Coronavirus Lockdown Spanish Edition - Day 13 - Life goes on... online!

So nothing for days 11 & 12 simply because I was angry and in a foul mood on Tuesday, and yesterday just so, so tired...

Much better today! I guess we're all going to have our ups and downs while being locked up, more than normal. To be expected.

I wanted something cheerful today... to celebrate that tomorrow's Friday so it's almost the weekend! Need to find ways to mark the different days of the week other than work yes/no. So I'm planning a "movie night" with the friends I usually go to the cinema with. If it works out I'll report back.

We've all be finding ways to do things with other people online. The simplest is work related. I'm spending the mornings all this week (and half of next) in lengthy Skype meetings with my colleagues in Vietnam to see what the situation is like in their universities, and to talk about how our project is going and how we can continue moving forward (within the Covid19 limitations).

Day 6 - Challenge on Nature Photography

Happy Three Kings Day / Epiphany!!!

It's the 12th day of Christmas, and a holiday here in Spain (which I've written about before in 2010 and 2012). Children woke up this morning looking to see what the Three Kings had left in their shoes overnight. For the rest of us it's a nice way to break up the first week at work of 2016. ;o)

And today is DAY 6 in the #challengeonnaturephotography on Facebook.

Let's continue with more animals from New Zealand! Sperm whale and dusky dolphins from Kaikoura (South Island, NZ). Photos taken in January 2011. (click them bigger)

So my sister​ challenged me to participate in the #challengeonnaturephotography on Facebook. The idea is to occupy FB with nature photographs. Each nominated person will post a different nature photo for 7 days. With each photo they will nominate another person and give the name of the person who nominated them... 

It seemed to be that this would be a very nice way to start off 2016, and I wanted to share it with you as well! :o)

Unfortunately I'm terrible at following instructions, and after going through my photos I can't choose any more! So I'm going for DOUBLE! Two photos a day for 14 days... :p

I don't know about challenging anyone on the Blog... But if you feel like joining in please do! Don't worry, you can stick to the original challenge of 1 photo a day for 7 days! ;) (just leave me a comment with the link so I can be sure to go see yours)

Dive 100 at Benidorm Island

HAPPY WORLD OCEANS DAY!!!

I wish I could have gone "all out" for World Oceans Day this year, written several posts and launched the 6th Oceanic Blog-A-Thon... but sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. In this case an interesting but intense new job, final English classes before my students' finals, and the beginning of the end of an MBA. Busy doesn't begin to cover my life at the moment! But I did manage to squeeze in a bit of time to put this together...

 

For World Oceans Day this year I'm going to share my 100th dive with I did about 6 weeks ago on the north face of Benidorm Island (one of my frequent dive spots). I've seen the seabeds around this island (and around other parts of the coast) change in the past 15 years since I've been diving, and not always for the better. The impact of human activities can be seen almost everywhere, resulting sometimes in a change of dominant species in an ecosystem. 

A "poopy" reminder for World Oceans Day!

World Oceans Day is only 2 months away!!! :o)

As hectic as the past year has been (and as unsure as things are right now), I'm not 100% sure if I'll be able to do something to mark the occasion this year... although I sure as hell am going to try! So start thinking about the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon just in case. What do our Oceans do for you, and what can you do for our oceans?!

In the meantime, do go read this very interesting and funny story about the importance of whale poop in the Oceans! :D

from NPR

Who am I??? I am a...

It's finally here! The day you've all been waiting for! The answer to my World Oceans Day riddle!!! ;o)

First of all I just wanted to give a big thank you to Kim from Snug Harbour Bay whose holiday photos from Sanibel Island gave me the idea to choose this critter, and her daughter Chablis who kindly sent me a series of photos she took so I could use them in this post! :o)

Let's start by reviewing the clues, which I've enhanced with a few links to useful information. Try and figure it out as we go along, no cheating by jumping to the end! :p
 

1. I am a LIVING FOSSIL! I am very old. I pre-date flying insects, dinosaurs and man.

2. I am a marine animal, with only four species alive today.

3. My closest living relatives are found on land. (I do have one lesser-known distant cousin who still lives in the ocean like me)

Who am I? (5)

It's the final day in the World Oceans Day guessing game!!! And these last three clues pretty much give it all away! You'll get the full scoop on our mystery critter tomorrow during the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

Ready?  

