Blanket Octopus (Tremoctopus violaceus) - so unbothered they’re actually immune to jellyfish stings. They also rip off those jellyfish tentacles and use them as defense against their predators
I just bought the most incredible book from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) titled “Young Oceanographer’s Coloring Book About The Research Vessel Neil Armstrong”. It was written by navigator and structural designer of vessels, Peter Zimmerman
It’s a pretty basic book- not a lot of frills. A nice feature is that it gives a color example with each coloring page
Many images are what you would probably expect. Like here we have the vessel going out to sea.
But I what I love love love about this is how this book does NOT simplify for children. Here we have the mechanics of the portable water system and the instrument used to measure seawater conductivity, temperature and depth.
Oh and just straight up floor plans of the galley and mess room.
What ELSE I LOVE is that the author hid little pictures of his cat Smokey and dog Lulu for kids to find. Here we find a kitty rudder and doggy radar:
I just love when educators realize that you don’t have to “dumb down” high level concepts for young brains. Are they going to understand everything? No. But he included a glossary and given time- an interested brain will seek out context given time.
You can buy this book at the WHOI gift shop in person and online here. They have other great titles such as “Build Your Own Underwater Robot and Other Wet Projects” and “Good Night Lab”
Seahorses: “what if fish, but sideways?” (pitch axis)
Flounder: “what if fish, but sideways?” (roll axis)
Now, you may be thinking, “Then what is a ‘what if fish, but sideways?’ (yaw axis)?” And I regret to inform you that that is simply a fish that has made a right/left-hand turn.
Video of coho salmon holding in a pool. Saw this on my survey the other day, it's always so exciting to get to watch the salmon so close! If you live in the PNW try to get out and see them spawning! The Chinook are winding down but coho are in (and hopefully we get some more big rains so they keep moving upstream as the smaller streams get bigger flows) and chum are next. It's a pink salmon year as well!