There are three types of mangroves that we will learn about in our class.

White: White Mangroves live farthest away from the water due to the fact that it is least tolerant of salt. They are usually higher up in elevation.

Black: Black mangroves live in a few inches of salt water and mud. These mangroves have pnuematophores. These are roots which grow vertically from the ground and it's purpose is to take oxygen to the tree.

Red: Red mangroves live in the deepest salt water. These mangroves have prop roots which help it from currents.

Mangroves help organisms by providing a home and protection for them. Some parts of the mangroves also give some sugar to most insects. This helps the fishing industry because it protects the baby fish. Predators will be lurking waiting for baby fish to come out. While they are waiting for the baby fish, we will be waiting for the predators.

The ocean garbage patch is a build up of trash such as various plastics that is building up in the ocean. This patch is building up in the north of the pacific ocean. This is thought to be formed from ocean currents. The build up of garbage can harm and kill several animals. Some fish may mistake the trash as food and cause them to suffocate from it. Man can help by simply throwing their trash away where it belongs. We can recycle and reuse some stuff as well.

Common Name: American Crocodiles

Scientific Name: Crocodylus acutus

Habitat: They live in Florida, the Caribbean, Southern Mexico, and along the Central American coast.

Adaptations: Crocodiles are cold blooded so to maintain their temperature during cold months they lay in the mud out in the sun. During warmer months they swim or lay in the shade.

Status: American Crocodiles are considered to be endangered pretty much everywhere they live.

Current issues: Illegal killing and road kill are the biggest threat to these crocodiles.

Why?: I chose the crocodile because I've always known of it's existence and was always amazed but this animal but I didn't know much about it.

Ocean Acidification is when too much carbon dioxide enters the ocean. If too much enters then the water literally turns into acid. Burning of fossil fuels and gas causes carbon dioxide to be emitted into the air. If there is too much then a lot then too much will fall into the ocean. This affects plantonic and benthic organism because the acid dissolves through their shells. If they are using up all their energy by simply creating their shells then they won't have energy to do anything else except die. Man can help prevent this by emitting less carbon dioxide into the air, especially in the coastal area. I learned that acid can dissolve shells, thus resulting in that creature possibly being permanently extinct , and also that too much carbon dioxide doesn't only damage our ozone layer but also our oceans.

Karenia brevis is a dinoflagellate. This algae bloom is known as an HAB (harmful algae bloom). This is the algae bloom which is covered in a previous one of my blogs. This bloom is very harmful and may also be known as the red tide. Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning happens when a shellfish is consumed which has come in contact with the toxin released by karenia brevis. What happens is basically stomach ache, vomiting, and nausea. These symptoms are the same for both humans and animals. For animals, a large consumption could result in death. Shellfish is a popular delicacy so without it tourism would be hurt slightly. People come to the coast to enjoy the sea and enjoy sea food. They can't enjoy sea food if it's poisoned.

Plankton
1. Plankton are at the base of the marine life food chain
2. Plankton produces 80% of our oxygen.
3. Under plankton you find sub-types such as Phytoplankton and Zooplankton.
4. Plankton have to live at the surface of the water to survive.
5. Plankton are not as strong as i thought. Such as they can not swim. Plankton resources such as currents to get around.

Common name: Killer Whale

Scientific name: Orcinus Orca

Habitat: These whales are distributed throughout the ocean but are most common in the coastal areas. There is an abundance in the colder oceans.

Reproduction: These whales only reproduce once. Breeding starts at the age of around 15. Most of the babies die within the first year.

Status: Endangered

Interesting Facts: 1.Killer whales can weigh up to six tons
                          2. They have 40 to 50 teeth that are up to four inches long.
                          3. The dorsal fin of the adult male killer whale can be as high as 6 ft tall.

Major Issue: Major issues are the exposure to toxic and the decline in population.

Why I chose this: I've always wanted to know why it was labeled as the KILLER whale. It's interesting how it has this name yet it is the main attraction at sea world.

