Facts 1
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began reanalyzing Atlantic hurricane data in 2006 to correct errors in the hurricane database dating back to the Apollo Program
- Hurricane Alberto of 2000 completed the largest loop ever observed over the Atlantic Ocean.
- Underwater explosions produce ocean surface waves that are similar to tsunamis.
Facts 2
- A "rain of fish" (a tornado that travels over the ocean, sucks up fish and then drops them over villages) is a common theme appearing in Honduran art - part of the culture of Honduras.
- The container vessel Hansa Carrier spilled over 80,000 Nike shoes into the Pacific Ocean, and they were used by scientists to track ocean currents.
- The crustaceans known as giant isopods, which live in the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, can grow up to 45 centimetres long.
Facts 3
- Nearly 350,000 metric tons of Pacific ocean perch (pictured) were caught in the Gulf of Alaska by Soviet and Japanese trawling fleets in 1965.
- Photos of the rogue wave encountered by the MS Stolt Surf contributed to the growing evidence of their presence in the deep ocean.
- Frances has tied Arlene (at eight times) as the most-used name for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean.
Facts 4
- Croatian oceanographer Mira Zore-Armanda had difficulty gaining passage on research vessels because she was a woman.
- The Swedish American Line was the first transatlantic shipping company to operate a diesel-engined ocean liner.
- American actress Susan Oliver, after surviving a plane crash that almost ended her life, became the first woman to fly a single-engined aircraft solo from New York City across the Atlantic Ocean.
Facts 5
- The color of the sea snail Simnia spelta varies, but when it grazes on the white gorgonian it mimics the twigs.
- A sculpture of the god Neptune on one of the parapets of the University of Washington's Gerberding Hall represents the academic disciplines of oceanography and fisheries science.
- After sinking the British ocean liner SS Dwinsk in June 1918, the German submarine U-151 remained in the area and used the survivors in seven lifeboats as a lure in order to try and sink additional Allied ships.
Facts 6
- The continental crust below the South China Sea is theorized to have begun splitting apart from the Eurasian Plate around 55 million years ago.
- The tunicate Molgula citrina may have travelled to Alaska in a sea chest via the Northwest Passage.
- Oceanographer and former Florida State University dean Nancy Marcus was also a magician and ventriloquist.
Facts 7
- In 1979, the RISE project first discovered hydrothermal vents known as 'black smokers', on a mid-ocean ridge in the Pacific Ocean.
- Reproduction in the sea wasp Carybdea marsupialis involves a sexual reproduction phase, budding and fragmentation.
- American chemical weapons researcher and oceanographer Thomas Gordon Thompson sold his stamp collection to pay for his private island.
Facts 8
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Julie Packard
- The deep-sea coral species Gersemia juliepackardae was named for Julie Packard (pictured), executive director of Monterey Bay Aquarium, for her work as an ocean conservationist.
- Chinese politician Liu Cigui worked as a rusticated youth and studied oceanography.
- Female seaweed blennies deposit their eggs in a shared nest where the male fish guards them until they hatch.
Facts 9
- In 1989, the colonial coral Astroides calycularis expanded its range to the Adriatic Sea after previously being restricted to an area west of Sicily.
- San Diego physician Fred Baker was a co-founder of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Zoo.
- The sea hedgehog is a cannibal.
Facts 10
- Heather Willauer (pictured) patented a method for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from seawater, in tandem with hydrogen (H2) removed simultaneously. Willauer has researched catalysts to enable a continuous Fischer–Tropsch process to recombine carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen gases into complex hydrocarbon liquids to synthesize jet fuel for Navy and Marine aviation, and fuel for the U.S. Navy's ships at sea.
- The sea cucumber Leptopentacta elongata has a U-shaped or S-shaped body and occupies a burrow in the seabed.
- The POLYGON experiment, conducted in the 1970s, was the first experiment to establish the existence of so-called "mesoscale eddies", giving rise to the "mesoscale revolution" in oceanography.
Facts 11
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- The NOAAS Pisces (R 226) oceanographic research vessel (pictured) was named by five seventh graders from Southaven, Mississippi.
- The Top 10 New Species of 2014 included a protist that acts like a sponge.
