rabs in the laboratory have also noticed that the crab uses this decoration for food when it can't find anything else to eat.
Like many slow moving crabs with small claws, the decorator crab picks small particles and pieces of food from the rocks and plants it crawls over.
∙Drifting Continents: World's Jigsaw Puzzle
Length: NA;Depth: NA
NILE RIVER
Have you ever noticed that the present-day continents can be fit together into a single land mass like a jigsaw puzzle? The German meteorologist Alfred Wegener did, and it led him to propose the theory of continental drift in 1912. He suggested that more than 200 million years ago the earth's surface was made up of one gigantic land mass, the supercontinent called Pangaea. Eventually, this giant land mass broke up into separate pieces. Slowly these pieces drifted apart to form the continents as we know them today. There is now a wealth of geological evidence to support this theory, but it was not until the early 1960s that a theory explaining continental drift was finally proposed.
About 200 million years ago the land mass known as Pangaea broke up into two major continents, Gondwana in the southern hemisphere and Laurasia in the northern hemisphere. Panthallasia, the single ocean which surrounded Pangaea, began to shrink and a new, shallow ocean, the Tethys Sea, was formed between the new continents. Another split divided Gondwana into what we now know as Australia and Antarctica, and Africa. By about 65 million years ago the Atlantic and Indian Oceans had appeared, but the North American and European continents were still joined. The Pacific became separated from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans when the North and South American continents became joined and Australia drifted northwards away from Antarctica toward its current position; while the separation of Greenland from North America, and the widening of the North Atlantic, completed the encirclement of the Arctic Ocean. The Caribbean took shape when South America moved into its current position and the Central American land bridge was formed.
The way in which the continents broke up also influenced the distribution and evolution of marine fauna and flora. New land barriers prevented certain species from mixing together and forming separate species. But removing these land barriers helps a species spread out into new areas, coexisting with or out-competing species that already reside in these areas. When the Suez and Panama Canals were formed, links between oceans long separated were reopened, enabling species to spread into new habitats. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
With its eerie shape and flapping dorsal fins, the eagle ray is among the most elegant and mysterious-looking fish in the ocean. Its back is covered with a symmetrical dot pattern ranging in color from white and yellow to green. Its underbelly is white and its long tail, sometimes measuring twice as long as its body, is black. When an eagle ray is resting on the sandy ocean floor, its highly-patterned back acts as a camouflage, hiding it from both prey and attackers.
The eagle ray, like all rays and sharks, has a skeleton of cartilage. Its large "wings" are tapered like a bird's and can measure up to seven and a half feet across. The eagle ray's shovel-shaped snout and its duckbilled mouth are extremely sensitive to smells and electrical currents in the water. This makes the eagle ray an effective hunter. Feeding on mollusks, crustaceans and small fish, this beautiful ray can reach weights of up to 500 pounds.
The eagle ray can be found in both the eastern and western Atlantic as well as the Caribbean Sea. It lives mostly among rocky and muddy coral reefs and feeds along the sandy ocean bottom.
jElephant Seal: Hundreds of Harems
Length: 20 Feet/6 Meters;Depth: 93 Feet/28 Meters
CALIFORNIA
The southern elephant seal is one of the largest members of the Pinniped family of marine mammals. This family includes seals, sea lions and walruses. Pinnipeds are, in fact, related to modern cats, dogs and bears.
In addition to being well known for their size, elephant seals are also famous for their unique mating ritual. Near the end of August of each year, giant male sea elephants begin to gather at the chosen breeding ground. Once there, the male sea elephants climb onto the beach and stake out their territory, the bigger and stronger of the seals grabbing the better places along the shore. At the end of September, the females (also called cows) begin to arrive at the grounds. The stronger male elephant seals then establish groups of 10 to 20 females called breeding harems. To determine who is the strongest, male elephant seals will sometimes go through what look like very violent battles with one another. These battles take the form of a head-butting match in which both males slam their fleshy snouts against each other until the weaker male finally retreats. Usually, neither male is badly hurt, but the weaker male may have to wait another year before it gets a chance to mate.
After the elephant seal pups are born, they are nursed for about four weeks. During the last days of nursing, the males and females breed again.
Male and female elephant seals are physically very different from one another. The males are generally three or four times heavier than the females and have much longer and more pronounced snouts. The skin around their necks is also more wrinkled and hangs in loose folds.
No tropical reef fish is better recognized for its dazzling colors than the angelfish. Found in warm coral reefs all over the world, the angelfish comes in many different sizes and patterns. Some angelfish, like the Herald's angelfish are a bright solid yellow. Others, such as the Regal angelfish, are covered by wildly colorful stripes. Some angelfish have circular eyespots near their tail. Others have thin horizontal stripes that run the entire length of their body. As hard as it is to believe, these bright colors and patterns help protect angelfish from predators. Bright colors blend in well with the colors of the coral reef. They also help to hide parts of the angelfish's body, such as the eye, in dark patterns that resemble shadows. The dark circle found at the tail of many angelfish can confuse predators into thinking that the angelfish's head is actually located somewhere behind the tail.
Angelfish are closely related to the butterflyfish, another colorful reef fish. The major difference between the two is that angelfish have a shorter snout and a longer, thicker body. Angelfish spend most of their day scraping bits of algae and sponge off the sides of coral reefs. Typically, they remain in deeper reef waters. Angelfish prefer swimming alone rather than in large schools. When confronted by another angelfish they become very territorial and even attack one another.
ΦOcean Floor: Mountains under the Ocean
Length: NA;Depth: 36,161 Feet/11,022 Meters
MARIANA TRENCH
If it were possible to remove the water from the oceans to expose the floor beneath, a truly remarkable landscape would be revealed: long mountain ranges, vast plains covered in a thick layer of sediment, volcanos and deep trenches. It was not until the late 1960s that the theory of plate tectonics provided an explanation of the way in which the formation and destruction of the Earth's crust accounts for the topography of the ocean floor and for continental drift.
According to this theory, the Earth's surface is made up of about 12 rigid crustal plates, which overlie and move about on the semi-molten rock beneath. Where these plates meet, different types of borders appear resulting in different types of ridges, valleys and mountains beneath the ocean's surface. The three different types of borders are constructive borders, where magma rises to the surface forcing the plates on either side apart, and forming new oceanic crust in between, destructive borders, where two plates collide and one is overridden by the other, and conservative borders, where plates move past one another, the friction between the two causing faults and fractures.
Sometimes lava emerges from an oceanic ridge, forming submarine volcanos which may break the surface and become volcanic islands or remain hidden under water as seamounts.
Evidence for the sea floor spreading is to be found in the magnetism of basaltic minerals in the floor itself, the direction of which is fixed according to the prevailing direction of the Earth's magnetic field when the rock solidified. The patterns created by the magnetic bands give scientists the ability to calculate the rate at which the sea floor is spreading: spread rates are estimated to range from less than 0.4 inches per year from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, to as much as 6.3 inches a year for the East Pacific Rise. The divergence of plates and formation of new crust may also occur beneath continents. This leads to the formation of a rift valley, such as the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, and in some cases to the subsequent formation of a new ocean.
The addition of new crustal material at constructive boundaries is compensated for by the destruction of oceanic crust at destructive boundaries; otherwise the surface of the Earth would be continually expanding. This accounts for the young age of the oceanic crust. Where two continental plates collide, dramatic folding of the land and the upthrust of mountain chains such as the Himalayas occurs. Where continental and oceanic plates collide, the continental plate overrides the more dense oceanic plate in a process known as subduction. Subduction zones are characterized by oceanic trenches which can be a staggering 6.2 miles deep, and mark the line along which the oceanic plate is forced downwards. At a depth of 435 miles, the leading edge of the subducted plate melts and dissolves back into the mantle. The magma may then rise back up through the continental plate above, forming a chain of volcanos along the continental margin, as had happened with the Andes. These mountain chains are then built up further by more sediment from the ocean floor.
Sediments on the sea floor come from three main sources: the land, from which material is eroded by water, ice and wind; the surface water of the ocean, from which organic matter, both living and dead, falls to the floor beneath; and deep-ocean waters, from which there is a very gradual production of material by crystallization. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
The flounder is a member of the flatfish family of which there are about 500 different species. This family has one thing in common: all of its members are flat as a pancake.
Like most flatfishes, the flounder has both its eyes on one side of its head and keeps its other side very flat against the sea bottom. Oddly enough, the flounder is not born flat. After it hatches from its egg, the baby flounder swims upright like most other fish. A few weeks later, however, the flounder's body goes through a dramatic change. Slowly, its skull starts to twist to one side and one eye begins to move toward the center of its head. One side of the flounder now becomes the top side, as its body grows and flattens out. It takes close to seven weeks for the baby flounder to completely change into a "flat" fish.
Flounder, like other flatfishes, also have the amazing ability to change their skin color and pattern to blend in with the sea floor. It is very difficult to spot a lounging flounder.
Flounder live for the most part in the cold waters throughout the ocean. The flounder buries itself in the sand or mud of the sea floor with only its head exposed as its powerful telescopic eyes watch for food (mainly a variety of crustaceans).
A frogfish's appearance may look quite strange, but it is very effective at attracting a good meal. This bulky, slow-moving fish lives on the floors of coral reefs and temperate oceans. Its body is often brightly colored and covered with small pieces of loose flesh that resemble floating algae. This helps the frogfish blend in with its surroundings.
The frogfish spends its days lying motionless among rocks or coral. When the frogfish gets hungry, usually at night, it uses an interesting method for catching small fish. Like its cousin the anglerfish, the frogfish has a thin strand of flesh attached to its head which can be wiggled like a tiny fishing lure. When small fish come to investigate the moving object, the frogfish lowers the lure closer toward its mouth. Once the fish is close enough, the frogfish leaps forward, using its strong pectoral fins, and snatches the fish with its large mouth.
Frogfish are greedy eaters. They will often try to swallow fish that are larger than themselves. When they do this, they must enter a state of half sleep for several hours to digest the big meal.
Frogfish are not great swimmers. They get around by using their pectoral fins and ventral fins to drag themselves along the ocean bottom. Some frogfish even use their fins to climb up rocks.
The Galapagos shark is a fast-moving meat-eater that frequents the warm waters around islands in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. Like its close relatives the white tip reef shark and the grey reef shark, the Galapagos shark has a sleek body that can reach a length of ten feet. It is capable of swimming at high speeds and turning on a dime, both of which make the Galapagos shark an excellent hunter.
Galapagos sharks like to swim in schools when they hunt for fish, squid or marine reptiles. Normally, warm water sharks like the Galapagos shark are fairly predictable in their actions. They attack prey when hungry and snap at humans only when provoked. The only real exception to this is when sharks like this are in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Feeding frenzies among sharks usually occur when there is a great deal of blood and food in the water and a large group of sharks are all trying to get their fair share. In such a frenzy, sharks will often lose all control and begin biting and attacking anything in the vicinity including each other.
While there are no reported attacks of humans by Galapagos sharks, many divers have been scared out of the water by this fast shark's sudden movements.
Giant sea anemones live in the warm, shallow water of the Caribbean coral reefs near places like Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Their long pointed tentacles are coated with stinging cells that can paralyze small fish and other animals that venture too close. The tentacles also hold onto the paralyzed prey while they push it into the anemone's mouth.
Some giant sea anemones have a small, almost transparent shrimp living among their tentacles. These shrimp appear to be immune to the anemone's stings. It's also possible that the anemone is accustomed to the shrimp and no longer injects it with the stinging cells from its tentacles. Shrimp like these are also known as "cleaner" shrimp because they spend their days cleaning bigger fish. This relationship which is called symbiotic helps both animals. First, the shrimp will do a little dance to attract any large fish wishing to be cleaned. If a fish is interested in getting cleaned it will move closer then gently spread its fin and open its mouth. At this point, the shrimp starts its housecleaning. The shrimp cleans the fish by gliding over the fish's body, even going inside its mouth and gills and picking off small parasites and diseased tissue. When the shrimp is finished with one fish, another fish may be already waiting in line.
Imagine swimming halfway around the world just to go on a winter vacation. The gray whale makes this trip once a year! Each winter, this 49-foot-long marine mammal embarks on a 12,500-mile migratory trek from the Arctic Circle to subtropical Baja California and back. Now, that's a journey.
The gray whale is a member of the Cetacean family, the only mammals in the world to spend their entire lives in the water. Gray whales are found in the open ocean along the coast of North America. They are called a baleen whale, which means that they have whalebones (or baleen) instead of teeth. Baleen looks like the bristles of a brush, and acts like a giant sieve which filters the organic matter out of seawater. Most baleen whales feed by scooping up large quantities of water in their mouth and then filtering out the microscopic organisms which are in turn swallowed by the whale. But the gray whale does things a little differently. It takes large bites out of muddy or sandy bottoms of the ocean floor and then squeezes out the sediment until all that is left are tasty plants and animals. Gray whales eat mostly small crustaceans that never measure much bigger than a matchstick.
Whales like the gray whale breathe through a vent, often called a blowhole, located at the top of their head. Every time a whale wants to take a breath, it must first come to the surface, blow water out of its blowhole, and then almost instantly breathe air back in. The amount of time a whale can spend underwater without surfacing to take another breath varies depending on the species but some can stay below the surface for 25 minutes at a time.
Undersea hunters aren't always sleek swimmers with large mouths and loads of razor-sharp teeth. Just take one look at the grouper. This bulky, solitary fish is a relative of the giant sea bass and it is anything but sleek and streamlined. Reaching weights of 135 pounds, giant groupers look a lot like floating military tanks.
Groupers live on rocky sea beds in warm and cool coastal waters. They prefer to hide out in shelters, and will spend much of their time searching for the perfect cranny protected by rocks or coral.
