Temperatures across the Atlantic dipped so low during the 'bomb cyclone' that the ocean froze over in Massachusetts and one man captured footage of the astonishing scenes.

Ryan Canty posted a video to his YouTube channel showing his family joking around on top of frozen waves at Old Silver Beach in Falmouth.

Mr Canty said that his grandmother, who lives in the area, has only seen the ocean freeze over like this three times in the past 80 years.

Temperatures at Cape Cod plunged to lows of -4F on Saturday, and a day later on Sunday when the video was taken temperatures hovered around 21.2F.

The ocean waves are frozen solid to the point where people can easily walk across them without worrying about plunging into the icy depths.

Ocean water freezes at a lower temperature than plain water due to the salt content, freezing at around 28.4F. In the video, Mr Canty is heard saying that 'it looks like Antarctica right now'.


'Record breaking cold temperatures and bitterly cold wind chills will continue through the weekend over the eastern third of the nation.

The storm, known as the 'bomb cyclone', began three days ago in the Gulf of Mexico and first struck the Florida Panhandle.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto have vowed to try to save the vaquita marina porpoise, which could be extinct as soon as next year.

 The pair had clashed briefly last month when DiCaprio promoted the cause online, leading to defensive tweets from Pena Nieto.

But two were all smiles on Wednesday as they shook hands and signed a deal in which Mexico promised to protect the marine ecosystems of the Gulf of California and in particular the vaquita, which is found only there.

In May, DiCaprio asked his millions of Twitter and Instagram followers to call on Pena Nieto to do more to protect the world's smallest porpoise, of which less than 30 remain.

The Mexican president responded with what was, for him, an unprecedented flurry of seven tweets in English defending his government's efforts to save the creature.

'Mexico's government is making a major effort, doing what should have been done decades ago to save the Vaquita Marina,' he said in one of the tweets.


Now the government is doing more, in a plan is backed by DiCaprio's foundation and that of Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim.

Slim - the world's sixth-richest person, according to Forbes magazine - also signed the deal.


'Now more than ever, the world is looking for bold leadership at every level to tackle climate change and environmental conservation issues,' DiCaprio said in a statement.


'This action is a critical step towards ensuring that the Gulf of California continues to be both vibrant and productive, especially for species like the critically endangered vaquita.'

Scientists say they have discovered what might be a new species of octopus while searching the Pacific Ocean floor near the Hawaiian Islands.

 On February 27, a team found a small light-colored octopus at a depth of about 2.5 miles in the ocean near Necker Island, said Michael Vecchione of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The octopus did not have fins and all of its suckers were in one row on each arm, Mr Vecchione said.

The octopus "did not seem very muscular" and was light coloured, he said.

"This resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost certainly an undescribed species ..., " he said in the statement posted on Wednesday on the NOAA website.

It's unusual to find an octopus without fins so deep in the ocean, said Mr Vecchione, who noted that the previous depths at which an octopus without fins was found were all less than 4,000 metres, or 2.5 miles.


Two scientists he has consulted "agreed that this is something unusual and is a depth record," said Mr Vecchione, who is with NOAA's National Systematics Laboratory.

Photo Credit: NOAA

The octopus was discovered during a search of the ocean floor by a remotely operated vehicle from NOAA's Okeanos Explorer, he said.
 Source

Male White seahorse giving birth off of Little Beach in Nelson Bay, NSW, Australia.

Meagan Abele and Clayton Manning research seahorses for the global conservation group Project Seahorse in Australia. The pair of scientists were recently diving in Nelson Bay in New South Wales when they were lucky enough to spot a male pregnant Witei seahorse giving birth!

Do sea horses mate for life? They tend to bond for life but not always. In bonded pairs, when one dies the other will die soon after.

How many species of sea horses are there? 40+ Are seahorses endangered? Yes. There are 39 species of endangered seahorses on the IUCN Red List.


Why are sea horses endangered? Three factors account for the deaths of tens of millions of sea horses each year: the Chinese medicinal trade, accidental catch by shrimp trawling and other fishing operations, and habitat destruction.

What is unique about seahorse reproduction? The male gets impregnated by the female and stores the eggs in its brood pouch until they hatch in about 2-3 weeks.

Adorable Video Proves Seals Are The Puppies Of The Sea

Imagine swimming in the ocean when suddenly you're surrounded by creatures from the deep ... snuggly seals who just want to kiss your face, that is.

In this video uploaded to Facebook earlier this month, a group of divers got the best surprise ever when a bunch of friendly seals popped up to say hello and give kisses.

In fact, these seals might have been a little TOO friendly ...

It turns out seals are just huge cuddlebugs, and all they wanted to do was play with these new friends ... kind of like goofy, wet puppies. This isn't the first time friendly seals have introduced themselves to people — there's a seal on a French beach who loves to cuddle with unsuspecting dogs, and seal pups have been known to climb on top of people and snuggle if their mom's not around.
Source


The best place to see a happy seal is in the wild.

Video by @Julián Bala
Posted by Ocean Reality on Thursday, July 9, 2015

Could a teenager save the world's oceans? Student, 19, claims his invention could clean up the seas in just five years

Boyan Slat, 19, a Dutch teenager, has come up with an invention that just might help save our oceans from the modern plaque of plastic debris - something no-one else has been able to do yet.. The engineering student believes that once his device is operational, it could dramatically reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans in just five years time.

Currently millions of tons of plastic waste is littering the oceans and is directly killing millions of aquatic animals annually. But aside from the high toll of marine animal death it also spreads and introduces harmful algae and invasive species as well as man-made pollutants into the food chain. This is costing governments and organizations millions of dollars to clean up every year.

Slat came up with the idea of a series of floating booms and processing platforms designed to collect floating plastic rubbish. The 'ocean cleanup' concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like plankton and other marine animals to pass through unharmed, all the while saving the plastic materials to be recycled.

The booms act as giant funnels where the angle of the booms effectively 'suck' rubbish in. Once the debris enters the platforms, it will be filtered out of the water and eventually stored in containers until collected for recycling on land. The great advantage of using booms instead of nets is that marine life cannot be caught in them. This way oceans could clean themselves cheaply by harnessing currents.


In addition to cleaning the oceans, he also proposes fixing sea water processors to the sea bed, which are also attached to the floating platform so that the water can move through them and generate energy. Boyan Slat also believes his invention could make up to $500 million a year from recycling the waste collected, making it profitable too.

He still stresses that people need to do their part by continuing recycling, and reducing their consumption of plastic packaging. Slat has now set up The Ocean Cleanup Foundation to help raise funds to develop his innovation. We wish him well.