Plus, coronavirus still stumps experts; Indigenous women are going missing; get ready for the worm moon, the spring equinox, and Nowruz
| Wednesday, March 16, 2022 | |
| In today’s newsletter, the mysterious world of seahorses; why the coronavirus still stumps disease experts; prepare for a longer allergy season; … and get ready for the worm moon, the spring equinox, and Nowruz. | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO BY DAVID LIITTSCHWAGER | | By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS executive editor
The head of a horse, the independent swivel-eyes of a chameleon, the pouch of a kangaroo, and the prehensile tail of a monkey: Meet the seahorse.
Oh, it also doesn’t have a stomach. Or scales. And the males give birth instead of the females (shown above).
We all know what seahorses are, Jennifer Holland writes. But we don’t really know what they’re about. Where all do they live, exactly? And how are they doing?
Not knowing these answers is a problem for a fish that’s so exploited, she says. Commercial fishing operations scoop up at least 76 million seahorses a year, and some 80 countries are involved in trading them, according to estimates from the conservation group Project Seahorse. They’re usually caught by accident—mixed in with the more valuable target fish—but then they’re set aside and dried, to be sold for traditional medicine or trinkets.
See the amazing diversity of seahorses here—and learn what we do know about seahorses.
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| Pictured above, a pair of lined seahorses holding each other by the tail.
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| The towers are showing: If California’s Mono Lake were deeper, you might not see these columns (above, at sunset) The lake has no outlet, which causes salts to accumulate as the water evaporates, exposing these incredible formations. The lake is an important habitat for two million migratory birds. In 1913 Los Angeles began diverting water from the lake, lowering the water level and endangering the habitat. In 1994, California ordered Mono Lake to be protected, and the lake level began rising—though the past few years of drought have slowed that initiative. Nat Geo often has focused on world water supplies at risk, including this story on the Great Lakes.
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 | | ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS | | The worm moon? That’s another name for March’s full moon, rising in the east after sunset Thursday. It symbolizes the changing of the seasons, getting its name from earthworms that appear in the thawing soil this time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. (Here are nicknames for the other full moons of the year.) When the sky darkens, also look for the moon near the stars of the constellation Leo, including Regulus (shown above). If you look carefully, you’ll notice the moon forms a triangle pattern with orange Arcturus and blue Spica. By nightfall Saturday, the waning gibbous moon will sit alongside Spica in Virgo, the maiden constellation. Not enough moon? Here’s our latest lunar map.— Andrew Fazekas
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY AMBER BRACKEN | | No justice: Thousands of Indigenous women in the U.S. have gone missing in recent decades, some of them slain, and authorities often have done little to investigate the crimes. Now families and community members are demanding justice—and greater recognition by mainstream society. “If these were white women, would it be different?” asked Blythe George, a member of the Yurok Tribe. Pictured above, Christina Lastra holds a picture of her mother, Alicia Lara, in her northern California home. Despite an autopsy indicating she’d been killed, Lara’s death was ruled an accident. “No justice was ever done,” Lastra told Nat Geo.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY BABAK TAFRESHI | | ‘The stars are my friends’: In this image, photographer Babak Tafreshi combines his love of the stars with his family’s Persian history. Tafreshi speaks on the just-posted latest episode of our Overheard podcast, dedicated to this weekend’s Iranian New Year’s holiday of Nowruz, which itself combines stars, science, and poetry. Pictured in this long-exposure view above, Tafreshi captures stars parading over 2,500-year-old tombs in Naqsh-e Rustam, burial place of Persian kings, near Persepolis, Iran. The star trails captured show the constellation Perseus (upper right) and the star cluster Pleiades (right edge).
Related video: Why the equinox ushers in spring
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This newsletter has been curated and edited by Monica Williams, David Beard, and Jen Tse. Have an idea or a link? We'd love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. | |
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