Ocean Blog

...it sounds like the start of a bad joke. Unfortunately, it's real.

Reuters reports that about 60 newly hatched sea turtles in southern Italy lost their way during their ritual passage to the sea and wound up under the tables at a beachfront restaurant.

The babies were most likely attracted to the establishment's bright lights, say conservation workers.

But maybe they were just craving gnocchi...

A wild dolphin in south Australia has been teaching members of her group to walk on their tails, a behavior usually seen only after training in captivity.

Scientists are scratching their heads -- why would the dolphins do this?

Well, one of the female dolphins, Billie, could have learned the behavior by observation during her brief stint in a dolphinarium.

Or they might be watching too much Olympic gymnastics. Plus, it just looks like fun.

I'm always talking about the problem of plastics in the ocean. Well, today I found a related humorous-slash-puzzling video brought to you by Pierre Terre Productions, an "independent media company producing webcast and broadcast video stories of wisdom, value, intelligence and good intent."

This particular piece is about a place on the Big island of Hawaii known as Trash Beach because of the garbage, mostly plastic, that washes ashore due to ocean currents in the Pacific.

Pierre and friend Krista explore the absurdly littered beach, and while the short piece lacks scientific detail or a suggested solution to the problem, you might be charmed by Pierre's French accent -- but don't be fooled, Pierre is merely a character played by Kevin Hansen...

Amber Valletta, model, actress, and official spokesperson for Oceana's Stop Seafood Contamination Campaign, is featured in the September issue of Shape magazine. After a close friend was told by her doctor to avoid getting pregnant because of the dangerous amount of mercury in her blood, Amber was inspired to get involved with us.

Aaron Peirsol's teammate Ryan Lochte won his first individual gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke final in a world record of 1 minute, 53.94 seconds.

While many assumed Aaron would become the first man in 36 years to sweep the Olympic backstroke events at consecutive Games, the "greatest backstroker of all time" took second place in stride.

As he said to the Orange County Register, “It really doesn’t take anything away from my career, a race is a race. You can get beat, no one owns anything.”

The event brings Aaron's career medal count to 4 golds and two silvers -- not too shabby!

[Image: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images via www.nytimes.com]

Grist's Checkout Line with Lou Bendrick has a handy guide to the confusing world of sustainable seafood today -- here are the basics, check out the post for the full story:

1. Eat as locally as possible.

2. Ask questions when you shop for fish.

3. Read labels.

4. Choose wisely at restaurants.

5. Eat lower on the food chain.

6. Have your go-to sustainable favorites in mind.

7. Be careful with the Big Two -- shrimp and salmon -- which can, as Bendrick punnily points out, be a literally lousy option.

Today the Junk Raft blog notes that they've rendezvouz'd in the middle of the Pacific ocean with Roz Savage -- another courageous soul crossing the Pacific solo to advocate for marine conservation.

I've written about the Junk Raft before, but to review, they are sailing from California to Hawaii on a raft made of plastic to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the oceans.

Props to the folks over at the Science blog Zooillogix for a great post this week about scientists in New England who are studying the Atlantic's threatened population of right whales by collecting and analyzing their floating, um, poop.

Joking aside, analyzing whale poop -- or any other method of determining the health of certain whale populations -- is apparently needed. This week, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species revealed that while there is some good news for whales and some bad, the bottom line was that more data is needed. The IUCN was unable to assess more than half of the world's cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) because of a lack of data.

I know salmon don't have much to dance about these days; among other threats, the Seattle Post- Intelligencer just published an article about the threat of pesticides to Pacific salmon.

But you can't deny entertainment and a good beat, which the Chemical Brothers appear to understand...

We watched last night as our favorite backstroker-slash-ocean lover, Aaron Peirsol, won his fourth Olympic gold medal and set a world record of 52.54 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke, which made him the first man since Roland Matthes of East Germany in 1968 and 1972 to win back-to-back 100 backstroke titles at the Games, according to the New York Times' report.

It was an exciting race. The first 50 meters saw Aaron lagging behind in lane two, but after his flip and a fierce kick off the wall, he surged ahead. The commentators roared.