Groupers are determined hunters. They will often wait perfectly still for hours to catch a favorite meal such as a squid or octopus. The large mouth of a grouper is filled with many small teeth that grow in narrow rows. The outer teeth are set slightly backwards while the inner teeth are mobile and can be pushed in quite easily from the front. This helps the grouper hold onto an animal, keeping it from slipping out of its mouth.
Groupers can grow to very large sizes. Because they are hard to find and put up such a good fight, they are also a favorite fish for sports fishermen to catch. While some very large groupers may reach lengths of four feet and weights of 140 pounds, most of the 300 different species of grouper weigh between 15 and 30 pounds.
Sponges spend most of their time filtering and cleaning seawater. They are constantly sucking in water through small pores on their sides and shooting it back out through the ostium, or opening, located at the top of their bodies. In a large coral reef, hundreds of gallons of water get strained by sponges each day. While they are filtering, sponges hold onto the small, edible particles of organic matter. These are passed through the sponges cells as food. The unusable material in the water is shot out of the sponge again. Most sponges are colored a drab gray, brown, or green. When scientists first began studying ocean life, they disagreed over whether the sponge was a plant or an animal. Several factors definitely make a sponge an animal.
First, sponges lack all signs of chlorophyll, the green material that plants need to make food from sunlight. Many species have blue-green bacteria living in their tissues but these are called symbionts, which means they live in concert with the sponge. Secondly, sponges release sperm that travel through the sea water to fertilize the eggs found in the body walls of nearby sponges. Finally, some individual sponge cells can act like muscles, contracting the ostium at the top of the sponge. Other individual cells can extend flowing arms around particles and ingest them. These muscle-like cells are called phagocytes, and the ability to use them is characteristic of animals.
No fish is more feared or famous than the great white shark. One look at a 16-foot great white cruising the ocean depths in search of a meal, and it's easy to understand why. Found in cool ocean waters off coasts like California and Australia, great whites are among the most deadly and fearsome hunters in the sea. Stretching an average of 18 feet in length, and boasting a terrifying mouth full of razor sharp teeth, great whites can frighten even the most seasoned underwater divers.
When a great white is born, it measures only between three and four feet long and lives on a diet of rays, skates and small fish. Within several years, however, great whites reach their full length of 16 to 18 feet and weigh close to 3,500 pounds. As adults, their favorite meal consists of marine mammals including seals and sometimes dolphins. The largest recorded great white shark measured 21 feet long and weighed 7,000 pounds, or nearly three tons. Many fishermen and divers have claimed to have seen great whites as large as 25-30 feet long, though none have been officially recorded. Great whites are built like a torpedo with a pointy head and large muscles in their neck and body. Great whites are not well known for speed. Their main method of attacking prey is surprise. With their gray and white skin, great whites are nearly invisible when seen from either above or below in murky water. When a great white tracks down an inviting meal, it often circles below the animal, then darts up from the depths, striking the animal with its massive mouth. The great white jaws are only loosely attached to its skull. This makes it possible for the great white to extend its rows of serrated teeth and take an enormous bite from an animal.
Most people still believe that great whites are bloodthirsty animals willing to attack at a moment's notice. To the contrary, most great whites do not attack other animals unless they are hungry. It is true that great whites have attacked and killed humans, but many scientists believe they are not true man-eaters. In most cases, it is thought that great whites confuse humans, who are diving or surfing, with their favorite meal, seals. Once they bite into a human, great whites usually spit them out. Unfortunately, one bite from a great white can often be fatal.
Sleek and dangerous, the gray shark is a smaller version of the dreaded great white shark, although not quite as famous. The gray shark is a member of the Carcharhinidae or "maneater" family of sharks. It is most commonly found in the waters of the Mediterranean and Atlantic and feeds on fishes, crustaceans, reptiles and the occasional human.
Gray sharks are cartilaginous fish, which means that their skeleton is made out of cartilage instead of bone. Like other sharks, the gray shark has finely-tuned sensory organs that help it locate prey. Both its vision and sense of smell are well developed for tracking animals at night and in murky waters. Gray sharks, like all sharks, also have a special sensory system known as the ampullae of Lorenzini. These are tiny jelly-filled cups that cover the gray shark's snout and are capable of detecting weak electric current that are generated by animals in the water. Because of its diet, the gray shark's jaw is extremely powerful and lined on both top and bottom with several rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Though the gray shark does not have the same mean reputation as the great white shark and tiger shark, it has been known to attack humans. There have even been several reported cases of a gray shark killing people.
^Gulf of Mexico: Easy Going
Length: NA;Depth: 17,070 Feet/5,203 Meters
GULF OF MEXICO
The Gulf of Mexico forms the northeastern component of the Wider Caribbean. Surrounded by the Yucatan Peninsula, the island of Cuba and the coast of Florida, the Gulf contains rich marine habitats and major petroleum reserves. The continental shelf is wide, and the Campeche Bank off the Yucatan Peninsula provides a rich fishing ground, particularly for certain kinds of shrimp. The northern shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico consists mostly of sedimentary material that comes from the Mississippi Basin. Over the last 7,000 years, the flat plain along the coast has increased in width by as much as 93 miles as a result of shifts and expansion in the Mississippi's delta. During the 19th century, engineers attempted to control the rate of flow of the river, to prevent new shifts in its course. But over time, the rate of the river's flow has increased as the Mississippi's course has become streamlined and straightened.
The western and southern coasts of the Gulf of Mexico are characterized by large lagoons separated from the sea by barrier beaches. The concentrations of salt in these areas vary with the movement of the tides, evaporation, and the inflow of fresh water from rivers and rain. The lagoons are an important habitat for numerous animals, including crocodiles and manatees, as well as for birds such as flamingos, ibises and pelicans. The endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle nests only on the barrier beach of Rancho Nuevo, on the west coast of the Gulf. The Gulf coast of the United States is densely populated and heavily industrialized. Pollution problems affect coastal waters and estuaries around busy industrial and shipping centers such as Houston and New Orleans. A very important pollution problem in the Gulf comes from the oil industry. Oil reserves in the Gulf are estimated to total over five billion tons. The coastal areas off Louisiana and the Mexican states of Veracruz and Campeche are the centers of Gulf oil production. In recent years, shipping accidents and oil well explosions have made oil-related pollution problems very noticeable. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
Like other sharks, great whites find their prey by using a variety of different senses. A great white's vision is good enough to let it make out shapes as far away as 30 to 40 feet, even in dark water. Great whites can also smell minute quantities of blood in the water from wounded fish or mammals. The unique way great whites have of tracking down a meal is by detecting small changes in the electric field of the ocean. Almost all sharks have tiny sensors in their skin that can detect very low levels of electrical current in the water. Once a great white is within a certain distance, it can use the animal's electric field as homing device.
If you ever build a wooden bookshelf, don't ever try using a hammerhead shark to pound in your nails. He certainly wouldn't like it too much.
The hammerhead shark is one of the more oddly-shaped fish in the sea. Instead of a pointed head, which most sharks have, the hammerhead's head is shaped like a broad, flat T with its eyes and nostrils located at the far ends of the T, rather than along the sides of its body. In order for a hammerhead to see what's in front of it, it must make wide swinging movements with its head as it swims.
Scientists have never quite agreed on why the hammerhead's body is shaped in such a way. Some believe that the long distance between the hammerhead's two sets of eyes and nostrils, helps the shark more accurately detect its prey. Others believe that the T-shaped head acts like an airplane wing giving the shark more lift when it is swimming. The most obvious explanation is that the hammerhead has a much better view of what is going on to either side of it.
One thing is true, a hammerhead's shape doesn't impair its ability to hunt. Hammerheads are very effective at tracking down and killing small bottom-dwelling animals and occasionally large rays, tunas and tarpons. Most hammerheads can be found in warm waters throughout the world's oceans. Hammerheads usually travel alone or in small groups. However, when they mate, some species of hammerhead will migrate in large groups to the same place each year. Sometimes these groups can number as many as a thousand, making an awesome sight for any underwater diver lucky enough to be present.
Harbor Seal: Popular Pup
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 0 Feet/0 Meters
NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN
The harbor seal is by far the most commonly known and widely distributed member of the seal family and can be found in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. Both males and females weigh between 220 to 330 lbs. and measure four to six feet long. Their coloring is varied and can range from a very light silver to a dark black. However, the most common harbor seal is light gray with dark spots.
Harbor seals eat cod and other regional fishes, and can dive to depths of up to 330 feet. During the winter months they spend most of their time below the ice floes where the water is warmer. Harbor seals can hold their breath for almost 10 minutes before having to come up for air. They are also quite playful and like to spend hours sunning themselves among the rocks and on pieces of floating ice. Often, they can be found sleeping belly up on top of the water.
Harbor seals have always been hunted commercially for their beautiful coats, and polar bears, whales and sharks are their most feared natural enemies.
When most crabs get too big for their shell, they grow another one. Not the hermit crab. Beginning as tiny larvae, hermit crabs must use the empty shell of another animal as their home. Each time a hermit crab goes through a growth spurt it moves out of its borrowed home and finds a larger shell in which to live. At these times, a hermit crab's body has no protection and is very vulnerable to attack by hungry predators.
Hermit crabs are usually found in coral reefs where they like to roam over a familiar area. Most hermit crabs will eat just about anything, including mollusks, fish and organic matter that is left on the ocean floor. Hermit crabs are not very fast. That's mainly because they have to move around with some other animal's clunky shell on their back.
Does this nudibranch look slightly confused? One might think so. As a member of the mollusk family, the nudibranch is a hermaphrodite, which means it is both male and female. Most animals under the sea and on land are either male or female, but not both. The nudibranch, like the hooded nudibranch in this picture, is capable of producing both eggs and sperm. When it is time to reproduce, one nudibranch can fertilize its own eggs or two nudibranches can join together and exchange both eggs and sperm with one other. After their eggs are fertilized, the nudibranches either lay them on the ocean floor or carry them until they become baby nudibranches.
Not all sharks are terrifying monsters of the deep. The horn shark is a fairly docile shark that lives along the bottoms of kelp beds feeding on mollusks, sea urchins and crustaceans. Horn sharks are members of a small family of sharks known as bullhead sharks. The family received this name because of the thick, compressed head and short, pig-like snout shared by its members.
Horn sharks do not grow much larger than five feet in length, though most measure only a few feet long. They are oviparous, which means they reproduce by laying eggs. The horn shark egg is enclosed in a conical case which is deposited in a nest site among rocks in late winter or spring. It takes between seven and twelve months for a young horn shark to be born and another ten years before it reaches adulthood.
╛Hawksbill Turtle: Vegetarian Hawk
Length: 3 Feet/1 Meters;Depth: 50 Feet/15 Meters
INDIAN OCEAN
Turtles have been around in one form or another for millions of years. The largest turtle alive today is an oceangoing turtle called the leatherback. It can reach a weight of 1,500 pounds and grow up to eight feet in length. All sea turtles have very smooth and streamlined shells. Their feet are shaped like long paddles for swimming, which makes it very difficult for them to move around on land. Sea turtles do not have the ability of other turtles to retreat inside the protection of their shell. However, once they grow to a large enough size, almost nothing, except human desire, is a serious danger to them.
For centuries people have hunted sea turtles for their meat as well as for the outer layer of their shell, often called tortoise shell. Many sea turtles also become entangled and die in large nets meant to capture fish and shrimp.
Before the invention of plastic, tortoise shell was in great demand for jewelry, combs, and other items. The hawksbill turtle has always been famous for having the thickest and most colorful kind of tortoise shell. This shell is made from a protein-rich, fingernail-like substance. It was once thought among turtle hunters that if the tortoise shell was peeled from the turtle it would grow back. They often rolled the turtles in campfires, heating up the outer shell so that it could be peeled from the animal. Afterwards, the turtle would be released into the ocean with the belief that it would later return with newly grown shell. However, we now know that few if any of these turtles survived this brutal treatment.
Sea turtles are considered to be an endangered species. Some are now being raised in seaside farms in hopes of preserving the species.
All marine mammals love to play. And the humpback whale is no exception. Perhaps its favorite pastime is leaping clear out of the water and landing with a tremendous splash.
The humpback whale's other well-known pastime is singing. Humpback whales are famous for the haunting songs they create underwater. They can be heard for hundreds, and some think, even thousands of miles through the ocean. These eerie and beautiful songs have distinct melodies and are sung over and over by the same humpback. The true purpose of these songs is not completely understood, but most scientists think they are for calling distant mates.
The humpback whale is a baleen whale easily recognized by its giant pectoral fins. In fact, its Latin name megaptera novaengliae means "great wing." These fins are serrated along their front edge and can be as long as a third of the creature's total body length.
When not leaping out of the water, humpbacks are slow-moving because they lack the aerodynamic body shape that most whales have. They feed on krill, mackerel, sardines, anchovies and plankton and will only hunt for food in cold waters. Most humpbacks can be found in cold oceans and spend the winter months in warmer, tropical waters where they mate and give birth. A mother humpback will only give birth to one calf every two to three years. Baby humpbacks are 15 feet long when they are born.
Since 1966 it has been illegal to hunt these beautiful creatures, but because humpbacks were fished for so many hundreds of years they are still, despite the ban, an endangered species.
iHydrocoral: Deep Sea Jewelry
Length: 4 Feet/1 Meters;Depth: 300 Feet/91 Meters
VANUATU
Hydrocorals are similar to sea whips and sea fans. They have a single row of eight tentacles that wrap around their mouths with stinging cells arranged in rows along the tentacles. The hydrocoral's flower-like polyps are scattered all over its hard glassy skeleton. These skeletons come in many different bright colors and some are even shiny black. Hydrocorals differ from most other corals because they do not need small single-celled plants living with them to produce their skeleton. Because of this, hydrocorals can live in deeper waters, out of range of light. Usually hydrocorals are attached to rocks in areas where currents carry lots of small animals right into their hungry little tentacles.
