Belize Barrier Reef

Pablo By: Rok Outside of the water there were kids playing on the beach while their maid drones supervised them. Oops! I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Pablo, Pablo Ferisa. You may not be able to tell this but I am a sea monster. But I’m not scary! I’m really nice! I just want to be the humans’ friends, but their maid drones just protect their children. I was swimming near the beach in the Florida Keys. I slowly surfaced. I swam by a piece of trash. These maid drones discard their…

Do Cnidarians replace their stinging cells once used? Many people are familiar with the Jellyfish sting. When a jellyfish brushes against someone and they feel pain, they are feeling the cells along the jellyfish's tentacles referred to as cnidocytes. These cells harbor tiny projectiles full of venom, called nematocysts. There are many questions about the sting of the jellyfish, the structures involved, and the venom delivered. Specifically, do Cnidarians possess any capabilities of…

What is a Marine Biologist? According to Merriam Webster “marine” means of or relating to the sea or the plants and animals that live in the sea. A biologist is a scientist that studies things that are biotic, therefore, making the word “Marine Biologist” mean the study of ocean life. Approximately 70% of the earth is covered by water, while the rest is land. A marine biologist has a significant profession by studying the life in the ocean and all of its secrets. The secrets in the ocean could…

Trenity Huff Mrs. Doerr E.L.A. 8th grade February 3, 2016 “Box Jellyfish” Box jellyfish are special in many different ways. They have unique talents and characteristics. Box jellyfish live in tropical waters. They also have very complex body systems. Box jellyfish are one of the few endangered species of jellyfish. Box jellyfish are rare and are very hard to see. Box jellyfish are really deadly to humans and animals. Box jellyfish have a lot of foods that they enjoy to eat. They barely have…

Coral bleaching is put into different categories based on the loss of dinoflagellate symbionts. Large events affect coral reefs with a growing frequency. Recent bleaching has hamed corals throughout the world's oceans. When coral bleaching appears only in a scientific literature after warming of the ocean. In the next 30- to 50 years bleaching will rise rapidly because of the change in sea temperature. Changes in stress on coral communities worldwide. Lots of methods have been used to evaluate…

Have you ever heard of a stingray? Even if you have, did you know that they can weigh more than a piano? Or, that they can’t even see their prey when they hunt? Stingrays truly are full of surprises! One amazing fact about stingrays is that they spend a majority of their time serene and not very active. Most of their little movements are reactions to the waves. In addition, stingrays are often eaten by large sharks, crocodiles, orca whales, and birds as they fly along the surface of the…

Winds from the Gulf Stream Current and warmer ocean temperatures during the summer months may be the catalysts behind a strange “jellyfish” like creatures popping up on East coast beaches over the past several weeks. Known as the Portuguese Man O’ War, these large, colorful venomous animals are often confused for a jellyfish but are actually part of a group related to jellyfish called siphonophores. They can grow up to 1 foot long and 5 inches wide and their tentacles can stretch as long as…

Sea Walnut, Rippenqualle (German) Venus' girdle, warty comb jelly, these are just some of the names for the Comb Jelly. This animal is “any member of a common genus (Mnemiopsis) of gelatinous, planktonic marine invertebrates of the order Lobata (class Tentaculata, phylum Ctenophora).” (""sea Walnut"." Encyclopædia Britannica.) Because of its pronounced abundance in estuaries in the heavily populated parts of the US and its precarious population growth after the 1980s, the Mnemiopsis Leidyi or…

Introduction Invasive species are continually documented as a major risk to ecosystem health and worldwide biodiversity. Invasive marine fish introductions are still considered relatively rare and historically the environmental effects are often discounted. This is different from historically famous invasive species such as the zebra mussels in The Great Lakes, which caused well-documented harmful economic and environmental effects. While these are considered rare, they have been documented,…

The global temperature has risen by 0.6°C and is projected to continue to rise. Anthropogenic effects are contributing to the destruction of animal wild life, and the ecosystem. Life is delicate, and changes in the ecosystem due to climate change is endangering wild life. Leatherback turtles or Dermochelys coriacea migrate across the entire basins and according to the 2010 IUNC red list are now critically endangered. The nesting populations for D.coriacea in the Pacific Ocean have steadily…