HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!

i didn't go on the marine bio trip so i don't have much to talk about
i guess i'll talk about a fish that i saw over spring break

i was at han shin (the japanese steakhouse at town center) and saw a REALLY big fish, and thought about marine biology

i also ate a lot of fish because it was passover and i couldn't eat anything else, and i thought about marine biology when i ate the fish

that's about all there is. i'm going to texas this weekend. yay.


THREE WEEKS!!!!!!!!

Marine Flatworms

Wow I haven't posted a blog for a while! Guess my grades gonna go down...
Where here is my new blog, and it's going to be about marine flatworms YAYYYYYYYYY
Marine flatworms are mainly found in tropical coral reefs. People sometimes mistake them for sea slugs because they are so colorful, but they're not.
Their bodies have three main layers (endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm)

Thanks for tuning in, more to come soon.

The Gulf of Mexico DEAD ZONEEEEE (bum bum bummmm)

So, what is a dead zone, you ask? Sounds kind of scary, doesn't it?

Well, you're about to find out what it is.

In simple language, a dead zone is an area that drives off fish and other sea life because it is depleted of oxygen.

The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone is one of the largest dead zones in the world.

"Hypoxic conditions arise when dissolved oxygen levels in the water fall below two milligrams per liter of water, too low to sustain animal life in the bottom strata of the ocean."

This problem has risen because of the rise of nutrient pollution by indistries and agricultural plants. If this type of pollution continues, our sea life may be replaced permanently by bacteria.

"Incoming nutrients stimulate growth of phytoplankton at the surface, providing food for unicellular animals. Planktonic remains and fecal matter from these organisms fall to the ocean floor, where they are eaten by bacteria, which consume excessive amounts of oxygen, creating eutrophic conditions. Hypoxic waters appear normal on the surface, but on the bottom, they are covered with dead and distressed animal, and in extreme cases, layers of stinking, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, which cause the sediment in these areas to turn black. These hypoxic conditions cause food chain alterations, loss of biodiversity, and high aquatic species mortality." " (http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/envirobio/enviroweb/DeadZone.htm)

The picture above shows the areas of the low oxygen levels on the gulf. As you can see, they are pretty bad.

So in conclusion, pollution is bad and makes all the little fishies go away :-(

And therefore, we don't like it.

The end.

Friday, February 6

Wednesday.

February 4.

In Marine Biology.

Something happened.

A surprise.

Unlike all others...

We attained...

OUR OWN AQUARIUMS!!!

So basically, Wednesday in class, Mr. Welton got us all our own 20 gallon aquariums. We spent that day bringing them in, cleaning them, and learning how to care for our own aquariums. I am really excited to get some cool fish, or an octopus or something...

Today we are learning a year's worth of Biology class in one lesson, and I'm stoked!

I will post more and add cool pictures and such later, because Graham is nagging me to get off of his laptop so he can take notes...

להתראות :)

Hawaii

Week of the 19th

We did a couple of things in Marine Biology this week. My favorite thing we did was talk about sea animals and getting a fish tank and our own cool fish :) which we are going to do. I think we should get an octopus, though.

We also had to write a page long paper on the first chapter of the handout we were given. The question I chose to answer for my essay was about validating and testing a hypothesis.
The whole chapter was basically on the scientific method and such.
On Friday, we watched a powerpoint and learned about the geographical side of Marine Biology.
I also made a pretty picture of all these different sea animals that I'll probably scan and put up later :)

We should go to HAWAII instead of Omaha.