
WRITER Tara Haelle
Beaked whales are among the hardest whale species to find because they dive deeper than any other mammal (some reaching almost 10,000 feet deep), they only surface for a couple […]


The Marine Science Institute’s monthly column, Science and the SeaTM, is an informative and entertaining article that explains many interesting features of the marine environment and the creatures that live there. Science and the SeaTM articles appear monthly in one of Texas’ most widely read fishing magazines, Texas Saltwater Fishing, the Port Aransas South Jetty newspaper, the Flour Bluff News, the Island Moon newspaper, and the Padre Island & Port A Living magazine. Our article archive is available also on our website.

WRITER Tara Haelle
Beaked whales are among the hardest whale species to find because they dive deeper than any other mammal (some reaching almost 10,000 feet deep), they only surface for a couple […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
You’ve heard of the Death Star weapon in Star Wars, but have you heard of the carnivorous death ball sponge in the South Atlantic Ocean? The predatory sponge is one […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
So much of the ocean remains undiscovered because it is so difficult to reach, but the sea revealed more of its secrets in July 2017, when an iceberg nearly the […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
The ocean can be a dangerous place for juvenile fish, but researchers recently discovered a way some of them ward off predators—carrying around a baby. A baby anemone, that is. […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
For years, few scientists have devoted much time to studying Arctic diatoms, single-celled algae enclosed within a wall of glass-like silica. These bizarre organisms, after all, appeared frozen in the […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
Dental offices and beauty salons follow strict hygiene and sanitation guidelines to prevent the spread of germs among people coming in for a teeth cleaning or eyebrow wax. But the […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
Often, scientific research confirms what scientists already suspected, but other times, science reveals a twist that no one saw coming. That’s the kind of study that recently showed how much […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
Sometimes we consider a species rare because it truly is, whether because it’s endangered or simply because it naturally has sparse populations. But other times, a species may only appear […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
Sound travels farther in water than it does in the air, and acoustics are an important aspect of daily life for marine creatures ranging from whales to coral. In addition […]

WRITER Tara Haelle
It’s been 100 years since people discovered the existence of the colossal squid, known by its scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, when a scientist found pieces of two huge squids in […]