This smart tropical frog has found a cover from the rain...

Artist's interpretation of the monster catching a pterosaur - Artwork by Tor Sponga, BT

Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric plesiosaur has been found on the Arctic island chain of Svalbard - about halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. The skeleton has been nicknamed "The Monster" because of its enormous size, roughly 15 meters, a length that makes this animal the biggest sea dinosaurs ever found.

These animals were the top predators living in what was then a relatively cool, deep sea. Plesiosaurs are said to fit descriptions of Scotland's mythical Loch Ness monster. They used two sets of powerful flippers for swimming and came in two varieties - one with a small head and very long neck, and another with a large head and short neck. The short-necked ones, like "The Monster" are known as pliosaurs.
The discovery of a gigantic pliosaur is one of the most remarkable discoveries of the palaeontologists from the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum.
Its skeleton has dinner-plate-sized neck vertebrae, and the lower jaw has teeth as big as bananas.


Artist's interpretation of the monster catching a smaller plesiosaur - Artwork by Tor Sponga, BT


Artist's interpretation of the monster hunting ichthyosaurs - Artwork by Tor Sponga, BT


Size comparison - Killer whale, Blue whale, Pliosaur ("The Monster") and human dive - Artwork by Tor Sponga, BT


Size comparison between the Kronosaurus, the biggest sea dinosaurs until the discovery of the Svalbard monster

Pictures from the workfield on the Svalbard Island:





Read more and visit the official page of the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo about the discovery

All the pictures are © Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway

Cheeeese!

Here above you can see a beautiful photo of a Common Kingfisher with its prey in the beak. Kingfishers are birds with incredible fishing skills that lives in the trees near rivers and lakes.

What makes this picture particularly interesting is the funny face of the poor mosquito fish that seems absolutely dazzled.. look on the right at its stupefied face!







The reason of the surprise in the face of the little prey could be the incredible speed of the attack of the Kingfisher that you can see in the sequence below.To understand the quickness of this manoeuvre keep in mind that a kingfisher can dive from the branch into the water, take the fish and come back on the branch in less than one second!

A tiny Puffer Fish.

Marsel Van Oosten
"Misty morning in Madagascar"

In this post I've presented one picture by Onne Van der Wal that has been awarded in the PDN's World in Focus, a famous travel photography contest. Amongst the awarded pictures there are many other pictures which are related to sea, water or snow (the themes of this blog...)
After having seen them go to the official gallery to see al the other pictures (some of them are really cool..)


Philip Lee Harvey
"Beach of redemption, Kerala"


Jose Antonio Rosas
"Penguins on ice"


Kfir Bolotin
"The French Alps, Chamonix Mont Blanc"


John Paul Caponigro
"Antarctica XLI, Neko Karbor 2007"


Turner Forte Photography
"Kajaker explores ice cave"


Joel Aron
"Untitled"


Guy Sargeant
"The London Eye"


Luc Robitaille
"Untitled"


Kelly Hibbs
"Magnificience: Harsh desert meets cozy snow"


Yeang Ch'ng
"Untitled"


Vince Wallace
"Untitled"


Chris Gordaneer
"Hippo"

Quack!

Perini Navi Salute compared with the Tower of Pisa

The most visited post of the almost 150 that I've published in these three months of SeaWayBLOG is the one about the Biggest ship of the world. When I wrote it I didn't image such a interest for this kind of argument but it's perfect now that I'm going to talk about the tallest yachts in the world. The occasion is the launch of Perini Navi' Salute a 56m Cutter with an incredible 75m (236ft) tall one-piece alluminum mast. If this number does not impress you look here above the comparison with the 58m tall Pisa Tower...

Two graphics of the new Perini impressive Cutter from the Official Site:




Some photo of the installation of the monstre-mast:


Photo Paglianti


Photo Paglianti


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However, even if Salute could claim the record for the tallest one-piece alluminum mast in the world, the record for the absolute tallest mast goes to Mirabella V (88.5m 292ft mast height) which is also the largest single masted yacht in the world with a 75.22m (247 ft) length.

Here are some pictures of the Mirabella V taken form the Official Site:





Finally a little bit of Specs:


Perini Navi Salute:
Length overall 184 ft / 56 m
Waterline length 150 ft / 46.71 m
Beam 38 ft / 11.51 m
Draught (keel up) 13 ft / 4.05 m
Draught (keel down) 32 ft / 9.83 m
Hull Aluminium
Superstructure Aluminium
Maximum displacement 535 t
Engines 2 MTU 2000 M72
Maximum power 2 x 720 kW
Power at maximum continuous rating 2 x 720 kW
Speed at maximum power 15.60 kt
Speed at maximum continuous rating 15.60 kt
Range 3,600 nm @ 13 kt
Fuel capacity 50,000 lt
Fresh water 12,400 lt
Main mast height above DWL 236 ft / 72 m
Total sail area 31,312 ft² / 2,909 m²
Cockpit area 1,787 ft² / 166 m²
Saloon and wheelhouse area 1,281 ft² / 119 m²
Total owner and guest cabin area 1,539.2 ft² / 143 m²
Total crew area 1,152 ft² / 107 m²
Lazarette area 452 ft² / 42 m²
Interior Design Rémi Tessier
Naval Architecture Perini Navi / Ron Holland
Builder Perini Navi - Viareggio, Italy

Mirabella Yachts Mirabella V:
LOA: 75.22m (247 ft)
Beam: 14.80m (48.5 ft)
Draught (Keel Up): 4.0m (13 ft)
Draught (Keel Fully Down):
10.0m (33 ft)
Displacement:
765 tonnes
Mast Height: 88.5m (292ft)
Builder: VT Shipbuilding
Mirabella V Project Manager:
Paul Johnson MDC
Naval Architect/Interior Designer:
Ron Holland Design
Composite Engineering:
High Modulus
Sails: Doyle Sailmakers
Main Sail - Segmented Battened Panels:
1557m² (16,760ft²)
UPS (Genoa): 1833m² (19,730ft²)
Working Jib: 828m² (8,915ft²)
Staysail: 320m² (3,445ft²)
Built to DNV, Germanischer Lloyds and MCA compliant

PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT: K.C. ALFRED. SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS

Behind this beautiful picture there is a very sad story. This is the "water memorial" to the pro surfer Emery Kauanui, 24, died on May 28th 2007, four days after a post-bar brawl on May 24th. in the picture you can see the exact moment when his mother throw the ashes in the sea surrounded by the whole surfing community of San Diego.

A larger view:

PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT: K.C. ALFRED. SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS


PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT: K.C. ALFRED. SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS

Emery Kauanui:


Read the whole story

Mike Rutzen, worldwide famous as "Sharkman", is a former fisherman from South Africa who has become one of the best expert and defender of the White Sharks. His mission is to show that the huge predators are not bloodthirsty killers but are intelligent creatures with whom it is possible to comunicate. Sharkman infact has learned to mimic their body language, changing his posture in response to their actions and that had given him the chance to swim with the sharks so close that he is one of the few people in the world that could tell you that the shark eyes are not black but turquoise blue!.
He is seen neither as prey nor predator and the sharks happily glide past him, occasionally letting him ride with them by hanging on to their dorsal fins.
Mike, as you can see in the photo, has also put in action the phenomenon of "tonic immobility" which is a natural state of paralysis, which animals sometimes enter when faced with an imminent threat. However, it can be induced in sharks by turning them on their heads and massaging their snouts, close to the eyes. The reaction of the shark is something similar to what happen when you collar a cat from its neck.
The effects last for around 15 minutes and has proved a useful tool for scientists wanting to study shark behaviour.

Read the whole story