For centuries hard corals have been valued for making jewelry. The hard skeleton can be highly polished and comes in bright yellow, red, blue, and purple.
╒Indian Ocean Basin: Old Trade Routes
Length: NA;Depth: 24,442 Feet/7,450 Meters
INDIAN OCEAN
The Indian Ocean lies across the Equator, extending from the Tropic of Cancer in the north to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south. Its western boundary is the African coast, while the Malay Peninsula and a group of islands known as the Indonesian Archipelago define its eastern boundary. The semi-enclosed Persian Gulf and Red Sea are extensions of the Indian Ocean in the north, and together with the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Oman, they define the boundaries of the Arabian Peninsula.
There are two surface current systems that dominate the waters of the Indian Ocean. One is in the north, the other is in the south. Over most of the Indian Ocean's surface, temperatures vary between 77 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of the direction the water in the Indian Ocean circulates, the temperatures tend to be higher in the west than in the east.
The climate of the region varies depending on which season it is and on location. Generally, the climate is normally dominated by the cycle of monsoons, which are rainy storms. This pattern results in a dry season during the first quarter of the year, then gradually develops more frequent rain systems in the second quarter. During the third quarter of the year, wind speeds and rainfall reach their maximum. The monsoon gradually shifts back to its original starting place in the final quarter of the year.
A great many different kinds of marine animals live in the Indian Ocean. Over 4,000 different fish species have been recorded there. A large number of whales breed in the Indian Ocean. The ocean is also crossed by other large migratory animals such as marine turtles and a number of species of tuna. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
╓
Jacques Cousteau
INTRODUCTION FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS" by Jacques Cousteau
The health of the global water system rooted in the ocean is vital to the future welfare of our planet, and is of particular concern to me as an ocean explorer. The future needs of society will be well served, however, only if we change our short-term mentality and often arrogant indifference to the results of our actions and focus on long-term considerations and a sound attitude in the use of all our resources.
It is an unavoidable fact of international life that the decision-makers in governments everywhere are most influenced by vested interests with extravagant lobbying budgets and by organizations with enormous memberships. Those of us who love the sea, who recognize the blood relationship of all earth's beings, who see on this Water Planet a growing threat to our most fundamental biological machinery, do not command the money and the power of even a single major multinational corporation. But we can wield the formidable power of our numbers, the strength of a great unified crowd of citizens of the planet.
The rate of environmental devastation is alarming. We ourselves are increasingly threatened by toxic debris and lethal miscalculations. This is unbelievable and unacceptable. We must stop this stupidity and the most effective weapon we have as citizens -- as parents -- is the sheer force of our numbers. That is the strategy of the dolphin when threatened by an animal armed with greater strength and size. Pursued by a large shark, a pack of dolphins will suddenly turn en masse, dive below the shark and drive their blunt noses into its belly, one after another. It is the perfect strategy. With no ribs or diaphragm to protect its vital organs, the shark is vulnerable. For all its power, the shark is defeated by intelligence and the force of numbers. It is the weaponry of the peacemakers and the common people throughout history.
For all the darkness that presently confronts us and our descendants, there is no reason to give up. There is every reason to take up the fight, because we have within our grasp the power of the people to force the right decisions. The more people, the more power, the more hope. On behalf of future generations whose legacy we are squandering, let us begin to make waves -- forcing decision-makers to protect and to nurture the environment. How can we accomplish this? We can rise as a human family and compel the powerful and the profit-only-minded to consider life the greatest priority. We can take our inspiration from the dolphins, who defend themselves and their offspring through an instinct to mass together in the face of danger ... and to attack power with wisdom. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
The jewel anemone really does look like a magnificent underwater gem. Its spectacular red, pink or mauve-colored tentacles have white tips, and contrast brilliantly with the green and brown ocean floor. Like most sea anemones, the jewel anemone is carnivorous and ensnares its prey with its sticky, stinging tentacles. Because it is immobile, the jewel anemone must wait for an unsuspecting guest to wander into its clutches before injecting it with its poisonous stinging cells. Then it's dinnertime!
The jewel anemone can usually be found growing in large colonies beneath ledges and stones, in shallower waters. This type of anemone does not like direct sunlight.
When swimmers in tropical areas such as the Caribbean or the Great Barrier Reef feel a sharp, burning streak across their arms or bodies, they have probably come into contact with a jellyfish's tentacles. Large jellyfish like the one in this picture are famous for their long stinging tentacles. The moment these tentacles come into contact with a person or an animal they fire off scores of tiny stinging cells called nematocysts.
Upon leaving the water, the streaks on a swimmer's body will quickly turn into painful red welts that may take days to go away. Amazingly, common meat tenderizer often will relieve the symptoms if applied quickly after the attack. This is because the tenderizer has enzymes that break down protein in meat and have the same effect on the venom from the stinging cells, which is also a protein. If a person accidentally comes into contact with many jellyfishes, they might need to be hospitalized and could even die from the stings.
Normally, the jellyfish uses its stinging ability to catch food. Jellyfishes feed mainly on small fish, and sometimes will sting larger animals that try to prey on it such as sea turtles, ocean sunfish and other smaller fishes.
This small jellyfish represents no danger to most animals. Indeed, many animals would like to eat this little delicacy. Its only defense against hungry enemies is its transparency. Clear as glass, the globe jelly is almost invisible as it floats in the water with only its red gut exposed. It is thought that this brightly-colored jelly belly probably scares many predators away.
The globe jelly's small tentacles have the same stinging cells of other jellyfish. However, because of its small size, this animal restricts its feeding to tiny crustaceans. During the day, the ocean bottom may be covered with hundreds of these tiny jellyfish. At night, though, they swim upward into the water to fish for the small animals that only come out into the safety of darkness. The following morning the jellyfish return to their resting places in the sand or among the blades of sea grass.
True to their name, jellyfish are about 95 percent water and have no hard skeleton. Their large jelly-like bell is ringed by stinging tentacles that surround a mouth and stomach. Although it is difficult to make out, the jellyfish's bell is filled with nerves and muscles. These produce wavelike contractions which flow down the jellyfish's body and slowly propel the animal through the water. Jellyfish have no real control over the direction in which they travel so they must be carried passively by the ocean's currents. Jellyfish do rise and fall in the water in reaction to light, temperature, and changes in the water's salt content.
Some fish feed on jellyfish, but the fish shown here are living with the jellyfish for protection. Sometimes these fish learn to avoid the jellyfish's stinging tentacles. In other cases, the jellyfish gets used to certain individual fish and does not sting them. The fish that are most commonly found living with jellyfish are usually young jacks and butterfishes. As these fish get larger, they leave the protection of the jellyfish and live in large schools along the coast. One kind of fish, the man-of-war fish, lives its whole life among jellyfishes.
To many divers, nothing is more beautiful than the sight of a giant kelp forest swaying gently in the ocean waves. Found in temperate waters, such as those off the coast of Northern California, these underwater forests are made up of long strands of kelp that stretch as tall as 100 feet from the ocean floor. Giant kelp, as these plants are called, is a type of brown algae. It has the distinction of being one of the fastest growing plants in the world. In some kelp forests, the kelp strands grow 100 feet a year and sometimes as much as two feet in a single day. Because they are algae, kelp has no roots. To remain in one place, kelp anchor themselves to the bottom of the sea floor with thin, sturdy tentacles.
Kelp forests are home to hundreds of different kinds of marine life. Seals and otters dart among the kelp strands as they look for fish and other animals to eat. Starfish move slowly along the sea floor in search of shellfish. Brightly-colored Garibaldi fish wriggle among the bottoms of kelp plants trying to attract their colorful mates. Some animals like the kelp fish have changed over many years so that they look almost exactly like a kelp leaf. Kelp forests are very delicate environments. When the sea otter was nearly hunted into extinction, sea urchins -- which sea otters eat -- began to spread rapidly. As their populations grew, the sea urchins ate the bottoms of the kelp plants, destroying many kelp forests in the process. Now that the sea otter is beginning to increase in numbers again, sea urchins are disappearing in some places, and the kelp forest is making its return.
«Killer Whale: Friendly Killer
Length: 33 Feet/10 Meters;Depth: 30 Feet/9 Meters
ALASKA
Killer whales (also called orca) have had a bad reputation ever since the great whaling days of the 1700s. Orcas were then thought of as ferocious killers, swallowing adult sea lions whole, capsizing fishing boats and viciously attacking larger baleen whales, often trying to tear out their tongues. Today, however, we know that the killer whale is in fact a "gentle" predator, a fierce hunter who likes human company and can often be taught to do special tricks in zoos or aquariums.
Killer whales are easily recognized by their black and white markings and their large, teeth-lined jaw. Killer whales have 40 - 56 very powerful teeth that can measure up to four inches long and have a diameter of one to two inches. These whales can swim at speeds of close to 30 mph and can dive to over 3,300 feet, sometimes remaining underwater for 20 minutes or longer.
Killer whales live all over the world but are mostly found in the oceans of the Arctic and Antarctica. They will usually travel in groups of up to 15, and their diet includes sea lions and seals, penguins and turtles, octopus, squid, various species of fish and even other whales. The killer whale has only one enemy: man.
The patient yet aggressive hawkfish takes its name from its "wait and watch" style of hunting. Hawkfish generally live among the lower branches of coral reefs where they will rest and wait for potential prey. When something appetizing approaches, the hawkfish will pounce without warning to devour its dinner.
This particular hawkfish has a very elongated snout and a beautifully patterned body. Hawkfish are easily approached by humans, although they are sometimes hard to spot among the coral "trees." The long-nosed hawkfish lives in the Southwest Pacific and because of its unique markings has become a very popular aquarium fish. Hawkfish are carnivorous and feed mostly on crustaceans.
éSun and Ocean: The Importance of Light
Length: NA;Depth: NA
INDIAN OCEAN
Although living organisms are found throughout the oceans, their diversity and abundance vary considerably from area to area. The basis of all life is light energy, which is converted into chemical energy by photosynthetic organisms. Because most of the light falling on the oceans is absorbed within the surface layers, the zone of highest productivity in the tropics occurs within 100 feet of the surface. Their surface waters are also where the oxygen needed for respiration and the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis are absorbed into the seas from the atmosphere above.
In deeper waters, life is less abundant, limited by the absence of light and lower oxygen concentrations. In some specialized deep sea environments, underwater volcanic vents release sulphur-bearing chemicals which are used by chemotropic bacteria as a source of energy. Another source of energy and food in deeper waters is "fecal rain," falling from the upper layers of the ocean. This rain is made up of the remains of dead animals and plants and the waste products of organisms living near the surface. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
Slow and elegant, the lionfish is one coral reef inhabitant you don't want to cuddle. While their colorful stripes and long arching fins make them favorites of aquarium collections, the lionfish's spines are loaded with venom. An injection of venom from a lionfish can be deadly and will always make you very sick.
Lionfish live in the warm waters of coral reefs around the world. The most colorful and interesting-looking lionfish come from the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. Like its cousin the scorpionfish, lionfish are hunters that like to remain motionless until a favorite meal passes by. During the day, lionfish remain near rocky outcroppings, but at sundown they leave their hiding place to hunt for their favorite meals such as small fish, shrimp and even crabs.
A lionfish's mouth is large enough to swallow animals nearly as large as its own body. Unlike many of its relatives, the lionfish doesn't rely on camouflage to hide from predators. Instead, it uses its bright colors and distinctive patterns to remind hungry predators that it is poisonous. Even if fish are not very smart, they usually have enough brain power to recognize a poisonous animal like the lionfish.
If patience is a virtue, then the lizard fish must be a very virtuous fish. When a lizard fish gets hungry it will often sit without moving for hours on the ocean floor while waiting for its favorite prey, a small flatfish or a shrimp. To make itself nearly invisible, lizard fish usually bury every part of their body under the sand, except their head and eyes. At the moment a small fish swims by, the lizard fish uses its pectoral fins to leap out of the sand and grab the fish with its strong mouth. This happens so quickly that it is almost impossible to see with the naked eye.
There are several different kinds of lizard fish which live in warm and cold ocean waters around the world. Most of them live at depths of 60 to 100 feet and have skin colors that blend in perfectly with the sand and plants of their habitat.
Slipper lobsters are sometimes called shovel lobsters because they have a trowel-shaped front end that is used for digging into the soft sand or gravel of the sea bottom. The front of the slipper lobster's body differs greatly from the front end of spiny or Maine lobsters which are developed for life in rocky environments. Many of the lobster tails people buy in stores now come from the slipper lobster. That's because other popular lobsters such as the Maine lobster have been greatly reduced in numbers by heavy fishing. Slipper lobsters are caught by dragging wide-bottom fishing nets called trawls over the sand or gravel. The spiny and Maine lobsters are caught in large wire and wooden traps that are baited with dead fish. These traps float in the water for a day or two, before they are pulled up and the live lobsters are removed. The traps have backward, funnel-shaped baffles that allow the lobster to enter. Once inside, however, the animal can't figure out how to get back out.
Lobsters are members of a group called arthropods that includes shrimp, crabs, spiders, and insects. "Arthro" means jointed, and "pods" mean feet or legs. Lobsters have hard outer skeletons that they must shed to grow. This hard shell, or exoskeleton, contains lots of calcium salts, making it very rigid. When the lobster sheds its skin, or molts, most of these salts leave its body. This makes the animal very soft for a day or two while it sheds the skin. While a lobster is soft, it is very easy for other animals like octopuses to eat it, so lobsters usually hide away when molting. Lobsters generally eat other animals smaller than themselves, using their strong claws to pry open their prey or tear it apart.
