A Letter From The White House!

'Listen to the mustn'ts  child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn't, the impossible, the won't. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.'
- Shel Silverstein

OMG (oh my grouper)! Okay, so a few posts ago I wrote about how President Barack Obama has made an initiative to create the world's largest ocean preserve! I really like and encourage this idea and hope that all of you had a chance to take a look at the news page that talks more about the idea (I put a link to the page on the post labeled 'Great Work M.r. President!').

Since I loved this idea so much, I decided to write an email to The White House saying that, as I've said before, totally love The President's initiative and fully support his actions as he works hard to turn this amazing plan into reality! I also decided to write that I have started a blog in hopes that one day more people will begin to recognize their full extent as to which they are harming our earth, and that I believe that by creating the world's largest ocean preserve it is sure to help raise awareness to the effects of our actions.

Okay, so here's the AMAZING part: So roughly a week after I had sent my email, I received a reply letter from The White House! It was super terrific and encouraging, knowing that someone from The White House read my letter and (possibly) took a look at this blog!
I wanted to show you all the letter, for inside of it are a few different websites that are about the environment! 

This is the letter:

Dear Student: Thank you for writing.  Our environment and wildlife are among our most precious treasures, and I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts. I am committed to keeping our country’s air, water, and land clean and safe.  My Administration is working hard to reduce harmful pollutants.  We are taking on tough environmental challenges, including climate change.  And to make sure your generation can explore America’s great outdoors, we have set aside more than a thousand miles of rivers, millions of acres of wilderness, and 11 new National Monuments for permanent protection. By working together, we can leave our planet even better than we found it.  You can join in by recycling and reusing paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum.  You can save energy by turning off lights and unplugging appliances you are not using.  Small steps like these can make a big difference.  To learn more about how you can do your part, visit kids.NIEHS.NIH.gov or EPA.gov/students. Thank you, again, for writing.  Hearing from engaged young people like you gives me great hope for the future. Sincerely, Barack Obama Pretty amazing, right? This letter has given me hope that in the future we will have created a better environment that will be much more manageable. 'Hope is so hard to maintain But it's those little moments of satisfaction because of it that make it all worthwhile'           -Aria Irani

  

I'm in Mexico!!!

'When you go in, go all in'.

Sorry I haven't been writing much lately, but it's because right now i'm in.........Mexico! Here there are so many things to see - it's just so hard to get to everything! Cancun, which is a city in Mexico, is amazing, and there is tons of amazing food there just waiting to be eaten! I am enjoying my times here very much, and, since in school we are learning spanish, I am able to speak to the people here a little bit. To me Mexico is like a tropical paradise, where there are tons of birds, beautiful trees, and so much more!

          Okay, so I know that on my last post I said that I would be writing about many different organizations that help to protect our vast oceans. Well the problem is that I had all of my research saved on my computer back in Asheville, North Carolina, where I live. And so now I am in Mexico, without my computer, and therefore sadly do not have my research with me either (but I will definitely write about the organizations soon!). But, I  realized something from a magazine about a magazine that I should of noticed much sooner, and that many people are oblivious to. So i'm deciding to share that, instead.......

Me and my parents were flying out of the Atlanta airport a few days ago, when things went astray:

We had boarded our plane that would take us straight to Cancun, where we would then take a car to Playa Del Carmen. We were [going to be] flying on Delta Airlines, but a mechanical problem with the plane (while we were still on it) stopped us from going anywhere. So we waited, and waited, and waited - we waited for 3 hours, just stuck, (because we weren't allowed to get off) sitting on the plane! That was longer than our flight was supposed to take! Eventually we all exited the plane, and to all our dismays, where going to leave the airport........until their was an announcement over the loud speaker that they had found another plane! Everyone was so happy and much relieved, and we then boarded a plane for the second time.

Once we were all on the plane, flight attendants came down the isle with trays of hamburgers that were FREE! Since I'm a pescatarian, which means that I don't eat meat, I didn't join in on this amazing act by Delta Airlines.

So then we were off, into the air and later landed in Mexico! So far our stay has been stupendous, and I'm not sure I want to ever leave!

                                   Picture by Meherwan Irani

          Me today at the beach in north Akumal at Half-Moon Bay!

