Marine Life

...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.

It's Friday, so let’s start with some good news. Researchers from the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy recently discovered a compound they dubbed “largazole,” produced by microscopic cyanobacteria, that inhibits cancer cell growth.

Although many common medications are derived from compounds found in nature (penicillin immediately comes to mind), few efforts have focused on discovering such products in marine environments. Hendrik Luesch, the study’s principal investigator, says that “The opportunities for marine drug discovery are spectacular.”

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.

Researchers at the University of Swansea in Britain recently published a study in the British Journal of Experimental Biology with an explanation of the mysterious deep diving behavior of leatherback sea turtles. Sea turtles spend most of their time in shallow surface waters, where they eat and breed, but occasionally they will make a break toward the bottom of the ocean and dive to more than ¾ of a mile below the surface of the water.

Sick of all the doping scandals in cycling? Check out Tour de Turtles instead.

As promised on Monday, a post devoted to Taras Grescoe’s Bottomfeeder, which I just finished reading.

I’ve heard Grescoe called the “Michael Pollan for the oceans,” and I think that designation is pretty accurate. They are both compelling writers -- Pollan deals with the land and how it feeds us (and how we treat it in return), and Grescoe does the same for the oceans.

It appears that jellyfish have invaded not just the oceans but the media, too.

Last week I told you about our marine scientist Margot Stiles' cameo on the CBS Early Show to talk about the jellyfish invasion. They aired a longer version of the story Sunday evening -- check it out. They included quite a bit of footage from our European office of jellyfish and our roving catamaran, the Ranger.

While on vacation in Cape Cod, Massachusetts last week my mom happened upon an article in the paper that announced the release of five endangered sea turtles back into the Atlantic Ocean.

My shelves are lined with identification guides and keys to the various critters that live in our ocean realm. I like to collect identification guides because collectively they handily serve as an encyclopedia of ocean biodiversity. I’m excited to add the newly published Field Guide to Sharks, Skates, and Ratfish of Alaska to my collection.