Want to learn more facts about wildlife? Read more in our blogs.

Seahorses

According to the National Ocean & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the dwarf seahorse is threatened by habitat loss, oil spills, energy exploration and harvesting, and is now under consideration for being added to the Endangered Species List.

This tiny marine species is likely inspiration for Aquaman’s trusty steed–Storm–in the original 1960’s D.C. Comics.

Learn more about seahorses from our favorite fictional naturalist, Ranger Rick HERE.

Mantas

Did you know? Giant manta rays boast wingspans of up to 29 feet and weigh a ton! Due in part to commercial fishing, this enormous species was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in 2018.

In Disney’s Moana, the grandmother of the titular character passes away and returns as a giant manta ray, to guide her granddaughter in her journey across the perilous sea.

Sea Turtles

2003’s Finding Nemo dove with audiences into the deeps of the Pacific Ocean, introducing many families to a wide variety of marine wildlife characters, including Crush, a helpful sea turtle.

Our Wildlife Guide, notes that the endangered green sea turtle population has declined significantly over the last half century, due, in part, to climate change and habitat loss.

Other types of sea turtles are also in decline, threatened or endangered, including loggerheads, leatherbacks, Kemp’s Ridleys, and hawkbills.

Read “Sea Change for Sea Turtles” from National Wildlife Magazine, to learn more about this incredible species HERE.

Whales

1993’s box-office hit, Free Willy, told a story of kinship between a killer whale and a foster child. Although highly acclaimed at the time, Free Willy was a cinematic precursor to 2013’s Blackfish, a documentary that criticized Sea World for keeping killer whales in captivity.

According to NOAA, killer whales, also referred to as orcas, can be found along a large range of North America’s coasts and are threatened by vessel traffic, oil spills, pollution, and entanglement. One population is currently listed as endangered: the Southern Resident population.

Other imperiled whale species include, but are not limited to, the sperm whale, the North Atlantic right whale, and the blue whale.

Sharks

From Discovery channel’s beloved Shark Week to the zany (and not particularly scientific) Sharknado, sharks capture the imagination of millions of viewers on the big–and small–screen.

Currently, the oceanic whitetip is threatened and two populations of the scalloped hammerhead are endangered. According to NOAA, both the oceanic whitetip–which “declined by approximately 80 to 95 percent across the Pacific Ocean since the mid-1990s”–and the scalloped hammerhead are imperiled by commercial fishing.

Although popular culture demonizes sharks as vicious, dangerous creatures, shark attacks are actually extremely unlikely. In fact, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a shark, and only five shark-related deaths were reported globally in 2017.

Steller Sea Lion

A trained steller sea lion was cast as “Andre the Seal” for the eponymous wildlife lead in 1994’s Andre. This was a controversial decision, because the real-life Andre that inspired the movie was actually a harbor seal – a distinctly different species!

Although the steller sea lion was placed on the Endangered Species List in 1990, NOAA notes that the eastern population of the species was recovered by 1997, while the western population remained endangered. This species continues to face a multitude of threats, including climate change and “ingesting fishing gear or getting caught in marine debris.”

Protecting Our Oceans & Watersheds

As the new year begins, you can help protect wildlife that depend on clean watersheds, coasts, and oceans:

Help protect marine habitats from oil drilling

Protect U.S. waterways from weakening of the Clean Water Rule

Tell Washington Gov. Inslee to protect endangered orcas & salmon

Support our efforts to protect marine wildlife along our coasts through a gift or a symbolically adoption of a threatened or endangered marine species: humpback whale, loggerhead turtle, orca, or beluga whale.

Many of the species facing the greatest threats are not the most well known or charismatic, so our Sharks4Kids programs are aiming to provide more information about and focus on these particular animals. Most kids know great whites, tiger sharks and manta rays, but have never heard of a sawfish, chimaera or angel shark. The challenge is getting them just as excited about the more rare and lesser known species, which in many cases require a greater need for regulations and protections. These are not the species they see on Shark Week, nor have them gained celebrity status on social media, but it is critical for the world to learn about them. Knowledge is a key component in getting better laws and regulations put in place and it is very difficult to care about an animal if you don’t know it exists.

In learning about the more obscure species, students are also learning overall about the incredible diversity among sharks and rays.

