cases, entire bodies! They are able to do this because most or all of their vital oragans lie in their arms . Some require the main body to be intact to regenerate, but a few species can grow an entirely new sea star just from a portion of a severed limb.

humpback whale.

The humpback whale can grow up to 48 to 62 feet long ( a little longer than a full sized school bus) and weigh up to 40 t0ns. They can dive for up to 30 minutes. Humpbacks can dive to a depth of 500-700 feet. Humpback whales are mostly know for their singing scientists today are still trying to figure out why they do this but its is most likley that they do it for communicattion and to find potential mates.

Humpbacks are great swimmers, and they use their massive tail fin (called a fluke) to swim powerfully, dive deep, and breach . These whales, like most, regularly leap from the water, landing with a tremendous splash. Scientists dont know if this breaching behavior has a purpose weather it clears pests or is simply for fun.

These whales are found near coastlines, eating krill, plankton, and ocationaly small fish. Humpbacks migrate every year from summer feeding grounds which are cooler in search of breading grounds warmer near ther equator (in late november the whales actually pass monterey).Females nurse their calves for almost a year, though it takes longer than that for a humpback whale to reach full growth. Calves do not stop growing until they are ten years old. Mothers and their young (called calves) are very affectionate often touchering and swiming close together.

The humpback whale is currently on the endangered species list because their mating grounds are close to shore and because they are slow swimmers, the humpback whales were an easy target for early whalers. The International Whaling Commission gave them worldwide protection status in 1966, but there were large illegal kills by the Soviets until the 1970's and there are still large kills going on today mostly in Japan. It is believed there are about 30,000-40,000 whales today.

statment of purpose II!

Mainly I have been writing about one topic and that is marine biology. That is what I planed to do from the start because thats what I like writing about. I think I have done alright with spelling, punctuation, and grammer but I feel like I could do more. I also said I wanted to raise awarness about marine issues and I think I have wrote about them when they come up in my topic but the only person who is hearing about them is Mr. Sutherland and thats alright with me but I dont think that it is a logical goal to raise awarness to one person.
Somthing else I said I was going to do with this blog but never did was s.a.t. prep essays and I still want to but now that I think about it i wouldent knwo where to begin, what to write, how to make it better, and what to do when im done. But I think im going to find out and really try because high school is flying by and im going to need all the practice I can get.
Although I enjoy writing about marine animals I feel like I should broden my horizen on to other things I like wrighting about like just my life in general because all the academic things somtimes give me writers block. Perhaps I will try movie reviews and more annotation things like "why are all the black kids sitting together" anlog with the ocean life, geral life, and essay blogs.
those are basicaly the thing I feel like I need to work on. pretty much the same as my first post with minor changes mainly regarding my topics but over all the same goal: get better at writing.

GIANT SQUID!

This week I have decided to do my blog post on the giant squid. The giant squid remains a mystery, and a large one at that, to scients besides being the biggest invertibrate on earth. The largest of these elusive squids found measured 59 feet and weighed nearly a ton!

However, their deep-sea habitat has made them difficult to study, and almost everything scientists know about them is from carcasses that have washed up on beaches or been hauled in by fishermen. Lately, though, the scientists have come in to better luck. In 2004 researchers in Japan took the first images ever of a live giant squid. And in 2006, scientists with Japan's National Science Museum caught and brought to the surface a live 24-foot female giant squid. but even with these small feets the score stands humans 2 and squids with a number so high you would likely need scientific notation to write it.

Giant squid, along with their cousin, the colossal squid, have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, measuring about 10 inches in diameter about the size of a beach ball. This massive eye allow them to see things in the inhospitible of which they live. Like other squid species, they have eight arms and two longer tentacles that help them bring food to their mouths. Their diet likely consists of fish, shrimp, and other squid, and some suggest they might even attack and eat small whales. they swim with not only their tiny tenticals but also with a propultion system inside their bodys buy first drawing water in and then forcing it back out. marine experts can not yet conclude where the in vertibrates live yet because they have been found in all on the worlds oceans.

annotation “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”