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This is the plankton that my partner and i created. The most difficult part is finding the perfect balance of weight for the plankton. Another difficulty is the consistency of times. In terms of changes i would like to of had a larger piece of plastic on top of the toothpick. With a larger surface area that would make the toothpick sink a lot slower. But other than that i would keep it the same because our plankton did receive the slowest time. What I liked about this activity was the fact that we received the freedom to really make our plankton the way i wanted to make it. Everyone plankton looked and sank different.

A harmful algae bloom cause negative impacts on other organisms through the production of toxins. HAB's may occur due to human activity. Phytoplankton is another reason for the toxins. To prevent it we can stop dumping waste into the ocean. Wastes such as trash and even oil spills. Once a red tide hit the Florida Gulf resulting in millions of dollars towards repair and loss of tourism.

1. Plankton is important because it is the beginning of the food chain. Several small fish and other organisms rely on plankton for their diet.

2. Plankton help clear out bacteria. Plankton consumes bacteria so it helps with providing a stable level of bacteria.

3. Without plankton the food chain would collapse. Every relies on the existence of plankton.

Diatoms are eukaryotic single celled algae. They are like plants in the way that they use photosynthesis. Chlorophyll gives them a golden color which helps preserve light. Cells may form chains with one another, colonies. There are over 100,000 species of diatoms. Dinoflagellates are also Eukaryotic single celled algae. They have two flagellas which give it limited mobility. About half are known to have photosynthesis. Other types of species have different ways of obtaining nutrients. Of the 2000 known species about 60 are able to produce toxins.

Common name: Sea star

Scientific name: Asteroidea 

Adaptations: Sea stars have to survive the harsh strengths of the ocean waves. This is why they are able to tightly grab on to near rocks and stick on to them. Another adaptation is their ability to regenerate body parts that may have been cut off or eaten off.

Habitat: Sea stars are mainly found in shallow marine environments. 

Endangered/ Threatened: Star fish pump water straight into their bodies. This is why sea stars may in danger of where they live. Pollution in the water may cause sea stars to become very sick and eventually die.Oil spills is a danger to them.

Interesting facts: The most common sea stars have 5 arms, but some might be found that have up to 40 arms.

Why I chose it: I chose this sea creature because I've always hear about it and knew what it was but i didn't know much about it.

The Meteor was a German boat which was developed by Alfred Merz. There was a total of 123 crew members on this boat. This boat is famous for being the first to use electronic sounding equipment to measure the ocean depths. What the boat used was an echo sounder. An echo sounder is a device that measures the distance to the depth of the ocean through the use of sounds which it produces. They were able to find the depth and map the ocean floor with this device.

I believe the invention of the ROV and AUV made a big change in oceanography. Exploring the depths of the ocean was a near impossible and dangerous job. With the invention of these two machines exploring the ocean depths was made simpler and a lot safer. A man's life was not put in danger with these machines which made exploring the depths a more common action.

1. We should study the ocean because it is a source of food. Many people love sea food and eat fish regularly. Exploring the ocean we can find various new fish and add on to variety of sea food that we already eat.

2. The ocean has it's secrets, one of those is the location of its oil. We should explore the ocean to try and locate hidden oil. Oil is a major resource that is used by nearly every human.

3. We should study the ocean to figure out transportation and trading routes. Traveling through boat is cheaper and can be enjoyable.

4. As stated before the ocean has it's secrets. We should study the ocean to discover these secrets that may eventually lead of to history of our planet.

5. Finally, we should study the ocean to protect it and our planet. By knowing more about the ocean we can assure that it doesn't get harmed.

In general I thought our boat only did well. In terms of performance the boat did ok and our boat definitely gets style points for sliding across the water on it's side. From my observations i think our times were around the middle of the group.

If i had to do this again i would give the boat a smaller body and focus more on the weight distribution. In stead of having one giant stick down the middle holding the sail I would maybe make two sticks holding the sail on either side. Over all i thought this was a fun experience.

