Sea otter

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on October 31, 2014

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a member of the weasel family that ran away to sea. It is the smallest of the marine mammals and the only one that does not rely on fat (blubber) for warmth. Rather, it has the thickest coat of fur of any mammal – up to one million strands of hair per square inch.

Akademik Lomonosov

Posted to Maritime Musings (by Dennis Bryant) on October 25, 2013

The Akademik Lomonosov is a large (474 feet long by 98 feet wide) barge being constructed in St. Petersburg, Russia as a nuclear power plant. It is named after the scientist and writer Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), who, among other things, discovered the atmosphere of Venus and was a noted poet.