Category: Ocean Critters
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It’s a long wait for Nemo
The good people at the Disney corporation have made sure we all know who this fish is. Of course it’s Nemo aka the clown anemone fish, (Amphiprion percula). But there are some details the movie-makers left out – and let’s face it, they…
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2011 underwater photo contest winners
Presenting the winner (best overall) of the University of Miami’s RSMAS 2011 Underwater Photography contest. Shown are two tiny gobies (Bryaninops natans), representatives of the family that contains some of the smallest vertebrates on earth (although the grand prize for smallest on earth goes to Paedocypris progenetica, a minute relative of carp, measuring less than…
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How to catch a basking shark
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dSItrbH0k&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] Rare film footage of a basking shark being caught by Norwegian fishermen in the 1970s (Warning – it gets a little bit bloody). As the film shows, catching a basking shark is not really something to be proud of (especially if you have a harpoon gun to hand). It’s easy: just sneak up behind…
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Smile! It’s a beautiful day on the reef.
No it’s not the Joker, nor one of the Insane Clown Posse. This is the actual face of a real live parrotfish, up close and personal. These abundant herbivores use their toothy beak to munch algae from the reef, thus keeping the substrate clean for baby corals to get a foothold, but also eroding the…
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Rock-eyed limpets
A simple mollusk appears to use hundreds of eye-like structures made of a calcium carbonate crystal to scope out potential predators and to protect itself against being eaten. The “eyes” of the three-inch-long mollusks, called chitons, have lenses made of aragonite, a type of rock. It’s the first time scientists have found an animal that…
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Social shrimp: Discovery of new species and a new family tree
Of all the wondrous creatures of the sea, only a small handful of inconspicuous shrimps have risen to the pinnacle of social life shared by the ants and honeybees with their large, organized, and cooperative colonies, the condition known as “eusociality”. Because of their retiring habits—making their homes in tunnels within living sponges—and the devilish…
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Introducing Carl Safina, the bluefin tuna
At the end of every Naked Oceans podcast there’s a bit where we ask a marine expert “If you were a marine critter, which would you be, and why…?” We’re nearing the end of our first series of podcasts and we’ve had all sorts of great species added to our Critter of the Month hall…
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A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9o4VnfHJU[/youtube]
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How to measure a shark
Q. How do you measure a live, free-swimming shark? A. From a distance. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? You can’t easily swim up and lay out a tape measure alongside them from snout to tail. But with all the tricks of light bending on its way through water and air and the inevitable BIG FISH tales,…
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Fluffy Penguins
Penguins are atop most folks’ AWW (Adorable Waterfowl of the World) lists. Well listen, y’all, I’m here to set the record straight. I’ve come nose-to-beak with more than a few penguins during my time in the Antarctic, and I want the northern hemisphere to know that these waterbirds are a force to be reckoned with.…