two people crouched down on the rocky shore, surveying seaweed. There are dark grey rain clouds in the distance
It's #EarthDay2026 🌍
You can find out more about the work @thembauk.bsky.social is doing to increase our understand our ocean habitats and ecology at www.mba.ac.uk/newsroom/
A leisurely Wednesday lunch for this fussy little diner 🦀
Another brilliant video from @paulnaylormarinephoto
#spidercrab #ukmarinelife #marineconservation #underwatervideo
It's also #WorldCurlewDay!
What a wonderful illustration this is ⬇️
black and white drawing of the quote American manatee Manatus americanus from life end quote.
of course! how could we forget the manatee 🤦♀️
Thank you @annroberts.bsky.social
Illustration from 'An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct' by W.H. Flower & R. Lydekker, 1891
📖BL.95/F
Anyone know of marine species named (common or scientific) after tea? Asking for a friend
#NationalTeaDay 🫖
Colour illustrations fo four adult puffins and one puffling. The adult puffin in the foreground is holding a beakfull of small fish.
Well this is auks - we've just found out it's #WorldPuffinDay
Please enjoy this charming illustration of Atlantic puffins out and about on some clifftop nests.
📖BL.90/K: The British Bird Book. An account of all the birds, nests and eggs found in the British Isles. Vol 3. F.B Kirkman 1912
Handwritten diary page dated November 8–9, 1888, with a highlighted passage mentioning "Whitechapel" and murders.
For this month's @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social theme of #EYACrime we have found this diary entry written by Walter Garstang in 1888, noting his distress in hearing 'newsboys filling the streets with cries of "another murder in Whitechapel" '
📷PGA1.2
Stunning 😍 and we’ve recently added book about nudibranchs to our collection 😎
📖 BL.48/P
Cropped image from an open book, showing an illustration of a unicorn in side profile, holding up one hoof.
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the unicorns, for today is their special day!
To celebrate National Unicorn Day, here's an illustration of a unicorn from 'Curious Creatures in Zoology' (1890) by John Ashton.
📷 Reserve 398.369 ASH
#NationalUnicornDay #UnicornDay #RareBooks
Illustrations of a bottlenose whale (top) and a narwhal (bottom)
It's #NationalUnicornDay 🦄
Here's an illustration (bottom) from Cuvier's 'De l'histoire naturelle des cetaces' (1836) of the 'unicorn of the sea' - the narwhal!
Both volumes of this work (text & atlas) can be found in the rare books room in the library @thembauk.bsky.social
📖BL.95/C
We know, but we'll never tell🫢
What are the emerging issues & opportunities that may impact the UK marine and coastal environment and its ability to deliver ecological, climate, social, & economic outcomes over the next 25 years?
Please share your thoughts for this horizon scan by commenting below or messaging me. Pls share 🙏
Thank you for sharing - we are definitely out of our depth when it comes to beaver biology!
Cropped image from a book showing a colour illustration of a beaver in side profile, standing on grass next to a body of water. It has a stocky body, a brown glossy coat, short legs with webbed toes, and a flat hairless tail.
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the beavers, for today is their special day!
To celebrate International Beaver Day, here's an illustration from 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
📷 Reserve 590 BUF
#InternationalBeaverDay #BeaverDay #RareBooks
very demure, very mindful
We think it's an illustration of a male for - reasons - but perhaps they were trying to visually explain the presence of castor glands 🤷♀️ Quite frankly we don't need to know
Black and white illustration of a beaver, posed on its back with its mouth open
It's time to celebrate our fuzzy semi-aquatic habitat engineers as today is #InternationalBeaverDay 🦫
This illustration is from volume two of Rondelet's history of aquatic animals, 1554.
📷BL.65/R
Aaww, thank you so much, you've made our day😊
ooh we totally should have done that! Chocolate would have been our choice 😊
Thank you 😊
Photograph of the cover page of the 'Report of the meeting held in the rooms of the Royal Society on March 31st 1884, for the purpose of forming a society for the biological investigation of the coasts of the United Kingdom'
Happy Birthday to us! We look pretty good for being 142 years young 🥳
📷MBA Minute Books
Your colourful dude is perhaps a little pensive. But just as cool @exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social 😊
black and white drawing of the quote American manatee Manatus americanus from life end quote.
It's #ManateeAppreciationDay and we certainly do appreciate these aquatic mammals.
Please enjoy this illustration from 'An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct' by W.H. Flower & R. Lydekker, 1891
📖BL.95/F
BRB we're off to look for manatees!
Also petition for a manatee emoji because how cute would that be
#OTD in 1908 Dr Mary Parke was born. A pioneering phycologist - you can read about her work through a collaborative blog post we did with @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social in 2024
colour illustration of two grey seals hauled out on a rock
It's #InternationalDayOfTheSeal and #WorldWaterDay so please enjoy this illustration of grey seals by the water 🦭 🌊
📖 BL.95/M volume 1 of 'The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland' by J.G Millais, 1904
A page in a book, with an illustration of a basket on top of seashells and urchins. there are dried seaweeds in the basked and below is a poem that says 'Not the spoils of conquered seas, Ocean's willing off'rings these! From her treasure-house not riven, But of her abundance given. Types of that exhaustless store, Mortal mind may ne'er explore'
Roses are red,
The sea is blue,
It's #WorldPoetryDay
So he's a photo for you
📖 BK.5/H 'Ocean Flowers and their Teachings' by M.M. Howard, 1846
Well, we got close. We have found an illustration of Lepus anserifera from 'A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species' by Darwin, 1851.
📖BL.42/D
If you mumble it fast enough they sound the same 🤷♀️
#TrickyTaxonThursday
A photograph of a person in the library, looking at books on the shelves. The text overlay reads volunteer at the National Marine Biological Library
We’re looking for new volunteers to join our current dedicated crew. If you’re interested in supporting us with a range of library and archive activities please get in contact with us.
Full details and contact form can be found at buff.ly/Dg4OQxZ
📚 WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES 🌿
The creative workshop is now sold out, but there are still spaces available for the author talk with A Flat Place author
@noreenmasud.bsky.social!
📅 26 March 2026
📍 University of Exeter (Streatham)
⬇️ Find out more!
@swrls.bsky.social @literatureworks.bsky.social
