These queer authors weave the ocean into their own narratives and offer us an opportunity to continue to explore the intersections in the environmental and LGTBQIA+ rights movement. 

Undrowned

“May you study the pink of yourself. Know yourself riverine and coast. May you taste the fresh and the saltwater of yourself and know what only you can know. May you live in the mouth of the river, meeting place of the tides, may all blessings flow through you.” – Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

I have read Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs at least five times since I first bought it. Each lesson is a beautiful meditation on our connection with marine mammals. Gumbs eloquently relates the struggles faced by many marginalized communities with the struggles of survival marine mammals face in the ocean. She finds inspiration in the queer and protective behavior of these ocean animals and teases out important life lessons from her wonder for the natural world. 

How Far the Light Reaches

“I want to know what kinds of transformation the cuttlefish is capable of when it is motivated not by fear but by community and sex, and I am not interested in calling it a disguise.” ― How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Sabrina Imbler and I share a love of the ocean’s wacky, weird and strange creatures. As a journalist writing on science and conservation, their work invokes wonder in the mysteries of the ocean. How Far the Light Reaches is an exploration of the ocean’s most fascinating creatures and of Imbler’s own life. They poetically weave stories around the formation of their own queer identity with stories of yeti crabs scuttling around in the most inhospitable of ocean habitats or sand strikers waiting in the deep for their prey. This book serves up powerful reflections on sexuality, survival, relationships and community care from the dark waters under the ocean waves. 

Love After the End

“What does it mean to be Two-Spirit during an apocalypse? What does it mean to search out romance at a pipeline protest—can we have intimacy during doomsday?” – Introduction by Joshua Whitehead to Love After the End

Love After the End is an incredible anthology that contains nine science-fiction stories from two-spirit and queer Indigenous writers. Each story is a vision of the future with a mix of utopian and dystopian tales. These writers bring visions of the rise of resistance movements, journeys to other planets and tales of lost loves brought to life by virtual reality. Each look into the future is full of the love and joy experienced in two-spirit and queer Indigenous communities. 

Queer Nature

“Hard to be a creature of earth in a world covered with water.” – “A Little Bit of Ocean” by Joy Ladin from Queer Nature

I picked up Queer Nature in the process of writing this piece, and it has been my favorite companion ever since. This anthology is full of poems by LGBTQIA+ voices that connect their experience with the natural world. There are incredible ocean gems like “Hermit Crab” and “once a marine biologist told me octopuses have three hearts” that are evocative and emotional. There are more than 200 poems in Queer Nature, and each one presents a unique look into the bonds between queerness and our environment.  

Voice of a Fish

“Noting these aquatic bodies helped me dissolve a world I found too hard, too strict in how it required me to live within it.” –  Voice of the Fish by Lars Horn

Lars Horn has been called “the mystic’s David Attenborough.” Their book, Voice of the Fish, draws parallels between the ocean’s ever-changing ways and their own gender fluidity. It is a collection of tales from Horn’s own life that flows together in a wave mixed with tales of the ocean and marine history. Their story draws ebbs and flows like an ocean current outside of expectations, boundaries and binaries.  In each of these excellent reads, the ocean is a powerful symbol and teacher. I hope you pick up one of these books and further explore the ocean and our shared human experience. 

The post Five Books that Explore LGBTQIA+ Experience with the Ocean appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

Ghost Crabs

The holes that ghost crabs create can range from a few inches to just half an inch in diameter and serve as protective tunnels. Ghost crabs spend most of their days in their holes and come out at night to scavenge for food. They wet their gills by periodically taking water from moist sand or running to the shoreline for a quick splash in the waves. Time is of the essence, however, as they can drown if they stay in the water for too long. They have strong claws and speedy legs and are around the same color as the dry sand—when they move quickly, they can look like tiny ghosts dashing around the beach. 

Ghost Shrimp

Ghost shrimp holes are often distinguishable by the surrounding small fecal pellets that resemble ice cream sprinkles. (I know, apologies for the visual.) These nearly translucent creatures have legs and claws at the fronts of their bodies, but their backs are soft and mushy, making it difficult to defend themselves against predators or drying out from the sun. To protect themselves, ghost shrimp burrow deep into the sand, about four feet down. They use their legs to pull in ocean water so they can feast on plankton, then push or flick the water back up and out of the hole to keep their burrow clean—hence the surrounding “sprinkles.”

