Location:Kuranda, Australia
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Great Barrier Reef!
Friday, March 30
Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef!
We saw many things from Brain Coral to Huge Cod!
Before I tell you what marine life we saw I will tell you a story about how this beautiful reef was discovered.
In 1770 Captian James Cook (the "founder" of Australia) was sailing along when his boat crashed into a huge underwater coral bed full of sharks, brain coral, fan coral, clown fish, anemones, and many other spectacular things. When Cook hit the reef he said; "Great! A barrier reef!" Cook couldn't get his boat off the reef, so he came up with a plan. He would throw everything he didn't need off his ship. He threw the cannons, furniture and wine and beer off the side of the boat. Lucky for him his plan worked. As the tide came in his boat floated off the reef.
What cook didn't know then was he had crashed into what would become one of Unesco's world heritage sights and one of the largest tourist attractions a little less than 2,000 years later. Today the reef is 1,200 miles or 2,000 kilometers long and holds some very rare beautiful fish and coral.
Last I will tell you that 2- 18 million years ago, coral formations started, although the newest corals are less than 10,000 years old. The most important living thing on the reef is the one you can't see. These are the Coral Polyps. Coral Polyps are the creatures that make the reef in massive colonies. Although these are tiny little creatures, they are supported by even tinier creatures that live inside the coral called Zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae are a kind of Phytoplankton (a single-celled plant that uses photosynthesis and make 98% of the food for the different corals throughout the reef and other reefs around the world.
Sadly, people have begun to notice that human development has assaulted the reef in many ways. The reef is so fragile that many things could harm it and it's wildlife (one example is sugar cane fertilizer). People aren't the only thing that effect the reef though, climate change is also a huge factor to this issue. Many of these issues have been seen by people, but, as these issues grow larger it will become more and more apparent.
There are many things beautiful about this reef and we don't want to destroy it. It is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking, and amazing places on earth and everybody should get to enjoy it.
-Marin-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
http://www.theage.com.au/national/great-barrier-reef-faces-catastrophe-20090902-f8fv.html
http://www.barrierreefaustralia.com/the-great-barrier-reef/coralfacts.htm
Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef!
We saw many things from Brain Coral to Huge Cod!
Before I tell you what marine life we saw I will tell you a story about how this beautiful reef was discovered.
In 1770 Captian James Cook (the "founder" of Australia) was sailing along when his boat crashed into a huge underwater coral bed full of sharks, brain coral, fan coral, clown fish, anemones, and many other spectacular things. When Cook hit the reef he said; "Great! A barrier reef!" Cook couldn't get his boat off the reef, so he came up with a plan. He would throw everything he didn't need off his ship. He threw the cannons, furniture and wine and beer off the side of the boat. Lucky for him his plan worked. As the tide came in his boat floated off the reef.
What cook didn't know then was he had crashed into what would become one of Unesco's world heritage sights and one of the largest tourist attractions a little less than 2,000 years later. Today the reef is 1,200 miles or 2,000 kilometers long and holds some very rare beautiful fish and coral.
Last I will tell you that 2- 18 million years ago, coral formations started, although the newest corals are less than 10,000 years old. The most important living thing on the reef is the one you can't see. These are the Coral Polyps. Coral Polyps are the creatures that make the reef in massive colonies. Although these are tiny little creatures, they are supported by even tinier creatures that live inside the coral called Zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae are a kind of Phytoplankton (a single-celled plant that uses photosynthesis and make 98% of the food for the different corals throughout the reef and other reefs around the world.
Sadly, people have begun to notice that human development has assaulted the reef in many ways. The reef is so fragile that many things could harm it and it's wildlife (one example is sugar cane fertilizer). People aren't the only thing that effect the reef though, climate change is also a huge factor to this issue. Many of these issues have been seen by people, but, as these issues grow larger it will become more and more apparent.
There are many things beautiful about this reef and we don't want to destroy it. It is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking, and amazing places on earth and everybody should get to enjoy it.