The mother lobster carries thousands of small eggs under her abdomen until they develop into larvae that hatch into the water. The larvae drift around for weeks in the plankton and are protected because they are invisible. When the larvae transform into small lobsters they settle into areas where they can seek a safe hideaway in the reef. Lobsters are thought of as secretive by day and easier to find when diving at night. In the good old days in Hawaii, Florida, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, people used to talk about walking to the reef edge and seeing hundreds of pairs of lobster antennae sticking up out of the water in the shallows. They could just walk out in knee deep water and pick out their dinner! Obviously, those days are long gone. Today many rules and regulations govern fishing of lobster. In a few areas, considerable work is being done to raise lobsters in captivity and increase the numbers where they have been fished to near extinction.
The longnose filefish takes its name from its protruding snout and its scaly, rough skin that feels just like sandpaper. The filefish has a compact body with two dorsal fins, one of which is peculiarly situated almost right above the eyes. Its strange skin is covered with spiny plates and has the unique ability to change its color with ease, depending on its environment or particular emotional state. For this reason the filefish is a popular aquarium fish.
There are several different species of filefish, but all live along coasts, mostly in tropical regions. They are smallish, 7 to 11 inches long, and have a habit of hovering, like a hummingbird, in one place. They feed on algae and small crustaceans and, by rubbing their lower teeth against the inner sides of their upper teeth, are actually able to make sounds that are recognizable to other ocean dwellers.
The mackerel, along with the tuna, is one of the commercial fishing industry's most valuable fish. Each year, hundreds of thousands of tons of mackerel are caught by fishermen and turned into food for people all over the world.
The mackerel is a fast open ocean fish, swimming in giant schools over long distances of a thousand miles or more. Found in warm and temperate waters throughout the ocean, mackerels are perfectly adapted for high-speed, efficient swimming. Their bodies are streamlined and tapered into a shape known as fusi-form. This particular type of body shape allows the mackerel to swim at great speeds while expending little physical energy.
Mackerels live on a diet of shrimp, small fish and squid. To keep fed, giant schools of mackerel, must constantly follow large schools of small fish and shrimp wherever they may appear. The benefit for the mackerel of swimming in such large schools is that predators like sharks have a difficult time attacking individual mackerels.
Mermaids with moustaches? It seems surprising that the manatee, or sea cow, could belong to the order Sirenia which takes its name from the sirens or mermaids of ancient folklore. Anyone who has ever seen a fat, whiskered manatee would hardly liken it to a beautiful mermaid of legend. But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Manatees are aquatic mammals that live in tropical and subtropical coastal waters throughout the western Atlantic. Their two frontal flippers are equipped with claws, and instead of hind legs they have a single horizontal tail flipper. Manatees have big, rubbery lips and a very flexible muzzle, good for grazing on the water plants that make up their diets. The hair on their muzzle is thick and coarse, almost like walrus whiskers.
A female manatee is pregnant for 13 months before she gives birth. A baby manatee weighs 33-44 pounds and measures over three feet. The mother manatee is a very affectionate parent and will spend hours playing with her baby. Sometimes she will even give it a ride on her back.
[Manta Ray: The Good Devil
Length: 19 Feet/5 Meters;Depth: 66 Feet/20 Meters
CAYMAN ISLANDS
For centuries it was thought that the manta ray or "devilfish" was an evil ocean beast capable of destroying fishing boats and devouring people. In fact, the manta ray is one of the gentlest creatures in the sea whose only wish, it seems, is to float peacefully in the water sucking in mouthfuls of water in search of its favorite food -- plankton.
It's understandable why people have been frightened by this tremendous fish. The manta ray is the largest member of the ray family and can measure up to 19 feet long and weigh as much as 2,300 pounds. Some manta rays have been caught that measure an unbelievable 23 feet across. This giant sea creature takes its name from the Spanish word "manta" meaning blanket. With its enormous black fins extended, the manta ray really does look like a huge floating blanket.
Manta rays live mainly in tropical waters and feed on zooplankton and small fish and crustaceans. Like other rays, the Manta has a skeleton made out of cartilage instead of bone, and its nostrils, mouth and gill slits are ventral, or located on its underside. Manta rays can be found browsing through sandflats in search of food or, sometimes, leaping clear out of the water. Manta rays give birth to live young. When their babies are born they are wrapped up in their little wing flaps like pigs in a blanket. Baby manta rays are called "pups."
Manta rays usually swim in pairs, and although they may seem frightening, manta rays are so gentle that many will even let humans pet them. Some experienced divers have actually taken rides on the backs of these beautiful, harmless fish.
╛Blue Marlin: Making a Point
Length: 12 Feet/3 Meters;Depth: 50 Feet/15 Meters
CALIFORNIA
Few fish in the ocean can keep up with a blue marlin and its close relative the sailfish. Swimming near the surface of the water, these powerful fish can reach top speeds of up to 30 miles an hour and some people claim to have seen marlins swim as fast as 40 miles an hour. That's nearly as fast as the fastest speed boat. Blue marlins and sailfish are also well known for the dramatic way in which they leap great distances out of the water and then come crashing down with a giant splash.
Blue marlins are found in warm and temperate ocean waters around the world. Generally, marlins spend their time swimming near the coastline rather than the open ocean, but are known to migrate great distances to feed and spawn. Blue marlins are quite similar to their relative the sailfish, except that the dorsal fin on a blue marlin's back is much shorter than the giant sail-like dorsal fin of the sailfish. Of the two species, blue marlins are the largest. Female blue marlins, which can reach weights of 2,000 pounds, are much larger than male blue marlins, which rarely get bigger than 300 pounds.
When the blue marlin's close cousin the sailfish is not racing through the water at top speeds, it will raise its sails out of the water and let the wind carry its body along in the ocean currents.
Marlins are sociable animals and sometimes gather together in groups of forty or more to hunt or mate. Marlins are also extremely aggressive hunters that feed on squid and large schooling fish such as tuna. Marlins make good use of their swordlike snout by rounding up schools of fish and then slashing them with their sword when the fish are close to the water's surface. Marlins then move in and eat any of the injured fish.
Because of their tremendous strength and speed, sports fishermen have long loved trying to catch blue marlins with a hook and reel. Some fisherman have spent eight hours at a time battling to bring a single marlin in on a fishing line.
╥Mediterranean Sea: Europe's Bath Tub
Length: NA;Depth: 16,801 Feet/5,121 Meters
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
The Mediterranean Sea is an almost completely enclosed sea covering an area of 0.98 million square miles, and with a mean depth of 0.93 miles. It is linked to the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, to the Black Sea by the Dardanelles and to the Red Sea by the Suez Canal which was opened in 1869. Water entering the Mediterranean remains there for 150 years or more before being flushed out.
Atlantic water, which enters the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, has a greater volume than the outflow of more saline, cooler Mediterranean water. According to legend, this deep-water current was harnessed by the ancient race of people known as the Phoenicians, who lowered the sails of their ships several fathoms into the sea to enter the Atlantic against surface currents. Today, this strong underwater current is used by submarines, which can turn their engines off to pass silently through the strait.
The impact of the warm Mediterranean climate leads to a transformation, over decades, of the Atlantic water which enters the basin. The most marked change is in salinity, which increases as you travel east. In summer, the warming of surface waters leads to a marked temperature change which separates the warm, water with high levels of salt and the cooler less salty water.
The warm, dry Mediterranean climate means that the amount of water lost through evaporation exceeds the amount entering the sea from precipitation and runoff. The Black Sea which is at the east end of the Mediterranean has a low level of salt compared with the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean is one of the world's busiest seas. Over 70 percent of the world's tourists are drawn by its sandy beaches, historical sites, food, wine and warm dry climate. It is also a major shipping route, particularly for oil from the Middle East. The current population of the countries around the Mediterranean coast numbers some 360 million. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
If anyone worships the beautiful Moorish idol, it is the marine photographers who always take its picture. Found in the shallow waters around tropical coral reefs, the Moorish idol is a member of the same large family of tropical fish as the surgeonfish. Moorish idols have a tall, thin body with a slightly protruding snout. This type of body shape helps the Moorish idol maneuver easily among coral reefs when searching for food or hiding from predators. Moorish idols can be easily recognized by their distinctive yellow, black and white stripes and their elongated dorsal fin which stretches backward like a graceful feather.
Moorish idols spend most of their time swimming alone or in pairs as they pick algae and tiny invertebrates off pieces of coral. When it is time to mate, Moorish idols gather in large schools, perhaps because it is easier to fertilize their eggs.
The mushroom coral can be easily confused with a sea anemone. It has long, waving tentacles and varies in color from brown to green. Each of its many tentacles has white colored tips. But unlike its neighbor the anemone, the mushroom coral's tentacles are extended both day and night. The mushroom coral is also able to move around by using its tentacles in a spider-like motion. Mushroom corals are carnivorous but they will also feed on plankton. Mushroom corals can be found at depths of three to 66 feet, and inhabit areas in the Indian and North Pacific oceans.
The nautilus is a member of an ancient group of animals known as nautiloids, whose ancestors swam in the ocean hundreds of millions of years ago. Related to the octopus and squid, the nautilus is the only species in the class of animals known as cephalopods to have an external shell.
The nautilus is an active swimmer. It moves by drawing water into its shell through a hole in its mantle and pushing the water out through a hole near its mouth. The force of the water being expelled propels the nautilus quickly through the ocean. Each of the different chambers within the nautilus's shell is filled with gas. By adjusting the amount of gas in each chamber, the nautilus can rise or sink at will. The nautilus spends most of its day bumping along the ocean floor at depths of 600 feet or more. At night, however, the nautilus rises vertically to hunt for crab and other invertebrates found in the shallow waters of a coral reef.
ÑNorth Atlantic Basin: Hot and Cold
Length: NA;Depth: 20,751 Feet/6,325 Meters
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
The North Atlantic is divided into two basins by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an undersea mountain range. The ridge was formed by the upwelling of volcanic material from beneath the Earth's crust, and in some places -- such as Iceland and the Azores -- it rises above the ocean surface.
The waters around Greenland and Svalbard are major sources of bottom water -- the cold, dense water which flows along the ocean floor. North Atlantic bottom water comes from the meeting of cold water from the Arctic Ocean with warm water from the Gulf Stream. Cold winds chill the mixed water, which then sinks to the bottom. These are extremely rich in nutrients and are important feeding grounds for fish, marine mammals and sea birds.
The surface currents of the North Atlantic are dominated by the North Atlantic Gyre, a roughly circular system driven in the south by North-east Trade Winds and in the north by the winds known as the Westerlies. The most important part of the North Atlantic Gyre is the Gulf Stream. This fast-flowing current of warm water is formed by the junction of the Antilles and the Florida Currents at the Florida Straits. From here it flows northeastward along the coast of the United States at about five knots. Around Long Island it turns eastward across the Atlantic Ocean, and becomes known as the North Atlantic Current.
In the southwest of the North Atlantic region lies the Sargasso Sea, an area of warm, clear water bounded by a clockwise current system. The most famous feature of the Sargasso Sea is its drifting, wind-blown seaweed, which floats in the water, supported by numerous small air bladders. Sailing vessels often have to negotiate areas of the weed, which could stretch for considerable distances. The Sargasso Sea is also the spawning ground for the European eel and the American eel. Both species inhabit coastal waters and rivers, but migrate to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. During the autumn the European eel crosses the Atlantic in as little as 80 days, reaching the Sargasso Sea in February. Spawning occurs as deep as 3,940 feet below the surface of the ocean. After they are born, the young eels, known as elvers, take about two and a half years to reach the European coast. The American eel takes only one year to complete its migrations from the Sargasso Sea to the North American continent. The North Atlantic is also home to some of the most threatened species of marine mammals, including the bowhead whale, the humpback whale and the northern right whale.
The North-East Atlantic includes the busy coastal waters around western Europe, a wide continental shelf surrounding the British Isles, and the North Sea. Linked to the North Sea is the shallow basin of the Baltic Sea. The warm Gulf Stream, or North Atlantic Drift, ensures that the waters of the region remain ice-free year round.
The temperate waters support a rich coastal fishery. Annual catches averaged nearly three million tons from 1985 to 1987. The total amount of fish that can be caught each year without the total population of fish declining could be as high as 4.3 million tons. The most important species for the region's fisheries is the herring. This valuable species was initially caught using drift nets, but the fishing became more intensive with the use of trawls.
From the 1960s onward, the use of large wide, fishing nets known as purse seine nets, led to over-fishing, and the eventual decline of many fish populations. In 1976, a complete ban was imposed on herring fishing, a measure that has stimulated some recovery. Stocks of many other commercial fish such as mackerel, haddock, whiting, saithe and Norway pour are still in decline.
Fish species support large populations of sea birds and seals. Important breeding populations in the region include the fulma, gannet, shag, great skua, lesser and great black-backed gulls and razorbill. Northern populations of birds from Arctic Canada and Siberia may spend the winter in the North Sea, while other populations migrate southward.
The habitats of birds which live by the water, better known as waterfowl, include numerous river deltas and the Waddenzee, a shallow portion of the North Sea surrounded by the West Frisian Islands, and the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. River deltas in the United Kingdom alone support around 1.5 million wading birds, or about 40 percent of the European total.