Great work M.r. President!

Go into the world and do well.

             More importantly, go into the world and do good.’

-Minor Myers

Hey! Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a few days, but I have been busy researching about a bunch of different organizations that all work to help protect the ocean in different ways, which I will be elaborating on further in my next post. I also learned, from reading the news, that President Barack Obama is proposing a bill that will create the world’s largest ocean preserve! This will not only help save many marine species, but will also ensure less possibility for seals and marine birds to get ensnared in fishing nets. As you can most likely tell, I am thrilled about this idea and fully support the President in his amazing mission that will most definitely help save our oceans!

Here is a link to the article I read, if you want to read more (and I suggest you do)! :

abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/obama-create-worlds-largest-ocean-preserve-24171159#.U6CpC0p3EpI.twitter  

Picture by: askascientist.co.uk

        I am just so glad (and relieved) that people like The President are standing up for what’s right and trying to make a difference, for it is those people who truly make a difference in the world.

The Ink Of A Giant Octopus!

'Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.'

-Albert Einstein

Okay, guess what I learned today? Well, I was reading about octopuses in Ocean, The World's Last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum Of Natural History, and I found an incredible fact about the giant octopus:

- When threatened, a giant octopus squirts a cloud of purple ink out through its siphon into the water and at the same time moves backward rapidly using jet propulsion. Potential predators are left confused and disoriented in a cloud of ink. The octopus can repeat this process several times in quick succession.

Isn't that awesome! More to come on octopi in the future!

Picture by: hadesarrow.com

Some Sharp-Toothed Sharks!

‘The future is unwritten.’

~Joe Strummer

Hey! A little while ago I was skimming through Ocean, The World’s Last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum Of Natural History, and I found some interesting facts about sharks!

• A shark’s teeth are covered by very hard enamel, and are formidable weapons. Sharks have several rows of teeth lying flat behind the active ones, and these gradually move forward, individual teeth may be replaced as often as every 8-10 days! Also, a shark’s teeth are shaped to suit their diet; pointed teeth are usually made for holding, while serrated teeth slice chunks of their prey.

• Cartilaginous fishes (which is a group that includes sharks, rays, skates, and deep-water fish called chimaeras) have acute sense that help them to find prey even if it is distant or buried in sediment. Predatory sharks taste or smell tiny amounts of blood as water passes over highly sensitive membranes in their nostrils. Also, cartilaginous fishes have eyes similar to those of mammals, and most have acute vision. They have no eyelids, but some sharks have a transparent ‘nictitating membrane,’ which protects their eyes when attacking prey.

-The black spots on a shark’s snout, ampullae of lorenzini, are tiny electrical sense organs that help it to find prey even it complete darkness! Isn’t that awesome!

• Thousands of sharks are killed every year for their valuable fins, which are then dried up and made into shark-fin soup! The body of the shark is often discarded while the shark is still alive.

These are just a few of the many amazing facts about sharks, and I am definitely going to do some more research about our human impact on sharks and how we can help stop people from eating shark-fin soup!

        All information about sharks from this post has come from the the book called Ocean, The World's Last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum Of Natural History.

    Picture by: www.dailymail.co.uk

                                                  Amazing. This is a great white (or white shark) trying to catch a seal snack. Many times a seal is able to evade the powerful jaws of this humungous predator, but not always.

Water Waste!

'It's always too early to quit.'

Some catch phrases that I think might be helpful when in the ocean:

1. Holy mackerel! 

                                                                                                                     

2. For the halibut!

3. What the whale?!

So a couple of days ago I was in Atlanta, Georgia. We were there because my parents’ second Chai Pani (restaurant) was there, and they had to hold a staff training meeting with a bunch of new employees. We stayed in a nice hotel that was in Midtown. But even though some hotels can be amazing nice and beautiful, there are a few large downsides that many people seem to overlook when staying at nice hotels. And these are TOWELS and SHEETS 

Towels and Sheets: Okay, let me explain further. So when you go to a hotel, they usually have a few towels set out in the bathroom, and sheets on your bed upon your arrival. But the hotel most likely has a towel/sheet service that will automatically clean your sheets and towels everyday- even if you haven’t touched your towel yet! So as you can see, this causes an unnessicary major waste of water! But the good news is that some hotels let you choose whether or not to have your towels and sheets cleaned. So when you go to stay at a hotel, be sure that you waste as little water as possible!

