toothybabies

[toothybabies]

This is a tribute to Peter Benchley, not the movie Jaws (1975)

The author of 'Jaws' dedicated the rest of his life to reversing the unexpected negative impact his book had on the image of sharks.

Not only were sharks supposedly killed to create props for the movie, but 'Jaws' ended up awakening a bloody sea of ignorance in people at the time, who, haunted by an irrational fear and lack of understanding about marine predators, felt motivated to take to their boats and kill thousands of great white sharks in the most feared ways.

Such as the promotion of great white shark hunting championships that targeted the biggest ones, which were mostly pregnant females who, after being displayed as a trophy, had their jaws ripped off and their bodies discarded in the garbage.

Fear spread widely to all shark species, creating a lack of sensitivity that made it convenient to exterminate entire shark populations around the world that for a long time remained invisible to people's perception.

And this has continued to resonate for a long time with the entertainment media perpetuating the portrayal of sharks as monsters, newspapers favoring sensationalism about shark incidents, governments promoting shark culls, the advance of the unregulated predatory fishing industry, scientists not being supported in their studies of marine predators, the destruction of their natural habitats and the pollution of the oceans.

For thousands of years, sharks have taken care of the health of our oceans, older than the dinosaurs or the first trees, they have gone through great mass extinctions, they have been worshipped and respected as gods and guardians by oceanic peoples and now we demonize them in our media and exterminate them by the millions every year, who is the real monster?

We are shark-eaters.

I hope you can also hear what Peter Benchley himself had to say about all this:

I finally finished this artwork! Hope you like it. At some point I will adapt it for my little Redbubble store.🛍️

I reduced the quality to try to prevent them from stealing. I hope it's enough! 🙁

[toothybabies]

The researchers used annual growth rings on the fish's scales to determine the age of individual coelacanths - "just as one reads tree rings," said marine biologist Kélig Mahé.

[toothybabies]

Did you guys know that the most recent version of sharks have fins that are kinda leg like and they like to walk up onto land?

#sharks

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sea elements - png

[toothybabies]

Happy National Library Week!

It's never a bad time to support your local library, but this week is an especially good time. Each day this week has a special purpose.

April 8th - Right to Read Day

April 9th - Library Workers Day

April 10th - Library Outreach Day

April 11th - Take Action For Libraries Day

The American Library Association has a page full of suggestions for ways you can participate in National Library Week, as well as a whole bunch of ways to get involved with your library in general. Many of their suggestions are simple things that anyone can do, such as:

Visit your library

Get a library card

Check out a book (or something else your library offers)

Let your librarians know that you appreciate them!

I just took some cards to my librarian friends and the head librarian was so touched, she hugged me. It felt so good to just let them know how much they mean to me. Anyway, don't forget to take a few minutes this week to celebrate libraries!

#i kinow it's not Shark Content but ssshhhhhh

[toothybabies]

yeah man we can tell

[toothybabies]

[toothybabies]

Hearing them get so excited over the whale fall is so fun I love hearing people who are passionate about their work

#whale fall #whales

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More colorsss

#art

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Environmental efforts to protect sharks in recent years have resulted in a huge increase in the great white shark population off the New England coast. It’s a conservation success story, with potentially unnerving implications for beach-goers. Rhode Island PBS Weekly’s David Wright reports.

#sharks #cape cod #great white shark #Youtube

[toothybabies]

made a really big poster about whale falls for uni this semester. enjoy

[toothybabies]

Excerpt from this Washington Post story:

More than 190 countries have reached a landmark deal for protecting the biodiversity of the world’s oceans, agreeing for the first time on a common framework for establishing new protected areas in international waters.

The treaty, whose text was finalized Saturday night by diplomats in New York after years of stalled talks, will help safeguard the high seas, which lie beyond national boundaries and make up two-thirds of Earth’s ocean surface. Member states have been trying to agree on the long-awaited treaty for almost 20 years.

Environmental advocacy groups heralded the finalized text — which still needs to be ratified by the United Nations — as a new chapter for Earth’s high seas. Just 1.2 percent of them are currently environmentally protected, exposing the vast array of marine species that teem beneath the surface — from tiny plankton to giant whales — to threats like pollution and overfishing.

“Two-thirds of the ocean has just been exposed to the will and want of all,” said Rebecca Hubbard, the director of the High Seas Alliance consortium of nongovernmental organizations that participated in the negotiations, in a telephone interview Sunday. “We have never been able to protect and manage marine life in the ocean beyond countries’ jurisdictions,” she said. “This is absolutely world-changing.”

The treaty will not automatically establish any new marine protection areas, but it creates a mechanism for nations to begin designating them in international waters. That ability is crucial for enforcing the pledges agreed on at last year’s U.N. biodiversity summit, COP15, where delegates pledged to protect nearly a third of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030 as a refuge for the planet’s remaining wild plants and animals.

The high seas treaty makes it easier for that goal to be reached, as it allows vast swaths of vulnerable marine ecosystems in international waters to be subject to protections from overfishing, shipping and mining for the first time.

[toothybabies]

the “affirmations” the official shark week instagram posted are really funny. like yeah Mecore tbh

[toothybabies]

Album of Sharks, Tom McGowen, 1977. Illustrated by Rod Ruth.

#wobbegong

[toothybabies]

making an honest effort to learn how to use gouache, here’s my whale + shark studies

[toothybabies]

[toothybabies]

3D-printed clay tiles designed to restore coral reefs

Architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have jointly developed a novel method for coral restoration making use of specially designed 3D printed artificial ‘reef tiles’ for attachment by corals to enhance their chance of survival in the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong waters.

The artificial reef tiles are specially designed to aid coral restoration by providing a structurally complex foundation for coral attachment and to prevent sedimentation, one of the major threats to corals. They provide anchors for corals of opportunity, i.e. dislodged coral fragments that are unlikely to survive on their own, giving them a second chance to thrive.

The 128 pieces of reef tile with a diameter of 600mm were printed through a robotic 3D clay printing method with generic terracotta clay and then fired at 1125 degrees Celsius. The design was inspired by the patterns typical to corals and integrated several performative aspects addressing the specific conditions in Hong Kong waters.In addition to the novel design of the tiles, the materials used are more eco-friendly than the conventional use of concrete and metal. The tiles were printed in clay and then hardened to terracotta (ceramic) in a kiln. The team plans to expand their collaboration to new designs with additional functions for seabed restoration in the region.

Read more at newatlas.com or check the source for University of HK press release