-Marin-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
http://www.theage.com.au/national/great-barrier-reef-faces-catastrophe-20090902-f8fv.html
http://www.barrierreefaustralia.com/the-great-barrier-reef/coralfacts.htm
Location:Coral Sea, Qustralia
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Daintree Rainforest, Australia
Thursday, March 29
Today we went on a rainforest tour. We were in the Daintree National Rainforest. While we were on the tour we cruised through a crocodile infested river, went on a rainforest walk, fed and played with kangaroos and wallabies, went swimming in a river, tasted tropical fruits, and walked on a beach.
To begin with, we started our day by loading a boat and cruising into the Daintree river (North of Cairns, Austrailia). We saw a total of 8 crocodiles! One of the crocodiles we learned about was named Nelson. Nelson had lost one of his arms while he was fighting another crocodile. Now if one of us lost an arm we would be dead if we didn't get stitched up or didn't cover up quickly enough, but with crocodiles it is different. They have a special reflex that clots or is natural tourniquet and stops the blood from flowing all the way out there arm and making them loose so much blood.
Today we also went on a forest walk. Austrailia has 16/22 of the plants that are recognized as being prehistoric and we got to see many of them.
One of the plants we talked about was called the Lawyer's Vine. This is a vine that comes out of certain palm trees. This plant has hooks on either side of it that help it hook onto other plants to make it get closer to the sunlight. Our tour guide told us a story about him and his friend. Him and his friend were riding there motor bikes in the rainforest and he was infront and suddenly his friends bike shoots past him, without his friend. Turns out that the vine is so strong that it ripped his friend off his bike!
The third thing I will tell you about is when we went swimming in the river. Now you would think that usually there would be crocodiles in a clear river in the trees, but there weren't. We learned that crocs don't live there because the water isn't mucky, it is clear. They hate when the water is clear because it means that the thing they want to catch and eat can see them coming and get away. They like the water to be muddy so they can sneak up on them.
Lastly, we tasted several tropical fruits. We tried Bannana, Mango, Dragonfuit, Pineapple, Poor man's avocado, Longan fruit and Papaya.
The fruits tasted different than how you would think though. To start with, the mango, it tasted different than the mangos we are used to because it was picked at a different time. Our mangos are picked green and shipped to Washington state to ripen and be ready to eat. In Australia, they pick ripe and ready then cut it up and eat it right away.
Next the banana, it was different because it had darker, larger seeds in it. This was just a natural difference in the fruit.
The thing I took away from today is that the Rainforest is a Beautiful place and everybody should get a chance to explore it and it's animals, plants, and hikes.
-Marin-
http://www.skyrail.com.au/news/skyrail-news/421-vexing-vines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary
Today we went on a rainforest tour. We were in the Daintree National Rainforest. While we were on the tour we cruised through a crocodile infested river, went on a rainforest walk, fed and played with kangaroos and wallabies, went swimming in a river, tasted tropical fruits, and walked on a beach.
To begin with, we started our day by loading a boat and cruising into the Daintree river (North of Cairns, Austrailia). We saw a total of 8 crocodiles! One of the crocodiles we learned about was named Nelson. Nelson had lost one of his arms while he was fighting another crocodile. Now if one of us lost an arm we would be dead if we didn't get stitched up or didn't cover up quickly enough, but with crocodiles it is different. They have a special reflex that clots or is natural tourniquet and stops the blood from flowing all the way out there arm and making them loose so much blood.
Today we also went on a forest walk. Austrailia has 16/22 of the plants that are recognized as being prehistoric and we got to see many of them.
One of the plants we talked about was called the Lawyer's Vine. This is a vine that comes out of certain palm trees. This plant has hooks on either side of it that help it hook onto other plants to make it get closer to the sunlight. Our tour guide told us a story about him and his friend. Him and his friend were riding there motor bikes in the rainforest and he was infront and suddenly his friends bike shoots past him, without his friend. Turns out that the vine is so strong that it ripped his friend off his bike!
The third thing I will tell you about is when we went swimming in the river. Now you would think that usually there would be crocodiles in a clear river in the trees, but there weren't. We learned that crocs don't live there because the water isn't mucky, it is clear. They hate when the water is clear because it means that the thing they want to catch and eat can see them coming and get away. They like the water to be muddy so they can sneak up on them.
