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Amazing
facts about Whales.pdf
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More fact sheets and
videos will be uploaded soon, now enjoy them while
some fact sheets below have some really cool facts!
See these videos of a
Caribbean squid, Moray Eel, and Longsnouth Seahorse and more videos to
come as well! Just pass your mouse over each video to watch it :)
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Check out these links to see more of Rowans videos on www.youtube.com
Trafalgar Waterfall Dominica Caribbean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4UleeNcqg
Endangered Leatherback Sea Turtle Hatchling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzaz4aeuB5o
Flying Gunnard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hul02yfN3FM
Single Caribbean Squid Swimming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT9fJLlFeKU
Longsnout Seahorse
Rests on Reef
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpONw5GJx7k
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Dugong Fact
Sheet.pdf |
Did you know...?
Sharks
attack
some 50-75 people each year worldwide, with perhaps 8-12 fatalities,
according to data compiled in the
International Shark Attack File (ISAF).
Although shark attacks get a lot of attention, this is far less than the
number of people killed each year by elephants, bees, crocodiles,
lightning or many other natural dangers. On the other side of the
ledger, we kill somewhere between 20-100 million sharks every year
through fishing activities.
Of the
350 or so shark species,
about 80% grow to less than
1.6
m and are unable to hurt people or rarely encounter people. Only 32
species have been documented in attacks on humans, and an additional 36
species are considered potentially dangerous.
Almost any shark
1.8
m or longer is a potential danger, but
three species have been identified
repeatedly in attacks: the
Great white,
Tiger,
and
Bull sharks.
All three are found worldwide, reach large sizes and eat large prey such
as marine mammals or sea turtles. More attacks on swimmers, free divers,
scuba divers, surfers and boats have been reported for the great white
shark than for any other species. However, some 80% of all shark attacks
probably occur in the tropics and subtropics, where other shark species
dominate and Great white sharks are relatively rare.
An estimated 80% of all life
on earth is found under the ocean surface and the oceans
contain 99% of the living
space on the planet.
Less than 10% of that space has been
explored by humans. 85% of the area and 90% of the
volume constitute the dark, cold environment we call the
deep sea.
The average depth of the ocean
is
3,795
m. The average height of the land is
840
m.
The oceans cover 71% of the
Earth's surface and contain
97% of the Earth's water.
Less than 1% is fresh water, and 2-3% is contained in glaciers and ice
caps.
90% of all volcanic activity
occurs in the oceans.
The speed of sound in water
is
1,435
m/sec - nearly five times faster than the speed of sound in air.
The highest tides in the world
are at the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia.
At some times of the year the difference between high and low tide is
16.3
m, taller than a three-story building.
Earth's longest mountain range
is the Mid-Ocean Ridge more than
50,000
km in length, which winds around the globe from the Arctic Ocean to the
Atlantic, skirting Africa, Asia and Australia, and crossing the Pacific
to the west coast of North America. It is four times longer than the
Andes, Rockies, and Himalayas combined.
The pressure at the deepest
point in the ocean is more than
11,318
tons/sq m, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo
jets.
The top ten feet of the ocean hold
as much heat as the entire atmosphere.
The lowest known point on
Earth, called the Challenger Deep, is
11,034
m deep, in the Mariana’s Trench in the western Pacific. To get an idea
of how deep that is, if you could take Mt. Everest and place it at the
bottom of the trench there would still be over a mile of ocean above it.
The Dead Sea is the Earth's lowest land point with an elevation of
396
m below sea level.
Undersea earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides can cause
tsunamis (Japanese
word meaning "harbor wave"), or seismic sea waves. The
largest recorded tsunami
measured
60
m above sea level caused by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the Gulf of
Alaska in 1899 traveling at hundreds of km/hr.
The average depth of the
Atlantic Ocean, with its adjacent seas, is 3,332 m;
without them it is 3,926 m. The greatest depth,
8,381
m, is in the Puerto Rico Trench.
The Pacific Ocean,
the world's largest water body, occupies a third of the Earth's surface.
The Pacific contains about
25,000 islands (more than the total number in the rest
of the world's oceans combined), almost all of which are found south of
the equator. The Pacific covers an area of
179.7 million sq km.