Three species of seal are found in the Northeast Atlantic region. The most numerous is the grey seal, whose numbers have increased since the 1940s. An estimated 92,000 live around the British Isles; however, numbers in the Baltic are declining. In 1988, the harbor seal was severely affected by the sudden appearance of disease which caused nearly 18,000 deaths. The ringed seal is found in the northern and eastern parts of the Baltic. Its population has declined from more than 100,000 at the start of the 20th century to around 7,000 today. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
VNortheast Pacific: Let's Go Surfing Now
Length: NA;Depth: 22,115 Feet/6,741 Meters
NORTH-EAST PACIFIC OCEAN
The Northeast Pacific coast extends from Alaska through the densely populated state of California to the tropical waters off southern Mexico. Major urban-industrial centers include Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The fisheries of the Northeast Pacific are not nearly as productive as those of the west. In terms of quantity, the Alaska pollock is the most important single species. However, the number of fish caught each year amounts to only about 20 percent of that in the Northwest Pacific. Other commercially important species include the Pacific salmon, the yellowfin sole, and the Pacific cod. As in the Northwest Pacific, bivalves dominate shellfish catches.
The rich kelp forests along the California coast support a variety of animals, which include animals such as abalone, spiny lobster, sea bass and red urchin. The giant kelp itself produces algin, a sticky substance which is used as a thickening ingredient in the food industry.
The islands of the Northeast Pacific support a number of endangered and vulnerable populations of marine birds and mammals. The only known population of the Guadelupe fur seal lies on Mexico's Guadelupe Island west of Baja California.
There has been a steady reduction of the California Sea Otter population. Initially, this was due to fur trapping, but later through the loss of habitat and food.
The region's coastal waters have become polluted especially around major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, leading to problems of contaminated seafood. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
F Northwest Atlantic: American Waters
Length: NA;Depth: 21,430 Feet/6,532 Meters
NORTHWEST ATLANTIC OCEAN
The North Atlantic Ocean extends from tropical to chilly, icebound Arctic waters. Most of the world's major industrial countries lie on its shores. As a result, it is one of the world's busiest shipping areas. The North-West region of the Atlantic takes in the coastal waters of the eastern United States and Canada.
From its origins in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf Stream carries warm water north from the tropics and then eastward to Europe. The broad continental shelf of the Northwest-Atlantic supports one of the richest fisheries in the world. It is narrower near Delaware and Chesapeake Bays which, with the Gulf of Maine, are exceptionally productive because of their extensive salt marsh systems. Great glaciers shaped the coastal landscape of the Northwest Atlantic region. The coasts of Maine and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are rugged, with numerous small rocky islands. Narrow estuaries lined by salt marshes are characteristic as far south as the New York Bight, and mark the furthest limit of glaciation during the last Ice Age, which ended around 10,000 years ago. Cape Hatteras is the southern limit of cold temperate fauna and the northern limit of tropical fauna. Some scientists regard the transition zone between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras as a separate region, but there are few endemic species.
In the coastal plain area, extensive salty marshes have developed behind the barrier beaches of Long Island, New Jersey and North Carolina. These areas provide an important wildlife habitat. Salt marshes act as feeding and wintering grounds for many species of wildfowls and shore birds. However, marshes are increasingly threatened by industrial pollution, dredging, land reclamation, drainage and river control.
The cord grass is the dominant plant in salt marshes from Florida to the Bay of Fundy. Other primary producers include single-celled algae known as plankton, which bloom in the nutrient-rich waters of estuaries and support consumers. The eelgrass grows below the tide limit. Its roots help to stabilize bottom sediments and it is important as a fish nursery. The dominant alga over much of the coastline is the knotted wrack which occurs as far as 40 degrees south and as far north as the Arctic Circle. The Gulf of Maine is an important feeding area for many marine mammals, including the northern right whale, which is believed to be the most endangered of the large whales.
The current annual total weight of fish caught for the purposes of commercial fishing is around three million tons - close to 75 percent of the amount of fish that can be caught each year without decreasing the size of the fish population over time. Fishing is central to coastal communities in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Gulf of Maine. The most productive fishing grounds are the Grand Banks. Cod, flounder, haddock, pollock and scallops are harvested on Georges Bank. Four thousand lobster boats operate in the Gulf of Maine. Farther south, striped bass, bluefish, mackerel, menhaden, clams and crabs are caught. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
¡ Northwest Pacific: Sushi Central
Length: NA;Depth: 34,586 Feet/10,542 Meters
NORTHWEST PACIFIC OCEAN
The North Pacific Ocean extends from the Equator to the Bering Strait, the narrow passage which links the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean. On its western edge lie the heavily populated countries of China, Korea and the island groups of the Philippines and Japan. In the northwest lies the Kamchatka Peninsula.
A massive clockwise circulation drives the waters of the North Pacific, and carries warm southern waters northward along the coast of mainland Asia. In the east, cooled water flows southward along the west coast of the United States and Mexico. The range of temperature is much more marked on the western coasts. Over 50 species of marine mammals are found in the North Pacific, including the polar bear, fur seals, the walrus, dolphins and the sea otter. Threatened whales include the bowhead whale and the northern right whale, believed to be near extinction in the Northeast Pacific.
The North Pacific albacore tuna undertakes one of the longest fish migrations. In less than a year, it travels the 5,300 miles from California to Japan. The United States and Japan operate the two largest tuna fisheries and harvest the albacore at both ends of its migration journey. Most tuna meat is canned but the raw flesh of old fat tuna is particularly prized in places like Japan.
As a result of climate conditions and ocean currents, the fisheries of the Northwest Pacific are among the world's most productive. The joining of the warm, north-flowing Kuoshio Current and the south-flowing Oyashio Current helps support an enormous number of different fish species.
The most important marine animal for fisherman in this region is the Alaska pollock. The two species which dominate open ocean fishing are the chub mackerel and the Japanese sardine. The Japanese sardine fishery underwent explosive growth during the 1970s. The sardine is caught primarily in the warm waters of the Kuroshio Current and Tsumima Warm Current region. Over the years, populations of sardines have fluctuated greatly for sometimes mysterious reasons.
Industrial pollution, domestic sewage and agricultural runoff have a large impact on inshore fishing. As a result of the runoff of fertilizers and sewage, algae has grown rapidly in some areas of the Northwest Pacific. Red tides, which are sudden increase in the populations of single-celled algae, are now an annual occurrence in the Inland Sea of Japan. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
This regal member of the wrasse family is easily recognized by the splendid markings around its head. Like most wrasses, the Napoleon wrasse is quite territorial. It is also very bold and can be easily approached by divers. The Napoleon wrasse's gorgeous color pattern makes it a popular subject for underwater photographers. This particular wrasse certainly seems to crave the limelight.
The wrasse family of fishes is made up of many different kinds of species which are among the most colorful of all fish. Some of the smaller wrasses are known as "cleaner fish" because they spend their days in the jaws of much bigger fishes, picking out pieces of old food and parasites from between teeth, fins and gills. The host fish gets a cleaning and flossing, and the tiny wrasse gets a free meal.
EOctopus: Quick Change Artist
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 82 Feet/25 Meters
MEDITERRANEAN
How many times have you wished you could change the color and pattern of your skin? The octopus, and its cousins the squid and cuttlefish, can do just that. Using a special pigment cell in its skin, an octopus can change colors almost instantly. To do this, an octopus must rely on its highly-developed eyesight and complex brain to determine the appearance of its surroundings and then to select the right color for its skin.
With its flexible body, an octopus can hide itself among the rocks and sand of a coral reef until it is nearly invisible. When an unsuspecting fish or crab wanders by, the octopus strikes, jetting out from its hiding place and grabbing its prey with long, powerful tentacles.
Normally, octopuses use their long arms to crawl stealthily across the ocean floor. In emergencies, however, an octopus can propel itself through the water by taking in water through an opening in its head and expelling the water rapidly out of a separate opening. Another defense the octopuses has is to squirt an inky substance into the water which clouds an attacker's vision. Octopuses have among the most complex brains of any undersea animal. Not only can an octopus see well in fairly dark water, but it has a very well-developed sense of touch which allows it to pick up even tiny objects with its long tentacles.
Few animals in the ocean have a nervous system as elaborate and complex as that of the octopus. Without a shell for protection, the octopus must rely almost entirely on its wits and its powerful tentacles to defend itself and to hunt for prey.
The brain of an octopus consists of a large concentration of nerves in its head called a ganglion. This primitive brain is connected to a network of nerves that runs throughout the octopus's body and arms. Much of what the octopus's brain does is process huge amounts of visual information that come through its highly sensitive eyes. The octopus can see extremely well in either light or dark. The ability to see well not only helps the octopus in locating crabs and other crustaceans which the octopus lives on, but also helps the octopus figure out quickly the color of its environment so that it can change the color of its skin to match its surroundings.
The octopus also has an incredible sense of touch which allows it to sense very tiny objects and then manipulate them with its tentacles. The most amazing feature of the octopus brain, though, is the ability to remember things and even experiences.
?Ocean Origins: Evolution of the Oceans
Length: NA;Depth: NA
HAWAII
The oldest known rocks on the planet are thought to have solidified almost 4,200 million years ago, but the oldest rocks on the ocean floor are only 200 million years old. How can that be? The first water probably appeared as vapour, one of the many gases expelled from the Earth as it began to cool. This gas later condensed to form the great oceans.
The first life forms appeared in the oceans between two and three million years ago. This occurrence had an important effect on the chemistry of the oceans, of the atmosphere and on the evolution of all organisms. The early atmosphere lacked oxygen, but the development of new life produced oxygen as well as an ozone shield in the earth's upper atmosphere. This set the scene for the evolution of present life forms. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
Few animals in the sea are as colorful or as interesting as the unassuming nudibranch. This flat-bodied creature is a member of the mollusk phylum, making it a close relative to the squid and octopus. The nudibranch has a soft body that grows no longer than three or four inches. Similar to a snail, it has a head at one end of its body and an anus at the other. The nudibranch's gills consist of two small vertical stalks with what looks like a small flower at the end of each. The nudibranch can be found crawling or swimming along the bottoms of both warm and cool water oceans as it searches for sponges or stray pieces of organic matter to eat.
Nudibranches come in a stunning array of brilliant colors and patterns. Some, like this orange nudibranch, are covered by a bright solid color while others are covered by wild patterns of yellow, blue, and even purple stripes, circles and dots.
Without a shell, nudibranches look as if they would be any animal's quick meal. Their soft bodies offer little in the way of protection and they have no means of grabbing an attacker like an octopus does. But nudibranches are far tougher than they first appear. Many nudibranches, for instance, excrete a mucus that smells unpleasant to man and is distasteful to many fish. The mucus of some nudibranches is even mixed with sulfuric acid, which does not digest well.
When in danger, nudibranches can also make a hasty retreat by undulating their body in a way that creates a rippling effect in the water and propels them forward. If part of a nudibranch is bitten off, it can regenerate the part in a matter of weeks.
Most interesting of all, some nudibranches are immune to the sting of anemones and can absorb the stinging cells from the sea anemone and then incorporate them into their own skin to be used against an attacker.
With all of these defenses, a nudibranch's vivid colors help advertise its presence to potential predators.
For centuries, dolphins have enchanted men with their playful nature and stunning displays of intelligence. Dolphins, like whales and porpoises, are members of the family of oceangoing mammals known as cetaceans. They are warm-blooded, breathe air through a blowhole located at the top of their head and bear live young. Dolphins inhabit both warm and cool waters around the world's oceans. With their muscular, streamlined bodies, dolphins are fast, agile undersea swimmers. They can easily out-race most fish and are often seen keeping pace with high-speed motorboats. Dolphins travel together in closely-knit family groups as well as in large packs. Dolphins like to swim beneath giant schools of tuna, feeding on the same small fish that tuna eat. Unfortunately, many dolphins are killed each year in fishing nets meant for schools of tuna.
Some scientists believe that dolphins may be among the smartest animals on the planet. A dolphin's brain is nearly as large as a human's brain. Not only can dolphins learn complex tricks, but some dolphins have been taught to communicate in simple languages. Much of a dolphin's brain is used for navigation. Dolphins find their way through the ocean by using a form of sonar known as echolocation. Dolphins do this by making a noise that sounds like a click. By listening to the returning echoes from these clicks, dolphins can determine what objects look like and how far away they are.
Among the most beautiful inhabitants of a coral reef is the brightly-colored parrot fish. Like the bird with whom it shares a name, the parrot fish lives almost exclusively in the tropics. It has a curved hard "nose" which it uses to scrape algae and coral organisms off rocks and a set of large, tough teeth near its throat which it uses to chew its food. The parrot fish's throat teeth, as they are called, are fused tightly together to form two solid, bony plates that are perfect for grinding coral into tiny grains of sand. Parrotfish are responsible for creating much of the sand that surrounds a coral reef.
When they sleep, parrotfish secrete a transparent mucus around their body. This "sleeping bag," as some people like to call it, keeps the parrotfish's smell from reaching the noses of predators in the coral reef. Perhaps its most serious predators, though, are snorkeling tourists who seek the fish out for its beautiful colors and want to take its picture.
Most fish think twice before making a meal of a porcupine fish. By swallowing large amounts of water or air very quickly, a frightened porcupine fish can puff its body up to several times its normal size. This instinctive response to danger makes the porcupine fish too big for most predators to consider swallowing. And with its pointy spines sticking straight out, a porcupine fish would cause any predator a good case of indigestion. If that's not enough of a defense, the porcupine fish's flesh is poisonous to most animals, including humans.
When a porcupine fish is not frightened, its body is long and oblong-shaped and its pointy spines rest along its back. Most commonly found in coral reefs, the porcupine fish spends its days swimming along the sandy bottom looking for small crabs and shrimp to eat. Because its body is covered with thick skin and spines, the porcupine fish can only swim very slowly using its tiny feather-like pectoral fins.
