The ocean is home to some amazing living things.

But just like on dry land, where things we do affect the lives of animals, it’s the same in the sea.

marine biologist

So, the more that marine biologists, who study these animals and where they live, can learn about them, the more information they can share to help us protect them and the environments they live in.

Whales spend a lot of their time in the ocean singing!

It’s their way of communicating with each other, whether they are close together or far apart.

Recently, a team of scientists studied how some whales actually make these sounds.

To do this, they were given permission to remove the voice boxes from whales that had stranded or accidentally been caught in fishing gear and died.

Then, they recreated the way whales communicate by blowing air through a tube placed inside the voice box.

They could see that the moving air caused parts inside to vibrate, creating a sound.

This is similar to how humans make sound.

pitch

But the team also discovered that unlike humans, these whales can’t change the pitch of the sound—which is how high or low it is.

And this is a problem.

The sound that the whales create is very similar to the sounds of shipping boats.

These boats often travel in the same parts of the ocean as whales, meaning the boats’ sound can drown them out, because the whales can’t adjust their sound to be different from the sound of the boats. 

This makes it very difficult for the whales to communicate with each other.

Now the research team hope the results of their study can begin to change how, where, and when we make noise in the ocean, giving whales the best chance to make clear contact with each other.

It’s not just large animals in the ocean that we can protect, but large areas of the ocean too.

Nazca & Salas y Gómez

The Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges are an area of underwater mountains found in the Pacific Ocean.

This remote location is at risk because of overfishing and climate change.

biodiversity

So marine biologists have recently been on a data gathering expedition.

Their aim? To find out more about the area’s biodiversity—which is all the different living things that call the ridges home—and use this information to help set up ways to protect the area.

Using a deep sea robot, the scientists were amazed by what they found: over 100 species that they think might never have been seen before!

From these spiny sea urchins to these spiraling corals; shimmering sea worms like this to fish that appear to walk on the ocean floor.

This proved to the scientists that the area has a high level of biodiversity.

The research team are now looking more closely at the samples they’ve taken to identify what they are and if they are actually new scientific discoveries.

But with so many to study, it’s going to take a long time to do.

For now, the scientists hope the ridges will become one of the world’s first marine protected areas in the open ocean—thanks to the high levels of biodiversity their research has uncovered.

By protecting areas and animals like these, marine biologists can uncover even more about the watery worlds of the ocean.

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