One of our main focuses this year has been expanding our program to landlocked states and helping students and teachers understand our connection to the ocean, no matter where we live. We’ve been speaking to a lot of students in Kansas, Tennessee and are doing in person visits in Arkansas. Our lives are intertwined with the ocean every single day, so our actions have an impact. We always encourage students to learn about sharks and share shark facts. Driving home the understanding that these creatures are not man-eating monsters. Once we replace fear with facts, we can move forward and empower and encourage them to speak up. Students can use less plastic, organize a cleanup, read a shark book to younger kids or make a shark poster to share facts at school. Our focus is sharks, but the bigger picture is  that we need to be global citizens striving to make our impact a positive one for the planet.

One of our proudest achievements regarding endangered species is the amount of awareness we’ve been able to spread regarding the threats sharks and rays are facing. Most people have heard of shark finning, but do not realize shark liver oil is used in cosmetics, vitamins and dog treats, all which can be purchased in the US. They do not realize the other names shark can be served as ( whitefish) or the issues of bycatch. These are all important aspects in better management and protection of endangered species. I know we are getting the message out there when I see stories like the 9 year old in Oklahoma doing a presentation on sharks for her class.  I see hope in the next generation.

Education is crucial in the fight to save sharks and save our oceans.

If we are not aware of something, it is almost impossible to care about it, let alone take action to protect it. It’s remarkable to see how quickly a few factsand some beautiful images can change the way people perceive an animal. To see a shark swimming gracefully, instead of with jaws agape, catalyzes adifference response in most people and opens their mind to thinking differently. Unfortunately for sharks, the monster stigma is still heavily embedded in our society and has been for decades, so we are fighting against something with a very strong grip. Highlighting the incredible adaptations, diversity of species and true beauty of these animals is a critical component in the education process. At the heart of it is helping students understand sharks are more than just their teeth; they are smart, social and certainly not man-eaters.

Programs providing facts and education, allow for knowledge to spread from students to their teachers, families and friends, so we are actually reaching adults as well. This has the potential to create a ripple effect where parents now might think differently about the products they buy, use less plastic or even plan a trip to see sharks.

Overall, education allows us to show the reality of these fascinating creatures, highlight the threats they face and enlist the next generation of shark advocates to be their voice and make a difference.

About the Author
Jillian Morris is a marine biologist, shark advocate, scuba instructor, explorer and educator. She is the executive director of Oceanicallstars conservation media group and the creator of Sharks4Kids.

Eco-Schools USA is a K-12 program of the National Wildlife Federation focused on student-driven sustainability through leadership, STEM, action and community. Learn more and take action for wildlife species and the place they live.

Springtime plankton blooms off the coast of northern New England were well below average this year, leading to the lowest levels ever seen for the tiny organisms that are essential to maintaining balance in the ocean food chain, said Kevin Friedland, a marine scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The absence of the normal surge of plankton in the spring is a concern because that’s when cod and haddock and many other species produce offspring, Friedland said. The spring surge also provides the foundation for normally abundant zooplankton levels that have made waters from the Middle Atlantic to New England productive for centuries.

“The first six months of 2013 can be characterized by new extremes in the physical and biological environment,” Friedland said from his office in Rhode Island. The findings come after temperatures off the Northeast U.S. hit an all-time high in 2012.

I’m representing the National Wildlife Federation today at a news conference in New Bedford, MA, America’s top-grossing fishing port, as Environment America releases a new report on how offshore wind energy can help cut climate-disrupting carbon pollution. The zooplankton decline is a reminder that global warming doesn’t just threaten polar bears – if you’re a commercial or recreational fisherman, if you’re one of the millions of subsistence fishermen who depend on the ocean’s bounty to feed your family, or even if you just love fresh fish & chips, climate change is already hurting you.

Meanwhile, ongoing federal spending cuts imposed by Congress continue to gut funding for scientific research. If global warming collapses the base of the ocean’s food chain, will we even see it coming before it’s already too late?

Take a moment right now to ask your members of Congress to support investments in American-made clean energy.

Last week, Whatcom County in the state of Washington mandated a sweeping environmental review of a proposed port that would export dirty coal to China. The move, pursued by the state’s Department of Ecology, Whatcom County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, could put the kibosh on the Gateway Pacific project altogether.

It is a hard-fought victory for orca advocates and conservationists who have pushed back against the dangerous impacts of coal exports. It also demonstrates that awareness is increasing of the dangerous threat dirty fuels pose to our land, water, air and wildlife.

Orcas that live off the coast of Washington and Oregon are some of the most critically endangered marine mammals.  Big Coal’s designs to build several terminals like Gateway Pacific in the region’s waters threaten to further jeopardize this population of wild orcas and the quality of their ocean habitat.