Lastly, we tasted several tropical fruits. We tried Bannana, Mango, Dragonfuit, Pineapple, Poor man's avocado, Longan fruit and Papaya.
The fruits tasted different than how you would think though. To start with, the mango, it tasted different than the mangos we are used to because it was picked at a different time. Our mangos are picked green and shipped to Washington state to ripen and be ready to eat. In Australia, they pick ripe and ready then cut it up and eat it right away.
Next the banana, it was different because it had darker, larger seeds in it. This was just a natural difference in the fruit.
The thing I took away from today is that the Rainforest is a Beautiful place and everybody should get a chance to explore it and it's animals, plants, and hikes.
-Marin-
http://www.skyrail.com.au/news/skyrail-news/421-vexing-vines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary
Location:Daintree Rainforest, Australia
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
G'day!
Wednesday, March 28
Today we went on a Daintree Rainforest expedition! We woke up and went onto a train. This train was really cool because we were on a railroad that was built in 1870. At the train station there was a museum that showed us artifacts such as old pieces of the train cars, mining cars, luggage, telephone booths, and many photos from back when the train had just been built. We also got to see the house of the man who helped build the original train and tracks. His name was Red Lynch. The train was built to get gold from Queensland, Australia to Cairns, (Cairns is where we're staying right now.)
We rode the train into the town of Kuranda to go on a Rain Forest walk. While we were walking we saw many things.
1. We saw the 8th most poisinous snake in the world. It was called the "Red Belly snake." this snake is usually found in rainforests and jungles.
2. We saw bats. In Australia there are huge bats! They are different from other bats because they come out during the day.
3. We saw a huge Wolf spider. The great thing about wolf spiders is they are not poisonous to people. Wolf spiders are all over Australia but are only dangerous to bugs.
And...
4. We rode a sky rail over the rainforest and saw a waterfall called Barron Falls. Barron Falls stands over 900 ft tall!
Http://www.google.com.au/search?q=barron+falls+australia&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8PByT_XiLqWViAeswZ3kDw&ved=0CBwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=672
Today we went on a Daintree Rainforest expedition! We woke up and went onto a train. This train was really cool because we were on a railroad that was built in 1870. At the train station there was a museum that showed us artifacts such as old pieces of the train cars, mining cars, luggage, telephone booths, and many photos from back when the train had just been built. We also got to see the house of the man who helped build the original train and tracks. His name was Red Lynch. The train was built to get gold from Queensland, Australia to Cairns, (Cairns is where we're staying right now.)
We rode the train into the town of Kuranda to go on a Rain Forest walk. While we were walking we saw many things.
1. We saw the 8th most poisinous snake in the world. It was called the "Red Belly snake." this snake is usually found in rainforests and jungles.
2. We saw bats. In Australia there are huge bats! They are different from other bats because they come out during the day.
3. We saw a huge Wolf spider. The great thing about wolf spiders is they are not poisonous to people. Wolf spiders are all over Australia but are only dangerous to bugs.
And...
4. We rode a sky rail over the rainforest and saw a waterfall called Barron Falls. Barron Falls stands over 900 ft tall!
Http://www.google.com.au/search?q=barron+falls+australia&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8PByT_XiLqWViAeswZ3kDw&ved=0CBwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=672
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The blue penguin
Today we went to an aquarium, Ecoworld, in Picton, New Zealand.
It was a really cool because at the aquarium they had a Blue Penguin We got to go into a room and see him being fed. The penguin's name was Thumper.
An interesting fact about the blue penguin is that they are the smallest penguin. They are 25 centimeters tall and weigh only a little over 1 kilogram.
Blue penguins spend most of their day hunting for food in the sea. These penguins have to eat their body weight each day today healthy! That's like one of us eating as many hamburgers as we can until that equals our weight! That's a lot of food!
Also, blue penguins have many predators such as Sharks, Seals, Sea lions, Orca Whales, and Skua (a large, gull-like bird). Since Blue Penguins are so small it is not hard for the predators to get them. In Thumper's case, his predator was a cat! Thumper had just got his stiches out and was doing well when we saw him, soon he will be back home,n the water. Luckily, a place like this aquarium takes care of a Thumper and helps him to heal.
http://ecoworldnz.blogspot.com.au/
It was a really cool because at the aquarium they had a Blue Penguin We got to go into a room and see him being fed. The penguin's name was Thumper.
