Couldn't really end this week without showing this video of "the most decorated penguin on the planet", who received a knighthood this week - after inspecting the troops, of course.
Really, you just couldn't make this stuff up!
Today's film is a magical :30 second spot we've been using to promote the newly re-imagined Splash Zone exhibit here at Monterey Bay Aquarium. The visual effects are amazing -- created by elementFX studio, whose folks have worked for George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic on films like Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Terminator. Kudos to the team at BuderEngel and Friends, the ad agency that packs so much wonder and imagination into such a small package.
For shark lovers, National Geographic Channel is offering a cool alternative to the Discovery Channel's Shark Week. Friday night (with repeats at other times), it's airing a segment called "Sharkville" on its Wild series. The show highlights new findings that great white sharks are hunting successfully at night -- complete with infrared video footage to document the work.
There's a preview video and photos at the National Geographic Channel site, and also a video clip of the sharks at night as part of an interview with New Zealand shark researcher Ryan Johnson by Bill O'Reilly.
Most interesting is Johnson's conclusion that the sharks are able to prey on seals at night because of the light spilling onto the water from coastal development around Mossel Bay, where he did his work.
Final note: If you want to take part in white shark research projects there, the South African Marine Predator Lab occasionally offers internships.
No internships with the white shark research project at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or with our colleagues at the Tagging of Pacific Predators. But lots of good information and images.
Just for fun this Friday,the Oddee blog's compilation of the 9 Coolest Aquariums in the world. (Somehow they overlooked the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other public aquariums, but when you're competing with a toilet inside a giant aquarium, a telephone booth aquarium and the iPond, well......). There are video clips along with photos. Here's one: the Aquapict faux jellyfish aquarium.
It's all a perfect companion to the Zooillogix collection of the weirdest fish tanks you've ever seen. And just the thing for a few idle minutes on a summer Friday.
After that, it's time to get outdoors and renew your connection with nature. There's a world of adventure waiting for you out there.
Friday's our usual film day, but this new video we posted to YouTube this afternoon is too cool not to share.
Check out the leaping blennies -- the original "fish out of water"!
This week's film is a precautionary fish tale! Enjoy!
If you're out celebrating the Fourth of July, Sea Notes Blog wishes you good fellowship, good food, a great view of the fireworks and a renewed sense of connection on this Day of Interdependence.
Here on the Monterey Peninsula, we're hoping the marine layer lifts long enough so we can see the coastal fireworks display staged by the City of Monterey. (And that everyone but the city will stow their own fireworks -- a critically dry year that already has the Big Sur community in danger).
For your enjoyment, a natural fireworks show from the ocean, courtesy of comb jellies, provided by our colleagues up the coast at the Vancouver Aquarium. Want to learn more about jellies? We've got information and images from our Jellies: Living Art special exhibition, which closes Sept. 1.
Although today's movie feature is more about the flight of the condor, this critically endangered bird and an important component in the California coastal ecosystem is facing probably its biggest challenge since it was re-introduced back into the wild in 1991. A fire, sparked by lightening, is raging through prime condor habitat off the Big Sur coastline. It has already burned around 40 square miles of wilderness, and continues to burn.
Earlier this week, staff from Ventana Wildlife Society, with amazing courage and assistance from equally courageous U.S. Coastguard helicopter crew managed to rescue seven young condors and their adult mentor bird from the condor sanctuary (where young condors start their education before being released into the wild). Sadly, the staff learned later that the sanctuary had been burned.
You can follow the progress of the staff and their hopes and fears for the condors who are living wild in that area, and for the condors with chicks in the nest. It is a tense and worrying time for all involved. The work to return this endangered species to the wild has been painstaking and monumental, and our hopes and prayers go out to the birds and all involved in their recovery (including the brave firefighters who are working night and day to control the fire).
Here's a close-up look at these amazing birds at Grimes Point, on scenic Highway 1, south of Big Sur
It's too nice in Monterey today. Ridiculously beautiful day. Not a day to be sitting at a computer. It's a day to be at the beach.
But.....before I go out to celebrate the arrival of summer, a Friday double feature for you.
First, this spectacular surfing clip (NOT someone surfing a tsunami, despite the name).
Then, music to set the mood for the day: Vintage Beach Boys, circa 1969, "Surfin' USA. It doesn't get much better.
Sometimes being around the ocean just makes you want to sing. Anyone who lives along the coast -- or who wishes they could -- can identify with the feelings expressed so well by Portuguese singer Eduardo Mourato, a native of the Azores.
This is The Blue Ocean, the English-language music video version of his song O Mar dos Açores. Catchy tune, wonderful footage of the Azores, and a lot of heart.
(If you're inspired to visit the Azores, you can include a whalewatching trip that supports marine mammal and sea turtle research.)
Here's wishing you a weekend adventure of your own by the shores of the blue ocean closest to your heart.