The True Cost of Coal

The environmental review, which could take up to two years, will look at the both the local impacts to communities and wildlife as well as the contribution of the coal exports to global climate change. National Wildlife Federation opposes the building of new coal export terminals in the region because of the major risks they pose to orcas, their habitat and the aquatic food chain upon which they rely. These risks include:

• 

  Increased noise pollution from massive barges could disrupt orcas’ ability to communicate to one another and locate prey.
• More traffic from large cargo ships to and from the area would greatly increase the possibility of collisions with the whales themselves.
• The possibility of a toxic oil spills will increase as the number of ships crowding the waters increases. A spill could have catastrophic and possibly extinction-level results for local orcas.
• Heavier traffic could also lead to an upswing in invasive species that hitch a ride in the ballast water of ships.  These invasive species could alter the delicate food web so many marine mammals depend upon.
• Increased development could degrade precious herring habitat around Cherry Point, where populations are already rapidly dwindling.  These herring are a stable in the diet of the salmon that are a major food source for orcas.

This move toward stricter environmental impact assessment is a big win for wildlife advocates and orca fans alike.  It will set a precedent for decision-makers to take a comprehensive look at cumulative environmental impacts from such would-be developments.

“This victory just goes to show what can be accomplished with your support of key wildlife campaigns like NWF’s campaign for orcas” said Kassie Rohrbach, Dirty Fuels Campaign Fair Manager at National Wildlife Federation.  ”A big thanks goes out to all those that backed NWF in July and took a stand for orcas!”

 While this is a great victory for orcas, the fight against dirty fuels is far from over. Please donate today to keep up the fight for Puget Sound orcas and many more wildlife!

Sound like a cheesy movie tagline to a 1970’s blockbuster gone bust? Well, I took some poetic license but it’s not that far from the truth. On this day back in 1977, the movie Orca: The Killer Whale hit theaters promising just that—a man-eating Orca seeking retribution on the humans who killed his mate and unborn calf. Released just two years after the record-setting box office success of Jaws, this unfortunate bandwagon film failed to capture the same level of acclaim or money as its predecessor, but what it did accomplish was giving orcas a bad reputation as man-killing monsters.

A Bad Rap for Orcas

Growing to roughly the size of a school bus, there’s little doubt that these creatures are beasts of the sea, but that’s a far cry from blood-thirsty monster. To be fair, they are called “killer” whales (even though they are in fact related to dolphins) for a reason—they’re excellent and fierce predators in the marine world, but like many a tagline there’s more to this story.

In fact, orcas are quite social creatures, living in complex social structures known as pods.  These pods are akin to wolf packs in their cooperative hunting techniques and familial bond. Each pod makes its own unique sounds that its members can recognize over great distances.

Orcas are extremely loyal and bonded to their family groups. They are very protective of their young and females often care for other whales’ offspring. Additionally, they all share responsibility in caring for their sick or injured.

As you can see, these social and emotive creatures are a far cry from the terrorizing beast billed in Orca: The Killer Whale, and though they are still wild, predatory mammals, they are far closer to Free Willy than Jaws.

Scientists are still learning new and exciting things about orcas and the very oceans in which they reside.  Just recently, it was discovered that a rare breed of orca is likely an entirely different species. Unfortunately, the deeper we dive in getting to know these animals the more we are learning how our actions are endangering them.

Orcas on the Brink in Puget Sound

Coal exporting and proposed expansions to this industry are putting these majestic beasts smack-dab in the middle of dangers they are powerless to contend with.  Evidence of this changing reality can be seen just off the shores of Puget Sound where Southern Resident Orcas are facing the stark realities of what coal exports mean to their habitat and welfare.

Today fewer than 90 individual orca whales inhabit the Puget Sound.  These whales rely heavily on the population of salmon and other fish in for sustenance, but proposed coal export development threatens to disrupt the balance of this food chain.  There are three proposed coal export terminals slated for the Puget Sound area, all of which would require extensive restricting of the immediate environment including: dredging, filling, construction of new pylons and shoreline grading.

What could all this mean for local wildlife?

• Habitat destruction
• Reduced salmon populations (due to the loss of  shallow areas for young salmon to acclimate to salty waters)
• Diminished orca population because of reduced food availability
• Increased barge traffic which could result in direct harmful collisions with animals
• Coal dust and/or fuel leak contamination and reduction in the depth of sunlight penetration (or a shallower euphotic zone—the area which receives enough sunlight for photosynthesis to occur) which could lead to lower the oxygen content in the water.