Sandworms/Lugworms

Sandworms or lugworms create U-shaped homes down in the sand with two separate openings at the surface—and once their burrows are created, they rarely leave. They can grow to be between three to 12 inches in length, so there’s a bit of digging required for each burrow. One opening serves as the feeding “pit” where they ingest food particles like decayed organic matter, along with sand sediment. The other opening is for ejecting excrement. Like their (what I presume to be) friends, the ghost shrimp, you can discern between the holes due to the surroundings—in the sandworms’ case, a coiled cast of sand.

Sand Dollars

If you notice two, three or more holes very close together, be gentle! Sand dollars often bury themselves just beneath the wet sand. To do so, they use the holes on their backs to move water and sand through and plunge themselves through the surface, and the keyhole shapes are what we see from above. Sand dollars have jaws with five sections of what are essentially small teeth, which can easily grind up plankton and other food. They need water to survive, so like other ocean creatures, removing them from their homes threatens their survival.

Just as there is certainly marine life undiscovered by humans deep beneath the sea, there are surely countless critters living beneath our sand—and joining me on my morning walks. What we do know, however, is that our ocean and beaches are really special places full of incredible creatures. Take a deep dive into our Ocean Conservancy Wildlife Library to learn more about some of our favorites. 

The post What are Those Tiny Holes in Beach Sand? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

They went on to estimate that there must be five million plastic bottles floating in the Pacific Ocean and, while suspecting that “the inert nature of plastic means that it is unlikely to enter the food chain and threaten human welfare,” lamented that “unless we find adequate means of disposing of our plastic products soon, we can anticipate that the ‘Wynkin, Blynkin and Nod’ of our children will set sail into a plastic sea.”

Having spent time in this area (more commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) back in 2010 and seen with my own eyes the seemingly countless numbers of plastics now polluting the gyre, I can’t help but think about the incredible growth in our scientific understanding of the plastic pollution crisis—not only since this article came out 50 years ago, but even in the past decade. 

To put their plastic bottle estimate into perspective, volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup® collect approximately one million bottles from beaches and waterways in just a single day each year. It is now well established that tiny plastic fragments—or microplastics—have entered the food chain, and are showing up everywhere scientists have looked, including our own bodies. And while we absolutely do need to find “adequate means of disposing of our plastic products” to avoid a plastic-sea scenario, we know that alone won’t do the trick. 

In fact, that’s probably what strikes me the most. We know exactly what it will take to address plastic pollution, thanks to a number of studies, including one, published in 2020, that I co-authored with colleagues in the journal Science. It’s a simple recipe, with three ingredients: 

Reduce. Cutting the amount of plastics—especially single-use plastics—that we produce is foundational to solving the plastic pollution crisis. Currently, 11 million metric tons (MMT)of mostly single-use items enter the ocean each year solely from land-based sources. That’s more than a garbage truck’s worth of plastics every minute, and the figure is expected to triple by 2040 if we continue producing and using plastics the way we are now. Every model scientists have come up with to figure out how to curb plastic pollution (and there have been many, like the one I mentioned above, as well as this one and this one, to name a few) shows that we must curb production. 

At Ocean Conservancy, we’re calling for a 50% reduction in single-use plastics production globally by 2050, which would eliminate 2.6 billion metric tons of plastics—enough plastic to cover all land on earth in a layer of plastics bags. And this is achievable. In fact, a 50% reduction by 2050 would simply extend the trajectory of ambition established by SB54 in California last year, which requires a 25% reduction by 2032.

However, we know from the Science paper that even with a 50% cut in plastic production, we will still be at risk of 11-30 MMT of plastics entering the ocean each year by 2030 unless we drastically improve waste collection and cleanup rates. Which brings us to the next two ingredients of our solution recipe.

Manage (in other words, collect and actually recycle). It’s often assumed that wealthier countries are great at collecting and managing their waste, but data cited in the Science paper show otherwise: high-income countries (as defined by the World Bank) manage to collect, on average, just 63% of their waste. Meanwhile, other studies show that wealthier countries tend to produce significantly more plastic waste (in fact, the U.S. is number one) and have a sordid history of shipping much of that waste to lower income countries, where it may end up polluting their local environment. We can hardly call that effective waste management. 