Who says fish are the silent types? If you were out in a boat in the middle of an excited school of porkfish you might just complain about the noise pollution they were making. Porkfish are members of a family of tropical fish known as grunts that make a distinct grunting sound, almost like a pig, when they rub their teeth together. This sound is amplified further by the porkfish's swim bladder and can be heard underwater by nearby divers. Sometimes the noise from a large group of grunts is so loud that people in boats above water can actually hear the sound of grunts.
Porkfish swim in large schools around tropical and subtropical coral reefs. They are wider and more colorful than most other grunt species, with several bright orange and dark stripes that cross over their head and eyes.
Young porkfish look quite different from adult porkfish. A young porkfish has large horizontal stripes and other dark markings which disappear as they become adults. Porkfish generally like to feed on invertebrates such as shrimp and small squid. One unexplained behavior that most grunts, including porkfish, engage in -- is kissing. When two grunts find themselves face to face, they will open their mouths wide and push them together until they are nearly touching. This gives the odd impression that they are kissing. Some people think it is the first part of a mating ritual, while others believe it is an act of aggression between two territorial males or females.
Sponges are one of the simplest of animals on the planet. They consist of collections of similar cells held together by prickly, needle-like spicules. These minuscule spicules can be made of glass or limestone-like material. Sponges collected for home use do not have these hard spicules, so their skeletons are spongy and bounce back after they are used. With the development of plastic sponges for household use, however, the need to harvest living sponges has dropped considerably.
If sponges with spicules are handled carelessly, they can cause rashes and the spicules can become imbedded in your flesh. Aside from providing support for the sponge animal, the spiny spicules help keep predators away. Many sponges have noxious chemicals in their tissue that also deter predators. Some of these "chemicals from the sea" are being investigated for possible use as medicines or as pesticides.
The female redfish (or ocean perch) is sometimes called a "living incubator" because it uses internal fertilization to hatch babies inside its body. There are many different kinds of redfish which can be found in both warm and cold waters. For those redfish which live in the cold Atlantic and Arctic Oceans it is better to fertilize their eggs internally than laying them directly on the cold seabed where they would take a long time to develop. After a redfish's babies have hatched, they must fend for themselves, catching food among floating plankton and waving clumps of seaweed.
Redfish are a medium-sized fish with very long spines. The dorsal fin alone has 15 very distinguishable spines. Redfish can be easily identified by their bright coloring. They also have the peculiar habit of hovering motionless among the floating seaweed in a vertical position, head pointing upward.
There are more than 100 different species of rockfish and fishermen love almost every one of them. Members of a large family of fish known as scorpionfish, rockfish are widely distributed in cool ocean waters throughout the world.
All rockfish have a spiny dorsal fin which runs along half the distance of their back. They also have large eyes and a mouth which sometimes give the appearance of frowning. Rockfish live at all different depths of the ocean, from 200 feet to 2,000 feet. Rockfish are carnivorous. To capture their prey, some rockfish will remain motionless near the bottom of the ocean while other varieties of rockfish such as the ocean perch are fairly active swimmers and will chase their prey at high speeds for short distances.
Red lined shrimp live in caves and on rocks in coral reefs. They have ten walking legs and use their front two legs as pincers for picking up small objects and defending themselves. Shrimp, like the red lined shrimp, eat almost any animal matter they can get their pincers on, including fish, other shrimp, snails, sea anemones, or any of the microscopic animals living on a reef.
Red lined shrimp are known as "cleaning shrimp" because they spend much of their time cleaning tiny crustaceans and diseased tissue off fishes' bodies. This relationship between cleaning shrimp and the fish they clean is quite beneficial to both parties. The shrimp gets a good meal and the fish gets potentially harmful materials removed from its skin. The ritual for a cleaning can be quite complex. First, the shrimp uses its antennae to wave down any nearby fishes that are interested in getting cleaned. The fish communicates to the shrimp that it is ready to be cleaned by assuming an unthreatening posture. The shrimp then clambers aboard the fish, removing or eating any stray parasites from the fish's skin. The shrimp may even enter the fish's gills and dance around near the throat without being harmed. When the shrimp is finished, the fish will move away and another fish will usually be waiting in line to take its place. During the night, the shrimp retires to crevices and caves and remains quiet until the next day, when the cleaning begins again.
■Southeast Pacific: Darwin's Spot
Length: NA;Depth: 20,895 Feet/6,369 Meters
SOUTHEAST PACIFIC OCEAN
The coast of the Southeast Pacific region stretches for about 6,500 miles and its ecosystems vary from the tropical mangrove and coral coasts of the Gulf of Panama to the cold, rocky shores of Chile's fjord region. Numerous fast-flowing rivers cross the narrow coastal plain carrying large amounts of sediment down from South America's highlands to the waters of the Southeast Pacific. The continental shelf is also narrow, measuring no more than four miles wide in the south and extending to a maximum width of 17 miles off the coast of Ecuador.
Offshore, the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current dominate the region. This current approaches the southern tip of the continent from the west and splits into two major branches, the Humboldt Current and the southward flowing Cape Horn Current.
The Peruvian Current is one of the most productive marine systems in the world. The fish in this system account for nearly 10 percent of the world's catch. More than 16 percent of the total catch of the Pacific Ocean is caught off the coasts of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. In 1980, the total weight of the fish and crustaceans caught in these waters amounted to more than six million tons. By 1985, this total had increased to more than nine million tons for Chile and Peru alone.
The development of coral reefs in this region is limited by the cool ocean currents and the high river discharges into the sea. Coral are very sensitive to temperature, fresh water and suspended sediment. Most well-developed coral reef communities are found in the vicinity of islands such as the Secas Islands off Panama, Gorgona Island in Colombia and the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador.
A high proportion of the population of the countries in this region live on the coast, and marine resources provide these countries with much of their food and livelihood. As human populations increase, the environmental problems will grow and become more intense. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
West African Seas: Population Explosion
Length: NA;Depth: 20,875 Feet/6,363 Meters
WEST AFRICAN SEAS
The West African seas stretch over 5,600 miles of ocean. The climate varies greatly, from humid and tropical around the Equator to arid in the north and south. Coastal features are also very different, ranging from drowned river valleys to sand dunes, lagoons, mud flats and -- in the far south -- algae beds. The width of the continental shelf beneath the water varies from 45 miles in the Gulf of Guinea to only 2.5 miles off Angola.
Dolphin and porpoise species are present throughout the region, as well as the West African manatee, which is found in rivers, estuaries and coastal areas. The manatee lives in shallow swampy areas where it feeds on submerged plant life. Despite international protection, the manatee is threatened by hunting and accidental deaths in fishing nets.
The coastal areas and lagoons of the West African Seas are important wildlife habitats and are visited each year by millions of migratory birds. Beaches along the coast provide nesting for the green and olive Ridley turtles, and for three other turtle species. More remarkably, over 9,650 square miles of mangroves, extend from the West African coast to Angola.
Because of a rich supply of food, An abundance of fish live in this area of the ocean. The most important fishes are the sardine and the Horse Mackerel. Lobsters are fished for in the north and south of the region. Deep-water shrimp are found off Senegal and Angola.
Fishing is central to the economies of the countries along the West African Sea.
The environmental problems of the region include rapid population expansion, oil pollution, coastal erosion, and the discharge of raw sewage.
The Southwest portion of the Atlantic Ocean ranges from tropical to temperate waters. The Brazil ocean current flows southward along the coast of South America until it joins with the north-flowing Falkland Current at the Rio de La Plata River in Brazil and turns eastward.
The Rio de la Plata River forms an important boundary between warm temperate and cold temperate waters of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Tropical marine animals of the north include corals and sea turtles, while the south is home to various species of seals and penguins.
Mangroves, lagoons and estuaries in the north of the region provide nurseries for fish and shellfish. Magellan's penguin, which can be found in parts of southern Brazil, lives farther north than any other penguin. The southern fur seal is found on the Falkland Islands, and on the mainland. The kelp beds of the Patagonian Shelf and Tierra del Fuego, along with those of southern Chile, constitute one of the largest seaweed ecosystems of the world. It is believed that 1,200 of the estimated 1,500 surviving southern Right whales may spend their winters near the Valdes Peninsula. The southern Right whale is well known for its antics, including leaping out of the water and raising its flukes.
Coastal fish benefit from the large quantities of plankton which are created by the mangrove system. Fish that are used for eating include the Patagonian hake, the Argentine anchovy, the common squid, and the shortfin squid. In the warmer northern waters, crustaceans such as penaeid shrimps and mollusks such as the white seabob are more important to fishermen. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
An unsuspecting fish swims too close to what appears to be a large sand-covered rock. A moment later, the rock comes to life and swallows the fish. Unfortunately, the rock was not a rock, it was a scorpionfish.
Scorpionfish are one of the great masters of ocean camouflage. Covered by rough spines and loose pieces of skin called "wattles," scorpionfish can blend in almost perfectly with the rocks and seaweed that surround them.
Scorpionfish usually don't grow much longer than a foot, though some have been seen to reach lengths of three feet or more. Scorpionfish have a very large head and a giant mouth which is perfect for snapping up sizable fish in its jaws. The scorpionfish's body then tapers off sharply to a small, narrow tail.
There are several different kinds of scorpionfish. Most of them can be found in the shallow waters around the Atlantic Ocean.
Scorpionfish are solitary fish. Their preferred hunting technique is to sit absolutely motionless on the ocean bottom until a fish or shrimp comes close to its mouth. Then, using its pectoral fins as a lever, the scorpionfish lunges forward and tries to swallow the animal in a single gulp. Scorpionfish will often attempt to swallow animals as large or larger than they are.
To keep predators from trying to swallow them, scorpionfish have highly poisonous spines on their back which can kill or hurt most undersea animals. There is always one unfortunate diver who gets stung as he or she is reaching into rocks or seaweed where a scorpionfish is hiding. The poison is not lethal to humans, but it certainly hurts a great deal.
The spinner dolphin is named after the dramatic way in which it jumps, twisting and twirling, out of the water like a madly spinning airplane. These acrobatics are not performed all the time. During the daylight hours, spinner dolphins are, in fact, very quiet, lazily swimming around inshore bays. But just when the sun goes down, the spinner awakens and the spectacular spinning show begins!
Dolphins are among the most friendly of all the marine mammals and usually travel in groups (or pods) of a dozen to more than several hundred. Spinner dolphins weigh close to 250 pounds and measure up to seven feet long. They inhabit the tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Spinner dolphins feed on fish and cephalopod mollusks which they catch with their tiny, sharp teeth. Because they often hunt for food alongside yellowfin and skipjack tuna, every year thousands of these beautiful creatures are accidentally trapped in tuna nets and killed.
[Sea Lion: Bark is Worse than His Bite
Length: 10 Feet/3 Meters;Depth: 0 Feet/0 Meters
CALIFORNIA
The male sea lion is famous for his loud bark. During the mating season when sea lions are establishing their territories, the male will bark constantly, barely stopping long enough to breathe. A sea lion pupping ground during the mating season sounds more like a dog kennel than anything else.
There are several different species of sea lion, but the California sea lion pictured here is the best known sea lion and is popular in zoos and at the circus. A medium sized creature, it is found mainly along the western coast of North America from Baja California in Mexico, to San Francisco. The males tend to be dark brown in color and the females are slightly yellowish with darker flippers. When sea lions are born, they are almost black. Sea lions feed mostly on squid, octopus, anchovies and herring.
The main difference between sea lions and seals is that the flippers on sea lions look and operate more like real "legs." Sea lions are capable of walking and even running by twisting their hind legs into a slightly forward position, whereas seals must drag their hind flippers behind them.
1Variegated Sea Fan: Reef Bouquets
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 150 Feet/46 Meters
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Sea fans are cousins to the corals and sea anemones. They have small, anemone-like polyps that are attached to branches made of a skeleton-like material. These tiny polyps are very difficult to see in the daytime when they are folded up and not fishing for plankton. Each polyp has eight arms, or tentacles, instead of six like the corals. The tentacles are covered with a row of branches down each side, like a palm frond. At dusk, the polyps open up like little flowers to catch the small crustaceans that come out of hiding at night. The best place for the sea fan and corals to live is in ocean channels and near the outer face of a coral reef where passing currents carry lots of food in the water.
The sea fan is anchored to the ocean floor or to a hard coral head like a tree or a bush.
Soft Coral: Reef Trees
Length: 7 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 100 Feet/30 Meters
SOUTH PACIFIC
Soft coral looks true to its name. Its polyps retracted, this coral has a velvety soft appearance. However, it is firm and leathery to the touch. Soft coral lives in shallow waters along the coastal areas of the Indian and North Pacific oceans. It feeds on plankton.
»Blacktip Shark: Short and Feisty
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 100 Feet/30 Meters
PACIFIC OCEAN
The blacktip shark may not be large, but it is fast and aggressive. Found in the warm waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the blacktip shark grows to a length of six feet and can be easily recognized by the clear black markings on its dorsal and ventral fins. The blacktip shark is a powerful swimmer capable of moving quite rapidly when it attacks a favorite prey such as a stingray, school of sardines or butterfish. Blacktips are often seen leaping completely out of the water, though no one is quite sure why they do this.
Blacktip sharks are most common in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean where sports fishermen like to try to catch them with a hook and reel. Like all other sharks, blacktips have a skeleton made of cartilage and not bone. Cartilage is lighter than bone and allows sharks to swim farther while expending less energy. Sharks, such as the blacktip shark, are not built for long periods of fast swimming. Most sharks' bodies are best suited to long distance cruising during which very little of their energy is used up. The moment food or danger is nearby, though, a shark like the blacktip is capable of high speeds of close to 20 miles an hour.
