Green Burial Practices Could Help The Environment

the bajau laut are some of the world’s last true sea normads, living as they have for centuries almost entirely in the waters of the coral triangle (said to contain 75% of the world’s coral species) on long boats known as lepa lepa.

hunters of fish, pearls and sea cucumbers, the bajau people free dive to depths of 20 meters, hold their breath for up to three minutes, and spend up to 60% of their time in the water submerged - the equivalent of a sea otter. it is a common practice amongst bajau people to intentionally burst their ear drums at an early age to deal with the problem of equalizing.

as photographer james morgan explains, “traditional bajau cosmology - a syncretism of animism and islam - reveals a complex relationship with the ocean, which for them is a multifarious and living entity. there are spirits in currents and tides, in coral reefs and mangroves.” the bajau people, for example, will not spit in the ocean.

in the last few decades, increasingly depleted fish stocks and government efforts have forced many to settle permanently on land and abandon a life of self sufficiency known as cari laut, or ‘searching the ocean’. a dwindling few, however, still choose to live the majority of their lives at sea.

How do you think they'll dispose of Tillikums body? :/

They’ll probably do a necropsy after he dies to determine the exact cause of death. After that, I’m not sure what they’ll do. Normally they don’t tell anyone what happens to the animal’s body after they die. Perhaps since Tilikum is so well-known they’ll give him a proper burial/memorial? I’ve heard somewhere before (but for the life of me cannot remember where, so don’t take this as a fact) that Kalina is buried somewhere on the property of SeaWorld Orlando.

I know I’ve read that in Kamogawa Sea World they bury the dead orcas in a cherry blossom garden, which I think is very nice and respectful. 

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Pop Quiz! Georgia Aquarium Wants to Test Your Knowledge of Cephalopods

dragon 🐉

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Manatee

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The Mud Dragons of Calvert Island, BC

Shedding light on these mysterious marine creatures.

by Josh Silberg

Spiky headed dragons roam the ocean floor from the poles to the tropics. But these are not winged beasts from the pages of science fiction. These strange creatures are Kinorynchs, aka “mud dragons“, and they are very real.

Roughly the size of a grain of salt, mud dragons are often overlooked, but a team from the Hakai Institute and the University of British Columbia (UBC) hopes to give them the spotlight they deserve.

“Canada has very few reports on these animals. The first step is to know what is there,” says Dr. Maria Herranz, a Hakai post-doctoral scholar and resident mud dragon expert at UBC…

(read more and see video: Hakai)

images by Marria Harranz

Your sunscreen is contributing to the decline of coral reefs

A new report has found that a common sunscreen ingredient is actually toxic to coral, and is killing off juvenile coral and severely damaging adult coral in high concentrations around the world, particularly in Hawaii and the Caribbean.

The ingredient in question? A UV-filtering chemical compound called oxybenzone - also known as BP-3 or Benzophenone-3 - which is found in 3,500 brands of sunscreen around the world, including L’Oreal Paris, Banana Boat, and Neutrogena.

 - ScienceAlert

This picture looks just like another dead fish washed up on shore - until you realize that it’s actually a whale, and those are grizzly bears standing on it.

(Source)