Tag archives for Fish
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After 24 hours on a bus we were all a bit tired, cranky, and hot, but the moment we saw Norman Carr Cottage and the dancing waters of Lake Malawi out front we took a deep breath and the whole world changed. We instantly knew we were going to love it here and soon three days turned into eight.
Every morning we went out on their rustic and charming boat Alfie. We bought fish from the local fisherman floating around in their dugout canoes and as we threw them into the air fish eagles would gracefully swoop down and grab them in their claws.
A swooping eagle
We snorkeled and took in the incredible medley of fish. Some had polka dots, some had neon stripes, and others were even black and white. We jumped off boulders into the warm water and each evening we would swim again as the sun dipped behind the shores and return to a candlelight dinner on the veranda.
Aubrey jumping into the lake
On market day we went to the village. The market was full of piles and piles of old clothes.
People at the local market
There isn’t a Gap or any store around and even if there was the families are too poor to buy anything. It made me a bit sad but we decided to do a costume party with my family, Jenny, Taffy, Alida, and Alice (the owners of our amazing home for the week and two of their friends.) The theme was movie characters and we all had to buy for someone else. I bought a Maria costume from The Sound of Music for Alida, and Alice bought a flapper costume for me. We looked ridiculous but no one cared. After our fun night we donated all the clothes back to the community.
Costume party
Throughout the week we listened to the beautiful sounds of the local people singing in their huts just steps away. Our final day it hit me that the end was near and that we needed to enjoy every last second so we hopped in some kayaks and explored the lake for hours. The setting couldn’t have been more picturesque; the mountains in the background, the fishermen in their wooden boats and the sparkling turquoises water. We had such an amazing stay that this was one of the most difficult places to leave. Thank you Jenny and Taffy, and goodbye Lake Malawi!
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Most humans eat three meals a day, yet the Dolly Varden trout can go up to a year without eating anything! This fish can expand or shrink its stomach, depending on how much food it can (or can’t) find.
Dolly Varden trout eat the eggs that salmon lay during their spawning season. However, since food can be scarce, they must conserve their energy. By shrinking their intestinal tracts, they can use less energy until they are able to find more food. When they finally get a chance to eat salmon eggs, they can expand their stomachs. Imagine how helpful that would be when you want to finish a banana split!
How did Holly the housecat find her way back to her home 200 miles away? Scientists aren’t sure. “Any animal that comes back to the right place after a long travel, or comes back to the same place again and again following a major movement, is amazing,” said Martin Wikelski, a migration expert at the Max Planck Institute.
There are plenty of animals who are very good at finding their way. The European eel, which travels thousands of miles from the place it was born to spawn. Mexican free-tailed bats fly up to 40 miles away from their home caves while they’re hunting for dinner, and are able to find their way back home.
Read about more amazing animal navigators on National Geographic News.
Get the facts on your favorite animals on National Geographic Kids.
We drove into Praia do Forte not knowing what to expect, but within a few minutes we knew we were going to love it. Gallego, a smiling, surfing, and snorkeling caretaker greeted us and welcomed us into our friend’s beach house. Before we even got our suitcases from the car we went to the beach and felt the warm water on our toes. The house was beautiful and had a pool in the backyard, but best of all we were ten steps from the ocean. We were all super excited to explore the cute beach village and the coral reef full of little critters.
Our first night in town we explored and met Alexandre the owner of the Billabong surf and skate board shop and decided we would take our surf lessons with him the next day. Alexandre, Marcio and Lideo, three amazing guys with electric personalities picked us up in the morning. We spent some time on the shore learning the basic moves and then we hit the waves.
More Sea Turtles and Kayaking
Posted by Zane: Today, The HOEC team returned to the Cayman Turtle farm. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we boarded the buses and were off. After a short but scenic drive, we arrived at our destination. The entrance was bright and colorful. Before we entered, a few of us noticed a small green iguana in front of the door. After we had taken many pictures, the lizard darted away.
Inside the laboratory, we met up with Dr. Walter Mustin, Ph.D., one of the turtle researchers who works at the turtle farm. He gave us a presentation about the turtles, and showed us many interesting things, such as a small, five-day-old green sea turtle, and some leathery turtle eggs. He also explained a rather fascinating theory that he formulated to explain the health of the turtles when they hatched in relation to the amount of sand that was on top of them.
After this, we all moved back outside, where we witnessed a turtle feeding session in a large tank. We were ushered along by our tour guides, and eventually arrived at an aviary, which happened to be the largest open air aviary in the Caribbean. In small groups, we entered the structure through a system of doors that were designed to to keep the birds inside from escaping.