It’s clear that waste collection and management must be part of the solution. Just as the science shows that reduction is paramount to the solution, it also shows that collecting and recycling plastics are, too. In fact, according to the Science model, if we seek to return to 2010 ocean-plastic pollution levels (8 MMT], which is still 8 MMT too many!), we need to increase collection and recycling rates to 69-99% (based on country income level).

What happens to that waste once it’s collected is critical, too, and this is where recycling comes in. Plastics that are not collected for recycling (which is an astounding number—half of Americans don’t have automatic access to curbside recycling) typically have three options: a landfill, incinerator or the environment. The first two outcomes exacerbate our current failed model where we make, use and dispose of plastics and perpetuate the need for more virgin plastics (99% of which are derived from fossil fuels). In the environment, plastics entangle and suffocate wildlife and break up into microplastics that make their way into the food chain and even our bodies. 

So long as we are producing any single-use plastics—and Ocean Conservancy estimates that even if we cut single-use plastics production in half, that still leaves us with 77 MMT single-use plastics in 2050—the clear best choice for how to manage them is through recycling. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to scoff at recycling; especially given all the problems we read and hear about in the news. There’s no doubt that our recycling system needs work, but the solution isn’t to shut the system down altogether. Instead, we need to push for policies that make recycling plastics easier, safer, more accessible and more effective—and that starts with making less plastic and requiring the plastics we do use to be actually reusable and recyclable.

Cleanup. A popular analogy for the plastic-pollution crisis is that if your bathtub is overflowing, the first thing to do is turn off the faucet, not grab a mop. That’s true, which is why when we talk about addressing plastic pollution, we first talk about reducing plastics at the source. But can you imagine cleaning a flooded bathroom without a mop? Of course not. The same is true for plastic pollution. In fact, the Science paper shows that even when we achieve the most ambitious plastics reduction and management targets, we will still need to recover 40% of the plastics that pollute the ocean each year to reverse course and get back to 2010 pollution levels. Current estimates presume that there are ALREADY over 200 MMT of plastics circulating in the ocean and washing up onto beaches around the world—including in the U.S., where you’ll find yourself knee-deep in plastic trash in some places. I’ve seen firsthand how this pollution hurts animals, people and communities; and for all their sake, we can’t give up on cleaning up—every piece matters. That’s why I’m so proud of and grateful for every single volunteer who has participated in Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup and look forward to expanding our cleanup work through the International Trash Trap Network and other efforts.

Those are the three ingredients, and we need all of them. Taking a holistic approach like this isn’t easy—everyone would prefer a simple solution, a magic pill. But it’s the reality that we as scientists, advocates and ocean lovers must work with if we—like the original Great Pacific Garbage Patch voyagers wrote 50 years ago—want to avoid a plastic sea. We know the solutions and we hope you join us in our pursuit of them. 

The post How Do We Solve the Plastic Pollution Crisis? Three (Not-So-Easy, but Straightforward) Steps appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

As I grew into an adult, I discovered another set of beaches on Long Island: the shores of Fire Island. It’s one of New York state’s most popular summer getaways, a thin barrier island on the Atlantic Ocean. This seaside village is linked by boardwalks, sandy beaches, natural dunes, water taxis and (almost) no automobiles.

Today, I’m thrilled to work at Ocean Conservancy where we are fighting for a healthier ocean protected by a more just world. While we have been celebrating Pride month, we’ve also been reflecting on the undeniable link between discrimination and our  beaches and coasts. Marginalized groups experienced prejudice and racism by being segregated, banned or forcibly removed from beaches. While some of these individuals managed to find their own spaces to enjoy the ocean, it was not without challenges and trauma. As June is both Pride Month and World Ocean Month, I’ve been thinking about my own experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Where have I felt most welcome? What is the history behind some of these special beaches? How can we learn from their history and apply it to our present-day challenges?

As Pride month concludes, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the rich history of two Fire Island beaches that are sanctuaries and safe spaces for members of the LGBTQ+ community: Pines and Cherry Grove.

The incredible story of these two beaches begins with the original Indigenous inhabitants who shaped the historical, cultural and natural landscape we are privileged to enjoy today: the Unkechaug, Secatogue and Shinnecock tribes. 

It wasn’t until the 1938 New England Hurricane destroyed much of Cherry Grove and the Pines that it was reborn as a gay destination. The hurricane discouraged main landers from coming to visit, and a new generation started coming from New York City that landlords couldn’t afford to discriminate against—a growing gay population.

