Oceanic Blog-A-Thon 2011

Welcome, welcome!

At the moment this post goes live, it is exactly midnight on the dateline if my calculations are correct, (if not... oh well!) and on some remote Pacific islands it is now June 8th... WORLD OCEANS DAY!

It's a day to think about the Oceans, remember all they have to offer us, consider how we can help them as they are under constant attack from human activities. Go dive into these great salty tales to find out what your fellow bloggers have to say about the oceans and the critters that inhabit them! Don't forget to leave them a comment so they'll know you've been there, and if you'd like to join in the fun the just whip something up on your own blog (instructions, ideas here) and send me the link: crazycrisb AT ymail DOT com. I'll be sure and include it here! And be sure to come back here and check in regularly since I'll be updating this Blog-A-Thon as I receive people's posts over the next couple of days! :D

Let the 3rd Oceanic Blog-A-Thon begin!!!

• Wow! Blondie of Tales From Clark Street got a jump on all of us and was the first to post her World Oceans Day post yesterday! Brava!!! Her inspiring tale of her mother and a manatee reminds us that we don't need to live next to the ocean (she lives in the middle of a continent!) to care about the creatures that inhabit it. And she's got some absolutely brilliantly salty ideas for your next birthday present! ;o)

•  In "What's squishy and crawls and swims?" CrazyCris from Here And There and Everywhere challenges you to guess the identity of a fascinating sea critter and learn more about it! :D

• In Ode to Earth's Majority, the Single Mom brought out her inner poet to relive the magic of her first oceanic experience... including a little snorkelling incident I'm sure many of us have lived through as well! ;o)

• Shellbelle has outdone herself over at the Tiki Hut this year! She shares with us the work of an amazing sculptor - Jason deCaires Taylor - who has created several underwater art exhibits that serve as possible new habitats (artificial reefs) for the local marine plants and animals. Coral reefs are crucial ecosystems that deteriorating rapidly across the globe as a result of human actions. This is one artist who has decided to give something back! So go check the World Oceans Day Beach Party and discover this "living" art (kind of reminds me of the denizens inhabiting Davy Jones' ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!) and learn more about the crucial role of coral reefs in our oceans! I for one would love to go diving among those statues! ;o)

• Want to hear about a really smart dolphin who actually trained her trainers? Kelly the dolphin figured out how to trick them into giving her extra fish! Nancy from Life in the Second Half shares this with us in Dolphins / The Non-Human Humans and makes a plea for protecting these incredibly intelligent marine mammals!

• Want to find a decent book  that will help you appreciate and understand our oceans even more than you already do? Just don't know where to find a good one? Well the Grand High Poobah from NeoLibrarium has snagged a couple of books from her local library and reviewed them in detail for you guys! In World Oceans Day Book Review & Pictures she's got a couple of great reading suggestions from National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institution that show us how linked we are with our oceans. She's even invited us to share some of her wonderfully salty honeymoon memories with us... would anyone like to swim with stingrays? I sure would!!! ;o)

• Over at Cris Crossing the Globe, CrazyCris takes us on a trip to explore a very unique marine ecosystem: the New Zealand fiords! In Majestic Milford Sound: fresh above but salty below! she introduces us to some of the wonderful creatures that inhabit this breathtaking place, and takes us for a dive beneath its cold waters.

• Juliette from Pop Classics invites us to go back "under the sea" and re-discover the magic of The Little Mermaid! She digs into the classical origins of some of the characters (did you know that King Triton was based on the sons of the Greek God of the seas, Poseidon?) and realises how much this film teaches children about the power of the sea!

• Have you ever stumbled  upon a turtle's nest on the beach? Lavender Dreamer from Lavender Dreams has! In World Oceans Day Sea Turtles she shares this wonderful discovery with us, as well as many more turtle encounters, including one poor fella doing a stint in a rehab clinic! ;o)

• For World Oceans Day 2011 River Song from Desert Spirit's Fire remembers the many seas she's gazed upon and shores she's walked (wow). She wants to remind us that there is an ocean of tomorrows waiting for us, but to get them we need to care for our waters, our planet or all we'll have are memories of yesterdays.

check back for regular updates with new participants!

I hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as we've enjoyed writing them! Have a good World Oceans Day, and remember to Wear Blue and Tell Two! 

Did you know that the only that separates the Southern Ocean (surrounding the Antarctic) from the other oceans connected to it (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian) is the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current?

Did you know that many fish (like the clown fish) can change sex during their lives? Nemo's dad should have turned into a female when his mom died! :p

For more crazy oceanic factoids, click here. Or go hang out at a World Oceans Day beach party over at Shellbelle's Tiki Hut!