Marinelife Alliance

  Donate to Preserve Our Oceans Thank you for considering a donation to Marinelife Alliance! Your support plays a crucial role in our efforts to protect and conserve marine life and their habitats. Together, we can make a lasting impact on the health of our oceans. Why Donate? Our oceans are facing unprecedented threats, from habitat destruction to pollution and climate change. Marinelife Alliance is dedicated to researching, conserving, and raising awareness about the importance of marine ecosystems. By donating, you become a vital part of our mission to safeguard the delicate balance of life beneath the waves. How Your Donation Helps Research and Conservation Programs: Fund our ongoing research initiatives and conservation programs that directly contribute to the well-being of marine species. Community Outreach: Support educational programs and community outreach efforts to raise awareness about marine conservation and foster a sense of responsibility toward our oceans. Advocacy an

Shark Finning

  Basking shark   Cetorhinus maximus Illustration © Marc Dando WHAT TO LOOK FOR A very large shark with a pointed snout, huge mouth and gill slits that almost encircle the head, strong lateral keels on caudal peduncle, and a lunate tail. COLOR Variable. Darker above than below, often with a mottled pattern on back and sides with white blotches under the head. SIZE Males mature at less than 18 ft. [5.7 m], females at 26 ft. [8 m], maximum size 33 ft. [10 m]. HABITAT Coast to edge of the continental shelf. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide in cold to warm temperate seas. BIOLOGY Prey – Plankton. May shed gill rakers but no evidence for hibernation in winter. Reproduction – One litter of six pups reported, presumably oophagous. BEHAVIOR Highly migratory. Often seen feeding on surface aggregations of plankton, moving slowly forward with open mouth. The sharks are sometimes seen in large groups. Complex courtship behavior has been reported. Can leap ou

  The Massacre of the World's Sharks for Soup BY EDWARD DORSON The world's sharks are quickly vanishing and it's primarily driven by the demand for shark fins as an ingredient of a status symbol soup devoured throughout Asia at weddings and banquets. Approximately 73 to 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide just for their fins. Some shark populations are already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as 99%. The outcome of further inaction will soon create a vast jellyfish soup, formally known as the ocean. Sharks targeted by finners aren't taken whole; their valuable fins (up to $700 a kilo, at the time of this writing) are sliced off and the living mutilated shark is tossed back into the sea to sink and slowly die. It is despicably inhumane. The obliteration of 400 million years of evolution for some perceived social status with serving shark fin soup isn't just idiotic and cruel - it's tragic. A healthy ocean depends on sharks. Scientific

  Zebra shark Stegostoma fasciatum WHAT TO LOOK FOR A large, slender shark with a large broad tail as long as its body. Its body has very distinct ridges and spots. COLOR The young are yellowish below, dark brown above with vertical yellow stripes and spots separating dark saddles. These saddles break up into spots in sharks 20 to 35 inches [50 to 90 cm] in length, and are more uniformly distributed on large sharks. SIZE The shark is approximately 8 to 14 inches [20 cm to 36 cm] when hatched. Males mature between 4.7 to 6 ft [147 to 183 cm], while females mature around 5.5 to 5.75 ft [169 to 171 cm]. Most of these sharks average slightly more than 8 ft [2.5 m], and maximum size is thought to be just over 11 ft [3.5 m]. HABITAT Coral reefs and offshore sediments. Intertidal to 203 ft [62 m]. Adults and juveniles rest in coral reef lagoons and channels, but the striped young are rarely seen and may be in deeper water (>50 m). DISTRIBUTION Indo-west Pacific; tropical

  What is plankton? Plankton are marine drifters — organisms carried along by tides and currents Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea, shown in natural color from NASA's Aqua satellite on July 10, 2014. The solid white area in the top right corner is cloud cover. Credit:  NASA's Earth Observatory The word “plankton” comes from the Greek for “drifter” or “wanderer.” An organism is considered plankton if it is carried by tides and currents, and cannot swim well enough to move against these forces. Some plankton drift this way for their entire life cycle. Others are only classified as plankton when they are young, but they eventually grow large enough to swim against the currents. Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than  one inch  in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish. Scientists classify plankton in several ways, including by size, type, and how long they spend drifting. But the most basic categories divide plan

  MANGROVE There are about 80 different species of mangrove trees. All of these trees grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate. Mangrove forests only grow at tropical and subtropical latitudes near the equator because they cannot withstand freezing temperatures. Many mangrove forests can be recognized by their dense tangle of prop roots that make the trees appear to be standing on stilts above the water. This tangle of roots allows the trees to handle the daily rise and fall of tides, which means that most mangroves get flooded at least twice per day. The roots also slow the movement of tidal waters, causing sediments to settle out of the water and build up the muddy bottom. Mangrove forests stabilize the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The intricate root system of mangroves also makes these forests attractive to fish and other organisms seeking food and shelter from predators.

Dwarf Sperm Whale   About the Species The dwarf sperm whale is a toothed whale named after the waxy substance, spermaceti, found in its head. This organ is a sac of oil that helps the whales produce sound. Similar to squids, dwarf sperm whales can produce a dark, ink-like liquid that helps them escape from predators. Dwarf sperm whales are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide. The dwarf sperm whale appears very similar to the  pygmy sperm whale . In the field, it is very difficult to distinguish between the two species because they can be so easily confused. Both species are poorly known due to the limited availability of information and their cryptic appearance at sea. Dwarf sperm whales, like all marine mammals, are protected under the  Marine Mammal Protection Act . NOAA Fisheries and its partners are working to conserve dwarf sperm whales and further our understanding of this species through research and conservation activities. Population Status NOAA Fisheries estimates