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Prehistoric Whale Skull Discovered in Virginia Swamp

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The giant tooth of the prehistoric whale skull found by Jason Osborne.

Courtesy of Jason Osborne

In the murky waters of Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp, a monstrous and prehistoric creature rested, just waiting to be discovered.

OK, so it isn’t Swamp Thing. But an ancient whale skull is almost as cool.

The fossilized whale skull is estimated to be more than 5 million years old, and is riddled with massive teeth marks thought to be from the famed megalodon shark. The best part: It could be an entirely new whale species.

Diver and paleontologist Jason Osborne discovered the skull in June 2013, despite the swamp’s zero-visibility conditions, but it took two more years of careful planning before the fragile fossil came to the surface.

“I was nervous I wouldn’t find the skull again, and that flooding may have destroyed it,” says Osborne. “Luckily I did find it, and it was in great condition.”

To retrieve the skull, Osborne needed a large boat, and most importantly, something to lift the skull without breaking it or losing any important pieces of bone that could detach during the transition. His solution: a body bag.

“It took our team of four people two days to get it out, in 25 feet of water with low visibility. We were basically night diving,” says Osborne.

The whale fossil was then donated to the Calvert Marine Museum for scientific research, where whale expert Stephen Godfrey will test the skull for signs of a new species.

Osborne is the co-founder of Paleo Quest, a non-profit that works to locate and retrieve ancient artifacts and fossils founded in 2010. Since then, the Paleo Quest team has found many other fossils in the past four years of diving in and around the Great Dismal Swamp near Newport News, Virginia, including porpoise whale bones and detached megalodon teeth.

“I’ve been startled many times while diving for fossils,” says Osborne, who has never dived in clear water except for the pool he was certified in 11 years ago. “I can’t emphasize how amazing it is to see the skull of a whale, to touch it for the first time … the discovery of it all motivates me to keep diving.”

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Underwater Architecture Could Be The Real Estate Of The Future

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Sci-fi fantasy could become a reality for divers who dream of living beneath the surface of the ocean if these forward-thinking projects ever come to fruition.

OCEAN SPIRAL

Billed as “a new interface between humankind and the deep sea,” Ocean Spiral is a wild future-city concept by Japanese engineering corporation Shimizu Corp. designed to solve present-day environmental challenges including shrinking food production, growing energy demand, decreasing freshwater reserves, increasing CO₂ emissions and dwindling natural resources.

At the surface, a population up to 5,000 will inhabit the Blue Garden, a floating sphere measuring 1,640 feet in diameter that houses residences, businesses, a hotel, research facilities and other infrastructure in a 75-floor central tower with 360-degree views. Plunging more than 2 miles deep, the Infra Spiral will contain a factory producing power from carbon dioxide using micro-organisms; generators that create energy from seawater through thermal conversion; aquaculture farms to grow food; and a desalinization plant to create fresh water.

At the bottom, the Earth Factory will store CO₂ emissions and house a submarine port. Total cost for the self-sustaining city, if built, is estimated at $26 billion, and construction could take five years.

CITY OF MÉRIENS

From the mind of French architect Jacques Rougerie, who also envisioned the Sea Orbiter oceangoing skyscraper, this “universal city” is designed to house an international community of 7,000 scientists, teachers, students and other ocean lovers for extended periods. Measuring almost 3,000 feet long and 1,600 feet wide, the floating structure would offer living quarters, laboratories and classrooms, along with recreation areas and lounge spaces. It’s designed to be self-sustaining and autonomous, running on renewable energy drawn from the surrounding marine environment and leaving behind no waste.

The mantalike design is inspired by the creator’s love for the ocean. “Another type of imagination is awakened in me as soon as I am underwater,” Rougerie told radio station France Inter in 2014.

SUB-BIOSPHERE 2

When Earth becomes uninhabitable due to “a runaway green-house effect, it might be safe living underneath the sea in the long term,” says British designer and futurist Phil Pauley. To preserve all forms of life, the Sub-Biosphere 2 would act as a global seed bank and house 100 people, “the minimum number required to rebuild our species,” Pauley says. In his design, eight biomes recreating Earth’s climatic zones would be arranged around a larger central biome housing integrated life-support systems that link each outer zone to exchange water and air in a manner meant to mimic our planet’s weather. Inside the complex, which measures more than 1,100 feet wide and can be raised or lowered to avoid foul weather or natural disasters, the human inhabitants would interact with each biome to grow hydroponic crops, raise animals, perform research and sustain life as we know it.

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SnotBot Drone Used to Collect Whale Data Using “Snot”

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SnotBot, a drone that collects whale snot for research

Eliza Muirhead

The SnotBot is on a mission to silently hover over whales while collecting their snot for research.

There’s a new drone in town, and it’s nothing to sneeze at. OK — maybe that’s exactly what it is. Dubbed the SnotBot, this data-collecting drone was created by Ocean Alliance and Olin College of Engineering and is designed to catch the spray emitted from whales’ blowholes.

The mucus-rich “blow” provides scientists with a wealth of information, such as hormone levels (which can indicate if an animal is stressed or pregnant), evidence of infections (from bacteria, viruses or even environmental toxins) and tissue samples that can be used for DNA analysis.

Ocean Alliance is running a Kickstarter to fund SnotBot, with a little help from former Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart, who has given his support to the new technology.

“I’m asking you to support my good friend Capt. Iain Kerr at Ocean Alliance in their quest for better, more effective, less invasive, innovative research that will give us answers to some of the mysteries about the ocean and particularly whales,” Stewart says in the video.

