Radio Program

Our regular Science and the SeaTM radio program presents marine science topics in an engaging two-minute story format. Our script writers gather ideas for the radio program from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute's researchers and from our very popular college class, Introduction to Oceanography, which we teach to hundreds of non-science majors at The University of Texas at Austin every year. Our radio programs are distributed at to commercial and public radio stations across the country.

May 6, 2012

Mangrove forests along the world’s coastlines are becoming less common these days, in large part because they keep people away from the ocean. But the forests that are left may serve as a barrier against the fury of Mother Nature by keeping the ocean away from people.

Undisturbed mangrove forests form thick tangles of vegetation. And they serve as habitat for fish, birds, mammals, and other critters. But in many parts of the world, they’ve been stripped away to make room for human development.

April 29, 2012

The male fiddler crab is quite the show-off. To attract the attention of females, he stands outside his burrow and waves his large claw in the air. And as the girls get closer, the waving becomes more and more frantic.

But that big claw may also play a role in the male crab’s everyday life -- it may help keep his body at the right temperature.

April 22, 2012

A sailboat skimming along the surface of the water on a sunny, breezy day would seem to be about as “green” as you can get. After all, the boat is powered by a renewable energy source -- the wind -- so it’s not burning oil or belching greenhouse gases into the air.

Yet it turns out that, like just about any other endeavor, sailing can foul the environment in ways large and small, from dumping raw sewage into the water to using paints that contain toxic compounds.

April 15, 2012

Overfishing, coastal development, and many other human activities can decimate fish populations. That’s not only bad for the fish, it’s bad for people, too -- it leaves fewer fish for food and recreation.

One possible solution may be restocking -- adding to the population by introducing fish that were raised in captivity.

April 8, 2012

It’s been a century since she disappeared beneath the glassy surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet she remains the most famous passenger ship in history, her name a symbol of tragedy and of the fallibility of both people and their technology.

The Royal Mail Ship Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on April 10th, 1912. It was her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, to New York. The luxurious liner -- the largest of her day -- carried more than 2200 passengers and crew.

April 1, 2012

There is a dimension in the oceans between sunlight and darkness. It is a dimension where organisms wait for the unwary, the dead, and the unclean. It is a dimension known as the twilight zone.

March 25, 2012

The migration of a group of whooping cranes from their summer breeding grounds in Wisconsin to their winter hangout in Florida is unlike any other. The youngest members of the flock are led southward not by their elders, but by an ultralight aircraft. That’s because the birds have never seen the winter habitat before -- they’ve been raised in captivity and transplanted to the wild.

March 18, 2012

Some of the most popular winter residents of the Texas coast start heading north around the middle of March. But thanks to a lot of T-L-C, they’ll be back by early fall -- and in larger numbers every yearThe visitors are whooping cranes -- the tallest birds in North America. They stand up to five feet high, with wings that span more than seven feet. Their bodies are white, with black trim on their wingtips and legs, and a red patch atop their heads.

March 10, 2012

Scores of ships pass through the Strait of Gibraltar every day -- cargo ships carrying oil and citrus fruits; cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers; and military vessels that patrol Mediterranean waters.

But a much bigger exchange is taking place below them. Water is flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean at the surface, and out from the Mediterranean Sea at the bottom. But a lot more is coming in than going out.

March 4, 2012

Look though you might, you won’t see anything that looks like an eyeball on a sea urchin -- a critter that looks more like a spine-covered cactus than an animal. But it turns out that the urchin may have the equivalent of thousands of eyes -- all of them on their feet.

Researchers have known for a long time that sea urchins respond to abrupt changes in light. But they’ve been unsure about how they do it, because there are no structures that even remotely resemble eyes.

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