Zifs win the deep diving record

Those goose-beaked whales, Ziphius cavirostris (we call them the Zifs), have done it again. 

We knew they were pretty good at deep diving and, well, they’ve just broken the mammalian record – the less-hairy-marine-mammal record that is – for the deepest longest dive ever! 

They clocked up an almost two and a half hour dive at a depth of nearly three kilometres. That’s pretty deep, like 2992 metres. And for those of you who haven’t switched over to the metric system yet, it’s nearly two miles. Incredible! 

They’ve gazumped the elephant seals who held the previous record for deep diving at just under two and a half kilometres (2388 metres) for two hours. 

I wonder whether Mrs Mer and I will evolve and be able to hold our breath for that long... 

Check it out at PLOS

Seasonal seaweed muesli

Here’s our favourite recipe for coastal seaweed muesli. It’s packed full of fibre, iron and all those good colours you need for a healthy being and topped with fresh fish and natural caviar. Try it for breakfast and let us know what you think!

1 cup red algal seaweed

½ cup brown algal seaweed

1 cup green algal seaweed

½ cup brackish water

A sprinkle of shells or sand

A pinch or two of ground siltstone

2 tablespoons sea coconut (coco de mer – Mrs Mer’s speciality)

Sea salt 

Seasonal fruits of the sea

To prepare place red, brown and green seaweed in a large bowl with water, shells, siltstone, coco de mer and mix well. Cover and place in fridge for an hour or sew.

With clean hands, divide and shape mixture into several balls and coat with sea salt. Plate each ball with seasonal fruits of the sea – prawns, white bait, caviar, etc.

Enjoy !

Packing for the Pilbara

Mrs Mer and I are contemplating a move to the coastal fringe of the Pilbara, up over there in North Western Australia.

There’s 300 kilometres of coast and the Ningaloo Marine Park in the Pilbara. It’s World Heritage listed – that means it’s a place on Earth considered of outstanding universal value to those sharing this planet and is to be protected into the future and beyond.

We plan to conduct our own marine health check, hang out with some turtles, dugong, and sample some of the detritus in the north west. Who knows what might turn up in the ocean from the exploitation of the abundant natural resources in that area – liquid petroleum hydrocarbons perhaps?

We might even get some work with CSIRO. They’re about to embark on their five year $12 million Pilbara Marine Conservation Partnership where they will survey the coastline, the marine parks and the areas under development for ports, oil and gas extraction and processing.

That’s it you see, alongside (and perhaps within) the World Heritage listed Ningaloo Marine Park is a big bit of infrastructure that helps Australia process its domestic and exported oil, gas and iron.

I wonder, can we knit up a balance between the conservation of marine biodiversity and the management of commercial interests?