Bright red rock crabs or shore crabs are very easy to spot as they scurry along the rugged coastline of oceanic islands. They are very agile and can scamper rapidly over the sharp, jagged lava rocks on their nimble feet. The tips of their eight walking legs have short stiff spines that grab on to the rock and prevent wearing away of the legs on the rough surface. Although the nearby water may be cold, the warm rocks warm the crabs enough so that they can remain very active. They move so quickly that they are very hard to catch by hand. Although they seem to spend all their time out of the water, they must return once in a while to moisten their gills.
Female crabs carry their eggs under their bellies, and will frequently return to the water to keep the eggs wet. When the eggs are ready to be hatched, the female must again return to the water. Baby crabs must spend several weeks in the ocean before they are big enough to take up seashore life. Once they are adults, crabs will only retreat to water as a last resort when chased. To a crab, there is more danger in the waves than on land.
It's hard to believe that this strange looking creature is really a fish. But it is. Seahorses have one of the most peculiar shapes in the fish world. Their bodies are long and covered by a hard armor-like skin that is perfect protection against hungry fish. A seahorse's long snout takes up most of its head and is perfect for sucking up tiny fish and microscopic animals that float along in the water.
One of the seahorses' most interesting physical traits is its prehensile tail, which can wrap around objects like weeds, keeping the seahorse in one place for long periods of time. Seahorses move around by fluttering the tiny dorsal fins on their back and the small fin by their head. They can also change the color of their skin to match their surroundings.
Seahorses also do something that few animals in the world do -- the males carry the babies! When seahorses mate, the female deposits up to 200 eggs in a small pouch in the front of the male seahorse's stomach. After two to six weeks the eggs develop into baby seahorses. At this time, the male seahorse grabs onto a thin weed with its tail and then squeezes out the babies four and five at a time. Measuring only a half inch long, the tiny seahorses float to the surface of the water, take a gulp of air to fill their swim bladders and then begin looking for microscopic animals to eat.
Sea Snake: Poisonous Serpent
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 60 Feet/18 Meters
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
Sea snakes are very poisonous cousins of the cobras and are well adapted for swimming and living in the water. Many of the 70 or so kinds of sea snakes are very brightly colored. This is believed to be a warning color pattern, like the stripes on a skunk, so other animals can know to avoid them. Sea snakes tend to be flattened from side to side for swimming. In fact, their muscles are so specialized for swimming that it is difficult for these snakes to move on land. Many seafaring people have learned that these flabby snakes cannot curl upward to bite if held by the tail. Sea snakes are usually quite tame and will rarely strike out at humans. Since they must drink salty sea water to live, they also have a salt gland next to their tongue. The gland helps them get rid of the extra salt taken in when they drink.
Sea snakes mainly eat fish. Divers frequently see sea snakes looking into crevices, cracks, and holes in the reef, searching for fishes. Some sea snakes have bodies with thin heads so that they better fit into the burrows of eels and other slender fishes. One kind of sea snake eats only fish eggs.
Most sea snakes give birth to living young. The pregnant females often come into rocky areas or mangrove forests to give birth. These areas provide protection for the young until they can fend for themselves. A few sea snakes go into rocky areas to lay eggs.
South Pacific: Islands Galore
Length: NA;Depth: 36,161 Feet/11,022 Meters
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
The Pacific islands are home to just over five million people. Their combined land area is no greater than 193,000 square miles. The Pacific Basin, where these islands are located, contains some of the world's smallest nations.
Pacific islands range from low-lying atolls, up to 13 feet above sea level, to high volcanic islands with steep profiles. Atolls are living coral reefs growing on submerged volcanic cones. The atoll islands are made of piles of sand derived from weathered coral skeletons and other reef organisms such as algae. These islands are formed in long, narrow strips, either entirely enclosing a central lagoon or forming a series of small islets around the edges of it. They are unstable and very vulnerable to destruction by hurricanes. They also have only a limited underground supply of freshwater.
Raise coral islands are composed of reef limestone. They tend to have poor soils and little or no surface fresh water. In contrast, volcanic islands are densely covered with vegetation and have rich soils. The shapes and sizes of islands will greatly affect the pattern of rainfall and water runoff. Volcanic islands are among the highest in the Pacific and generally have very steep hills which drop off rapidly to the ocean depths. These islands are usually surrounded by barrier and fringing reefs.
The Pacific Ocean is renowned for its coral reefs. Some of the most diverse and dramatic reef structures in the world are found in the South Pacific. Three basic types of reefs can be found there. The first is called a fringing reef, which grows directly adjacent to island and continental land masses. The second is called an extended barrier reef, such as the Great Barrier Reef, which surrounds much of Australia. These reefs occur some distance offshore and are separated from the mainland by a deep-water channel. The last kind of reef is called an atoll, which is an island made up of a large concentration of coral formed around the top of an old volcano.
Human population densities are generally high in the South Pacific. On average 386 people live on every square mile of land. These heavy concentrations of human population lead to environmental problems such as sewage pollution of enclosed lagoons and coastal waters. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
The Spanish Dancer nudibranch may be one of the most vividly colored animals under the sea, but it won't get many requests for a dance. In fact, the Spanish Dancer's brightly colored skin does just the reverse, it reminds other animals to stay away.
Like other nudibranchs, the Spanish Dancer is a horrible thing for predators to eat. While it may have no protective shell, it gives off a bad tasting mucous that most fish dislike. Spanish Dancers are also able to absorb the stinging cells of anemones and then use them in their own skin to sting the mouths of any animal that bites them. The Spanish Dancers' bright colors are a reminder to hungry animals that this is one meal they won't relish.
Spanish Dancers live along the shallow bottoms of cool-water oceans. They feed on a mix of sponge and decayed organic matter. Like most members of the mollusk family, the Spanish Dancer has a head at one end of its small body and an anus at the other. It uses a pair of tiny tentacles near its head to help navigate and moves through the water either by crawling or undulating its body to swim. It also has a small set of external gills which help it breathe. The Spanish Dancer is very sensitive to light and will usually hide during the daytime, then come out to search for food at night.
|Spotted Dolphin: See Spot Jump!
Length: 6 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 0 Feet/0 Meters
BAHAMAS
The spotted dolphin is, like its close relative the spinner dolphin, a spectacular acrobat. It is a very fast swimmer and will frequently jump high out of the water, spinning and twisting its body around in the air. This dolphin is easily recognized by the tiny white spots covering its backside.
Dolphins are among the most intelligent creatures on the planet. Their brains are as large as, and sometimes larger than, the average human brain. For many centuries dolphins have been known to perform brave acts for people. There have been numerous reported cases of dolphins helping people who are shipwrecked back to shore. Dolphins are also well known for their intelligence. Dolphins in captivity can learn tricks at incredible rates of speed, and when they are feeling creative they can change and modify tricks to their own liking.
Because they are mammals, dolphins give birth to live young. Most dolphins are very attached to their young babies and will travel closely with them for long periods of time before they let them fend for themselves. Dolphins like the spinner dolphin hunt and navigate by use of echolocation and their eyesight.
Echolocation is like sonar. A dolphin constantly makes noises that sound like tiny clicks. When these sound waves strike an object, an echo returns to the dolphin. The head of a dolphin is filled with very sensitive nerve endings that can detect minute changes in the water pressure created by these echoes. Collecting all of this information, the dolphin can produce a very accurate picture of its environment.
Spotted dolphins are characterized by the large schools in which they swim. These dolphins have been known to travel in packs of up to several thousand as they criss-cross large parts of the ocean. What a spectacular sight that must be!
Because spinner and spotted dolphins will school together with yellowfin tuna they often become entangled and die in tuna fishermen's nets. In 1972, more than 380,000 dolphins were killed by tuna netting, and most of them were spotted dolphins. Fortunately, due to new restrictions on fishing nets, the spotted dolphin has staged a successful comeback.
No trip to a coral reef is complete without an accidental run-in with a moray eel. But don't worry. Unless a moray eel is provoked, this mean-looking animal will stay in its cave until you have moved on.
The slimy and slippery spotted moray is a member of the eel family and looks more like a giant slithering snake than a fish. It is easily recognizable by its dark brown body covered with tiny white spots. Like most morays, the spotted moray is more active at night and tends to be territorial. During the day it hides in crevices and coral reefs with only its head poking out.
Morays have a fearsome reputation. They are savage predators that feed mostly on invertebrates like octopus, squid and shrimp. Sometimes it is thought that the bite of a moray is poisonous, but this is untrue. Although morays have a vicious looking set of fangs, they will not strike out unless provoked. If touched, they will almost certainly retreat. Many people are frightened by the way in which moray eels rythmically open and close their large mouths. But this is not done to be threatening. Rather, the moray eel must move its mouth to help push water over its gills.
Normally, squid are solitary creatures that prefer living alone rather than congregating in large groups. However, when squid mate, they will often gather in giant schools in places like Hawaii or off the coast of California. At such times, the male squid will engage in a mock battle over a female by rushing toward each other and then stopping just before making contact.
After this ritual, the male and female squid will engage in a long dance, in which both circle each other and grapple with one another using their tentacles. Eventually the male and female will join as the male fertilizes the eggs of the female. At that moment, both the male and female squid will turn white.
Once fertilized, the female squids will deposit their eggs in large groups of tubular sacks along the ocean bottom. In some areas where large groups of squid mate, the ocean floor looks like it is covered by tiny white balloons. A single female squid may lay up to 200,000 eggs. After she is done, the female squid sometimes will die. Most of the eggs, or the baby squid, will be eaten before they can leave the area. Of the 200,000 eggs a female squid will produce, perhaps only two or three will reach adulthood.
Dynamic, sensitive, and intelligent. Those aren't the words that normally come to mind when describing a squid. In fact, squid are among the most highly developed creatures in the ocean. Members of a group of animals known as mollusks, squid are close cousins to clams and snails. Unlike these animals, though, squid do not have a hard external shell to protect their bodies. Also different, squid have a well-developed nervous system. Squid, like their cousin the octopus, can change the color of their skin almost instantaneously in response to changes in their surroundings. They have remarkable vision which lets them see things almost perfectly in light or dark. They also have a great sense of touch, making it possible for them to handle delicately the most fragile objects, such as their miniature eggs. Recently, scientists have shown that some types of squid use their ability to change color as a way of communicating simple emotions such as anger or fear. Another amazing observation is that squid and octopus actually have a limited ability to remember things.
Squid are predators that like to hunt at night. Most often, squid catch their prey by grabbing it with their long tentacles. The squid pulls its victim into a small mouth at the bottom of its head. A squid's mouth is a sharp parrot-like beak which can inject a deadly poison into the skin of its prey. Most squid measure between two and four feet long. But there are giant squid which live in the ocean depths that may grow to a length of 50 feet. No one has actually caught a squid this long, but some sperm whales have been seen with tentacle markings on their skin so large that they could only have been made by a giant squid.
First-time divers will frequently ask, "What's all that clicking and snapping?" What they're hearing is the snapping of the giant claw of the snapping shrimp!
Hundreds of these shrimp live in holes, burrows, and in sponges and corals on most reefs in warm and even cooler ocean waters. Sometimes large tropical sponges are found full of snapping shrimp. Snapping shrimp are very territorial and the snapping noises warn other sea creatures not to trespass. It is also thought that the loud snaps actually stun or repel potential invaders. The snapping can be heard day and night.
The noise of the snapping shrimp comes from the gigantic claw on one of its front legs. This claw can be cocked open like the hammer of a gun, and when the shrimp releases it, a large noise is produced. Sometimes a small jet of water squirts out too.
Found in the warm waters of the South Pacific, the orange sea star is a real standout. Its bright orange coloring makes it highly visible in either day or night. The orange sea star most frequently inhabits the rocky and coral reefs surrounding volcanic islands in the Pacific. Unlike many starfish, which are carnivorous, the orange sea star feeds on algae and tiny organisms known as sessile invertebrates.
When it is time to mate, the male orange sea star releases sperm into the water and the female releases eggs into the water. If they are close enough together, the eggs will be fertilized and eventually turn into tiny starfish larvae that will float along with the currents. These larvae feed on microscopic plankton in the water, until they transform themselves into small orange sea stars and then drift back to the bottom.
A dreaded killer? A high speed eating machine? It's hard to believe that any starfish could be described in such a way. But the twenty-rayed starfish is one of the largest, fastest, and most aggressive of its kind. And boy does it like to eat!
The twenty-rayed starfish is a great hunter, capable of capturing many kinds of foods, including mollusks, crustaceans and even small fish. Like other carnivorous starfish, the twenty-rayed starfish attacks its prey by smothering it with its long suction-covered arms. Once the prey is in the starfish's grip, the starfish uses acids from its stomach to weaken the animal's resistance. When the animal is weak enough, the starfish literally pushes its stomach outside of its body and digests the animal on the spot. As an adult, a twenty-rayed star can reach a size of 40 and sometimes 50 inches in diameter. When they are very young, twenty-rayed stars only have five arms. As they mature, they grow more and more arms until they have 24 arms.
The twenty-rayed starfish is found in the western coastal waters off North America. They are extremely territorial and will engage in combat whenever they encounter another starfish or another member of its species.
VStar Coral: Stony Star of the Sea
Length: 8 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 70 Feet/21 Meters
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
The stars of the star coral are actually blades of a living coral's limestone skeleton. Each star is the bottom of a coral polyp. Polyps resemble small sea anemones with six tentacles, or arms, extending upward. These arms are normally folded down inside the polyp during the day for protection from coral eating animals. At night they expand into the surrounding water where they catch small animals. These arms have the same stinging cells as sea anemones.
Thousands of corals will grow together to form a colony. Large colonies may extend over eight feet in diameter. As they grow they produce lime rock and over a few hundred years this lime rock may weigh hundreds of pounds. However, the thin layer of actual living coral weighs only a few pounds.