Additionally, any increase in the burning of coal (and the subsequent release of one of some of the most harmful and potent greenhouse gases), would accelerate climate change.  Climate change is already contributed to rising water temperatures that have caused massive die-offs in cold-water fish populations including salmon.  It has also driven increased acidification of ocean waters also affecting salmon as well as smaller marine life.  The burning of coal is also responsible for the release of mercury and other harmful pollutants into the food chain which are known to bioaccumulate (or become more highly concentrated) in the fatty tissues of animals as you climb the food chain.  In short, if these projects are given the green light it could spell disaster for orcas.

Though orcas are renowned for their ability to communicate effectively and across vast distances, they cannot speak up for themselves in the fight against coal export expansion and other destructive man-made dangers.

  Please make a generous donation today to help fight for endangered orcas and many more wildlife.

For more information on the dangers of coal exports to orcas and other marine life in Puget Sound, visit NWF.org/CoalExports.

The oarfish video originally recorded in 2011, was recently released in conjunction with an explanation of the creature which appeared in the June issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.

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The Creature from the Abyss

Referred to as the “sea serpent,” the oarfish (Regalecus glesne) is an elusive serpentine fish that can grow up to 56 feet in length (the one captured in the video is about 8 feet long).  It feeds mainly on krill and small crustaceans and lives in temperate to tropical oceans.

The oarfish is a creature which seems straight out of science fiction, with an eel-like iridescent elongated body and a lengthy dorsal fin that spans roughly half of its body.  To add to its eerie otherworldliness it orients this long tubular body vertically in the water with its head facing upward.

Despite its size, the oarfish moves with great ease as it lithely undulates its dorsal fin like a propeller as it traverses the water.  Normally a slow, stealthy swimmer, the oarfish has the ability to change direction in an instant when necessary.

The oarfish captured in this footage is about 8 feet long and is at a depth of about 200 feet below the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was recorded by Louisiana State University marine biologist Mark Benfield with the help of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).  ROVs are commonly used for such deep-water exploration, but their availability to researchers is limited.  Because oil offshore oil companies have their own ROVs which are easier to negotiate time to use them, Benfield has been working with oil companies in the Gulf on a project called GulfSERPENT. The project is part scanning the water for marine life and part of the on-going efforts to assess the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.

The news of capturing such an elusive creature is certainly exciting and a boost to Benfield’s research, but it is also a sobering realization of what little we know about our planet’s ocean life and how we could be harming still undiscovered life, especially with an event like Deepwater Horizon; the effects of which we may not fully realize for years to come.  In fact, the oarfish itself could be suffering from the die-off of microscopic organisms called foraminifera (a form of zooplankton) that resulted from the spill and which are a key food source for the very krill they rely on for sustenance.

Read more about the fallout of the Gulf Oil disaster.

This week, conservation champions from across the country spoke for the oceans.

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At the National Wildlife Federation, we couldn’t agree more.

In a hearing yesterday, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) examined progress towards restoring the Gulf of Mexico three years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The witnesses recognized the urgent need:

Rachel Jacobsen, Acting Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks for DOI, "The time to start restoration is now." #Gulfhearing

— Restore the Delta (@RestoreDelta) June 6, 2013

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There’s a reason that the Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the oceans. Every witness acknowledged how integral the health of the marine environment is to national economic prosperity.

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"Our economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment" says George Neugent, Monroe County, FL Mayor. #Gulfhearing

— Restore the Delta (@RestoreDelta) June 6, 2013

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Tomorrow is World Oceans Day.

But our lives are tied to the fate of our natural resources every day. So to Senator Whitehouse’s point (and Senator Landrieu’s, Senator Nelson’s, and Senator Wicker’s too!), speak up for the environment. Government officials just might join the conversation.

Australia’s Giant Cuttlefish in Trouble as Weak Spawning Season Continues

This summer, numbers are way down.

Australia’s ABC Radio recently interviewed a local commercial fisherman who reported that he has only seen four this year—rather than the usual “hundreds of thousands.” Other news outlets have been picking it up too.

Researchers say the low numbers are cause for concern, and they don’t yet know what’s causing the trend (though “BHP Billiton’s proposed desalination plant” nearby probably won’t help. It would reportedly pour “huge quantities of hypersaline wastewater” into Spencer Gulf and make the area unpalatable for a variety of species). A new study finds that the cuttlefish breeding colony had decreased by 78% in the past decade, and last year marked a record low.

