What’s the difference between cold-blooded and warm-blooded? The animal kingdom can be split based on how body temperature is controlled (thermoregulation): ‘cold-blooded’ ectotherms use external sources of heat, such as solar energy, whereas ‘warm-blooded’ endotherms generate internal heat via metabolism. But while this difference helps define features and behaviour, some species show that the distinction […]
Tag: mackerel
It’s as big as a Ford transit van, can reach speeds of 50kph and can detect blood from a gobsmacking 3 miles away…
The great white shark is the only extant species in the genus Carcharodon and the largest predatory fish in the world. Why are they called great white sharks? Great white sharks belong to the family Lamnidae, which also includes porbeagle sharks, salmon sharks and mako sharks, which are the fastest shark in the ocean. A type of mackerel […]
‘A national scandal’: trawlers scour seabeds of supposedly protected UK waters
Almost 40% of England’s seas are designated as marine protected areas. Their purpose, the government says, is “to protect and recover rare threatened and important marine ecosystems … from damage caused by human activities”. And yet in the four years to 2024, trawlers using vast nets, including those that scour the seabed, caught more than 1.3m […]
As Oceans Warm, Predators Are Falling Out of Sync with Their Prey
For decades on the U.S. Mid-Atlantic coast, recreational anglers have braved the cold temperatures of late October and November to chase one of the region’s most iconic fish species, the striped bass. This season, just offshore of New Jersey and New York, the fall run was especially strong. “The amount of fish and [their size] […]