25TH ANNUAL SHARK WEEK AUG.12 – 18

Shark enthusiasts world wide know that this week is the 25th celebration of SHARK WEEK,  and for those who didn’t ~ now you do.  Why not let us know how you’re celebrating the event. 

Philip De Franco is Discovery Channel’s host for Shark Week, 2012 and was asked, Why are we so fascinated with sharks? “Sharks are the last ‘wild’ thing. The power and the general awesomeness make them near the top of the food chain, and there is something interesting in all of that.”  “They’re smooth. They’re iconic. They’re a lot of species,” De Franco says of sharks. “They’re just awesome.”

“Great Whites of the Serengeti | Great White Highway” – Shark Week 2012, on the Discovery Channel ~Catch the premiere of SHARK WEEK 2012 Sunday, August 12, 2012 at 9PM e/p on Discovery. | http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/#mkcpgn=ytdsc1 | The Pacific Ocean is like a Blue Serengeti, teaming with wildlife, great migrations and sharks. Very big sharks. “Great White Highway” is part of theShark Week

Check out the Discovery channel Shark Week’ viewing for this week:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/#mkcpgn=ytdsc1

On Tuesday, Aug. 14th” you can watch, “Adrift: 47 Days with Sharks” (10 p.m., Discovery). The true story of soldiers who survived being in shark-infested waters for weeks is revealed in this documentary.

On Thursday, Aug.16th at 9 p.m. you can see, “Great White Highway” (9 p.m., Discovery). California‘s sharks don’t always swim around Hollywood deals. They can be found nearby in the ocean, too.

You’ll find many additional videos to watch with the same link above.

GREAT BARRIER REEF VIDEO

GREAT BARRIER REEF

Your friends from Rainsoft Ottawa bring you a water related National Geographic video – perhaps this can be the beginning of our “Armchair Travel” series – hope you enjoy (I certainly did – so much so that I watched it twice!)

The largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef spans more than 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) of islands and submerged reefs. A plethora of coral thrives here, along with a sweep of parrot fish, surgeonfish, barracuda, and sharks.

Established as a national park in 1975, the Great Barrier Reef was designated as a World Heritage Site six years later. Today 33 per cent of it is fully protected, and efforts are underway to deal with pollution, over-fishing, and the consequences of climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef appears to be about 20,000 years old, but geologists using deep coring techniques have found evidence of ancient corals there that are half a million years old.  With care, the future of Australia’s living treasure will be at least as enduring as its magnificent past.

 

 

 
 * *

GREAT BARRIER VIDEO, “Oceans: Great Barrier Reef”   

Great Barrier Reef Transcript: …  From space, the east coast of Australia appears to be in the embrace of a giant opal. The largest living structure on earth, the Great Barrier Reef is a lacy, living wall spanning more than two thousand kilometers of islands and submerged reefs, between the Queensland coast and the western edge of the Pacific Ocean.  Diving in, the opal seems to splinter into millions of pieces, whirlpools of small metallic-blue fish, barracuda gliding like silver submarines, and occasionally, a lone, predatory shark. The Great Barrier Reef is like an underwater city whose buildings are alive, with millions of small creatures whose lives are intimately and intricately connected. It is as diverse as a rainforest, a mosaic of more than 70 types of habitats hosting thousands of species of marine life. As many as 100 different kinds of coral may occupy a single acre of ocean. Molecule by molecule, coral animals gradually extract calcium carbonate from the surrounding water to form minute stony cups around each animal’s soft crown of tentacles. Some coral live in solitary splendor, but most are built with hundreds, sometimes thousands of individual animals, linked together to form a single coral mound, plate or cluster of branches. Some are like little pink trees and shrubs. They provide food and shelter for thousands of other forms of life. Corals get the credit for most of the reef structure, but much of the construction is done by fast-growing encrusting red algae. They act like pink glue, cementing fragments of shell, sand and coral with sheets of calcium carbonate. The reef is home to more than 4000 kinds of mollusks, from tiny sea slugs – nudibranchs — to giant clams. Green sea turtles travel thousands of miles in the open sea to reach the sandy beaches of some of the Barrier Reef’s islands, and there, to lay their eggs. Hatchings head straight for the sea. They will travel thousands of miles over the years, and eventually, return to lay their own eggs…

video credit: National Geographic

   Related articles –

 – VIDEO: UN concern over Barrier Reef threat (bbc.co.uk)

 – Fears for health of Great Barrier Reef (1oneday.wordpress.com) 

WINDOWS ON OUR WATER VIDEO – ALEXANDRA COUSTEAU

Indicator Species: Windows on our water

by Alexandra Cousteau

http://vimeo.com/groups/conservation/videos/16839012

Alabama is home to greatest wealth of freshwater and marine biodiversity in North America.

Today, as the BP oil spill casts its shadow over the Gulf Coast, scientists keep a vigilant eye on frogs, sharks and sperm whales, all indicator species for ecosystem effects of the oil spill and its clean-up efforts.