Help save resources!

                                          Photo by: www.penninewaterways.co.uk

                       This is a reservoir! Many reservoirs nowadays are low in water because of drought and lack of conservation -  we need all of us to help raise the water level!

Also, I edited my blog so that it is now much easier for anyone to both comment and sign up follow it; so check it out!                                    

Beach Awareness

'She turned her can'ts into cans and her dreams into plans'

~Kate Yamado

A few months ago, in April, I went to Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina, during my school's Spring Break. When I was there, I went to the beach at least once a day. Anyone who's ever been to a decent beach would know just how spectacular beaches can be. The beach that I went to was amazing, and I go there a few times a year. But, despite its beach-ly beauty, serenity, calm presence, there was something entirely unsettling about it. And I bet you can guess what that was ( if you've been reading my latest posts). Yep, you guessed it- pollution. Everywhere along the pristine sandy shores there is trash, which = a hazard to marine life. Some of the things that are extremely bad to the wonderful sea and its amazing creatures are:

Plastic Bags: Extremely bad! Sea turtles can choke on, and will mistake a dangerous plastic bag for a delicious jellyfish! 

Plastic Pellets: Marine birds will wrongly exchange one of these death-baring pellets for a crab or another type of food, and try to eat it. In the late 1970’s, when it was first discovered that medical waste, trash, and plastics were very harmful to marine life, marine birds could be cut open only to find a piece of plastic inside their stomachs! Very dangerous!

Straw Wrappers And Other Trash: Like I said before, marine life will take a plastic straw wrapper instead of a scrumptious fish, and it will kill them!

I stood there on the beach, flabbergasted and outraged at everything I was seeing. Who would litter a perfectly good beach? And why? So that they wouldn’t have to walk to the nearest trash can to throw their trash away?                          

Since I was to be going to the beach at least once a day for the next week or so, I decided to do something. Gathering some of my friends {Pia Kleiner, Ben Goodrum)(who had come with me}, we grabbed trash bags, gloves (as so that we wouldn’t spread bacteria or other germs), and got to work!

We spread out along the beach, picking up any pieces of trash or plastics that we saw!

                      Picture by Molly Irani

It was so much fun, and I felt great, knowing that I was helping to contribute to the gigantic act that is called saving our planet!

How can you help save our planet? Let me know by commenting on this post - your comment could be used in my next post! And comment on any of the others if you have questions! I want to hear what you have to say! Also, I will be posting daily, so please, you're welcome to follow my blog to get alerted whenever I post something knew! (You can sign up to follow 'A Whale Of An Idea' at the very bottom of my blog, where my first post is)!

So please remember to be alert and aware when you're making decisions that can, and will effect our Earth - you are the best hope we have! And a good rule that one of my old teachers used to tell us is:

'What would happen if everyone did this?' and this is important because if everybody littered, what would happen to our world? It would be DESTROYED!!!!!                                                           

Reuse and Recycle!!!

'I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.'

~Louisa May Alcott


Doctors, surgeons, nurses, all of these help us to live longer, live healthier, and live better. But is it really them who does all the work, takes care of everything, fixes everybody? I mean, it's partially them of course, because they are the ones that perform all of the surgeries, stitches, shots, and blood tests. But I mean really. Because in my experience, what really fixes you are the syringes, needles, IV drips, and other medical tools that most, if not all hospitals use. But where, you wonder, do all of these tools go once they have been used or cannot be used any longer? How are they disposed of? Well I'll tell you......

In the late 1970's, medical waste was thrown into the sea without a second thought! Besides polluting our planet, the medical waste posed an extreme and severe threat to the amazing sea creatures that inhabit vast open ocean. Tons of plastic was later found in hundreds and probably thousands of marine birds, for they often mistake plastic pellets for crabs ( yes, there are crabs with small wings that fly underwater - very cool!), or other food, and eat them. Many birds have been found dead with plastic in their stomachs!!! 

