Raincoast Education Society
Shaping an environmentally sustainable future for the Clayoquot and Barkley Sound region through education and community stewardship
Introducing two unique gelatinous zooplankton and their roles in the ocean. Salps and pyrosomes are zooplankton – free floating animals that drift with the ocean currents. They are unique because they have gelatinous bodies, similar to cnidarian jellies, but unlike jellyfish they don’t have stingers and primarily consume phytoplankton. They are part of a group […]
Related to dull-colored, garden-munching land slugs, “naked gilled” sea slugs (nudibranchs) are some of the most colorful and charismatic inhabitants of the marine world. They come in all different shapes and sizes – as small as a grain of rice or as large as a loaf of bread - yet these animals have no commercial […]
Little Known Giant: The life history of the world's largest amphibians The giant salamanders in the Family Cryptobranchidae represent the largest amphibians in the world. Five giant salamander species are currently recognized, all of which are of conservation concern. Over the past decade, I have studied the Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus) and the eastern […]