An interesting fact about the blue penguin is that they are the smallest penguin. They are 25 centimeters tall and weigh only a little over 1 kilogram.
Blue penguins spend most of their day hunting for food in the sea. These penguins have to eat their body weight each day today healthy! That's like one of us eating as many hamburgers as we can until that equals our weight! That's a lot of food!
Also, blue penguins have many predators such as Sharks, Seals, Sea lions, Orca Whales, and Skua (a large, gull-like bird). Since Blue Penguins are so small it is not hard for the predators to get them. In Thumper's case, his predator was a cat! Thumper had just got his stiches out and was doing well when we saw him, soon he will be back home,n the water. Luckily, a place like this aquarium takes care of a Thumper and helps him to heal.
http://ecoworldnz.blogspot.com.au/
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
New Zealand is awesome!
Thursday, March 15
Today we went inter tubing under ground! We were in a place called Waitomo, New Zealand (south-west of Auckland, New Zealand). They are famous for there glow worm caves. Glow worms scientific name is "Arachno Campa Luminosa." Arachno- as in spider or bug, and Luminosa- as in light or glowing.
What we did on the tour was hike through cow fields and some forest into a cave. When we were in the cave we saw the glow worms and learned a lot about them. We learned that glow worms have a cycle like a butterfly. They start out as eggs (2-3 days), turn into a worm (8-10 months and the stage we were seeing them at), go to a cocoon stage (7-8 days) and later turn into a fly (2-3 days). The glow worms live as a fly for so shortly becase in the fly stage they don't have mouths so they starve.
Also on the tour we got to float through an underground (100ft under!) caves and look up at the ceiling that was full of glow worms!
If you ever go to New Zealand, you should definitely try this out!
- Marin-
******************
Sunday, March 18
Today we went swimming with fur seals In the South Pacific Ocean!!!!!! How cool is that?!
The interesting thing about this is that these seals are not tamed by humans. The people who take you to swim with them have never trained or fed these seals.
We took a boat and were dropped right next to seal rocks and we swam around the rocks. The seals would come in and swim around with us. They went under us, around us, and did tricks and jumps. The area we went to had a lot of seals because it was an area where they have no natural predators. This means that no sharks or whales came even close to that area which made it safe for us to be there too.
Another cool thing is that there are only 5 places in the world where you can swim with seals and we got to go to one of them!
-Marin-
********************
Today we went inter tubing under ground! We were in a place called Waitomo, New Zealand (south-west of Auckland, New Zealand). They are famous for there glow worm caves. Glow worms scientific name is "Arachno Campa Luminosa." Arachno- as in spider or bug, and Luminosa- as in light or glowing.
What we did on the tour was hike through cow fields and some forest into a cave. When we were in the cave we saw the glow worms and learned a lot about them. We learned that glow worms have a cycle like a butterfly. They start out as eggs (2-3 days), turn into a worm (8-10 months and the stage we were seeing them at), go to a cocoon stage (7-8 days) and later turn into a fly (2-3 days). The glow worms live as a fly for so shortly becase in the fly stage they don't have mouths so they starve.
Also on the tour we got to float through an underground (100ft under!) caves and look up at the ceiling that was full of glow worms!
If you ever go to New Zealand, you should definitely try this out!
- Marin-
******************
Sunday, March 18
Today we went swimming with fur seals In the South Pacific Ocean!!!!!! How cool is that?!
The interesting thing about this is that these seals are not tamed by humans. The people who take you to swim with them have never trained or fed these seals.
We took a boat and were dropped right next to seal rocks and we swam around the rocks. The seals would come in and swim around with us. They went under us, around us, and did tricks and jumps. The area we went to had a lot of seals because it was an area where they have no natural predators. This means that no sharks or whales came even close to that area which made it safe for us to be there too.
Another cool thing is that there are only 5 places in the world where you can swim with seals and we got to go to one of them!
-Marin-
********************
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