Today, one of my friends, Cassie, commented on my post called Inhumane Fishing Is Wrong! This is what she said:

'Thank you Aria. I was an offshore lobster women in the 1970's and back then they thought it was a good idea to dump medical waste offshore. You can only imagine how horrible that was. We were pulling used syringes, IV plastic bags and tubes, empty medicine bottles, etc. up in our traps. It took people like you, that made posters and raised the consciousness of others, for them to stop. So thank you. I love your blog! <3  Cassie'

So even though we aren't throwing as much medical waste into the oceans as we used to - we still throw our trash onto the beach sometimes, or somehow medical waste still ends up out at sea. Maybe not as much, but still enough. So think to yourself - the next time you see a piece of trash or plastic just lying on the ocean's sandy shores - PICK IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!! Do something! Don't just stand there as you watch it drift out to sea, only to be digested by a hungry sea turtle! Your picking it up will make a difference and HELP SAVE OUR PLANET! 

Picture take by MBC Applied Environmental Sciences

Whale Welfare

'To live will be an awfully big adventure'

~J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan


I named my blog ' A Whale Of An Idea' because I absolutely adore whales. Humpback whales, Orca whales, Blue whales, Northern Right whales, Bowhead whales, Gray whales, Minke whales, and more. I just love whales!

So you can probably imagine how entirely outraged I was when I found out that whales are hunted for their meat and other body parts! The oil from their bodies has been used to make lipstick, margarine, and shoe polish! And their blubber is used to make the oil in lamps and candles and soaps!-wait, it gets worse.....

In the 9th century the terrible practice of hunting whales began, and Spain undertook the first organized whale hunt. By the 20th century, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States, Norway, France, Germany, and Britain had all begun to kill large numbers of this poor and innocent creature! Because of this, certain species of whales were hunted so much that their numbers had began to decline, and there were fewer whales then there had been before. 

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was formed in 1946 to address the growing threats to whales. They decided to create three categories: Commercial, Scientific, and Aboriginal Subsistence.

-With Commercial Whaling, whales are killed for their meat and parts!

-For Scientific Whaling, the whales are killed so that they can be studied, catalogued, and their information put into research!

-Aboriginal Subsistence is the whaling carried out by native cultures, such as the Native Americans in the United States, and these groups of people are given certain rights to hunt whales based upon their cultural history and whale meat dependence.

Because of the danger of extinction facing many whale species, the IWC voted to suspend all commercial whaling beginning in the year 1986, but despite this international agreement, several countries, including Norway, Iceland, and Japan, have continued killing whales and selling their meat and parts!

Whales are most often killed using a weapon called a harpoon, which has a grenade attached to it so that it explodes when the harpoon enters the body of the whale. It can take a very long time for some whales to die, which can cause additional suffering for the poor creature - and for what? So that some wealthy person can wear whale-skin boots?!

I honestly have no idea how someone could be so cruel as to let harmless mammals die!!!!!!!! We need to do something about this- and now!

'If not us, who? If not now, when?'

'Be the change you wish to see in the world'
~Gandhi

Random Fact: did you know that mature male humpback whales sing? The produce the longest, most complex sound sequence of any animal, with each song lasting up to 30 minutes! To sing, the whale vibrates air inside itself, but exactly how is not known, for whales do not have vocal cords!

Also, did you know that the North Atlantic Right whale is the most endangered large whale in the world, and there are less than 350 of them surviving today! It got its name, the 'right' whale, because it was said to be the 'right' whale to catch, due to its slow speed and tendency to stay close to the surface.

    Picture by Humpback stellwagen edit.jpg

                                     This is a Humpback Whale! Incredible, right?

The Magnificent Bottle-nose Dolphin!

'"Good morning! said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean" he said. Do you wish me a good morning or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"'

~The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Ever wish that you could be both awake and asleep at the same time? -Well guess who can? :

During the 8-10 hour sleep cycle of a bottlenose dolphin, one brain hemisphere remains active to handle the surfacing and breathing behavior, while the other hemisphere shuts down (goes to sleep)!

Wow. That's amazing! I definitely want to learn more about this intriguing fact that is just one of the many reasons as to why dolphins are so special and unique!

