Ocean Acidification on Urchin Larvae

Ocean Acidification is becoming an increasingly big problem. As we continue emitting carbon dioxide the oceans are becoming increasingly acidic. This is because around 30% of the carbon dioxide that's artificially emitted is absorbed into our oceans. Once in our oceans, it forms carbonic acid. This carbonic acid is harmful to sea life. In shelled species, acidic conditions the shell thins and the organism becomes more vulnerable to predators. In other species, the acidic conditions can disrupt their biological processes. There's even been research which suggests that acidity can impact communication in Dolphins for example.


Of course Scientists are determining whether this is a problem which warrants intervention. To do this - they need to understand the importance of the problem and what it actually is. One of the earlier investigations was carried out by a Belgian eco-physiologist, Sam Dupont. He put a batch of urchin larvae into a bath of highly acidic water to see how their skeletons would fare. Immediately, nothing obvious happened, he decided to check on them later in the evening, however he didn't remember until a few days later - at which point he thought they'd probably be dead. When he returned, he found the larvae swimming in their tank but their internal skeletons had dissolved away - but they still seemed to be functioning well. Even though this experiment doesn't provide any definitive conclusions, it does demonstrate the extreme case of what might happen if we let this problem develop. The article, published in Nature says how the acidity of sea water has climbed about 30% over the last 150 years. Some regions of the globe have already become corrosive to such an extent of where it has inhibited the growth of corals and some other species for part of the year. Projections have said that within a few decades’ creatures with calcium carbonate shells like mussels will run into problems within a few decades. Acidification might also impede the growth of plankton, potentially endangering entire marine ecosystems like fisheries and coral reefs.

The Enchanted Pink Dolphin

The Pink Dolphin is literally like something out of a fairy tale. In total, there's five species of dolphins that reside in out rivers, but one of the most popular of these is the pink dolphin who lives in the Amazon River. Even though these Dolphins are comparatively popular along the Amazon River they're still endangered like the other species of dolphin.

These incredibly unique dolphins have an incredibly varied diet, from crabs and small fish to bigger animals like catfish and even small turtles. The dolphins can also move their head up to 180 degrees thanks to some of their vertebrae not being fused which is great for hunting in shallow waters.

The Pink Dolphin is also often Albino making them look very unique but this also brings them loads of different health problems. For example if they're pink they have a lot lower levels of the pigment melanin, which on top of protecting them from the sunlight, it also plays a vital role in their eyesight. Without it they have extremely poor vision and that's why we don't often see them!

UK BLUE WHALE ALERT | #BigBlueLive

It's only been days since the entire British public was enthralled by the appearance of a Blue Whale on camera just off the Californian Coast, but it appears that they've been following us to the UK! In fact, this blue whale made an appearance 250 miles off the south west coast of the UK, which is actually a relatively small distance as far as scientists are concerned. Many Oceanographers have actually said they think it's one of the first images they've been able to capture since the Blue Whale was hunted to near extinction many years ago. The Oceanographers who saw the whale where actually doing a marine mammal survey when they saw seven fin whales when one of the researchers spotted the whale about a kilometer away from the boat.

Blue Whales are probably the biggest mammal which has ever lived on Earth - with one huge krill obsession! In one single day, they can consume about 3,600kg of krill! They spend most of their time underwater when they're diving for krill, then surface every few minutes to take a breath - lets face it, Blue Whales are AMAZING!

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