Barbara Taylor explains that the reason for Vaquitas’ near extinction is because they share a habitat with the highly sought-after Totoaba, a fish in high demand for their swim bladders. The vaquita get caught in the nets cast to catch these fish and drown in large numbers. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31329]

With speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and accelerations that are comparable to a .22 caliber bullet, the mantis shrimp strike is considered to be one of the fastest movements ever recorded in the animal kingdom. Join Scripps marine biologist Maya deVries as she describes her research on the biomechanics and ecology of this extremely fast strike and tells us how over 150 million years of evolution has led to the amazing diversity of striking behaviors seen across mantis shrimp. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 30922]

Barbara Taylor shares some rare footage of the Vaquita enjoying their natural habitat and explains why this dolphin in particular is shrouded in so much mystery, and how this weakens its chances of surviving overfishing. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31327]

Barbara Taylor explains that the reason for Vaquitas’ near extinction is because they share a habitat with the highly sought-after Totoaba, a fish in high demand for their swim bladders. The vaquita get caught in the nets cast to catch these fish and drown in large numbers. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31329]

Barbara Taylor expands on the gravity of the Vaquitas’ population dip. She discusses that the scientific data she and her team has received from tracking the density of Vaquita communication calls shows the situation is much more severe than they could have predicted. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31331]

Barbara Taylor shares some rare footage of the Vaquita enjoying their natural habitat and explains why this dolphin in particular is shrouded in so much mystery, and how this weakens its chances of surviving overfishing. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31327]

Barbara Taylor debunks the idea that Vaquita could be dying naturally and for reasons out of human’s control. She states that the only real and true cause for their extremely rapid decline is overfishing in their habitat. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 31326]

Barbara Taylor of the National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center, who participated in the last effort to save the recently extinct Chinese River Dolphin, or Baiji, gives a detailed chronicle of her involvement in documenting the decline of earth’s most endangered marine mammal, the Vaquita, found only in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. Their primary threat is death in gillnets, which until very recently supplied shrimp to the U.S. market. The catastrophic 80% decline since 2011 results from illegal sales of endangered totoaba swim bladders to China. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 30921]

Reef-building corals are generally located in low-nutrient environments. Their growth and health are strongly influenced by ocean turbulence, which facilitates the exchange of nutrients and larvae between the coastal region and the open ocean. Changes in climate also affect how contaminants are flushed from the coast and can have important implications for wave-induced storm surge as well as tsunami inundation. Focusing on coral reefs, Eugene Pawlak, associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego discusses the role of hydrodynamic processes, including internal waves and turbulence, in coastal environments. Pawlak is presented as part of the UC San Diego Founders Symposium 2014. Series: "UC San Diego Founders’ Symposium" [Science] [Show ID: 29031]

Southern California has been bracing for the effects of a strong El Niño year, with concerns about large surf, heavy rainfall, and coastal flooding on the minds of all of us who call the Southern California Coast home. Join us to learn about how El Nino is impacting our urban coastal zone and how coastal monitoring, including a community-based observing program, Urban Tides, is essential for informing how we adapt to rising seas. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 30659]