From the 1940s onward (more than 25 years before The Stonewall Riot, which is considered the commencement of the gay rights movement) the Pines and Cherry Grove became a haven for a discriminated group desperately seeking a safe retreat. These idyllic spaces helped LGBTQ+ individuals find each other and create a community together where many could experience acceptance and freedom for the first time in their lives. Its unique geography and isolation from the mainland fostered a safe harbor in a time when dignity and respect for LGBTQ+ folks was hard to find.

These beaches have played a big part in the LGBTQ+ experience. Not only are these beach towns considered among the very first spaces to welcome a majority population of gay men and lesbians, but performances here paved the way for the modern drag scene—particularly the origin of its popular annual July 4 “Invasion.” During the summer of 1976, a restaurant in the Pines denied entry to a visitor in drag. When their friends heard about it, they too dressed in drag, hopped on a ferry and stormed the island to a buoyant welcome. It is now one of Fire Island’s most beloved traditions—and a reminder of the work still left to be done.

No place is a utopia, and while the Pines and Cherry Grove come close, there is still room for improvement—not only for trans and queer individuals across all spectrums, but also for increased accessibility and diversity. A stay on the island can quickly become expensive, and property ownership is overwhelmingly white. And while there are options and help available, the reality of navigating the boardwalks if you are a person with disabilities is challenging. However, if there is one place in the world where inequality will be acknowledged and addressed, it is here.

Personally, I have visited the Pines and Cherry Grove every summer since 2016, and although I have had the privilege of growing up in a time when living authentically as a gay person is much easier, there is no substitute for that magical feeling of belonging that one experiences when the ferry pulls up. When you live your life being seen and treated as a “minority,” it is difficult to describe how different and freeing it feels when you are in a safe space that allows you to become “the majority.” I spoke with several people who have been visiting Fire Island for decades, and they all shared about the freedom they feel when that burden is lifted as they arrive on the island and can safely be themselves. That’s why places like Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove are so important and why their history deserves to be told.The island has other unique characteristics—it’s also home to New York state’s only federally-managed stretch of wilderness, which includes protected beaches, dunes and maritime forests—but its ability to bring together and cultivate community for LGBTQ+ individuals is truly what makes Fire Island so special.

Even here, I have only scraped the surface of the positive impact it continues to make on so many lives, including my own.

The post Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove: A Safe Harbor appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

For fisheries policy advocates like me, the report is an invaluable snapshot of where things stand, and for the last several years, the news out of the report has been concerning. There have been more stocks that are overfished, no new stocks rebuilt and a plateau on how many stocks are experiencing overfishing. These trends point to a reversal in progress made toward more sustainable fisheries over the last few decades.

The most recent report, released earlier this spring, tells us that the waters are still murky for U.S. fisheries. There have been some improvements, but there are also still shortcomings and signs that status-quo management is not going to be sufficient given climate change and other threats.

For example, it’s good news that NOAA Fisheries declared two new stocks rebuilt for the first time since 2019. But these two stocks tell two very different stories. One—yellowtail flounder in the Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine—has recovered to healthy levels over time and reached its target population abundance. The other—winter flounder in Southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic—was rebuilt not because the stock size got larger, but because scientists determined that the target population size should actually be lower than they had previously thought. Essentially, the bar for success was adjusted to reflect a new reality for the stock in light of changing environmental conditions and lower stock productivity. This means that even though winter flounder is technically rebuilt, the stock is still in poor condition and requires careful management. This situation with winter flounder is one we should expect to be repeated more often with climate change, which will make rebuilding stocks more difficult.

Other trends in the report are similarly mixed, as with the tracking of overfished stocks where the population size is too low to support long-term sustainable fishing. In 2022, nearly one in five fish stocks was overfished, a number that remains too high. Overfishing can erode the long-term health of the fishery and lead to an overfished stock that needs rebuilding. Just 7% of stocks were experiencing overfishing, which means the majority are being fished sustainably. However, some of those fish stocks have been experiencing overfishing for years—stocks like greater amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico, where scientists have determined that the stock has been experiencing overfishing almost continuously since 1980. These chronically overfished stocks point to the need to continue to improve the management system. Fish populations that are overfished and/or experiencing overfishing are less resilient to environmental changes and provide fewer benefits to the ecosystem and to people. That’s why it matters more than ever to get it right.  

