Baby blue whale video
April 13, 2009
A baby blue whale filmed off Costa Rica may be the first to have been photographed underwater and adds to evidence that a blue whale hot spot in the Pacific Ocean is a birthing ground for the endangered species.
During a January 2008 expedition to the “Dome”—a warm-water region that draws blue whales from hundreds of miles away—the researchers had begun to lose hope of finding a calf. Then two telltale spouts began erupting at the sea surface.
“Oh, tell me that one of them is a small blow, please,” Bruce Mate, of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, says in the documentary.
One of the spouts did turn out to be that of a calf, which approached the research boat—surprising the scientists, given blue whale mothers’ protective reputations.
A photographer and videographer dived in and soon had the visual evidence needed to identify the whale as a baby blue.
From National Geographic. Full article and video HERE
Video: The Goblin Shark bite, its just plain strange…
August 19, 2008
The goblin shark is a deep-sea shark with a most unorthodox shaped head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like snout, much longer than other sharks. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws, which basically means it look like an Alien…
Goblin sharks are found in the deep ocean, far below where the sun’s light can reach at depths greater than 200 m. They can be found throughout the world, from Australia in the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean.They are best known from the waters around Japan, where the species was first discovered.
Goblin sharks feed on a variety of organisms that live in deep waters. Among some of their known meals are deep-sea squid, crabs and deep-sea fishes and occassionally they’ll have a go at diver’s arm, mmmhh!
Cheers for the tip Limbic
Video: underwater volcano eruption
July 4, 2008
More than 1,800 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, the eruptions of an undersea volcano have revealed themselves on film, including the ejection of glowing red lava and the sounds of exploding gases.
“It’s the first place where we’ve been able to observe an active volcanic eruption underwater,” said Bill Chadwick of the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, who led the group that observed the volcano with a remotely operated vehicle.
“Most of the geology that we probably eventually see, a large part of that has happened underwater,” said Michael Perfit, a marine geologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “We have to look backwards and try to figure out how it happened. By looking at this, you get a sense of how these very important processes take place.”
The team will return with the remotely operated vehicle next spring to make more visual observations. But the last expedition could be hard to top.
From Discovery Channel: Watch amazing video here
Red Scarlet: 2x higher quality video than HiDef for under $3,000?
June 9, 2008
There is a digital video revolution underway and RED are leading the way.
We’ve been keeping our eye on these guys from RED for some time since they launched a 4,000 pixel wide format digital video camera (that’s 9 mega-pixel video!!) for under $20,000. Although by the time you add lenses, tripods, digital storage and other accessories you can expect to get closer to $100,000 all-in.
Now RED have announced a smaller 3,000 pixel wide version (a mere 5 mega-pixel!!), called RED Scarlet which should retail at about $3,000. Taking into account lense costs, light accessories, storage and Gates housing (when they get round to producing it), this should price a complete underwater filming rig at around $20,000.
Oh, did I mention it can film at 180 frames per second?
Yeah – bring it on!!
Visit RED’s site
Video: Longest known flying fish flight
May 22, 2008
A Japanese TV crew has filmed what is believed to be the longest flight of a flying fish ever recorded.
The NHK television network said one of its camera crews captured the 45-second flight on video on Monday, from a ferry near Kuchino-erabu island in southwestern Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture. The crew was reportedly on its way to shoot footage for a nature documentary.
The fish can be seen occasionally beating its tail against the surface of the water to keep itself aloft. The ferry was traveling at a speed of about 20 mph (30 kilometers per hour) during the encounter, NHK said.
More than 50 species of flying fish, in the marine family known as Exocoetidae, are found in warmer ocean waters worldwide. They can rise out of the water to avoid predators underneath, and stretch out its long pectoral fins to glide through the air.
Usually the fish remain airborne for just a few seconds before landing back in the water — but as Monday’s video demonstrated, they can give themselves another boost with their tail fins. The previous record for a fish’s compound flight was 42 seconds, reported from Florida by a sea captain with a stopwatch in 1928.
Other experts have cited flights lasting 28 seconds.
A 45-second flight may well be close to the physical limit for a flying fish, since the creature must suspend brachial respiration in the air, NHK reported.
Watch video: here
