Friday, March 9, 2018

The Coolest Whale Video Ever





Watch these humpback whales use a very smart way to 
confuse and trap fish. Teamwork!





Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Connor is the first MicroActivist and urges other children to join in with keeping beaches debris-free.


From birth, Connor loved the water. It soothed him, drew him in and was always his happy place ... During a trip to visit family in Hawaii, Connor saw a wild monk seal on an early morning walk down the beach (and) he had to learn all there was to learn about the endangered monk seal. Learning how these curious creatures are often entangled in discarded fishing nets and leftover beach trash set the five-year-old on a mission to clean up as many beaches as he could...What started as one little boy's mission to save endangered monk seals has grown into a movement of kids determined to change the fate of the oceans!

The Aquarium of the Pacific has awarded Connor with the 2017 Youth Hero of the Year Award for his ongoing efforts on ocean conservation. And he earned the 2017 Earth Warrior Hero Award.

Kids can join Connor in ocean conservation like these boys and girls pictured below during a recent beach cleanup.




Thursday, June 22, 2017

Pickle-like Creatures Invade Pacific West Coast

Pyrosome. (NOAA photo)
There's a garden of pickles growing in the Pacific Ocean!

OK, that's not exactly true, but there aren "Millions of tubular sea creatures called pyrosomes (that) have taken over the Pacific Ocean in an unprecedented bloom," reports an Oregon newspaper.

Scientists are baffled and in a pickle trying to explain these pickle-looking sea creatures.


"These bumpy, translucent organisms look like sea cucumbers that range in size from six inches to more than two feet long...

"And they’re everywhere, filling the waters off the West Coast all the way up to Alaska, and washing up on beaches.

"One research boat caught 60,000 of them in five minutes. They’re so thick in Alaska that fishermen gave up on fishing because their hooks were coming up full of pyrosomes instead of salmon."





Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Marine Debris Art Contest Winner



Congratulations to our Annual NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest winners, whom will be featured in the 2018 Marine Debris Calendar! This year, we received more than 500 entries from kindergarten to 8th-grade students with incredible visual messages on what we need to do to be the solution to ocean pollution. Thank you to all the students who participated in this year's contest!