Taken together, the last few years of Status of Stocks reports make it clear that our current system for managing fisheries is not going to be sufficient to meet the challenges posed by climate change and other threats. In short, status quo management won’t cut it, and now is the time to start making fisheries more sustainable and more climate ready. Thankfully, many people involved in fisheries—fishermen, managers, scientists and advocates alike—have recognized the need for climate-ready fisheries. At a recent panel at Capitol Hill Ocean Week in D.C., the head of NOAA Fisheries, Janet Coit, echoed this sentiment, saying “There’s no place around the globe—and certainly not what I’m responsible for in the U.S.—where we are not seeing ecosystem changes associated with climate that are happening in the same way that they have in the past. It means that status-quo management and the way we’ve been doing things is no longer working well.”

Here at Ocean Conservancy, we couldn’t agree more. We’re advocating for fishery-management actions to consider climate change impacts, so that both fish populations and fishing communities have the best opportunity to navigate the serious consequences of climate change. Part of that work needs to be ensuring that fish populations are at healthy levels, so they’re more resilient to disruptions, shocks, and stresses. Learn more about what we need to do to have healthy fisheries for the future, and join Ocean Conservancy in working towards more sustainable U.S. fisheries.

The post Snapshot of U.S. Fisheries Shows a Need for Change appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

As you can probably guess, the unicornfish gets its moniker from the unicorn-horn-like protrusion sticking out of its face. But what is that distinctive feature for? And what else is there to know about the unicornfish? Read on to have all your burning unicornfish questions satisfied.

What is a unicornfish?

Unicornfishes comprise a group of fish in the genus Naso, which is under the family Acanthuridae. You might know other fish in the family, including tangs and surgeonfishes (including the blue tang made famous by Dory in Finding Nemo). There are about 19 species within the genus Naso, but only some of them have the iconic “horn” protruding from their faces.

Where can you find unicornfish?

You can find unicornfishes in the tropical and subtropical regions in the Indo-Pacific seas (sorry Atlantic Coast residents, no unicornfish for you!) They typically find shelter in coral reef structures and can also be seen swimming over the top of the reef to feed. They are classified as diurnal planktivores, meaning they eat small plankton during the daylight hours. When they’re not feeding, they like to hide in nooks and crannies on the reef. Although it may look like they’re not up to much when they hide, unicornfish play an important role in the reef: Their waste helps provide nutrients to the corals. 

What’s the deal with the horn?

Only nine of the 19 species within Naso have the horn-like protuberances that give them their name. There are two types of “horns”—one that is actually shaped like a long horn and one that is more rounded.

Scientists aren’t entirely sure why unicornfishes have their horns, but there are some theories. One thought is that males use their horns as a way to signal to females that they are good mates. They also can change the color of their horns to “compete” against other males and stand out to females. Although both males and females have the protuberance, it appears that mostly males are the ones that change their horn color.

What’s the status of unicornfish?

Good news! According to the IUCN Red List, many species of unicornfish are considered of “least concern,” meaning we aren’t currently worried about them going extinct. But that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods (or out of the seaweed, that is!): Like many species, unicornfishes rely on healthy, sustainable reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are currently under threat from climate change, and there is no healthy future for our reefs—and the animals who depend on them—unless we act now to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Take action with Ocean Conservancy to urge policymakers to combat climate change before it’s too late.

The post The Unique Unicornfish appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

But alongside picnic culture often comes single-use plastic culture. In years past, my family celebration has featured plastic bags full of shucked corn; straws in fountain sodas; cigarette butts from Uncle Jim’s chain smoking; plastic forks for the potato salad; and foam takeout containers filled with ribs from the local BBQ joint because Uncle Jim let the grill get too hot and burned dinner.

It’s not just me: These are some of the most pervasive single-use plastic items out there. Cigarette butts, plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic foam foodware and plastic cutlery are among the top 10 most common plastic items polluting beaches worldwide, according to data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup® (ICC).

That’s why all of us at Ocean Conservancy are declaring our independence from single-use plastics by calling for source-reduction policies that will help eliminate these items from beaches, our ocean, Fourth of July picnics and beyond.

This month, which is also Plastic Free July, Ocean Conservancy released a new report that, using nearly 40 years’ worth of ICC data, lays out policy solutions to some of the most common types of trash found on our beaches and waterways.