Plan to Exonerate Hawaiian Monk Seals Relies on Reality-TV-style Cameras

The image rehabilitation plan comes as local fishermen ramp up  claims that the seals have been depleting area fish stocks. Recent cases of people pestering—and in some cases killing—the seals have come partly as a reaction to these rumors, and spurred scientists to “glue submersible cameras onto the seals’ backs, using the footage to prove to fishermen the animals are not harming their way of life.”

You can find out more about habitat threats to monk seals or read Les Welsh’s blog post from April about people intentionally killing the seals in the waters around Kaua’i (and how you can help).

Video: Blue Shark Chomps Giant Squid

Giant squid are mysterious, awesome and locked in an eternal arms race with sperm whales. Live sightings are so rare that even footage of a recently dead Architeuthis is a pretty big deal. Recently, Australian angler and journalist Al McGlashan came across a largely-intact carcass whose bright red coloration indicated it had died recently. While he filmed, a blue shark tore into the squid, thus launching  the best cephalopod viral phenomenon of 2012 (so far…I eagerly await your videos of octopuses singing ‘Call Me, Maybe’). Take a look at Field & Stream’s exclusive full-length video and photos right this second.

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Canadian Lobster is Blue, Yet in Decent Spirits

Canadian lobster boat captain Bobby Stoddard caught a lobster in early May that resembled a giant Avatar cat person. That’s the way we say ‘it was blue’ in America now.

Blue lobsters do occur, but they’re uncommon. According to The University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, “only an estimated one in two million lobsters is blue” (which makes them rare, but not quite as rare as live, naturally red or yellow lobsters, which are estimated at one in ten million and one in 30 million, respectively). Blue lobsters come about due to “a genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein.”

You can learn more about invertebrates in our Wildlife Library.

Manta Ray Ultrasound Sheds Light on Liquid Oxygen Intake

A study recently published in Biology Letters is the first to show how manta ray embryos get oxygen, based on video from an ultrasound performed on a pregnant ray in 2008.

Though manta rays, like many other cartilaginous fish, give birth to live young, they lack an oxygen-giving umbilical cord or placenta. According to researchers, “the baby ray was raising and lowering its jaw, pumping uterine fluid in through its mouth and spiracle.” The continuous regulated flow of the fluid over the ray’s gills allowed the embryo to extract oxygen (the baby was “a healthy female, 2 meters from wingtip to wingtip and weighing 50 kilograms” at birth). According to Taketeru Tomita, a fish biologist at Hokkaido University Museum, this is the first time that scientists have observed fetal viviparious vertebrates pumping liquid to extract oxygen.

Great Whites Summering in Cape Cod

Researchers say the sharks were drawn to the area by “a growing seal population on Monomoy Island,” redoubt of migrating birds and other non-humans for hundreds of years. They haven’t come close enough to tourist beaches to warrant any official warning, though mayhem will presumably occur if the star-crossed Brody family gets too close.

For more on ocean creatures, see Kevin Coyle’s post from last year about animals’ various methods of swimming or my post about the Top 5 Real Sea Serpents (including the giant squid). You can also check out an article about sperm whales and the threat posed to them after the oil spill in the Gulf  of Mexico.

If you’ve seen a story that you think should be covered in the next Ocean Wildlife Roundup, please let me know in the comments below, email me at greenbergm@nwf.org, or tell me on Twitter @MaxTGreenberg.

The hearing, Impacts of Rising Sea Levels on Domestic Infrastructures, was one of the only hearings on climate change that Congress has held this year. In that sense, it’s an important chance to talk about global warming, America’s biggest threat that Congress refuses to address. As National Wildlife Federation Climate Scientist Dr. Amanda Staudt blogged in advance of the hearing, “The climate-related threats to our nation’s energy systems compound the vulnerability associated with our aging & crumbling energy infrastructure, which is already causing environmental damage.” However, the committee made clear that this “is an oversight hearing, not intended to lead to legislation.”

I headed down to Dirksen Senate Office Building this morning to watch the hearing and kept a running diary …

9:27am – The hearing is set to begin at 9:30am. The committee includes some of Congress’ biggest champions of climate action (Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Maria Cantwell) and some of its staunchest polluter allies (Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. John Barrasso) so we could see some fireworks. The witness panel: