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.
Jellyfish are among the least-appetizing creatures in the oceans. And biologists have long assumed that even other sea creatures didn’t eat them. After all, 95 percent of the average jellyfish is nothing but water, so it doesn’t offer much actual food. And the “stingers” on many jellies can turn them from prey to predators.
A research vessel will be making some nice stops this year -- from South Carolina to Bermuda to the Azores. Between those ports of call, it’ll explore regions of the Atlantic Ocean that are largely uncharted. It’ll map the ocean floor, take a look at coral reefs, and study the water. And it’ll broadcast all of its work in real-time, allowing scientists around the world -- and all the rest of us, too -- to watch over its shoulder.
Marine biologists said “hello” to a new species of a tiny fish that lives on the California coast just a few years ago. Now, they’re trying not to say, “good bye.”
The tidewater goby is only a couple of inches long. And its mating rituals are the opposite of most fish. The male digs a burrow to house the eggs, then is “courted” by females, who exhibit colorful displays to attract potential mates.
A few million years ago, a handoff took place along the coast of northwestern Mexico. The strip of land that forms Baja Mexico was passed from one of the plates that make up Earth’s crust to another. The handoff created a gap between Baja and the present-day Mexican coast. The gap filled with water, forming the Gulf of California.
Corals aren’t limited to bright, warm tropical waters. As marine biologists are discovering, some corals can survive just as well with no sunlight at all, and in temperatures that can be near freezing. Yet these inhabitants of the cold depths are just as colorful as their warm-water cousins.
You never know what treats you’ll find at your local fish market. At a commercial fish auction market in Honolulu, for example, researchers recently found three new species of opah. The discovery shows that we still have a lot to learn about the creatures that live under the sea.
Jamaica Bay, on the southern edge of Long Island, is getting a little rough around the edges. Changes in the salt marshes around the bay have left them more vulnerable to erosion. That could expose the land behind them to more flooding as sea level gets higher. And it could damage the habitat of hundreds of species of birds, fish, and other creatures that live in and around the bay.
For more than two decades around the start of the 20th century, Pelorus Jack was a constant companion to ships traveling through a dangerous passage on the coast of New Zealand. Some said the Risso’s dolphin actually guided the vessels to safety. And when a sailor supposedly tried to shoot Pelorus Jack, the government passed a law protecting him.
The oceans are like giant storage batteries -- they store heat that’s transferred from the atmosphere. One of the biggest batteries may form a ring outside Antarctica. And a recent study says it’s charging up with more heat than ever -- thanks in part to stronger winds.
Subantarctic Mode Water is found in the Southern Ocean, as well as parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
The Greenland shark can measure 16 feet or longer. But it takes a long time to reach that size. In the cold North Atlantic, the creatures grow slowly -- a fraction of an inch per year. That means the oldest Greenland sharks could be centuries old -- the longest-living vertebrates on the planet.
Recent studies have shown that several species of shark can live much longer than expected.