The Kuroshio Current,
off the shores of Japan, is the largest current. It can travel between
40-121
km/day at 1.6-4.8
kph, and extends some
1,006
m deep. The Gulf Stream
is close to this current's speed. The Gulf Stream is a well known
current of warm water in the Atlantic Ocean. At a speed of
97
km/day, the Gulf Stream moves 100 times as much water as all the rivers
on earth and flows at a rate 300 times faster than the Amazon, which is
the world's largest river.
A given area in an ocean
upwelling zone or deep estuary is as productive as the
same area in rain forests, most crops and intensive agriculture. They
all produce between 150-500
grams
of Carbon per square meter per year.
The sea level has risen
with an average of 10-25
cm over the past 100 years and scientists expect this rate to increase.
Sea levels will continue rising even if the climate has stabilized,
because the ocean reacts slowly to changes. 10,000 years ago the ocean
level was about
110
m lower than it is now. If all
the world's ice melted, the oceans would rise
66
m.
The density of sea water
becomes more dense as it becomes colder, right down to its freezing
point of
-1.9°C
unlike fresh water which is most dense at
4°C,
well above its freezing point of
0°C.
The average temperature of all ocean water is about
3.5°C.
Antarctica has
as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water.
The Arctic
produces 10,000-50,000 icebergs annually. The amount produced in the
Antarctic regions is inestimable. Icebergs normally have a four-year
life-span; they begin entering shipping lanes after about three years.
Air pollution
is responsible for 33% of the toxic contaminants that end up in oceans
and coastal waters. About 44% of the toxic contaminants come from
runoff via
rivers and streams.
Each year, three times as much
rubbish is dumped into the world's oceans as the weight of fish caught.
Oil is one of the ocean's greatest resources.
Nearly one-third of the world's oil comes from offshore fields in our
oceans. Areas most popular for oil drilling are the
Arabian Gulf, the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
Refined oil is also responsible for polluting the ocean. More oil
reaches the oceans each year as a result of leaking automobiles and
other non-point sources than the oil spilled in Prince William Sound by
the Exxon Valdez.
The record for the deepest
free dive is held by Jacques Mayol. He dove to an
astounding depth of
86
m without any breathing equipment.
A mouthful of seawater
may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of
phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton.
The Great Barrier Reef,
measuring
2,300
km in length covering an area more extensive than Britain, is the
largest living structure on Earth and can be seen from space. Its reefs
are made up of 400 species of coral, supporting well over 2,000
different fish, 4,000 species of mollusc and countless other
invertebrates. It should really be named 'Great Barrier of Reefs', as it
is not one long solid structure but made up of nearly 3,000 individual
reefs and 1,000 islands. Other huge barrier reefs include the barrier
reefs of New Caledonia, the Mesoamerican (Belize) barrier reef, and the
large barrier reefs of Fiji. The
largest coral atoll complexes
occur in the Maldive-Lakshadweep ecoregion of the central Indian Ocean
and in Micronesia.
Fish supply the greatest
percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans and
most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above
their maximum sustainable yield; some regions are severely over fished.
More than 90% of the trade
between countries is carried by ships and
about half the communications between
nations use underwater cables.
The swordfish and marlin are the
fastest fish in the ocean
reaching speeds up to
121
kph in quick bursts; the
Blue fin Tuna (Thunnus
thynnus)
may reach sustained speeds up to
90
kph.
The
Blue whale
is the largest animal on our planet ever (exceeding the size of the
greatest known dinosaurs) and has a heart is the size of a Volkswagen.
The Oarfish (Regalecus
glesne), is the longest bony fish in the world. It has a
snakelike body sporting a magnificent red fin along its
15.25
m length, a horse like face and blue gills, and accounts for many
sea-serpent sightings.
Many fish can change sex
during the course of their lives. Others, especially rare deep-sea fish,
have both male and female sex organs.
One study of a deep-sea
community revealed 898 species from more than 100
families and a dozen phyla in an area about half the size of a tennis
court. More than half of these were new to science.
Life began in the seas
3.1 billion to 3.4 billion years ago. Land dwellers appeared 400 million
years ago, relatively recently in geologic time.
Because the architecture and
chemistry of coral is so similar to human bone, coral
has been used to replace bone grafts in helping human bone to heal
quickly and cleanly.
Know of another "Little Known Fact"?
Send it to us! Rowan@marinecreatures.com
References
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