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Sea Creatures

The body of a young female beaked whale washed ashore in South Australia

Cool Finds

Rare Beaked Whale Washes Ashore in Australia

Sporting unusual teeth, the young female offers researchers a chance to study an elusive cetacean

Healthy purple sea stars, also called ochre sea stars, in a tide pool.

New Research

Wasting Disease Clears Way for Young Sea Stars, for Now

Whether or not the devastated populations are on the road to recovery remains uncertain

Cool Finds

Deep-Sea Researchers Spot a Mysterious Jellyfish Near The Mariana Trench

The glowing jellyfish was previously unknown to science

New Research

Watch a Massive Swarm of Crabs Scuttling Along The Ocean Floor

Marine biologists say this behavior has never been seen before

Each year, thousands of California sea lions flock to the docks at Oregon's Port of Astoria.

Cool Finds

An Oregon Port Is Using Inflatable Air Dancers to Scare Off Pesky Sea Lions

The car dealership staple is now a marine mammal scarecrow

Microbeads and other tiny plastics could knock this aphrodisiac off the menu.

New Research

Your Cosmetics May Be Killing a Popular Aphrodisiac: Oysters

Microplastics from beauty products and other sources affected oysters’ ability to reproduce in laboratory experiments

Cool Finds

A Giant Squid Visits a Japanese Harbor

These denizens of the deep usually lurk between 2,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface

John Steinbeck

Cool Finds

Steinbeck’s Boat the “Western Flyer” Will Voyage Again for Science

The $1 million boat will see the water once again as an updated research vessel

Giant guitarfish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis)

Cool Finds

Instead of Eyelids, This Fish Retracts Its Eyeballs

The giant guitarfish can pull its eyes nearly 1.6 inches inside its head

The yellow-bellied sea snake usually swims in tropical waters but this week one made its way to the California shore

Trending Today

Venomous Sea Snake Washes Up on California Beach, and El Niño May Be to Blame

The lost sea snake isn’t the only problem the California can expect to face during a strong El Niño year

Cool Finds

Scientists Just Found a Sea Turtle That Glows

The turtle is the first biofluorescent reptile ever found in the wild

Wild pigs go for a dip off Big Major Cay in the Exhumas, Bahamas.

Not Just Dolphins: Where to Swim With Pigs, Penguins and the Gentlest of Sharks

At these beaches, splash around with some more unusual creatures

In a new video released by the WWF, viewers can glide through the Great Barrier Reef on the back of a sea turtle.

Cool Finds

Researchers Strapped a Go-Pro to a Sea Turtle, and Here’s What They Got

See the Great Barrier Reef from a turtle’s view

Researchers witnessed this coral slowly slurp up a sea slug back in December of 2014.

Cool Finds

That Time a Mushroom Coral Ate a Sea Slug

Researchers observed the rare event off the coast of Thailand

Bart Shepard, the director of the California Academy of Sciences' Steinhart Aquarium collecting fish using a specialized decompression chamber

Cool Finds

More than 100 New Marine Species Were Just Discovered in the Philippines

The creatures hail from a rarely before explored region of the ocean’s water column

Cool Finds

Visit the Pacific’s Deepest Hydrothermal Vents With Underwater Robots

Researchers spotted the vents nearly 12,500 feet beneath the surface during an expedition mapping the floor of the Pescadero Basin

Jeanne Villepreux-Power described how the Paper Nautilus grew its own shell

Cool Finds

A 19th Century Shipwreck Might Be Why This Famous Female Naturalist Faded to Obscurity

Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented the aquarium and studied cephalopods, but today few recognize her name

Jellyfish Lake, Palau

Cool Finds

Watch One Snorkeler Swim Through a Lake of Pulsating Jellyfish

Jellyfish Lake is a popular tourist destination

If a lobster’s home territory is written into its genetic code, it just may be possible to distinguish a legally captured lobster from one with a shady background—maybe even after it’s made it to the dinner plate.

To Make Lobster Fisheries More Sustainable, Scientists Attempt to Decode Crustacean DNA

As the battle escalates to combat illegal fishing, Smithsonian scientists offer up a possible genetic tool

Healthy ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus)

Cool Finds

This Beer Was Brewed to Save Sea Stars

A new ale sends some proceeds to research on sea star wasting syndrome

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