The first step? Passing policies that take cigarette butts (which contain a plastic filter), bags, straws, foam foodware and plastic cutlery off our shelves. While these items may seem small, taken together, eliminating these items can make a big difference. Volunteers have collected more than 100 million of these items since 1986.  Getting rid of these five items in the United States alone would cut 1.4 million tons of plastics ANNUALLY. Put in patriotic terms, that’s roughly the weight of four Empire State buildings, more than 6,600 Statues of Liberty or 15.4 BILLION hot dogs (with the buns).

Not only do these items pollute our beaches in huge quantities, but they are also all effectively unrecyclable. Ocean Conservancy data show that nearly 70% of the most commonly collected items polluting beaches—including these five items—cannot be recycled via municipal curbside recycling services. With nowhere else to go but landfills, incinerators or the environment, the only viable solution is to get rid of them altogether.

There’s a lot we can do as individuals to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics, but at the end of the day, we need big, systemic changes to make a real dent in this problem. So, while I’ll be bringing the reusable cutlery, straws and bags to this year’s family cookout, I’ll also be calling for my state, local and federal governments to take them off the shelves altogether—it’s the patriotic thing to do!

Read the report here. Then get involved and ask your elected officials to support eliminating these five harmful plastic items.

The post Declaring Independence From Single-Use Plastics appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

Arms, tentacles—the words are often used interchangeably because they are both types of appendages found on cephalopods. But, in reality, they are different, and each has their own unique characteristics and functions.

Similarities

As all cephalopods are invertebrates, cephalopod tentacles and arms both lack bones for structure. They are made from muscle fibers (much like your tongue). And, both tentacles and arms on cephalopods can regrow or regenerate. These arms and tentacles have strong suckers that work just like suction cups. While arms have suction cups the entire length of the limb, suction cups on tentacles are found only near the end of the limb.

What is a tentacle?

Tentacles are elongated structures, and they are generally longer than the length of the arms. Animals use their tentacles to catch or snatch prey from farther away through their ability to extend and retract. And typically, tentacles come in pairs.

Tentacles have suction cups only near the end of the limb. The suction cups on some squid species are shaped like sharp hooks to better grasp their prey. This makes them very efficient as underwater predators. The suction cup rings of squids are made of “suckerin” proteins that are similar in strength and structure to the protein found in spider’s silk.

What is an arm?

Arms have suction cups the entire length of the limb and can perform finer, more complex actions compared to tentacles. With eight sucker-lined arms and, in some cases, a pair of tentacles, a cephalopod has a really tight grip. But how a cephalopod maintains that grip differs between squid and octopus.

Squid mainly use their suckers mainly for grabbing food, whereas octopuses have figured out how to use their suckers for a wide variety of activities—including walking and handling objects.

Do the arms have their own brain?

Each of the octopus’s arms has a small cluster of nerve cells that controls movement, so technically octopuses have eight independent mini-brains along with a larger central brain.

Have you heard this joke before? Let’s laugh at it together…

How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?

Ten tickles

And, the octopus laughs because… THEY DON’T HAVE ANY TENTACLES! They have arms.

Tentacles, Arms, Suckers

• Octopuses have eight arms and no tentacles.
• Cuttlefishes have eight arms and two tentacles.
• Squids have eight arms and two tentacles.
• Nautiluses have no arms and around 90 suckerless tentacles.
• Coral have tentacles and no arms.
• Jellyfish have tentacles and no arms.
• Sea anemones have tentacles and no arms.

How can we help octopuses, squid and jellyfish?

There is still so much we can learn about the creatures living in the ocean—which is one of the many reasons that we should continue working together to protect their habitat.

Who knows what we will discover about them next?

We won’t find out if we don’t protect the ocean and the animals that dwell within it.

Join Ocean Conservancy today!

The post Is There a Difference Between Arms and Tentacles? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

We are thrilled to announce our 2023 Photo Contest winners!

Judge’s Choice Winner:
Synchrony in Motion by Rachel Moore

Born and raised by the sea, the ocean was Rachel’s first love. At just seven years old, she knew she wanted to become a diver and explore the world hidden below the surface. For the past seven years, Rachel has slowly been sailing around the world on her boat Agape, capturing the wild beauty of our planet to inspire others to protect and conserve our precious ocean. Follow along Rachel’s adventures on Instagram at @moore_rachel.