The bottlenose dolphin lives in coastal waters and open oceans, and is distributed in temperate and tropical regions all over the world. It can weigh up to 1,450 pounds! (650 kg), and is 6 1/2 - 10 ft (2-3 m) in length. Bottlenose dolphins are often a popular attraction in marine aquariums, and are naturally playful with both other dolphins and humans alike. Like other dolphins, these beautiful aquatic mammals locate their prey using echolocation, but they also use sound to communicate, using a complex array of whistles, clicks, and squeaks. As I said before, dolphins are truly amazing creatures with their own distinct personality, and are personally one of my favorite sea creatures......

   Picture by: BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                                                                Wow. Look at that magnificent bottle nose dolphin!


Joke: Why do seagulls fly over the sea?

Answer: Because if they flew over the bay the'd be bay-gulls! (bagels).

The Dangerous Beaked Sea Snake

'I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night'

~Sarah Williams


Hey, so some people love snakes and some people don't. I personally do not and have not ever liked snakes; they just look scary, vicious, cold, slimy, slithery, and creepy to me! And for the people who do like snakes: you are totally entitled to your opinion and that choice! But for the people who don't like snakes that much (aka me), just wanted to let you know that with some snakes it is actually great if we stay away from them. Such snakes as the Beaked Sea Snake, who's venom can kill up to 50 people! That's a lot of people!

The Beaked Sea Snake lives in shallow inshore waters, is distributed in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, from Persian Gulf to Northern Australia, weighs up to 4 1/2 pounds (2 kg), and is 3 1/4 - 5 ft (1-1.5 m) in length. Notoriously aggressive and readily provoked, this widespread species is responsible for nine out of every ten deaths from sea-snake bites. Light gray with indistinct  blue-gray bands, it has a sharply pointed head, slender body, and padre-like tail. It's fangs are less than 1/5
(4 mm) in length, but it's jaws can age widely to accommodate large prey. It feeds mainly on catfish and shrimp swimming near the bottom in shallow, murky water, in costal waters, mangrove swamps, estuaries, and rivers, locating its victims by smell and touch. Like all fish-eating snakes, it waits until its prey has stopped struggling, before turning it so that it can be consumed head-first. Despite their venom, these snakes are eaten by inshore predators, such as fish and estuarine crocodiles.

-All information on my post about the beaked sea snake is found from p.378 in Ocean The World's last Wilderness Revealed, American Museum of Natural History

Picture on top by: Ocean, The World's Last Wilderness Revealed (American Museum Of Natural History).

Inhumane Fishing Is Wrong!

'Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat'

~F. Scott Fitzgerald


Hey! Today I finished a poster I was working on about inhumane fishing and it's effects on marine birds and sea creatures. I'll {most likely} put it up around downtown Asheville and thought I'd share it with all of you first!

Fact: Did you guys know that it was first observed that plastic pollution was very hazardous in the late 1970's when scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory concluded that plastic entanglement was killing up to 40,000 seals a year . Annually this amounted to a 4 to 6 percent drop in seal population beginning in 1976.

Also, did you know that thousands of marine birds drown helplessly every day, for diving birds often have difficulty seeing plastic netting underwater and often become trapped ;-()

Now here's my poster......

About Me, Aria

'Don't let 1 cloud obliterate the whole sky.'

~Anaïs Nin

Hi! My name is Aria and I am a rising 7th grader. Most of my life I have wanted to become both a marine biologist and astronomer, and have always loved the ocean and space which to me are both mysterious, and somewhat magical. I have always loved learning about the vast open oceans around us and the creatures that live within, and so this is why I have started this blog: so that I can share all of my knowledge, fun facts, questions, and theories with everyone reading this!

I love to read, be with dogs, bake, and travel throughout the world, and have been to countries such as India (3 times, because it is where I was born), Australia, Rome, Italy, England, and will be going to Mexico in less than 2 weeks! Traveling is so much fun for me because I get to explore all different parts of the world and experience things that I would never get to experience in America and that many kids don't get to. For me, the oceans are endless; a bottomless pit of adventure just waiting to be discovered. Only a very few people have been able to truly learn and explore the oceans (in comparison to the human population), but no amount of research could ever unveil everything there is to know and find out about the sea....... I love everything there is about the oceans, and I am excited to learn more!