Thanks to everyone who has left comments for us! Skimp27, the food is pretty much the same as the food we eat at home, but there’s a lot more seafood. The hotel is really nice. We love that we can walk right from the pool to the ocean, and it’s very close to cool sites. The drives to the activities are pretty short.
Emmie: This morning we departed our hotel after breakfast and drove to the Mastic Trail. It was a longer bus ride then the ones before, but the scenery was amazing! There were really pretty trees with gorgeous orange flowers, cows, and even a sign with “Goats for sale” written on it! We got to the trailhead, where we were met by our guides. We split into four groups–two each of parents and kids. Our tour guide was very interesting, talking about birds, plants, and the island’s history. A few minutes into the hike, our tour guide stopped and pointed out what looked like an ordinary fern. Then we looked closer. A tiny little snake lay curled up on the fern! It was amazingly camouflaged, looking exactly like the fern it sat on. Our guide explained that this was a ground boa-a very rare species of boa constrictor. It was so small, we could hardly believe that it was a boa! As we continued, he pointed out several species of toxic plants, including one that had fruit that could kill a horse. Needless to say, we gave those plants a wide berth. The trail became very rocky, so we had to look at the ground to make sure we didn’t trip. There were some tiny flowers that I doubt I would have noticed otherwise. They were lovely, and we got some great pictures.
A little further down the trail, we heard woodpeckers. The guide located the nest and told us that woodpeckers had been almost wiped out by Hurricane Ivan. I borrowed Kobie’s binoculars and saw a woodpecker feeding a baby chick. The woodpecker had a striped head and was amazing to view up close. However, since it was up a tree that was off the trail, it was very hard to photograph. Also hard to photograph were the swallowtail butterflies, which were very fast. I managed to capture one shot of a bright orange butterfly near Michael’s knee. After some more walking, the trail evened out. We came upon a mango tree, which had very small, yellow fruit. We took a few, which were very sweet and stringy. When we finished the two-mile hike (which took us two and a half hours because we kept stopping) we stepped gratefully into the air-conditioned busses and guzzled ice cold water.
National Geographic and Oceana scientists, in collaboration with the Chilean Navy, have traveled to the remote Salas y Gómez Island, some 200 miles (about 323 kilometers) east of Easter Island, Chile, for an expedition to uncover what lies beneath the unexplored waters.
A team of 18 scientists and filmmakers will be looking at everything from algae to corals to fish and sharks. Sharks will be satellite-tagged for both short and long-term tracking. Robots will go down hundreds of meters in the ocean and special cameras will descend to 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) to record life for the first time at this depth and location.
Follow the expedition.
The 10-year Census of Marine Life wrapped up on Monday. The project launched more than 500 expeditions over the past decade and uncovered 6.000 new species, like the fathead sculpin fish pictured above, nicknamed “Mr. Blobby.”
See pictures of more newly discovered species on National Geographic News.
Learn more about the census on the Census of Marine Life website.
Explore a shipwreck and raft a raging river when you play Waterlogged!
Photograph courtesy Kerryn Parkingson, NORFANZ
Did you know that fish can walk? This photograph shows an Australian fish called a pink handfish. No one has actually seen this tiny four-inch (ten-centimeter) fish since 1999, and no one is sure exactly when this photo was taken. These fish have been spotted a total of only four times in the shallow waters near Hobart, a city on the island of Tasmania.
Scientists recently determined that the pink handfish is a distinct species from other handfish. They haven’t been studied very often, and there is not much information on their behavior. There are 14 known species of handfish, and they all live in shallow water on the southeastern edge of Australia.
See more handfish pictures on National Geographic News.
Watch a video about fish camouflage on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph courtesy Karen Gowlett-Holmes
Posted by BOOK NAME: Oceans
AUTHOR: Johnna Rizzo
Hey guys, sorry I haven’t written a blog lately. I’ve been busy visiting Mrs. Obama at the White House. But you’re gonna see a lot more books out of me. I’ve been reading a lot more books than ever. And exercising more than ever too!
I like this book because of the great photography and all of the fun facts that they put into the book. They have all types of animals: from jellyfish to stingrays to sharks.
For an example of some of the great photography, there’s a picture of a bunch of manta rays opening up their mouths getting ready to chomp on a snack of krill and plankton, and you can see right into their mouths and see their ribs.
They also have fun facts of all the types of the animals. For example, for the whales they tell you all about these different whales: the narwhal, minke, sperm, blue, right and bowhead. I never knew that the male narwhal had the long horns on their heads and their horn is actually a tooth!
People will like this book if you love nature and photography and beautiful fish and sea creatures. This book is great if you want to be a photographer someday.
(AD) Find out how to get Oceans at the National Geographic Store.
