The Endless Summer
Check out a few digitally remastered clips from The Endless Summer and that iconic sound track by the Sandals.
Surfing N’Gor right
The 1966 surf classic, The Endless Summer, followed two Californians as they chased the summer around the world, surfing as they went. One of the iconic waves they surfed was the n’gor right in Senegal, just off the îsle de n’gor. I’ve not surfed it myself yet but I can see it from my hotel. Here’s [...]
Weird seahorse cousins found in stone for first time
My seahorse fossil-finding friend, Jure Žalohar, has made another amazing discovery. Back in 2009 Jure and his friend Tomas found the first fossils of extinct seahorses in his home country of Slovenia. His latest find is the world’s first fossilized pygmy pipehorse – a [...]
Senegal cancels foreign fishing deals
Encouraging news emerged last week for West African fisheries as the new government of Senegal announced it has cancelled all deals with foreign fishing companies. All foreign-owned trawlers are to unload their final catch and leave for good. The problem of industrial [...]
Happy Birthday Genie Clark
Today is Eugenie Clark’s 90th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENIE! To celebrate I’m reposting my story about meeting my shark hero last year. They say never meet your heros, but after meeting one of mine I can thoroughly recommend it. During my recent visit to Mote Marine Labs in Florida I had the chance to meet Eugenie Clark – [...]
Stunning reminders of why the oceans are awesome
Here’s a few of the amazing pictures that won this year’s underwater photography contest run by the University of Miami Rosentiel School. Make sure you check them out in their full glory at the 2012 Winners website.
Teeny tiny glowing sharks could be missing link
Take a tour of sharks around the oceans and you’ll find that around one in ten has the ability to glow, sparkle and twinkle its own eerie light. Some of the tiniest and most mysterious sharks – the pygmy and lantern sharks – are the subject of a new study looking into how glowing sharks [...]
Sahelian riches
In the latest installment of my reports form West Africa, I visit my first fishing communities and meet some big ugly molluscs… For the past few days I’ve been paying my first visits to fishing communities here in the Gambia. I’ve met and chatted with [...]
Alex Hofford on silky sharks
I chat with photojournalist Alex Hofford about his recent trip to the Pacific Ocean with Greenpeace, where he encountered some beautiful sharks. HS – What was it like meeting silky sharks compared to other sharks you’ve encountered AH – These sharks seemed almost canine in [...]
Helen in the Gambia
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll probably have heard that I’ve just begun a 2-month trip to West Africa. You can keep posted on my adventures here as I report back on all things seamonsterly. In the first of my reports, I encounter my first two local species down at the beach. [...]
Free diving, free falling
Another of my favourite posts from the past year… I’m still completely obsessed with this video of Guillaume Nery base jumping into – then climbing out of – Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas while holding his breath. It was filmed over 4 afternoons by Julie Gautier who was also freediving. I don’t have plans to [...]
Seahorse with dangerous underwear
We’re celebrating our first year of Seamonstering and I want to get things started with my very first post from April 16th last year, featuring one of my favourite seahorse illustrations. A seahorse with underpants decorated in hand grenades? Another with a shi shi hairdo? Well no. These cartoon seahorses are in fact festooned in [...]
Charles on Chagos 2
A team of researchers has spent the last month in the Chagos archipelago – the first full scientific expedition to the region since it was declared a no-take marine protected area in 2010. In part 2 of our Seamonster interview with Prof. Charles Sheppard we find out more about his latest trip to study the stunning [...]
Charles on Chagos
A team of scientists are coming to the end of an expedition to the Chagos archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It’s the first full scientific expedition to visit the area since the islands and reefs were declared a no-take marine protected area in April 2010. These are without a doubt some of [...]
The first men to reach the bottom
With the news that James Cameron is set to be the first person in 52 years to venture to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, here’s a piece of news footage from the first time people went down there (complete with fantastic musical backing track).
The Island President
Muhammed Nasheed was the first leader to hold a cabinet meeting underwater – he was making a point about climate change and sea level rise in his vulnerable atoll nation, the Maldives. When this film was made, his story was already immensely urgent. But since President Nasheed was thrown out of power at gun point [...]
Glowing transgenic sushi
It feels a like a flash back to the heyday of black lights and lava lamps, but cutting edge transgenic technology has paved the way to fluorescent sushi. This stuff isn’t available in supermarkets (yet), but all you need is a few pet zebra fish, genetically tweaked to contain the Green Fluorescent Protein GFP (or as [...]
Saving a sperm whale
This astonishing image from the Marine Photobank shows a diver working to free a sperm whale from a tangle of fishing gear. It was taken in 1981 by Alberto Romeo when he and a team of divers from the the Gruppo Ricercatori ed Operatori Subacquei (an underwater association that defends and photographs marine wildlife) came across a sperm [...]
Eating shark messes with your brain
It’s official – the news all us shark-huggers have been waiting for. Eating sharks is bad for you. Shark guru Neil Hammerschlag and his team form the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program came out with this potentially groundbreaking news. They tested shark fins from 7 species swimming [...]
Basking shark’s Pacific odyssey tracked for first time
For the first time scientists have tracked a basking shark migrating across the Pacific Ocean. Uncovering the wandering habits of the world’s second biggest fish means conservationists face an even greater challenge to protect them than previously thought. These days, there aren’t many basking sharks cruising along the Pacific coast of North America. There used [...]
Brian Skerry on thinking like a fish and the future
In the final part of my interview with National Geographic underwater photographer, Brian Skerry, I give him the chance to talk to the fishes, to meet any animal in the ocean, and on a more serious note I ask for his thoughts on the future of the oceans. And don’t forget, Brian’s new book, Ocean [...]
And for my next trick… inflatable corals
Pim Bongaerts from the University of Queensland came up with the idea of bringing a solitary mushroom coral into the lab, covering it in sand, and filming it trying to escape. Here it is, puffing its way out. Ingenious and beautiful. Question: does it make whooppee cushion noises as it does it? (they don’t mention it [...]
Brian Skerry on image making
In the second installment of my chat with oceans photographer, Brian Skerry, I ask him about how he goes about capturing ocean soul on camera. And Brian gives the inside scoop on shooting pictures for National Geographic. Helen: What goes through your mind when you’re underwater with your camera? Brian: Depending on the dive, many [...]