What Our Judges Had to Say

• “What can be better than sharing the ocean with humpback whales? Likely very little. These three stacked humpbacks create an engaging moment of living art complete with sunbeams illuminating them like spotlights from above. I’m certain this was nothing short of a magical moment in time.” – Alex Rose
  
• “Harmony, respect, fragility and the power of nature, generations embodied in an image, with how vast the ocean is but at the same time the great challenge of safeguarding it due to the impact that human beings have made.” – Karen Fuentes
  
• “…the lighting and composition are incredible.” – David Coffey

Category Winners

The winners of our photo contest categories—Human Impact, Marine Wildlife and Spectacular Seascapes—were selected by ocean lovers like you who came out in droves to vote for their favorite photos. Thank you to everyone who voted and shared the contest with others.

Human Impact Winner:
Choked Up by Nicholas DeNezzo

Follow Nicholas DeNezzo on his website, www.nicholasdenezzo.com, and Instagram, @nickipedia_.

Marine Wildlife Winner:
Climate Endurance by Jenny Wong

Follow Jenny Wong on her website, www.JennWong.ca, and Instagram @jdubcaptures.

Spectacular Seascapes:
The Shallows by Maximilian Holba

Follow Maximilian Holba on his website, https://maxholba.com/, and on Instagram @maxbeyondthesea.

Staff Favorites

Thank you to our judges and to all who participated, voted, shared and submitted photos—you truly made this year’s contest a success. Congratulations to ALL our entrants, and we hope to see you next year for our 2024 contest.

The post 2023 Photo Contest Winners Announced appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

Am I now afraid of needlefish? Possibly. Do I think they are the villainous rogues of the ocean’s surface? Absolutely. You may look at that little fish and think nothing of it but I’m here to tell you: Think again. 

Where do you find needlefish? 

Just like that face that haunts your dreams, once you know what needlefish are, you’ll see them everywhere. They hang out in shallow waters or near the surface of the ocean. Most live in saltwater, though there are a few species that live in freshwater or brackish (mix of saltwater and freshwater) environments. Needlefish like warm water so you’ll often find them in tropical areas around the world. Wherever you might head on a relaxing vacation, a needlefish might be there lurking, just offshore. 

What’s that big pointy sword-looking thing for?

It’s clear how a needlefish got its name. In the front of its face is a long, narrow mouth that looks a bit like a needle. While that swordlike front is scary enough, it opens into a mouth with tons of small pointy teeth. These teeth are not for chewing but for making sure their prey does not escape. Which means a needlefish swallows their prey whole. 

What do needlefish eat?

Needlefish usually eat smaller fish, but how they digest them is a weirder story. That’s because needlefish don’t have stomachs. At some point in their evolution, they ditched that organ in favor of an acid-free approach to breaking down their meals. That means nothing turns a needlefish’s stomach because they’ve got no stomach to turn. 

Scarier still, needlefish are smart hunters that seem to take advantage of an underwater phenomenon called Snell’s window. If you have looked up when you were swimming underwater you might have noticed a cone of light that allows you to see up to the surface. That’s Snell’s window, which is caused by the way light refracts through water. While things inside the window are clear, everything around it is dark or distorted. A needlefish will use this disorientation to its advantage, allowing it to get very close to its prey without their being any the wiser. Waiting in the shadows for the right time to attack with your sword? A needlefish sounds like a rogue if I ever saw one.

How fast is a needlefish? 

A needlefish will make short jumps out of the water while hunting its prey. Needlefish can move up to 40 mph when they make their leaps. Needlefish move so fast that they can tail walk, where they appear to walk on the water straight up on their back ends. They’ll even skip along the surface like you might skip a stone, gliding along the waves. 

In their haste, they will often jump over low lying boats instead of swimming under. This can be dangerous for humans on those boats who can be struck by their sharp beaks at high speed. Swimmers, boaters, kayakers and windsurfers have been struck and seriously injured by needlefish. It is important to note, though, that these incidents are rare and accidental. Needlefish aren’t aggressive towards humans and usually avoid contact all together. 

While I won’t be signing up for a needlefish fan club anytime soon, these rapscallions are an important part of our ocean ecosystem. The truth is, they may have more reason to be afraid of us then we have to be afraid of them. In Pakistan, a needlefish was found dead trapped in a discarded plastic cup that had ended up in the ocean. Living closer to the shores means they also live in habitats polluted by our trash. No creature deserves to live in a dump. Take action with Ocean Conservancy to prevent plastic pollution now.

The post Meet the Needlefish appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.