Radio Program
Our regular Science and the SeaTM radio program presents marine science topics in an engaging two-minute story format. Our script writers gather ideas for the radio program from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute's researchers and from our very popular college class, Introduction to Oceanography, which we teach to hundreds of non-science majors at The University of Texas at Austin every year. Our radio programs are distributed at to commercial and public radio stations across the country.
Dolphins and porpoises are among the smartest and most beautiful creatures on the planet. And they’re also among the most popular. Even so, most of us can’t tell dolphins and porpoises apart. Yet there are several key differences, in both appearance and behavior.
Dolphins and porpoises are cetaceans -- a group of animals that also includes whales. There are 32 species of marine dolphins, but only a half-dozen species of porpoises. All of them are warm-blooded mammals that come to the surface to breathe air.
Life in the deep ocean could be headed for deep trouble. The food supply could shrink dramatically, starving many of the organisms that live on the ocean floor.
Living in the deep ocean is tough already. It’s cold and dark there, with far less food than at shallower depths. But our changing climate could make things even more difficult.
A recent study looked at various models of how the atmosphere and oceans could change by the end of the century. The study team then projected what those changes could mean for life in the deep ocean -- anything below about 650 feet.
The pigfish isn’t high on anyone’s list of good eating. Even so, it’s a popular purchase along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. That’s because the pigfish makes great bait for catching spotted sea trout and other sport fish. It’s available for only a few months of the year, though, and its popularity as a bait fish could lead to a decline in its numbers. So researchers are testing ways to grow the fish in tanks.
It may never serve as the mascot for a football team, but the longhorn boxfish still grabs your attention, because two pairs of horns extend from its body. One pair extends from the top of its head, although the horns go forward instead of sideways like those of the well-known cattle. And the other extends backwards from the bottom of its box-like body.
But there are more intriguing things about the longhorn boxfish than its horns: the way it feeds, its tough skin, and the deadly toxin it produces to ward off predators.
The crust at the bottom of the oceans is dense, heavy, and tough. Even so, it disappears in a hurry -- it’s pulled into the layer below the crust, where it melts and vanishes.
If you build it, they will come. That’s been the case with an oyster reef along the Texas coast. The once-thriving reef had died out, but a recent restoration project brought it back to life. And lots of oysters and other marine creatures are now calling it home.
Half Moon Reef is in Matagorda Bay, about halfway between Galveston and Corpus Christi. In the early 1900s, it covered hundreds of acres. As the 20th century progressed, though, the reef was decimated by dredging, oyster harvesting, and changes in the water flow into the bay. Very little of the original reef was left.
New wind-power turbines are popping up off the European coast so quickly these days that it’s hard to keep track of them. By the middle of 2016, more than 3300 offshore turbines had been connected to power grids, supplying enough energy to meet the needs of several million homes.
The main problem with these turbines, of course, is that when the ocean breeze dies down, the electricity is gone with the wind. But several groups are testing ways to store energy to keep the electrons flowing even when the wind isn’t.
We all know that El Niño can have a big impact on the United States. It generally brings cooler, wetter weather to the southwest and the Gulf coast, and drier conditions to much of the rest of the country. And that may have a bigger impact on daily life than just whether you’re likely to need an umbrella. It could change the odds that you’ll get sick.
In the early months of World War I, German submarines were sinking Allied shipping at an alarming rate. There was no way to detect the U-boats when they were submerged, so they could operate with little fear of loss.
Allied powers quickly set out to change that. They eventually developed an early version of sonar -- a technology that uses sound waves to detect underwater targets.
A new national monument is a wonderland of mountains, canyons, and wildlife. Few will ever see it directly, though, because it’s thousands of feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
President Barack Obama created the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument in September of 2016. It’s about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod, and it covers almost 5,000 square miles. It’s the first American marine monument in the Atlantic.
