Landlocked Mermaid

Marine Creature of the Month Famous Fish: Jaws Poster from arthipo Great White Shark   As March is my Birthday Month (yes, I milk it for that long) I thought it was high time I covered the OG Famous Fish on #MCotM.  Photo from Oceana Kingdom: Animalia Class: Chrondrichthyes Conservation Status: Vulnerable WHAT IS JAWS? Thanks to the 1975 blockbuster, Jaws , the great white shark is possibly one of the most famous sharks swimming about in the ocean. It belongs to the Mackerel Shark family, which also contains basking sharks, goblin sharks, and thresher sharks. Great whites are known for their size, being among the biggest sharks alive today. Females are larger than the males, averaging at 4m (13ft) for the males and 4.9m (16ft) for the females. Certain specimens have been known to grow as large as 6m (20ft), like the one living off the coast of Mexico known as Deep Blue .  Like all sharks, great white skeletons are made out of ca...

One of the catalysts for my ocean friendly movements was seeing sharks in South Africa. Another was discovering the photographer Brian Skerry . He would crop up on my insta-feed, when National Geographic would share his wonderful shark photos. The captions were always about how we should be respecting these magnificent creatures and adjust the fear mongering narrative we've associated with them. Naturally I followed his account and got major heart eyes over all the underwater photography showcased. So don't expect there to be any actual content to this post, it is literally going to be: "Look at this picture 😍" 😍😍😍 This is a photo of a Mako Shark, taken off the coast of New Zealand. I really like this picture because you can feel the motion of the Mako, one of the fastest fish in the sea. Despite being a static image, it manages to create the feeling of movement. The only time I create movement in my photos is when they are blurry! (But then agai...

Bruce and Chum's Shark Spotlight Let's learn about.... Bamboo Sharks Juvenile Burmese Bamboo Shark. Photo from Shark Sider Shark Family: Carpet sharks Shark Brothers: Epaulette sharks, Speckled Carpet sharks, Wobbegongs Conservation Status: Near Threatened (NT) Chillin' during the day. Photo from Memorial Library Life Cycle They develop for 100 days in an egg before hatching. As yong sharks they have bold patterns. They are nocturnal sharks; hunt at night and hide in rocks during the day. When mature, females lay one or two round egg cases every six to seven days, for around two months. Bamboo Shark egg sac. Photo from MarineFishEZ Facts Bamboo sharks can survive out of water for half a day! They hunt in small pools along the corals and rocky reefs. When the tide goes out, they can get stranded among the now exposed seabed. They have muscular pectoral fins which they can use like legs to traverse dry land. Unfortuna...

Happy Hallowe'en!! Today's blog is going to be short, sweet and full of pictures - I have worn myself out with all my Hallowe'en prep. I've had some great fun today, including an interlude at my mum's house to decorate spooky gingerbreadmen with my favourite shark experts. I've been melting chocolate, making spooky chocs with jelly surprises, sewing my plastic pollution outfit, pumpkin carving... all things Hallowe'eny! It's been almost plastic free, the chocolate came wrapped in plastic and the sweets had some plastic packaging. But all things considered, that is still drastically less than if I'd have just bought some Haribo mini bags. And mine is now in spooky shapes. I have definitely learned from my experience and plan to use it next year. It's mostly don't leave it all until the day before , as I ran out of time to do the gingerbread house - but hey! Christmas is coming. Anyway, I am done rambling. Here is a photo journey of ...

Hybodus Photo from New Dinosaurs Kingdom: Animalia Class: Choridricthyes Conservation Status: Extinct (EX) Found: Worldwide Era: Permian - Cretaceous Lived: 303.4 million - 66 million years ago Diet: Everything. Weight: 90.7kg (200lbs) Size: 2m (6.6ft) Habitat: Shallow seas The Hybodus is an ancient shark species which lived up until 66 million years ago. Unlike most sharks, these species were around for well over 200 million years. This is over ten times the average span of shark species as they are usually around between 10-20 million years. This was a successful shark, living through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras. Considering that it shared waters with plesiosaurs and mosasaurus who were both big predators; this is very impressive. It is not really known why they even went extinct. In appearance, Hybodus are your classic shark. They have the seven fins, the streamline body, the cartilage skeleton... the list goes on. They ...