The problem
According to… Continue

I stumbled upon this today while browsing the good ol' intertubes.

Apparently, there's a parasitic isopod out there that's burrowing into fish, eating their tongues, and replacing the tongues with themselves. After doing a little more research, I found that the parasites don't actually eat the tongue. The creature latches on to the fish-tongue's base and leeches blood from it. As the creature grows, less blood makes is able to enter the tongue, and the tongue atrophies. The isopod then takes th… Continue

As I begin my senior year at Texas A&M, I have suddenly came to the realization I soon will be an adult. I have to enter the real world soon, but do I? I'm starting to look into graduate school dealing with Marine Sciences or Marine Mammal research. I have many options in my mind and not too sure what to do.

I create this blog post to congratulate the new marine biology class and hope for many memories to come the next year for each and every one of you. Through the class I came to realize… Continue

I don’t want you to think that all I’m going to do is complain, but one thing I have to say is that as I read this, I couldn’t help but space off. It was full of thousands of facts that just bore me out of my mind at points. To me, this seemed strange, because I’m the kind of person who loves to learn things. The more I learn, the more intrigued I get, or at least that’s how it normally is.

Maybe, it’s that I really have no connection to this book yet, other than the fact that I am in a Marine… Continue

As I read the book "The Enchanted Braid," I could hear the passion that Mr. Davidson shares for the coral reefs. He explains the corals vividly with many details. He has connected with the reefs and the animals in them, as I hope we do when we visit them. It's obvious that Mr. Davidson is entranced by there beauty, and upset when they are destroyed.

In the book, chapter "Animals, Plants, Vegetable" deeply perplexed me. How can something not be classified in one group? Sure, it fits characterist… Continue

I found the first four chapters of “The Enchanted Braid” to be very interesting and informative. I enjoyed reading about the history and nature of the coral reef. Darwin’s adventures sucked me in and made me wonder. When Darwin described how he found sea creatures on the mountainside in the Andes I was intrigued. ‘“[A]t the height of a few hundred feet old-looking shells are numerous,” he wrote, “and I found some at 1300 feet.”’ (26) I was somewhat confused after reading this so I pulled out my… Continue

Okay, well this is my first time blogging...so here it goes.

I actually learned quite a bit from these first four chapters. I took zoology this past year and learned a lot. But this book went way deeper into coral. I honestly had a hard time focusing on some parts of the book. My attention span isn’t really that short but, wow, I would get into a part and it seemed like it jumped when the book realized I realized what was going on.

I originally skipped over the preface. I mean who seriously ev… Continue

I just recently finished up my slideshow on my computer and it's pretty beastly . . . no lie, but I just realized upon uploading it to slideshare.net that Slideshare doesn't do any of the click for the next group or timing effects. This is bothering me, because one of the reasons my slide is so beastly is because of a huge timing related thing that took me forever to do. Warning: It's also kind of nerdy, but I like it, thereby making me a nerd.

Here's what it's like on Slideshare [Another warni… Continue

*a school of yellowtail snappers below the sailboat, May 2009

Our 2009-2… Continue

Linked below is a copy of the Marine Biology information packet and application for the upcoming 2009-2010 class.
Pay particular attention to the dates for enrollment on page 5. The first important date coming up is
the "informational meeting" this THURSDAY NIGHT, May 14th, in room #307 at 7:00pm. Applications are due completed and returned by 3:30pm next Wednesday afternoon, the 20th.… Continue

(yes, this is serious)

Toss in your two cents to the official naming contest for the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. Come on, you know you love Latin.

I received a message about this a day or so ago on a marine science listserv. Go… Continue

I survived Ike.....I can officially say it now

I finally received power and cable in the house that I have been staying in. It has been seven days since I could sit and relax in air conditioning! Unfortunately Galveston, TX is still closed and now my school is officially moving all 2000 students to main campus on Texas A&M located in College Station. I will be attending there on Sep. 24th until who knows when....I have to start all my classes over and we are on a accelerated schedule now. I… Continue

I see all these blog posts on turtles and on the book...even though I don't have the book I will express my feelings on turtles..

When I started my Major I always thought turtles were boring until I had the chance to work with them and I discovered there mysterious ways. They can be very fierce creatures, and very strong. They may look slow, but in fact are very fast animals. I have been cut, hit and had to run after turtles to keep track of them.

Here is how many of us it takes to keep one to… Continue

Toward the end of chapter 2, Osha Davidson describes the long-term relationships we discover between living organisms, symbiosis, as a “kind of marriage.” As he further states, “Not all marriages are made in heaven, and neither are all symbiotic relationships” (17). Marriage is an apt metaphor for the “union” of two different creatures that, in some scenarios, cannot survive without the other. Parasitism is, indeed, a marriage that is NOT made in heaven – but rather, more like the marriage betwe… Continue

When I first looked at the table of contents and saw that the title of the second chapter was “Animal, Mineral, Vegetable” I didn’t know what to think. At first I was thinking maybe it’s a food chain or something. Come to find it’s a philosophy; rules of scientific classification. I really like it, it’s extremely easy to understand. Living organisms are classified so in depth starting wit… Continue

Corals are strange animals. They cant move. They cant see. They cant hear. They dont have a true nervous system. They only have two layers of true cells...but, they need food. Class Animalia?...sure!

How do they get their food?
From an algae called zooxanthellae or "zoox." Zoox do far more than give the coral 98% of their food. Zoox give corals their color. Zoox also speed aid in the process corals use to build… Continue

Viola: A Barrier Reef

It is absolutely astonishing how Darwin already had a theory on reef formation before he even swam and examined a reef with his own eyes. He was so interested in the coral reefs that he traveled for five years across South America to study the geology of the coral reef. It blows my mind how Darwin climbed 1300 ft. up Valparaiso and found towering beds of fossilized seashells.

When Darwin was l… Continue

This chapter starts off with a quote by Darwin, and contains a single word that shows his true feelings toward the coral reef, “astonishment”. Sure, we all know Darwin for his Theory of Evolution, but who knew that he had a love for such a small creature. He wanted to dig deep into the mysteries found within the coral, and had a true love for the animal. He al… Continue

Chapter Eleven was an interesting part of the book because I didn’t think anyone actually used this type of fishing anymore. I mean I have heard of it but out side of a movie I have never heard of its use especially in Indonesia. I think that it is horrible that the guys who obey the law and not blast fish are actually punished because they have no way of making the kind of money the blasters can.

The part where Osha mentions the two joke… Continue

I did the whole write to a scientist thing about the role the bacteria play in the ecosystem around the underwater vents. I wondered about how the packet we got said that since there is no light and every other food chain on the planet starts with sunlight, how the bacteria play a role in making everything work. “However at deep sea vents, where the su… Continue