Adventure Ausrama Blog

Sharks may seem to be invincible, yet they have some significant weaknesses. While some dolphins succumb to their attacks, acting as a group they can kill a shark by ramming it. Sharks also have to keep moving otherwise they die. Now it has been discovered that fresh water is their enemy. They get dehydrated and cannot remain alert. Breeding is out of the question in non-salty water. A terrific battle for survival ensues as sharks continually keep sinking. The reason for this is that sharks do not have air bladders. This "device" enables fish to swim at mid-depths. Sharks use their oily livers to stay afloat - very inefficient. They have to work 50 per cent harder when they leave the sea. Freshwater species of shark have refined the evolution of their livers. The organs are flatter than their ocean cousins. There is a penalty for a flatter liver. A fatter body means a less sleek body which makes river and estuary species slower. Even with fatter live

Many animals have not been seen for a long time. Indeed, it is not known whether they have become extinct. Some, of course, live in places not usually visited by humans. Recently a beaked whale was washed up on a beach Australia. It is rare and lives deep in the sea. The actual species cannot be verified by manual examination of the body, Part of the body will be sent to the Australian Science Museum in Sydney for DNA tests and X-ray scans to determine the correct species. Not much is known about beaked whales because they live so far down in the sea. Only stranded and beached specimens have been found. They do come to the surface to breath but do not linger there for very long. Many scientists have never seen a live beaked whale. A beaching of this kind is very rare indeed. Parts of the body will be thoroughly examined to shed more light on how the mammal lives.  We will never know everything about fellow animals.  The more we know the better. ✴ Science by T

There may be alien creature "out there" - Well many believe that there is - but some weird things live on this planet. In the ocean depths of Australia odd living organisms have recently been discovered. At first glance they look like floating mushrooms. They are not related to fungi though. The creatures are actually flowering plants and vertebrates. Dendrogramma mostly consist of a stomach surrounded by jelly-like skin. Scientists believe they are the remnants of early life forms which appeared before the life that went on to dominate the Earth. In other words they were a dead end. They are unique, not related in any way to life that eventually became successful across the globe. There are a lot of new things still continuing their existence at the bottom of the oceans. Many are very specialized living off toxic substances that would kill other organisms. Don't bother to look for life in the stars. Much still awaits discovery beneath our feet. ✴

It never fails to amaze me how new things are discovered on our doorstep when the majority of people think everything is known about nature.  This is particularly true in Australia where a low number of people live on a vast continent.  Some places have not even been visited by humans for thousands of years. Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin has identified two species of jellyfish that can carry Irukandji syndrome.  The new species are Keesingia gigas and Malo bella .  Doctor Gershwin works for CSIRO.  There are now 16 species that can cause Irukandji. Keesingia can grow to 50 cm in bell height.  This is by far the largest jellyfish.  Juvenile leatherjacket fish safely live in its subumbrellar cavity as with the more common medusas. The two newly documented species have been generally known for some time.  However, they have not been found in Australian waters before.  They could have been present for a long time or maybe they are new, moving here due to climate change and the warming oc

Australia has always been a harsh place to live. Despite the luxury living on the coast with all the latest modern services, inland there is a desert. Many people who are born in the harsh center remain there all their lives. A fewer number choose to live there moving from coastal cities. Let's face it many prefer the heat over the cold and they have personal reasons for choosing to do this. We do yet know what lies ahead for us in this vast continent. Climate change is happening at this very moment most definitely. El Niño and La Niña are the major factors influencing the weather on the east coast. Scientists forecast more extremes from these usually opposite climate impacting factors. The intermediate stage between these cycles has lasted for several years now. Weather is very unpredictable ranging from drought inland to too much rain on the coast. It seems we experience one or the other extreme with changeable in between. The level of the ocean is rising. Co

We are getting very hot conditions with flooding. This is seen by many as unusual. Australia has very hot dry weather followed by cooler wet weather in its regular pattern. There is a 100 year cycle in El Niño and La Niña events.  In other words severity peaks every century. Australia is currently in a transition period.  The La Niña could continue or it could change to El Niño.  There is presently a lot of rain. Oddly there is also a drought inland. If it were an El Niño cycle things would be a lot worse. It seems global warming is making La Niña years very hot. Australia is now getting hot La Niñas along with very hot El Niños. This is bad for the whole world because all continents are affected by weather in the Pacific Ocean. Some El Niños reach a critical temperature with dry periods being severe. Global warming means that more of them will go over this critical point. The average of extreme El Niños has been one in twenty years. Australians fear hot dry periods.

Whether you use an "environmentally friendly" shopping bag or a standard one you are damaging the environment. They both take time to break down. Furthermore, the so called "safe" bags cause pollution during manufacture. Australia's oceanic waters carry countless pieces of plastic bags, Marine creatures eat this debris and die. When plastic breaks down in sea water it becomes very tiny and is virtually invisible. These pieces gather up pollutants and become mobile destructors. The tinier the particles the more absorbent it becomes. Researchers scooped up surface water from the ocean in coastal water all the way from Perth to Fiji and New Zealand. By observing the area of the net covered in plastic fragments they were able to codify amounts across a vast area. The average number of microplastic fragments was 4,000 per square kilometers. It went as high as 23,000 in some places. This was near highly populated cities. Most of the items people use are ma

Australia could return to what it was millions of years ago - a cluster of islands covering a gigantic area.  The continent is very flat.  Mountains only occur on the east coast.  With rising sea level, first to go will be the large cities on the coast.  These are the major population centers. After this, an inland sea will form.  There is no doubt that the Poles are melting.  This water has to go somewhere.  The population will fall by 80 per cent.  Even if many flee inland, there are no water and food resources there to feed everyone, unless of course Aboriginal culture still remains.  Most Aboriginals today are urbanized and have lost much of the their culture. This will not be a solely Australian problem.  Most major cities in the world are on the coast, growing from estuaries where a large river flows into the sea.  On the Gold Coast, high rise building are only meters from an unpredictable sea.  After storms, councils are called upon to repair the damage with money t

As meteorologists tell us that natural disasters are becoming regular occurrences due to climate change, so the threat to certain animals species increases. Marine animals are in serious danger. The sea is warming up. It is accepted that whales beaching themselves is "normal". However, dugong doing the same thing is not. CSIRO which is always at the forefront of Australian research says that south-eastern and north-western sea regions around Australia have become significantly warmer. As some species move or even die out and new species arrive the ecological dynamic is disrupted. Death from new diseases becomes the norm. New species eat the food that native creatures eat, so marine animals that have been in the same place for thousands of years are doubly threatened. The future looks bleak. The climate could level off and remain changed but stabilize. On the other hand, change could be ongoing and the variation in marine species could decline. This could affect fo

Like South Africa, Australia is known as a region of frequent shark attacks. A lot of research has been done over the years in an attempt to reduce such attacks. Humans are not normal food for sharks. It is when humans behave in a similar way to injured fish that attacks occur. Electronic pulses and sounds have been tried with limited success. Colored diving suits have also proven to be ineffective, until now. It has been discovered that blue lines on wetsuits disrupts the vision of sharks because they are color-blind. White stripes also work as a deterrent but in a different way. Poisonous fish have white on their bodies. It tells potential predators that eating them will have dire consequences. The cryptic wetsuit that "blinds" sharks is aimed at divers, while the white stripped warning suite is for those close to the beach. Diving equipment and surfing gear is also being colored to match the wetsuits. Though shark attacks cannot be stopped entirel