- In 2018, an asteroid measuring 12 meters (39 feet) across exploded in an air burst over the Bering Sea near the Kamchatka Peninsula with the force of 173 kilotons of TNT.
Facts 12
- The sea snail Halystina umberlee (pictured) was named after the homonymous fictional evil goddess from the Forgotten Realms role-playing game setting.
- The Guanacaste Conservation Area, located in Northwest Costa Rica, is a 163,000-hectare (400,000-acre) expanse of protected land and sea.
- The pea crab Tunicotheres moseri lives inside the water-filled chamber of a sea squirt.
Facts 13
- The coral Madracis auretenra has been used to study the likely effects of ocean acidification on corals.
- The ocean liner SS Shalom accidentally rammed and bisected the Norwegian tanker Stolt Dagali, sinking the bow of the tanker but not the stern.
- Flashes of light emitted by the sea snail Hinea brasiliana may act as a "burglar alarm".
Facts 14
- The west coast seabream and the sand steenbras (pictured) start their adult lives as males and later change sex.
- Sea fans such as Leptogorgia sarmentosa and Eunicella singularis are sometimes overgrown by false coral.
- The Islamic prophet Muhammad, while in Mecca, was a merchant involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Facts 15
- Highlights from the history of ichthyosaur research (example pictured) include fossils of pregnant females, whale-sized ichthyosaurs from Nevada, and ichthyosaurs with swordfish-like jaws.
- One ship had to deal with Hurricane Tanya twice in two different areas of the North Atlantic Ocean five days apart in 1995.
- Seafarers have used the tower of Sweden's Rone Church as a navigational aid since the Middle Ages.
Facts 16
- When Norman Heathcote climbed the St Kilda sea stack Stac Lee (pictured) in 1899, he found the climbing "comparatively easy" but getting ashore had been "a most appalling undertaking".
- The The Marine Mammal Center has rescued over 23,000 marine mammals, and also produces important scientific discoveries regarding marine chemistry.
- Pastis magnate Paul Ricard created the Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute on the Île des Embiez, and the Universal Exposition of Wines and Spirits on the Île de Bendor.
Facts 17
- The European Maritime Safety Agency was founded in 2002 to help prevent maritime accidents and marine pollution, in response to the Estonia, Erika and Prestige sea disasters.
- The Oceanography Society gives out the Jerlov Award "in Recognition of Contribution Made to the Advancement of Our Knowledge of the Nature and Consequences of Light in the Ocean".
- The voyages of the Otter crossing the Pacific Ocean from Australia and becoming the first vessel of the United States to enter a Californian port in 1796 were chronicled by French traveler Pierre François Péron.
Facts 18
- Captain James Young's capture of a Spanish frigate in 1799 (illustrated) brought each of his seamen the equivalent of ten years' pay in prize money.
- Observations and samplings from Jasper Seamount show that it is very similar to Hawaiian volcanoes.
- The snail species Oxygyrus keraudrenii shows an evolutionary reduction of the gastropod shell for living in open sea.
Facts 19
- The black sea cucumber can split into two by transverse fission.
- The Benguela current of the Southern Ocean has a small El Niño effect.
- Eight-term member of the Norwegian Parliament Harald Ulrik Sverdrup was the grandfather of the oceanographer of the same name.
Facts 20
- Only one percent of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge is above sea level.
- Elysia diomedea is one of three species of sea slug known to exhibit kleptoplasty and thus benefit from photosynthesis.
- Christopher and Cosmas were two Japanese men who travelled the world's oceans with the English explorer Thomas Cavendish between 1587 and 1592.
Facts 21
- Ocean Wind, a planned offshore wind farm in the U.S., may use infrastructure at a closed nuclear power plant to access the electrical grid.
- Clover grass used to grow in the Pacific Ocean, but has not been seen there since a severe storm in 1996.
- Bolivia sued Chile in 2013 to regain land lost in 1884, claiming it had an Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean.
Facts 22
- The Silent World, an Academy Award winning documentary film by Jacques Cousteau, was the first film to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color.
- Henry Seamount was hydrothermally active in the last 4,000 years even though it is 126 million years old.
- The Polynesian Rat is used to track human migrations across the Pacific Ocean.