Navy

   Today in class somone very familiar came in to talk to us,  it was Petty Officer Christopher Allen, and Wakser.   Wearing their navy outfits they talked to us about the navy.  I found it really insteresting because Petty Officer Allen was a recruiter and is always in the cafeteria recruiting people to come and join.  He even recruited my sister Savannah,  and just this Tuesday she left for boot camp.  I was looking foreward to this just to know about what she'll be doing.   He talked about all the different places he was able to travel to like Thialand, and also talked about the different jobs their are.  Basically theirs jobs for anything in the Navy and how if you any afford college the Navy is a great choice.  Officer Wakser work on the submarine for a while and helped the captain.  Allen was able to be on a ship and still do what he lived to do, which was surfing.
         
       





This presentation really did help my understanding of the Navy and although I don't want to join I'm glad to know what my sister have to look foreward to.  I will always remember what he said about Thialand though, how it's just like Hangiver 2.  I would have never of guessed that Thailand wa one big party town.

Whales

    Today we did a lab where we got a whole bunch of pictures of whale tails, and then we had to match about 5 of them to the exacted whale.  At first I thought this would be easy but it was alot more difficult than I thought it would be.  It had alot if older pictures of the whale and some I the matches didnt even look alike, I think it would have been alot easier if the pictures were covered and not as blurry.   This lab is actually used in really life for scientist though.  They use these flukes to identify whales after years, months, or even just weeks.  These are important because we use these pictures as almost a database and experiment to watch the whales life and know there living habits.
   


   Having these pictures helps us know for one thing the whale is still alive and also know that it's stays in the same area or doesn't.  Whales are magnificent creatures and day to day we try to learn more and more about them.  I liked this lab because it was realistic,  and people out there actually do it as a job.  If I have to change something it would just for the pictures to be more clear.  Also maybe talk about how scientist use these and how they help.

Over fishing

   Over Fushing is slowly killing our ocean because when we take out a big percentage of our ocean life then we are also take away a huge food source towards the rest of the ocean.  We are also taking away fish that are endangered like the orange grouper.  The orange grouper is slowly going extinct but we still choose to fish it and kill the rest of the population of them.  We kill things that we have no use for such as sharks and swor fish.  We can eat fish we just need to eat things that has a large population of such as crabs and lobsters.


       This is affecting our Daily life because when the ocean does so do we.  Imagine the world when their is no life under the sea, no whales or no fishes.  What would happen to the animals on earth who live off the animals of the sea like bears, birds, and beavers?  We can change this by just making a different choice on the menu, choose the lobster instead of sword fish.  We can change what we did but we have to do it quick till we kill the last orange grouper, or the last Atlantic coaster.

Pollution in the ocean

      One major issue concerning the ocean, is how humans are distroying it another way by polluting it.  They liter and things such as;monofilament, entanglement, plastic bags, ghost fishing, and plastic pellets.  Many of these things are confused as by food of other animals and are even killing them.  Or they get stuck and trapped by these nets and plastic bags, or even the six pack plastics, also killing them.

 

The National Academy of Sciences in the USA estimated in 1997 that around 6.4 million tonnes of litter enter the world’s oceans each year.   70 per cent of the litter eventually sinks to the sea floor. The worst-affected areas are the coastal waters of densely populated regions.  And the damage is visible after a bad storm,in  European waters up to 100,000 pieces of litter visible to the naked eye were counted per square kilometre on the sea floor.

 

One of the silent killers of the ocean are things such as ghost nets,  Which are actually nets they use to fish but never reel them back in.  So eventually things such as Dolphins get tangled in them and eventually kill this.  Maybe sharks are not the number one threat in the ocean but maybe its Human Beings themselves.

     

Mangroves importance

   

Nusery-  Which these trees long roots in the water it allows thousands of fish every where to live and be protected.  Also fishman fish along mangroves just because of the all the families of fish that live in their roots.




Nutrients-  Many fish live in these Mangroves not just because of the great homes they can be but also of the great source of nutrients found on the roots.  The roots contain many bacteria and fungi that live of them, Which many fish use as food.




Sediment and toxins- With the long tangled up roots on these trees in helps capture sediment and keeps it from going in the ocean.  It almost keeps the sea clean by capturing dirt.  Along with Capturing dirt these trees also catch most toxins that are let off by land or even pushed in by the waves.



Buffersystem-  These trees act as buffer systems and protects the land we harsh waves hit.  They also act as a shield so excess dirt or anything doesnt mix with the water.  Even when tsaumis hit they protect land from major damge.




Ecosystem-  These Mangroves suppport people all over the world, many families and tribes in other countries live close to mangroves just because of the close food souce. 
they give 1000s of people homes and food every where.

Mangrove Adaptions

    Being trees that live in water, other the years Mangroves have made changes and adaptions to their habitat so they can survive.  Mangroves are able to control the opening of their stomata pores and allows them conserve its fresh water, to survive in a saline enviroment.  They also have seeds that float so the tide can act as a method to spread out plants so they dont over crowd.  The Red Mangrove even has its long roots sprouting out from the trees side, so it supports the tree and hold it in place. Living in water they even hold their seeds until after it has germinated and a long, until bud is formed. When it has matured to this stage, the parent tree drops it into the water, where it stays until it finds the soil and is able to put out roots.  Another adaption the mangrove has is that they are able to turn their leaves to reduce the surface area of the leaf exposed to the hot sun, which allows them to reduce water loss through evaporation so they can survive.




   Pores in leaves                                  floating root and germination





           Red Mangrove roots

Weaver Ants

Scientific Name:Oecophylla smaragdina
Habitat: They live in leafy trees to prey on small insects, where they can form or "Weave" together to build their nest.
Reproduction: The queen ant will lay eggs continuously and may choose to fertilize eggs at will by using the sperm cells retained from the nuptial flight  this will form female worker ants instead of males. If the fertilized eggs and pupae are well-nurtured, they could potentially become queens as well.
Prey:  These ants prey on almost any small insects, even if they are larger than them.  Working as a team they can attck larger preys adn bite them to death. They dont kill butterflies or caterpillars but they do suck on the sweet juice they produce.


Fun Facts!

• Their nest can be any where from the size of a mans head, or a mans fist.
• These ants are quite useful and are even bought from Chinese and Southeast Asian citrus orchards, to help get rid of pest.
• They create their nest by lightly squeezing their larvea to produce stick larval silk, to hold nest together.

I chose the weaver ants because i thought it was very insteresting, and almost cruel when they attacked the beetle on the video but not the caterpillar.  Even when they farmed other animals just like we farm cattle, i wanted to learn more about them.