Traditionally the “snot” was obtained by leaning over the railing of a boat with a 10-foot pole while chasing down the whales. This approach to data collection is invasive and can put undue stress on the animals, which could influence the information retrieved. The SnotBot is designed to study these marine mammals without disturbing them.

“Imagine if everything your doctor knew about your health came from chasing you around a room with a large needle while blowing an air horn,” the SnotBot team says on its Kickstarter page.

SnotBot will hover quietly above the whales and passively collect snot, using spongelike pads as the whales go about their business undisturbed — no chasing, prodding or other stress-inducing activities required.

Research projects of this nature require certain permissions, so Ocean Alliance is seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service for its expeditions later this year.

SnotBots will be used to gather data on whales in three locations: Patagonia, the Sea of Cortez and Frederick Sound, Alaska. Researchers hope to collect snot from previously studied individuals in order to compare the SnotBot’s data to older data collected via traditional methods.

WHALE, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? S’NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Banned in 1986, commercial whaling took a serious toll on whale populations through the years. Although few countries still engage in the activity, its lasting damage has already been done — leaving most whale populations reduced in size by 90 percent or more.

The result of this dramatic loss is that dwindling whale populations were left vulnerable to an ever-increasing throng of anthropogenic threats. Whale fatalities via boat collisions, ingesting plastic pollution, exposure to environmental toxins and entanglement in fishing gear are impacts that a prewhaling population could have shrugged off, but now they can put an entire species as risk.

Ocean Alliance is working to gather new data to better understand how these stressors are affecting whales and what we can do to help them — and SnotBot might help reach that goal.

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Take the Plunge â€” Apply to be a 2016 Rolex Scholar

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Diving with mantas is a bucket-list dream for most divers, but Ben Buchan, the 2015 Australasia Rolex Scholar, made that dream a reality.

During a three-week stay in Yasawas, Fiji, Buchan worked with the Barefoot Collection and Manta Trust to study manta mating behavior and take manta ID photos on a daily basis.

As an Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society Rolex Scholar, traveling to exotic locations comes with the job, but this trip to Fiji brought more than just mantas and great diving: Buchan participated in coral rejuvenation and the reintroduction of giant clams into Fijian waters.

“I’m eager to see how these projects grow over the coming years and to see more local communities become involved in saving their oceans!” Buchan says of his experience in Fiji.

Thomas Vignaud

Australasia OWUSS Rolex Scholar Ben Buchan photo ID’s mantas in Fiji.

As this trip recap suggests, the life of an Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society Rolex Scholar is nothing short of an adventure, one that can be tailored to individual interests, giving scholars the opportunity to leave a personalized mark on the underwater world.

The Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society Rolex Scholarship provides experiences for scholars to learn not only about marine environments but also the local cultures that rely on them. On a separate trip to Taveuni, Buchan put to action a particular passion of his, “to educate developing communities on the importance of ocean conservation and the need to protect local reefs.” He did this by leading marine talks and beach clean ups with local children of the island.

Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and Rolex have been working together for over 40 years on a shared mission: to identify and develop the next generation of dive leaders and underwater researchers. Over the last four decades, the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and Rolex have fostered the development of future leaders of the underwater environment like Ben. Today they are seeking applicants for the 2016 Scholarships. Currently, three Rolex Scholarships are awarded, to applicants in North America, Europe and Australasia. During the scholarship year, the three winners have the opportunity to travel internationally and learn from the world’s leading experts in conservation, underwater photography, maritime archaeology, marine engineering and other related fields.

If you or somebody you know are between the ages of 21 and 26, have high academic standing and have achieved Rescue Diver or equivalent certification, continue reading at OWUScholarship.org to learn why being the next Rolex Scholar is a life-changing experience. Application deadlines for the 2016 Scholarship year are as follows: North American and European applications are due December 31, 2015. Deadline for 2016 Australasian Scholarship application is January 31, 2016. The organization also offers numerous internships, which can be viewed here. Application deadline for internships is January 31, 2016.

Keep up with Ben’s adventures as the Australasia Rolex Scholar on his blog.

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Dive Operators Use Music, Not Chum, To Attract Great White Sharks

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Great White Shark Next to Cage and Scuba Divers

Shutterstock

Metalhead Sharks

Could great white sharks be attracted to rock music?

Humans might not be the only ones head-banging to heavy metal — sharks might enjoy the jams too.

While filming the documentary Bride of Jaws, part of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, the film crew was searching for a 16-foot great white shark known as Joan Of Shark. Matt Waller, owner of Australian dive operator Adventure Bay Charters, suggested playing heavy-metal music through an underwater speaker in order to attract the shark to their location. Much to the documentary team’s surprise, it worked. Although they didn’t find the giant they’d set out for, two large great whites soon appeared to investigate the music of Darkest Hour, a metal band out of Washington, D.C.

Waller developed this attraction technique in 2011. Tales of music altering shark behavior in Isla Guadalupe inspired him to mount underwater speakers to his shark cages, and he discovered that he could attract sharks by blasting classic hits such as AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Back in Black.” He also noted that the sharks behaved differently while music was playing; they became more inquisitive, sometimes rubbing their faces against the speaker.

Waller doesn’t consider himself a shark expert, but he believes that the thick tones used in heavy metal, such as vocalists’ “death growls,” intense drum beats and guitar riffs, mimic the low-frequency noises created by injured fish. Sharks sense the fish frequencies with their lateral line, a sensory organ that runs along the length of their bodies that detects vibrations and changes in pressure. There haven’t been any scientific studies to prove this theory, so it’s possible that sharks just enjoy the chance to rock out.