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Which came first in whales: extreme breath-hold diving or large body size?

While preparing some size-comparisons of marine life for Week 3 of our free Massive Open Online Course on "Exploring Our Oceans", I was particularly struck by how whales are astounding animals. An adult blue whale can have a body mass of ~150 tonnes. That's around twice the body mass estimated for the largest known dinosaur ever to walk the Earth, and equivalent to the body mass of around 2000 people (i.e. the population of a village, perhaps). Continue reading →

Onwards and downwards: when ROVs or AUVs are lost in ocean exploration

This week saw the news that the Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) has been lost while exploring the Kermadec Trench at a depth of 9.99 km, during an expedition that has revealed that part of our planet as never before. To link with Week 5 of our free Massive Open Online Course on "Exploring Our Oceans", during which we focus on how we explore the oceans, this post takes a look at some of the ROVs and AUVs that have been lost during ocean exploration. Continue reading →

Deep-sea sharks don’t like fishing.

Well it’s not so much they don’t like fishing, more that deep-sea shark populations struggle to recover from too much fishing. To compensate for collapsing coastal fish stocks, many commercial fisheries have expanded operations into deeper waters in search of new bountiful fish stocks. Some of the most heavily affected fish from this expanded exploitation are the chondrichthyans (sharks, skates, rays and chimaera). Continue reading →

Adventure on the ocean waves

My first taste of a research expedition was on the RV Belgica in 2012. The Belgica is a scientific research vessel owned by the Belgian state and manned by members of the Belgian navy. The cruise started from the port of Galway, Ireland. The expedition was to the Irish Margin in the Northeast Atlantic. I joined a team of marine biologists and marine geologists from the University of Ghent. RV Belgica docked in Galway After a tiring journey I arrived late in the evening to Galway. Continue reading →

Life on board – Paris

What would an oceanographer be, without participating at least on one research cruise? That was my thought when I started my PhD in January 2013. As the samples for my project had already been collected before I started my studies at NOCS (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton), the prospects of going on board and explore the oceans were rather dim! Or so I thought... Continue reading →

Life on a research vessel

Hi all Seeing as the topic of the week is scientific cruises, here's a few images from a cruise I participated in back in Feb '13. It's just a little flavour of what living on a research vessel is like. The cruise was part of the INFOMAR programme whose task is integrated sea bed mapping of the Irish continental margin. More information can be found here. The vessel was the Irish research ship The Celtic Explorer, operated by the Marine Institute. Continue reading →

Google Hangout – Thursday 6th March 2-3pm

Hello MOOCers! Week five will start on monday, and one of the highlights of this week is the Google Hangout we have planned for thursday afternoon. This will take place between 2 and 3pm, and you will have the chance to chat to the educators and facilitators online. You do not have to use a google account, you can watch through YouTube instead, so you do not need any additional log ons or accounts. Continue reading →

We want your links!

Dear MOOCers This weeks activity has been to share your info graphics with us relating the amount of salt in the sea, to another known volume, and we have had some amazing creations, I have particularly enjoyed the "7 Billion Elephants" analogy, and the excellent image relating how much sea water would be needed to obtain Juan Mata's weight in salt! One of the highlights of facilitating on this course has been the interaction between students, facilitators and educators, and a lot of... Continue reading →