Oceans 4Ever

Hello, O4E readers! It’s not Halloween, but it IS time again for freaky fish. This our first Freaky Fish Friday in more than half a year, so we want to warm things up for 2010. Are you ready?

Today’s du jour is (drumroll, please)…the GOBLIN SHARK! This is one incredible creature that definitely does NOT like the limelight. Let’s jam it up with some important facts about this amazingly freaky shark (in your face, JAWS!):

• This shark is a deep water-dwelling shark, often found out and about at night at the bottom of an abyss – usually around 900 feet to as far down as 4100+ feet. Rarely ever is one spotted in shallow waters.
• The biggest one found to-date was about 12.5 feet long and 463 pounds.
• The Goblin shark has been found off the coast of Guyana (Atlantic) as well as off the coasts of Japan, Austrailia and New Zealand (Pacific), in the Indian ocean and even off the California coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Few Goblin sharks have ever been caught, making a sighting, much less an encounter, a rare event.

But here is the rare event - a video featuring an up-close encounter with a Goblin shark. I know it’s in Japanese, but don’t worry if you don’t understand it – you won’t want to miss these chompers in action (in your face again, JAWS)! What do you think?

Have a great weekend!

~Alexa

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This seems to be O4E’s big video week.

In researching National Environmental Education Week, we stumbled upon this video which we feel conveys the point that Alexa’s always trying to make, in one form or other, mostly to her young peers: just because you live in the middle of the corn fields of Iowa doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the world’s oceans, or that you can’t possibly make a difference and help them to have a healthier future. We don’t think it’s possible to talk about this too much.

Take it away, CNN:

This all said, what do you land-locked folks think YOU and others like you can do to help out?

Talk to us.

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Who IS this masked man?

Trust us, he’s someone you’ll want to know.

He swims around an island in Puget Sound near his home – alone – with a snorkel mask, some fins, and who-knows-what lurking in the depths as he explores.

He blogs about these adventures, as well as issues facing the future of the world’s oceans.

And oh yeah, helping protect ocean life is his career, too.

As part of our launch week celebration, this Thursday (3/19) we’re kicking off a “how it all started” series on how people working in the ocean community today got lost in the Big Blue in the first place.

You won’t want to miss musings from this man about how and when he got hooked on saltwater, as coming up soon on O4E, he’ll also give us some great tips on ocean-friendly seafood eating.

(Ssshhh…if you already know him, don’t spill the beans!)

Launch week starts tomorrow with all kinds of goodies, so splash back here then!

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