Category Archives: Uncategorized

            I would live at the whale museum if I could, surrounded by the skeletons, baleen, and echo of whales past. I don’t even know where to begin talking about what I learned and enjoyed there. Not much of the … Continue reading →

As I’ve said to several of you, you don’t have to decide between being an invert person or a mammal lover; you can be both!  Just study whale falls.  I find them absolutely amazing.   Almost immediately upon sinking, hagfish … Continue reading →

It’s a MONSTER!! …well, that might be a bit extreme.  But the hybridization between Dall’s (Phocoenoides dalli) and Harbour (Phocoena phocoena) porpoises struck me as both rare and strange. Natural hybridization between wild animals of different taxonomic groups has long … Continue reading →

Cetaceans break my heart.  They are the fragile and failing embodiment of old earth intelligence and majesty. Ever floating, flying, falling within a deep blue salty matrix of emotional complexity: empathy, loyalty, compassion, delight, elation. Further reinforcing this mystique and sensitivity last week was the Whale Museum’s revelation of the … Continue reading →

Last Thursday our lab was invertebrate dissections.  My favorite! For most biology students’ dissections the specimens arrive dead and preserved and there’s none of that messiness of actually killing something, which creates in my mind a huge disconnect. I came to … Continue reading →

Imagine that your teeth grew out of your tongue… and that five new rows of teeth rolled forward from the back of your mouth every 24 hours to replace the ones worn down by an instinctually compulsive licking of rocks … Continue reading →

If you’ve been to the lab with me recently, you may have noticed my love affair with our visiting Frosted nudibranch friend*.  I know it as Geoffrey. So, I was very excited to be given the opportunity to learn a … Continue reading →

Yum. Them sea urchins be REAL good eatin’ Uni or sea urchin is delicious gonad treat. There is nothing like some smooth gonads to make the day go by. However, not everyone likes these taste eggs or roe. Especially when … Continue reading →

When people think of a bivalve organism, they should typically imagine a sessile animal with it’s shell partially or fully buried in the sand and feeding through its elongated siphon which filters out plankton in the water column. A scallop, … Continue reading →

“Those things don’t move, do they?”  This is one of the most common questions I hear at the Seattle Aquarium from guests crowded around the intertidal touch tanks.  The object to their subject is invariably the humble echinoderm.  ”Yes,” I … Continue reading →