Tag: Nature

Great White Shark Spotted Off Massachusetts

Summer has begun—so bring on the shark stories.

And on that note, here’s a list of shark attack facts from Uncle John’s AHH-INSPIRING Bathroom Reader (p. 104), a book you may want to add to your bathroom reading library:

• Sharks can detect the heartbeats of other fish.

• Mako sharks have been known to jump into the very fishing boats that are pursuing them.

• Bull sharks have been known to kill hippopotamuses in African rivers.

• Approximately 10 times more men than women are attacked by sharks.

• While in a feeding frenzy, some sharks bite their own bodies as they twist and turn.

• A 730-pound mako shark caught off Bimini in the Bahamas contained in its stomach a 120-pound swordfish—with the sword still intact.

• Lemon sharks grow a whole new set of teeth every two weeks.

• Sharks have a sixth sense. They can navigate by sensing changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.

• Sharks will continue to attack even when disemboweled.

Ants!

We’re delving into amazing, mind-boggling, supercool, and largely unknown by most people facts about ants. Not ones like “Ants can lift over ten gajillion times their body weight—because everyone knows that!

Crocodiles Can Surf Ocean Currents

Great. first it was giant flying sharks, now it’s giant surfing crocodiles. What’s next: hyenas on motorcycles?

“Saltwater crocodiles enjoy catching a wave and can travel hundreds of kilometres by ‘surfing’ on ocean currents, a study suggests. […]

During the research, a team led by Dr Hamish Campbell, from the University of Queensland, captured 20 crocodiles living in the North Kennedy tidal river in Queensland, northern Australia, and tagged them with satellite transmitters.

They found that during the period of study, eight of them ventured out into the open ocean. One travelled from the river mouth all the way to the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland’s far north. That amounts to a total of 590km covered over 25 days.”

Not only that—they actually wait until the tide goes out so they can take advantage of the currents:

Sergeant Gander, the Newfoundland

Reader Tasha McGee has kindly sent along a story related to one we did in our brand new Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Canda, Eh, and also related to her own family history:

I was just reading “Plunges Into Canada” (love it, but the way), and I came accross the story about Gander the dog. Well, I was in Ottawa in August ’09 for the Hong Kong Veterans Memorial Wall unveiling (my grandpa was a P.O.W) and there was a bunch of… memorabilia, I guess you’d call it, about the war time. I took the following pictures that I thought I would share.

Really appreciate it, Tasha, must have been quite a trip. Here’s that photo of Sergeant Gander:

That is one good looking dog. And from Plunges Into Canada (page 37)—here’s the truly amazing story of Sergeant Gander:

Gulf Oil Spill: On to a “Top Hat”

They tried the cofferdam, now they’re on to the “top hat,” then they may try the weirdest one—the “junk shot:

It sounds to us like BP is now grasping at straws trying to outsmart the growing gulf coast oil spill. As their next plan of action engineers will shoot a pile of trash at high speed into the blowout preventer at the site of the leak on the ocean floor. Experts in the oil field call this maneuver the “junk shot”.

Let’s hope they don’t need to go that far.

• Some random info from the NOAA:

By the Numbers to Date:

  • Personnel were quickly deployed and approximately 10,000 are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife.
  • More than 290 vessels are responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
  • More than 1 million feet of boom (regular and sorbent) have been deployed to contain the spill—and more than 1.3 million feet are available.
  • Nearly 3.5 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
  • Approximately 325,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed. More than 500,000 gallons are available.

And here’s a great graphic illustrating what they’re trying to do with relief wells. (They’ll take months to work at least.) Click for a really large picture:

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