By Kaitlin Mogentale If you asked me what my greatest fear is while scuba diving, I wouldn’t hesitate with my answer– the bends. The bends, or decompression sickness (DCS), is a decompression illness arising from the dangers of breathing compressed air at depth for prolonged periods, coupled with improper decompression or excessively rapid ascents. The [...]

By Nathaniel Kinsey Marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) goes beyond politically drawn lines and looks at the many factors that go into effective natural resource management. For example, marine ecosystems offer human society many services providing food, fuel, mineral resources, and even pharmaceuticals. These services are of high anthropogenic value and the hope of EBM is [...]

By Nicole Matthews Solid waste disposal is a major environmental issue faced by countries around the world. For small islands such as Guam the problems that come with solid waste disposal are especially demanding due to the limited amount of space available and the close proximity to bodies of water that flow into the ocean. [...]

By Emily Lu Birgus latro is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world, in some cases having a leg span of over three feet and weighing over nine pounds. It is more commonly known as the coconut crab, due to its diet. Coconut crabs are mainly scavengers, feeding on various tropical fruits including coconuts.  Their [...]

By Miller Zou Marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Indo-West Pacific are among the most biologically diverse regions in the world. Unfortunately, these areas are often ill prepared to combat non-native intruders, which, in many cases, can easily prey upon and out-compete their neighbors. These so-called ‘alien’ and ‘introduced’ species can quickly become invasive if [...]

One night last summer, I rose from my bed, left my tent and walked to the river. It was well past midnight, a full moon had risen over the glacier and in the twilight of the Arctic summer night, I could make out a herd of musk ox grazing nearby. My hair had gotten long, [...]

By Alyssa Dykman In the cool waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean lies the California spiny lobster. The lobster, Panulirus interruptus, can be found on the rocky substrates of the coastal ocean floor between Monterey Bay, California and the northwestern coast of Mexico. A majority of the population is found off the coastline from Point [...]

By Christina Irvin Sirens are mythical, mermaid-like sea creatures that lure ships and seafarers into dangerous waters with their beauty and songs. These legends are rooted in Greek mythology – particularly in Homer’s The Illiad. Interestingly, for more than 600 years after Homer’s time, early explorers believed that the oceans were home to mermaids and [...]

By Roxi Aslan When diving in the Blue Cavern Marine Protected Area off Catalina Island, you can’t help but notice the red-brown warty sea cucumber Parastichopus parvimensis, which lies conspicuously on the sea floor below. This creature (as do all members of the phylum Echinodermata) has the ability to regenerate parts of its body – [...]

By Stephen Holle As the global human population continues to increase, many organisms have had to adapt to the loss and fragmentation of their habitat by development. Not surprisingly, global biodiversity has steadily declined, and as Anthony Barnosky, a Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley suggests, “we are witnessing a collision of human impacts [...]