(4.) Though this group of children, almost all of whom were White, did not live near a large Native American population and probably had had little if any personal interaction with American Indians, they all had internalized an image of what Indians were like. How did they know? Cartoon images, in particular the Disney movie Peter Pan, were cited by the children as their number-one source of information. At the age of three, these children already had a set of stereotypes in place. Though I would not describe three-year-olds as prejudiced, the stereotypes to which they have been exposed become the foundation for the adult prejudices so many of us have.

i chose this paragraph because i think it is important and it is somthing i agree with. i dont think three year olds are predudiced either but the path that they are exposed to at such a young age is one that will enter them into the world with stereo types in their minds like with the native americans there are movies like peter pan, there is an indian in the cupboard, and pocahontas. there are also halloween costumes, sunday i was at the holloween store and came across a costume that was suppsed to be on a native american that consisted of fake animal skins, feathers, and a knife, the woman who was modeling it also had her hair in braids with paint onj her face and looked as if she were dancing around. i think if we exposed young children to what other cultures are really like befor showing the movie then it would really help then avoid these negative images.

Walrus

The walrus with its iconic mustache and tusks, which it uses to haul its enormous body onto the ice, can be up to 11.5 feet long and weigh up to 2 tons. The walrus is usually found near the arctic circle with hundreds of its companions around also know as a herd. these animals are extremely sociable bellowing and snorting to each other across the ice but they are not always so playful like one might see in a movie such as 50 first dates or in an aquarium, around mating season they become very territorial and hostile, that is where their long tusks come in again. another use th walrus has for its tusks is to poke holes in the ice from bellow while on one of thier fishing trips. the walrusses diet primarily consists of shell fish and they hunt by using their sesative whiskers as ditection devises.

The walrus is a very large animal and one that is believed to have evolved millions of years ago from a land dwelling creature. There are some clues that have been uncovered but still plenty that is unknown. the origin of the walrus is quite sketchy based on fossiles and DNA testing they might have been related to early bears. They are also very closely related to seals. The difference is that the walrus grows tusks and seals don’t. Another animal that the walrus could be related to is the Saber Tooth Tiger. This is based on the fact that their jaws (including tuscks) are so similar.

The walrus is curently an endangered species now only native americans are allowed to hunt these animals. because of the value their tusks, oil skin, and meat had walruses were hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th centurys in many parts of the world.

great white sharks

the great white shark is there an animal more feared? with its unparalleled sences it can smell a single drop of blood for over a mile away and can swim up to 40 mph it can even breach out of the water to attack its prey. but are they really the killing machines horror movies like jaws and open water make them out to be? i personally dont think so and neither do most experts its true that great whites are reasponsible for most shark attacks in callifornia but these are very few and are mostly not fatal. sharks are curiose creatures and mostly bite humans out of curiousity or mistaken identity and sharks have no other way to investigate besides there massive jaws. though contrary to popular belife a sharks bite pressure is about the same as a humans (250 pounds) but its their razor sharp teeth that make the bite so deadly.
great white sharks have had a tough time since birth becasue as soon as they are born they are on their own and fighting for their lives from bigger prdators including their own mother, other sharks, rays, large fish, and even humans. a great white sharks diet gererally consists of fish such as tuna but what a shark is always looking for is a seal or sea lion and if they manage to get one they dont have to have another large meal for another 1-2 months.
sharks have helped keep our oceans in balance for over 400 million years but there numbers are quickly being diminshed by over fishing for more information about this and what we can all do to help you should check out a site called www.oceana.org and click on safe guard sharks or google "scared for sharks" and check out january joneses blog . but they also do campaings other thing like to stop dirty fishing, save sea turles, and stop cruis ship polution.

what im all about.

The main topic I plan to write about is marine biology. I could do different posts for each of my favorite animals like the great white shark, the rock hopper penguin, and elephant seals etc.
I’ve always found marine biology interesting; when I was a little girl my father would take me to splash around in the tide pools or the aquarium. I thought this would be a god subject for me because its something I’m really passionate about. I also feel that it is one of the under appreciated branches of science, our planet is covered by about 70% water and most of it has yet to be explored.
Other marine issues I hope to use this blog to raise awareness about are over fishing (especially sharks), ocean pollution, and whaling both illegal and legal.
Another thing I want to do with this blog for since it is for school is to help improve my spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and grammar.