Set? 

GO!!!

13. My first pair of appendages, which I use to place food in my mouth, are called chelicerae. They're present in all my relatives, which is why our subphylum is called the Chelicerata.

14. Some people find my shape reminds them of a horseshoe...

15. My name is a misnomer! I am not a crab!!! (but we are distantly related)

WHO AM I???

Who am I? (4)

Ready for the next batch of clues in our World Oceans Day guessing game? If you think you know who it is, perhaps these will help you confirm your guess! If not... maybe these will be the ones to guide you to an answer. Good luck!

Remember: you'll get the answer this Friday in time for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

Here are today's clues:

10. I come out at night to eat worms and small molluscs, but hide (usually in the sand) during the day.

11. If I'm a male I'm smaller than the females and my first pair of "legs", the pedipalps, are modified as a grasping appendage so I can hold on to the female during spawning.

12. We (males and females) meet up on the beach during spawning season (May-June). I detect her through the pheromones she releases, and "hold on" to her as she lays the clutches of eggs while I fertilize them.

WHO AM I?

Who am I? (3)

Day three means three new clues to help you identify the mysterious oceanic critter!
Maybe these will be the ones to help you figure it out?
You'll get the answer on Friday in time for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

Here are your new clues!

7. I have two compound lateral eyes and five simple eyes on my carapace. 

8. I "breathe" (capture oxygen from the water) using book gills (flat, leaflike gills), present on some of my abdominal appendages.

9. I am a true blue-blood! (You can call me "your highness"!) This is because my blood uses hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin to carry oxygen. The copper present in the hemocyanin makes it blue!

WHO AM I?

Previous clues here and here. New clues tomorrow! 

Who am I? (2)

Day two of our World Oceans Day guessing game, and three new clues to help you identify the mysterious oceanic critter! The riddle will be solved on Friday in time for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

Here are your new clues! (first batch of clues here)

4. I can walk using my five pairs of walking legs. I have an extra pair of cephalothorax appendages which I use to get food to my mouth. These have a special name which I won't share just yet 'cause they might give the whole game away! ;o)

5. I can swim ("upside down"!) using my abdominal plates (fused abdominal appendages)

6. I have a hard dorsal shell called a carapace and a long needle-shaped tailpiece called a telson. In order to grow in size I will have to molt, shed my shell, several times during my life.

WHO AM I?

Newer clues here.

Who am I? (1)

 

Since it seemed to be quite popular last year and the year before (follow the links and try to guess!), my contribution to the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon this year is going to be another marine animal guessing game! Five posts with three clues each... feel free to ask questions or guess the answer in the comments!

Friday I'll post the answer and launch the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon. I sure hope you're planning on joining in! ;o)

Now... let the World Oceans Day guessing game begin!!!

1. I am very old. I pre-date flying insects, dinosaurs and man.

2. I am a marine animal, with only four species alive today.

3. My closest living relatives are found on land. (I do have one lesser-known distant cousin who still lives in the ocean like me)

WHO AM I???

(You didn't think I'd make it easy right at the beginning, did you?) ;o)

More clues here.

Musical ode to an octopod

Another little musical moment... this one I discovered via i09, a homage to an inquisitive octopus! I dare you not to smile! ;o)

A Nocturnal Underwater Escapade (with Octopi!)

Is that a collective sigh of relief I hear? "She's finally showing us the night dive!" Well, yes in fact, I am! Sorry it took me so long... busy, busy, busy! And yes, part of the excuse is more diving! Plus there's the fact that although editing video clips with iMovie is fairly straightforward, it takes an awful lot of time! :p

Enough bla-bla-bla! You guys are here to see the Mediterranean come to life AT NIGHT!!! Today's dive program: a visit to "Las Piedras", a dive spot just outside the marine reserve of Tabarca (island in front of Alicante). It's a sweet spot because it's basically just like inside the reserve, but you don't need to ask for permits to dive there! Plus it's not deep (max 15m so ~49ft) so you can enjoy a nice long dive without having to worry about running out of air or entering deco. The name pretty much says it all: "Las Piedras" = "The Rocks". There are several huge rocks just sitting in the middle of a lush Posidonia oceanica prairie, and they serve as a home to a denizen of aquatic critters and plant-life. Some you'll spot easy enough during the day... but others only come out to play at night! ;o)

Ok, first off a reminder of what Posidonia oceanica looks like:

You guys do remember that P.oceanica is a seagrass and not algae, right? If not click here for a marine biology refresher. ASAP! We'll wait for you...