The residents of the tiny Australian town of Lajamanu were surprised to see fish falling from the sky in late February, reports Australia’s Northern Territory News. Surprisingly, the fish were still alive when they landed. The falling fish may have been sucked up along with water during a tornado and dropped back to earth hundreds of miles away.
Read more about the falling fish on Northern Territory News.
Learn about other strange weather on National Geographic Kids.
What a weird-looking fish! It’s six feet (2 meters) long, has tiny teeth, a long tail, and it doesn’t have scales. Guy Marcovaldi captured video footage of the fish while working on the TAMAR project, which is involved in sea turtle conservation. The fish was found off of the shore of Brazil’s Bahia coast. It was dead and floating near the water’s surface.
At first the fish was reported as being a newly discovered species, but David Johnson, an ichthyologist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, says that the fish probably belongs to a group of fish known as Jellynoses. Jellynoses are mysterious fish that live at the bottom of the ocean. Catch a glimpse of this large, gelatinous fish in this video!
Read more about this discovery on National Geographic News.
Check out pictures of more strange ocean dwellers on National Geographic Kids.
All the fish caught in the nearly 300 streams tested by the United States Geological Survey were found to contain some level of mercury, according to a new USGS study. The wild-caught fish with the highest mercury levels are smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass. The lowest amounts were found in brown, rainbow-cutthroat trout, and channel catfish.
Most of the mercury is from coal-fired power plants.
Learn more Facts on Fish.
Lijah Goes Piranha Fishing
Our trip was spectacular–the nature and ancient ruins were beyond belief!
We dirtied our boots hiking to the Oxbow Lake while hunting with our
cameras for the giant river otter. To our dismay we did not see this
rare creature. However, birds, fish, and mysterious bubbles floating to
the surface from deep within the water set the perfect mood for our
exploration.
pulled our boat close along the Oxbow’s banks. What made me jump was
when, to my surprise, our tour guide pulled out fishing poles–made of
simple sticks–and said, “Piranha fishing!”
This story isn’t about thieves smuggling whales, but whales who are thieves! New footage catches sperm whales in the act of snatching fish from fishing lines. Scientists got the incredible shots from underwater cameras attached to fishing equipment. These smart whales were able to shake the fish from the line without injuring themselves. Watch a video of the fish heist below.
Learn more about the thieving whales on National Geographic News.
See pictures of different kinds of whales on National Geographic Kids.
How much do you know about blue whales? Quiz Your Noodle and find out.
Grace T: The Rain Forest
In the final days of the expedition we started our journey to the rain forest. From Cusco we took a plane to a small airport where we boarded a bus to our lodge. Instead of traveling on roads to get to our lodge we took a motorboat up a tributary of the Amazon River. We saw a caiman and two capybaras on the way there. After about an hour-long boat ride we reached the edge of the river near the lodge. From there we had to hike for about ten minutes through the forest. The calls of many exotic birds surrounded us. I could only wonder what they could be.
Read the whole post »
Talk about a news bite! Those are real fangs you see on the fish picture above. Researchers at the London Natural History museum found them in an aquarium tank. They had been misidentified as an already known species, but instead they’re an undiscovered species. The fish has been named Danionella dracula for its fearsome-looking fangs!
Read the whole post »
Photograph courtesy Zeb Hogan
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Zeb Hogan found what might be the world’s largest freshwater giant stingray in Thailand this month! The giant river ray’s body was an incredible 6.6 feet (2 meters) wide by 6.9 feet (2.1) meters long.
Read the whole post »
Photograph courtesy Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Fishermen and scientists have found pieces of the unusual Pacific barreleye fish in their nets since 1939, but the first photos of live, intact fish were released today. Their grayish, barrel-like fish eyes are upright tubes, which are protected by a transparent dome on the top of the head, similar to the cockpit of a fighter plane.
Read the whole post »
The largest freshwater fish in North America, the white sturgeon, seemed to be headed for extinction in the mid-1990s. Dozens of dead fish washed up on the riverbanks in British Columbia, Canada. Many people banded together to save the white sturgeon and it seems to have worked. Today their population is estimated to be about 50,000.
Read more about the white sturgeon rebound on National Geographic News.
Want more info on Zeb Hogan’s Megafishes Project? Visit the gallery.
Benjamin and Elisabeth
Hi, I’m Benjamin. As soon as we all got up this morning, we boarded a bus to go to breakfast. We went to the Rainforest Habitat wildlife park, where we got to hold some pretty cool rain forest animals, like the carpet python, tree frog, parakeet, and crocodile. We learned a little bit about each of the animals too. For example we learned that the python could grow to be several feet long. The one I held was about four feet long.
Afterward we ate breakfast with the birds. The birds were flying around, swiping our food and drinking our juice, and sitting on our heads and shoulders. One even peed on my shoulder! It was all great–even the pee.
