Juli Berwald

Austin

Science Writer and Editor at Freelance

I often dream of jellyfish, and coral reefs too. And I'm writing science limericks over at @juliwritespoems.

Articles

Jace Tunnell Is the Beachcombing King of Texas

Oct 28, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Juli Berwald |Rose Cahalan

“The goal for today is to make it all the way to the thirty-mile marker,” said Jace Tunnell, as the tangerine rays of the sun rose over the entrance to Padre Island National Seashore, painting the flat ocean and tawny beach in terra-cotta. “There’s a signpost down there where the creepy dolls are.”For the past eight years, Tunnell has traveled the shoreline of Corpus Christi each week by four-wheel-drive truck or electric bike, searching for sea-soaked treasures.
A Critical Moment for Corals

Aug 30, 2024 | nautil.us | Juli Berwald

It’s a steamy summernight a few hours after sunset anywhere in the tropics. A few days ago, the full moon rose above the ocean and, like the final piece of a puzzle clicking into place, it set in motion the most consequential event in the life of a coral: sending offspring into the future. Like us, coral are animals. But stuck to the seafloor they can’t go out and find a mate.
A Radical Rescue for Caribbean Reefs

May 1, 2024 | nautil.us | Juli Berwald

It’s an all-too-familiar headline: Coral reefs are in crisis. Indeed, in the past 50 years, roughly half of Earth’s coral reefs have died. Coral ecosystems are among the most biodiverse and valuable places on Earth, supporting upward of 860,000 species and a great deal of human well-being—but warming waters are an existential threat. And nowhere are reefs suffering more than in the Caribbean.
What If Texas Kids Got Spring Vacation Instead of Summer?

Sep 18, 2023 | texasmonthly.com | Juli Berwald |Rose Cahalan

Back in the aughts, after living in sunny Southern California and balmy Central Texas for almost two decades, our family moved to Chicago for my husband’s job. We arrived on the first day of December, and the temperatures were bitter. Adapting to life in a new climate was difficult. With a toddler to wrangle and a baby on the way, we were dismayed to discover that gearing up in coats, mittens, hats, boots, and scarves to leave the house took ages.
Efforts to Bring Back the Caribbean Reef Shark May Become a Conservation Success Story

Sep 1, 2023 | smithsonianmag.com | Juli Berwald

It carries itself with classic elegance, a nine-foot-long torpedo with tapered fins. Like their oceangoing cousins, Caribbean reef sharks swim fast to force water through their mouths and over their gills so they can take in oxygen.
Whale Sharks Near Texas? A Rare Sighting Thrills Fishermen and Scientists

Aug 29, 2023 | texasmonthly.com | Juli Berwald |Rose Cahalan

On August 13, the crew members of Gulf Magic, a charter fishing boat based in Port Aransas, had just decided to move from their fishing spot near an oil platform about six miles offshore from Port A. They were in about fifty feet of water when Captain Addison Smith saw an unusually large dark shadow. It was just an instant before he and his friend and crewmate Alexus Broome realized they’d been paid a visit by the biggest fish in the world: a whale shark.
One of the World’s Rarest Whales Swims off the Texas Coast. Only About Fifty Are Left.

Aug 7, 2023 | texasmonthly.com | Juli Berwald |Rose Cahalan

When Texans think about what they might find in the Gulf of Mexico, whales aren’t usually top of mind. Unlike other large marine fauna, such as dolphins and sea turtles, whales are rarely seen from Texas beaches. One reason might be our gentle seafloor slope, which puts deepwater habitats farther from land than they are in many regions of the Atlantic and Pacific. But the massive cetaceans are out there. As many as twenty species swim in our local sea.
Texas’s Biggest Coastal Wildlife Rescue Center Is Now Open in Corpus Christi

Mar 2, 2023 | texasmonthly.com | Juli Berwald |Rose Cahalan
The Algae That Might Save Earth’s Coral Reefs

Feb 1, 2023 | nautil.us | Juli Berwald
The Mystery of the Healthy Coral Reef

Jan 18, 2023 | nautil.us | Juli Berwald