Mardinian: Come dive a wreck with me!

Once upon a time, a 3222 ton steamer named SS Mardinian - built in 1913 in Middlesbrough by Harkess & Son Ltd - departed from Calcutta with a cargo of hemp, bound for her home port of Liverpool. She was 313 feet long (95.4m), with a 42 foot beam (12.8m wide) and 21 feet deep (6.4m). She had a triple expansion steam engine which could propel her to a speed of up to 10.5 knots. Little did Captain G. Port know that on the 19th of May 1917 a German U-34 submarine would intercept them off the coast of Santa Pola in the Province of Alicante, Spain, and order the crew to abandon ship before sending the Mardinian to the bottom of the Mediterranean, 4 miles SW of the island of Tabarca, by means of a well-aimed torpedo. And there she remains to this day, to the delight of scuba divers who come from near and far to admire this steel skeleton, now home to a myriad of marine critters.

Last month I was looking for a somewhat "different" from my usual dives to celebrate my birthday, so I contacted one of the dive clubs I sometimes go out with and Carlos, the owner, advanced his scheduled wreck by one day so I could join in! I was a bit worried about going down so deep, the deck is at 44m depth (144ft) which is deeper than recreational divers "usually" go. Plus that was the minimum depth as the ship's hull was resting at 57m (187ft) on a bed of sand. My dive log tells me my max was 47.7m (the deepest I've ever been). Because of this depth, those of us going down with regular tanks (as opposed to the two technical divers going down with "trimix"), would have to do a series of decompression stops (to eliminate residual nitrogen in the body). Between that and the fact that at greater depth you use up more air, we had to each take along an extra tank for safety!

Yeah, I know. Looks awkward, doesn't it? Even more so rolling back over the side of the boat and holding it steady so it wouldn't hit me in the face! :p

Once in the water it was simply a mater of following the buoy line down, down, down. With the unpleasant surprise of discovering a piece of fishing line with a hook had twisted itself around the rope and was still actively fishing! :o(

DON'T abandon your fishing gear people!!! >:(

A fishy taste of things to come...

I don't know how long it will take me to prepare the post (takes a while to edit the photos and video footage)... but I wanted to give you guys an aperçu of something special I'm putting together for you! ;o)

Thing is... I have another dive post I wanted to do first (and should have already done! the photos are finally all edited), so I don't know whether to have this skip ahead or do things in order! One of them is about a WWI wreck off the coast of Alicante... I'll let you guys decide! 

Wreck first?

 or night-time first? ;o)

Mystery Fish for WOD

Happy World Oceans Day!!! 

Shall we have a lovely little fishy celebration? ;o)

Over the past several days I've been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to help you figure out whom I've chosen to celebrate WOD:

• 1. I'm a marine fish (although some people might think I don't look like one)
• 2. I can been found in deep and shallow and warm and temperate waters all over the world

• 3. I've got a mouthful of teeth and my bite can have very nasty consequences
• 4. But I'm shy so if I bite you it was probably your fault! (see story here)

• 5. I'm usually nocturnal. That means I prefer coming out of my hiding place (in crevices or holes) at night to look for food.
• 6. I rely on my sense of smell to find my prey, so if you're a stinky dead critter all the better for me! I help clean up the sea bottom of rotting corpses. But I also hunt for small tasty critters to munch on! ;o) 

• 7. I'm part of a big family: around 200 species ranging in size from 10 cm to over 2 m in length and many different possible colours.
• 8. We might vary in size and colour, but we pretty much all have an elongated body which flattens a bit towards the end and we have a single dorsal fin and a ventral fin.