Lowtide
The sturgeon’s roe (eggs) have been eaten since the 13th century.
The sterlet is a sturgeon small enough
to be kept in an aquarium. It produces the famed “gold” caviar, and prior to World War I, this delicacy was reserved only for the Russian Imperial Court.
Caviar is from Turkish and means “bearing eggs”.
Caviar came into English in the
sixteenth century by way of French and Italian, which borrowed it from the Turkish havyar, which in turn is from the Persian khayah. Incidentally, the native Russian word for caviar is ikra.
Besides caviar, sturgeon also provide
isinglass, a gelatinous material taken from the swim bladder that’s used as an adhesive.
The Portuguese man-of-war was
derisively named by the English in the 18th century, when the once powerful Portuguese navy had gone into decline.
Across 1 Remove a sail from a stay or spar 4 Kept afloat 9 Light anchor 11 Mop 13 Exists 15 Infrared, abbr. 16 Load cargo again 18 They are used to form the hull of a wooden boat
21 Branching waterway from a harbor or bar
23 Lowest point of the ocean between crests
25 Form of address 26 Before now 28 Sure-footed mammal 30 Fore part of a ship 31 Huge sea swell caused by an earthquake
32 Ignited 33 17th century ship armed with cannons (three words)
35 “See ya” 36 Center of a storm 37 Go for the gold?
48° NORTH, DECEMBER 2010 PAGE 22
38 It is used to measure the speed of the vessel through the water 39 High ranking naval officers
Down 1 With anchor free of the bottom 2 Long strips of reinforcing canvas sewn on sails at greatest points of strain 3 “The Matrix” main man
The first writing ink was made from pigment found in an octopus’s ink sac.
The ink from octopus and squid is
called sepia. Beluga whales begin life with a dark
gray color, but by age six they become creamy white.
Female belugas can live for 100 years.
Aquariums have only learned to maintain beluga whales since 1961.
In 1998, Gay Head Lighthouse
on Martha’s Vineyard was changed to its original Native American name, Aquinnah.
Nautical Crossword 5
6 Raised
7 Name 8
Going off course “___ alive!”
10 Tear 12 Flood vessel 14 Causes an obstruction (two words)
17 Following behind (two words) 19 People rescued after a shipwreck
20 A place where boats are built, maintained or stored
22 “Ancient” sailor 24 Ship 27 A __ __ guy (someone you can rely on)
29 Dock for small yachts and cabin cruisers
30 Beach, in Spanish 33 European sea, for short 34 Distance measurement (abbr.) 35 Mercury or Saturn 37 Number related to a circle’s circumference
solution on page 59 Humpback whales’ flippers can be Some rays give birth to live young,
while others produce brownish egg cases, known as mermaids’ purses.
The basking shark is the second-
largest fish in the world after the whale shark.
16 feet long. The orca sports 20 to 26 conical
teeth in each jaw. Iceland is the largest volcanic island
in the world. Dungeness Spit, jutting out more than
five miles from the OlympicPeninsula in Washington State, is thought to be the world’s longest natural sand spit.
Oregon National Dunes, extending
along the Oregon coast between the Sislaw and Coos Rivers, is the largest area of coastal sand dunes in North America.
MARITIME TRIVIA BY BRYAN HENRY
During their 5,000-mile northbound
migration to the Arctic, gray whales average around 50 miles a day.
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