What Makes A Fish A Fish? Common Characteristics of Fishes
Here’s a question for you: In addition to living in water, whale sharks, manta rays, moray eels, groupers, gobies, rainbow trout and sea horses…
Marine Life
New Kids on the Block: How Scientists Identify New Species
The picture didn’t match the name. The small red sea horse didn’t look like a juvenile pygmy sea horse even if that’s what the…
Did You See That? The Art of Observing Marine Life
The fish, a spectacularly colored grouper, paused and opened its mouth. Finning only slightly to maintain its position just a foot (30 cm) or…
Do Fish Feel Pain?: A Matter of Scientific Debate
OK, “Finding Nemo” fans, you’d better sit down. I’ve got some bad news. First off, fish can’t talk. Matter of fact, fish can’t really…
Mistaken for Mermaids? A Closer Look at Manatees
Legend has it that when ancient mariners first sailed the waters off what is now Florida, they occasionally mistook manatees for mermaids. Having swum…
Flat, But Fascinating: Flatfishes Examined
My buddy Pete and I were hustling along, trying to get across the “barren” sand flat so we could explore the kelp forest. We…
Rays: Beauty, Grace and Power Combined
Some bury themselves so well in sand bottoms that all you see is a faint outline of their bodies. Others rest out in the…
Star-Struck: Encounters With Neptune’s Superstars
I was 60 feet (18 m) deep in water off San Diego’s famed La Jolla district composing a photograph of a little-finger-long Spanish shawl…
Barracudas: Monsters of Sea Lore, But Not In Real Life
It was just after midnight on a moonless night when we slipped into the watery blackness in hopes of filming a great barracuda, the…
Pinnipeds, Unplugged: Seals, Sea Lions and the Walrus
Long before we cleared the point, we could hear the cacophony of incessant barking, meaning there was no doubt that we were going to…