What i tried to do with my boat project was replicate what a toy boat looked like in my mind. Although the final result was not exactly how i envisioned it, i feel like me and my partner, Dani Doak, did a good job at creating a decent looking boat. The boat is simple coming with the body, a keel, and a sail.

Above is a picture of the hole we created for the marbles to sit in. The body of the ship was made out of Styrofoam. I made the hole using a ruler. At first the hole was too small and when placing the marbles in it the boat tilted forward and to its side. After seeing this we decided to make the hole longer down somewhat even left and right.

Above you see a picture of our sail. The sail was actually the final object placed on our boat. This is made out of a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil. This is attached to a number of straws wrapped together in duct tape. After testing we noticed that the sail, along with the marbles, made the boat tilt forward. So, our solution to fix the sail problem was to cut it down an inch or two to lessen the weight on the front.

Above you will see the final product. On the bottom you can see the keel of our boat. This keel helps our boat stay straight. At first our keel touched the bottom so we had to trim it down a little. Like our sail, the keel is made out of cardboard but instead of aluminum foil we covered it in duct tape. The keel is held together to the boat through the wonderful use of hot glue.

Common Name: Nautilus

Scientific Name: Nautilidae

Adaptation: Nautilus is compared to its relatives, the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. The shell is divided into multiple sections ranging from 5 to 40 depending on age. The body remains in the largest of these chambers and is able to contain all of its tentacles inside of his shells. One completely inside, he shuts the hole with a leathery hood. The tentacles are lined with alternating grooves and ridges in order for it to grip on to objects. Over the years not many changes have happened to the Nautilus. It is said that the Nautilus was alive around the dinosaur ages. It's eyes are poorly developed and are thought to form blurry images.

Habitat: Nautilus lives near the bottom of the coral reefs (1500 ft) during the day and comes up at night to shallower waters to eat.

Endangered/Threatened/ or Not: The nautilus is not protected due to lack of scientific information. Many are killed for the purpose of trading it's shell.

Why did you choose this organism: I chose the Nautilus because it just looks like an interesting sea creature. It is one of the most unique I have ever seen and wanted to learn more about it.

Plankton Net: This instrument is used by Biological Oceanographers. This oceanographers study living things in the ocean such as plants and animals. They use certain instruments to help them study these creatures. The plankton net, which they use, is used to collect plankton. The plankton is then examined through microscopes.

CTD: This instrument is used by Chemical Oceanographers. These oceanographers study chemical reactions that occur both in the ocean and the sea floor. CTD stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth. This instrument is lowered into the water and measures what the name intends on it to measure.

FLIP: FLIP is an instrument used by Physical Oceanographers. This oceanographer studies changes and motions of the sea water, winds, tides, and currents. FLIP is a boat that, well, flips up. This boat is used to study wave heights. This is used to check water levels around the world. 

Push Core Sampler: This instrument is used by geological oceanographers. Geological Oceanographers study the physical features on the bottom of the ocean floor. This instrument is used by taking machines underwater to drill for soil. The tube is drilled into the ground and takes samples of the soil for them to be studied and examined later.

Oil Rig: Oil rigs are used by Geophysical Oceanographers. These oceanographers study the features below the ocean floor and also search for fossil fuels. Oil rigs do exactly what one would expect them to do and what the job descriptions require it to do. Oil rigs help look for oil underwater and other fossil fuels and natural resources.

Bob Ballard's "Why We Explore?"

Bob Ballard explains the importance of exploring the ocean. Bob explains several reasons as to why we should explore and i agree with him. Bob brings up the point that we have a map of Venus but not of the ocean. This is the point that i agree the most with. What is the point in going into space and making new discoveries when we still have a lot of mysteries down here on earth. I believe more money should be placed into marine exploration rather than space exploration due to the fact that we actually live on earth. Other information is brought up such as 50% of the United States is currently under water and that the largest mountain is in the ocean. The ocean covers the largest area on earth and half of the country we live in so searching the ocean and exploring it will help answer questions and help us learn more about this planet. I agree with Bob Ballard and believe that we should explore the ocean because there are hundreds of organisms and structures waiting for us to find them.