| By Bryan
Henry |
| Ancient Greeks originally
determined the fathom — a measurement of 6 feet — by the length of a
sailor’s outstretched arms. |
| At the end of every 19 years the lunar phases
repeat themselves. In effect, the tide tables for the next 19 years will be
approximately the same as those for the past 19 years. |
| The
gurnard, a fish found in Florida, grunts when a
thunderstorm is brewing, and is supposedly more reliable than a
meteorologist. |
| A telegram was sent to Eleanor Roosevelt from
the 1939 World’s Fair in New York using only the current of electric eels.
|
| The pistol shrimp makes a noise
so loud that it can shatter glass. |
| Jellyfish are not single
animals, but are colonies of animals. Some tentacles serve to balance,
others sting enemies, and some catch prey, while others are in charge of
breeding. |
| A krill — a type of shrimp
— if attacked, literally jumps out of its shell, leaving the predator to
chase the shell while the krill escapes. |
| If all the gold suspended in the world’s
sea water were mined, each person on earth would receive about 10 pounds.
|
| A titanic saltwater river,
the Gulf Stream transports an average of 4 billion cubic feet of
water per second – with a flow equal to 1,000 times that of the
Mississippi River and more water than all the rivers of the world combined.
|
| The Gulf Stream flows nearly 300 times faster
than the typical flow of the world’s largest river, the
Amazon. |
| A dolphin’s
flipper has five digits and nearly the same bone structure as a human
arm and hand. |
| We hear the sound of the seashore inside large
seashells because the shell echoes surrounding sounds, jumbling and amplifying
them. |
| Without the support of ocean
water’s buoyancy, a blue whale would suffocate under its own weight.
|
| A billfish has the ability to
regurgitate its stomach and to then swallow it without ill effect –
this cleans its stomach of the spines, barbs and bones of its prey as well as
the hooks of fishermen. |
| How do marine mammals such as
dolphins and whales manage to sleep without drowning? Half their
brain sleeps while the other half stays awake and handles the breathing
and swimming chores. They literally sleep with one eye open. |
| As a young man, Alexander Hamilton, first
treasurer of the United States, sailed past the area of Cape Hatteras, North
Carolina, and was the first to name the area “the Graveyard of the
Atlantic.” |
| Most oysters are
ambisexual. They begin life as males, then become females, then change
back and forth many times. |
| The average salinity of the world’s oceans
is 34.7 parts per thousand. Seabirds have salt-excreting organs above their
eyes that enable them to drink salty water, while sea snakes have a similar
filter at the base of their tongue. |
| Ancient Greeks
used oyster shells as ballots — they scratched their vote on the
inside of the shell. |
| A starfish can turn its stomach inside out.
|
| More than 45,000 pieces of
plastic debris float on every square mile of ocean. |
