US Coast Guard Public Affairs Chief

behind the computer

Crystalynn Kneen is the communications director for the Master Chief Petty Officer of the United States Coast Guard. That’s quite a mouthful when someone asks you what your job title…

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Giant Tarpon

Tarpon

By Richard King In the mid-1870s, a twelve-year-old boy named Harry Dean lived in Philadelphia. His uncle, Captain Silas Dean, came to town for a visit and persuaded his parents…

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Music and the Sea

Craig Edwards and Geoff Kaufman

Craig Edwards and Geoff Kaufman at Mystic Seaport Museum (photograph above). In March of 1794, the United States Congress passed the “Act to provide a Naval Armament,” authorizing the first…

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Pyromes

a glowing purple Pyrosoma Atlanticum

By Richard King On a recent sailing voyage aboard the oceanographic research vessel Robert C. Seamans, we scooped up an odd-looking animal that got everyone on board the ship excited.…

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Meteorologist and Oceanographer

Joe Sienkiewicz, Meteorologist

Joe Sienkiewicz is the branch chief for the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center, which is part of the National Weather Service. The Ocean Prediction Center provides mariners with warnings and forecasts…

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New Zealand Sea Lion

New Zealand Sea Lion Mum And 8th Pup 2003

By Richard King As Pacific Island voyagers continued their open ocean crossings thousands of years ago, by around the year 1200 they had made their last major stop on what…

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Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons

Rouse Simmons Featured

Christmas Tree Ship Rouse Simmons Nine in ten Americans will celebrate Christmas this year in some capacity, and more than 95 million households will put up a Christmas tree.¹ The…

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Bosun Bird

White-Tailed Tropicbird

By Richard King By 15 December 1952, 39-year-old Ann Davison had been at sea alone for over three weeks. Aboard her 23-foot sailboat, Felicity Ann, she was about a third…

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Leopard Electric Ray

Leopard Electric Ray on Reef

By Richard King Eugenie Clark was a pioneer of marine biology, especially in the study of reef fish and sharks in their natural habitats. The daughter of a Japanese mother…

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The Beaufort Scale

Currier and Ives Clipper Hurricane

“It was blowing great guns from the Northwest… One reef after another, we took in the topsails, and before we could get them hoisted up, we heard a sound like…

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Marine Biologist, Lab Owner, Aquaculturist

Quahog Reseeding Project With Local Shellfish Harvesters

Darcie’s quahog reseeding project with local shellfish harvesters. Marine Biologist, Lab Owner, Aquaculturist From mudflats, to coastal islands, to offshore waters, Darcie Couture’s work environment changes on a day-to-day basis—sometimes…

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Sperm Whale

Sperm Whale NOAA Fisheries

By Richard King This August 1st marks the 200th birthday of Herman Melville, author of one of the most famous novels ever written in the English language. Moby-Dick’s dramatic ending…

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High-Tech Goes to Sea: the RCRV Project

Taani Birdseye Graphic illustration

RCRV does not stand for Really Cool Research Vessel, but it could… by Nancy Steinberg, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University Featured photograph provided by Oregon…

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Giant Squid

Giant Squid

By Richard King The first known photograph of a nearly complete specimen of a giant squid was taken in 1873 in the living room of a reverend living in St.…

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