#MarineWildlife - 2014 brought us some offbeat marine wildlife stories on Afloat.ie, from a sea lion leaping onto a speedboat to nab himself a fish, to a French 'bad boy' dolphin's tour of Ireland's west coast.
We also learned that whale poo could be the key to combating climate change, and who can forget the giant 'shrimp' pulled from Florida's waters, or the surfing pig making waves in Hawaii?
But there some other weird and wonderful discoveries that we missed. Take for instance the strange mushroom-shaped 'living fossils' found in deep water off Australia over the summer, according to Discovery News.
Two species of the barnacle-like organisms were discovered by researchers from the University of Copenhagen living more than 3,000 feet below sea level, and "represent an early branch on the tree of life".
More recently, culture blog Boing Boing shares a video of conjoined Pacific gray whale calves that washed ashore in Mexico, a popular birthing ground for the species safe from their main predator, the orca.
Still, as exiting as these events are, the day-to-day work for most marine science experts is more down to earth but no less important, as marine biologist Monica McLaird gives an account of her average day's work to Lisburn Today.