A Brittle Star May Be a Coral’s Best Friend...

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Let’s get our hands dirty for Women’s History Month by celebrating the women scientists working on understanding the impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill:

Lexi Temkin explores the links between the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and human health.
Nancy Rabalais studies “dead zones"—areas of low- or no-oxygen water along the seafloor that suffocate most animal life in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Uta Passow studies the movement of carbon into and around the ocean in the “biological carbon pump.”

Photo Credits: Top: Flickr User James Davidson; Bottom: Justin E. Stumberg/U.S. Navy

Source: ocean.si.edu deepwater horizon gulf oil spill oil spill oil spills womens history month women in science science marine science ocean science ocean gulf of mexico

Can you guess which celestial ocean dweller this belongs to?*Spoiler!*— It’s a sea star
Sea stars creep along the seafloor using hundreds of little tube feet. These tube feet function through a water vascular system that extends and retracts the feet... — Can you guess which celestial ocean dweller this belongs to?
*Spoiler!*— It’s a sea star
Sea stars creep along the seafloor using hundreds of little tube feet. These tube feet function through a water vascular system that extends and retracts the feet using hydraulic forces.
Credit: © Saeed Rashid, Flickr

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It’s a Jelly Eat Jelly WorldA “pink meanie” jellyfish (Drymonema larsoni)—a species found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean—feeds on a moon jelly (Aurelia). In 2014 Dr. Keith Bayha from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Dr. Michael Dawson from the... — It’s a Jelly Eat Jelly World
A “pink meanie” jellyfish (Drymonema larsoni)—a species found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean—feeds on a moon jelly (Aurelia). In 2014 Dr. Keith Bayha from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Dr. Michael Dawson from the University of California, Merced discovered that the pink meanie represents not only a new species, but an entirely new family of jellyfish.
Learn more about jellyfish diversity here.
Credit: Mary Elizabeth Miller, Dauphin Island Sea Lab

gulf of mexico jellyfish moon jellies ocean Caribbean dauphin island university of california

What big teeth you have!A venus purse anemone looks like it would fit right in at the Little Shop of Horrors. Resembling the carnivorous Venus flytrap that we are familiar with on land, this anemone is typically in the Gulf of Mexico. Found on the... — What big teeth you have!
A venus purse anemone looks like it would fit right in at the *Little Shop of Horrors*. Resembling the carnivorous Venus flytrap that we are familiar with on land, this anemone is typically in the Gulf of Mexico. Found on the floor of the deep sea, it waits until tiny particles drift onto its tentacles and then fires small stinging harpoons called nematocysts to capture them as food.
Credit: I. MacDonald (in Gulf of Mexico–Origin, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Texas A&M Press.

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Yes, that is a beating heart! Scientist Rachael Heuer examines fish heart cells in an effort to learn how oil from an oil spill impacts the heart’s functioning—and keeping the heart happy and pumping outside of the fish is just one step in figuring this out.

Turns out even a little bit of oil hinders heart functioning. Need more info? Read the full scoop at https://ocean.si.edu/fish-heart-out-water

Video courtesy of Rachel Heuer

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Unlike most coral reefs, those of the Phoenix Islands are protected from pollution and overfishing, which allows them to recover from severe bleaching.
Do coral reefs manifest the need to conserve ocean ecosystems? Vote for this photo!
Photo Credit:... — Unlike most coral reefs, those of the Phoenix Islands are protected from pollution and overfishing, which allows them to recover from severe bleaching.

Do coral reefs manifest the need to conserve ocean ecosystems? Vote for this photo!

Photo Credit: Brian Skerry

Source: ocean.si.edu coral coral reef coral reefs overfishing coral bleaching ocean conservation ocean conservation brian skerry

The Great Barrier Reef – Australia’s iconic coral reef that is so big, it can be seen from space – is not in good shape. New research shows that in the past 30 years, half of the coral in the reef has died.
What happened to it? Read this blog post by... — The Great Barrier Reef – Australia’s iconic coral reef that is so big, it can be seen from space – is not in good shape. New research shows that in the past 30 years, half of the coral in the reef has died.
What happened to it? Read this blog post by Nancy Knowlton, the head of ocean science at the Smithsonian, and see her PBS interview.
(via The Great Barrier Reef – Going, Going, Gone??? | Ocean Portal | Smithsonian)
Photo Credit: Christopher Schoenbohm

Source: ocean.si.edu coral coral reefs conservation ocean conservation ocean oceans clownfish anemones smithsonian natural history museum ocean creatures save the ocean