This coral is green because a small, one-celled green plant called algae is imbedded in it. Like all plants, the algae need sunlight, as does the coral. This means that reef-building corals are not found in caves or in the deep sea where the light is scarce. Corals also require clear water without sediment, because the sediment will often fall on them and block the light. Sometimes sediment will settle only on the tops of large rounded corals. In this case, the center of the coral will die, but the sides will continue to grow. This often results in a donut-shaped coral head.
vStingray: Deadly Stingers
Length: 13 Feet/4 Meters;Depth: 66 Feet/20 Meters
INDIAN OCEAN
Stingrays are famous for their powerful "sting." Unlike the giant, harmless manta ray, this type of ray is quite dangerous due to the poisonous sting in its tail. With its flat, diamond-shaped body, large flapping "wings" and protruding eyes, the stingray looks very similar to its nonpoisonous relatives. But watch out! Sticking out of its long tail are one or more skin covered stings, each having razor sharp backward facing teeth. These sharp spines inject a powerful poison which can be deadly!
Stingrays vary in size and weight, and some of the largest can measure up to 13 feet in diameter and weigh several hundred pounds. Stingrays live mostly among muddy and rocky coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but some species are exclusively river fish and can be found in South America just east of the Andes. Stingrays feed on fish and invertebrates.
Without a doubt, the stonefish is one of the ugliest fish in the ocean. It is also one of the most poisonous. Stonefish are found living on the sandy or rocky bottoms of coastal waters in the Atlantic, Indian and parts of the Pacific Ocean. Growing up to a foot in length, this bulky fish is not much of a swimmer. But it still manages to be a very effective hunter.
To catch its meal, the stonefish relies on camouflage and surprise. Like the scorpionfish, the stonefish usually rests motionlessly on the ocean bottom until an unsuspecting fish or shrimp swims too close. The stonefish's coarse body blends in well with rocky ocean floors and its skin can change colors to match its surroundings. Some stonefish have large pieces of loose skin on their body that resemble small shreds of seaweed.
Once a fish or octopus swims within reach, the stonefish leaps forward and literally sucks the fish into its large mouth.
Since stonefish are not good swimmers they need other ways to protect themselves from predators like sharks and moray eels. Their most effective defense is the set of 12 poison spines running along their back. When a stonefish is resting, the spines lay in a safe horizontal position. But when a stonefish is in danger, the spines are raised so that they stick straight up. Each spine carries a lethal dose of poison which is instantly injected into anything that touches it. The poison is so deadly that it can kill a human in just three hours. If that's not enough to keep potential predators away, the stonefish's flesh is also toxic to most marine animals.
When one ochre sea star finds something good to eat, it's not long before most of the sea stars in the vicinity find out. Quite often, sea stars, also known as starfish, will pile up on top of each other to get a piece of some food that is lying on the ocean floor. It might take several hours for a group of starfish this large to come together in one place. But starfish are determined eaters and will travel large distances to get a good meal. Once the food disappears, though, starfish will wander away in different directions in search of another meal.
Most people don't think of starfish as the kinds of sea animals that get around a lot. In fact, most of the times we see starfish they look about as mobile as a cactus. But like other echinoderms, such as the sea urchin and sea cucumber, starfish have rows and rows of tiny tube feet that enable them to move much quicker than you would think. These tube feet are located on the underside of the starfish's arms and are powered by a current of water which is channeled through the starfish's body cavity and down along its arms.
Ochre sea stars like the ones in this picture are voracious carnivores which love to eat mollusks lying along the ocean bottom. When an ochre sea star catches up with a mollusk it will wrap the mollusk in its arms and then push its intestines out of its body and into the mollusk's shell, digesting the mollusk's insides right there on the spot. Ochre sea stars are so adept at tracking down their prey that some mollusks have developed a way of detecting the scent of an approaching ochre sea star.
Ochre sea stars are generally found off the rocky coastline of the western United States.
The common sun star has a voracious appetite unmatched by almost any other starfish. A sun star will and can eat just about any mollusk or starfish that gets in its path. Like other starfish, sun stars consume their prey by first covering them with their arms and then pushing their stomach out of their body and onto their victim. The sun star's stomach acids literally digest the prey outside of the sun star's body. Sun stars are known to swallow certain kinds of shelled mollusks whole. After 24 hours, the mollusk's soft tissue will be completely digested and the shells will be emptied from the sun star's stomach. Eating at this rate, a sun star can double its size in its first year of life.
Most sun stars have 8-13 short arms which they use to maneuver along the ocean floor. Like other echinoderms, the sun star uses tiny tube feet -- located on the underside of its arms -- to get around. Inside its body cavity, the sun star has a small stomach and a reproductive organ that produces sperm or eggs depending on whether it is a male or female. There is also a water-canal system which brings water from outside of the sun star into its body. The water then flows to the tiny tube feet to make them move.
Some dangerous people carry knives, but the beautiful surgeonfish carries a scalpel. On either side of the back of its tail, the surgeonfish has two hard, sharp spines that are imbedded in its skin. When the surgeonfish is in danger, these spines pop out like tiny switchblades and can slash any predator with a painful wound. Many inexperienced divers have made the mistake of trying to pet this seemingly harmless fish only to get a nasty cut from one of its spines.
Surgeonfish come in many bright colors and patterns. They are found almost exclusively in the shallow waters of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The colors of surgeonfish vary greatly between species. Some surgeonfish, like the Thompson's surgeonfish, are a dark, solid blue with a white tail, while the blue-lined surgeonfish is covered by stunning blue, yellow and black stripes. Some surgeonfish have large dorsal fins and others have almost no dorsal fin at all. Most surgeonfish are herbivores, which means they eat only plants such as the algae growing on coral and rocks.
Look in any aquarium and you will probably find one or more fish belonging to the colorful wrasse family.
There are more than 600 species of wrasses living in warm tropical waters around the world. All wrasses are quite active during the day, spending most of their time looking for food. During the night wrasses do something that is highly unusual for a fish. They go to sleep. Normally, a wrasse will find some protected place like a rocky overhang or outcropping of coral and then it will enter a state that is close to what we know as sleep.
Some wrasses perform a very valuable function for other undersea animals in the coral reef -- they clean them. When the wrasse receives the right signals from another fish or animal, it will swim up to the fish and begin to remove dead skin, parasites and other organic matter from the fish's body. In this manner, the wrasse gets a tasty meal and the other animal gets a much-needed cleaning.
Some fishes have flesh that is poisonous to humans when eaten. The toadfish (along with the pufferfish or glovefish) is very tasty when prepared the right way. But watch out! These fishes have poisonous body parts that need to be carefully removed before the flesh of the fish is consumed. The toadfishes dorsal and opercular spines are deadly, and eating them could result in sickness and even death!
The toadfish really does look like a toad with fins. It has a big gaping mouth with fleshy lips and a bulky, compressed body covered with loose, wrinkled, scaleless skin. Toadfishes live all over the world in mostly tropical and temperate waters.
hGreen Sea Turtle: Long Distance Swimmer
Length: 5 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 80 Feet/24 Meters
MALAYSIA
Green turtles occur worldwide and love to feed on sea grasses and algae. They are the grazing cattle of the warm seas. Young sea turtles feed mostly on sponges, snails, small crabs and jellyfish. They don't have teeth, but their jaws have a sharp edge for slicing off blades of the green sea grass that grows in shallow sandy lagoons.
Green turtles are usually widely scattered during their feeding ground, but often get together in large numbers during egg laying season. Sometimes they migrate for hundreds of miles over the open ocean to lay their eggs. Even though a turtle may never have revisited the island on which it was hatched, it knows to return to it when it is ready to lay its own eggs. Biologists have attached tags to turtles to learn more about their migration habits. Because turtles make such long migrations over the open sea without any landmarks, scientists believe that they must use the sun, moon or stars to navigate. It is possible that when a turtle nears the island it is searching for but can't yet see it, a distinctive smell of "home" might provide enough clues to guide them in.
╚Green Sea Turtle: Doting Mother
Length: 5 Feet/2 Meters;Depth: 80 Feet/24 Meters
MALAYSIA
For a long time, scientists believed that sea turtles came ashore only to lay eggs. However, early naturalists recorded that sea turtles occasionally hauled out on sandy beaches and other areas to bask, just as other turtles do.
Mother sea turtles come up on low sandy beaches to lay their eggs after sundown. On dark, moonless nights they lumber over the first rows of sand dunes and dig a shallow trough to lay in while they complete the task of digging a hole for their eggs. As she is doing this, a mother sea turtle will use her front flippers to cover herself with sand, helping to hide her from potential enemies.
By alternately dipping down with one back flipper and then the other, she excavates a hole two or three feet deep. By curling up her hind foot like a small sand shovel she can efficiently remove the sand from her "nest." She will then lay 75 to 200 eggs in the bottom of the hole, carefully placing sand on top of them when she is done. Then, with a great flailing of flippers, she messes up the sand covering to try and confuse any animals that may later try to find the nest to eat the eggs. It takes most of the night for her to finish. Females are known to lay up to five or six clutches in a season and this probably takes several nights to accomplish.
Today, after hundreds of years of being hunted, a wild sea turtle is indeed a truly remarkable and rare sight. All types of sea turtles are on the world's endangered species list.
ïThe Underwater World: The Water Planet
Length: NA;Depth: NA
SARGASSO SEA
Popular perceptions of our planet as illustrated by its name, Earth, have only recently begun to change as satellite pictures have brought back home the extent to which the Earth is in fact a "blue" planet, covered by water. The oceans contain some 330 million cubic miles of water which act as a giant store of minerals, nutrients and dissolved gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, that provide the essential basis for life in the oceans.
These essential elements vary in their concentration, from area to area and with depth. The movement of the water in the oceans mixes water masses of different composition, and living organisms themselves alter these concentrations by taking up some elements and producing others.
The influence of the oceans goes far beyond their own boundaries, shaping the physical conditions and biological processes of the planet on local, regional and global scales. Gas exchange with the atmosphere, climate and weather, the carbon and hydrological cycles, and other atmospheric and physical processes are all critically influenced or determined by the oceans. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
Ouch! Nothing can spoil a pleasant swim in the ocean more than stepping on a hidden sea urchin. A relative of the starfish, the sea urchin has a great built-in defense system -- its hard, sharp spines. Most hungry marine animals will look elsewhere when they encounter the prickly sea urchin.
Sea urchins are members of the large family of marine organisms known as echinoderms, which includes starfish and sea cucumbers. Though difficult to see, sea urchins' bodies can be divided into five parts, just like a starfish. Internally, sea urchins have a tiny mouth at the bottom of their body and a hole at the top of their body where digested food is evacuated.
Sea urchins thrive in shallow rocky waters where it is usually too cool for coral to grow. Contrary to appearance, sea urchins are highly mobile little animals. Using tiny tube feet similar to the tube feet of a starfish, sea urchins move around their habitat constantly in search of food. Sea urchins are voracious eaters which love algae. Giant groups of sea urchins can turn a lush field of seaweed into an underwater desert in no time.
Even with their spines, sea urchins do have enemies. The sea otter of northern California is famous for its love of sea urchins. When the sea otter was nearly hunted into extinction in northern California coastal waters, sea urchin populations there grew out of control. Without their enemy, hungry bands of sea urchins ate through many of the giant forests of sea kelp in the area. Today, however, the California sea otter is making a comeback and it is having a feast on all the sea urchins. In the same span of time, the sea urchin has developed another unlikely enemy -- man. The Japanese love the organs of sea urchins so much that they will pay large sums of money for fresh sea urchins.
|The Moving Waters: High Tide
Length: NA;Depth: NA
OCEANS
The sea is never still: it moves in different directions, at different speeds and is influenced by many forces. Understanding the ways in which oceans move is a complex task for oceanographers. Even though the basic processes causing these movements are each quite simple, their combined interaction results in regional differences in current patterns which are strikingly varied in each of the world's oceans.
Convection currents drive surface waters from the warmer regions near the Equator to the poles, where the water becomes colder and more dense and sinks to great depths before moving back to the Equator. Vertical movement of water in the oceans is influenced by water density, which is a function of salt content and temperature. When heated, surface water in the tropics expands and becomes less dense. This is countered by evaporation which increases salt content and also density. The balance between these forces determines whether the water sinks or remains at the surface.
In the tropical Atlantic the water lost through evaporation is greater than water gained through rivers and rainfall. The upper layer of the sea becomes warm and full of salt, flows north as the Gulf Stream, and gives off heat to the atmosphere as it moves north. When it reaches the Greenland Sea this highly saline water is near freezing and has become more dense than the deeper water below it. Convection sets in and the water sinks to the bottom, where it spreads and flows southward. Deep, cold water masses are also formed in the seas near the Antarctic continent, and some of this water moves northwards along the western coasts of the continents before being forced to the surface in certain areas, which form productive upwelling zones. Deep-water currents are influenced by the shape of the ocean floor, with submarine ridges deflecting currents and trenches channeling water flow.
The atmosphere above the oceans is not still and winds that blow strongly in one direction for extended periods of time, such as the trade winds, which occur around the latitudes 15 N and 15 S, move the surface waters of the oceans. As surface waters move, so does the underlying water as far down as 1,500-2,500 feet. Wind-driven surface currents move water across the oceans where it piles up against the continents and then moves down along the coasts. Where the winds are less strong, the water starts to flow back in the opposite direction.
Because the Earth spins on its axis, the direction of these major currents and the winds above them is deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
When the atmosphere changes, so does the sea surface; in high pressure areas the surface is depressed, in low pressure areas it is raised. Atmospheric pressure varies greatly, setting up waves and short-term surface currents of varying strengths, and influencing local weather patterns.
To all these different influences must be added the effect of the gravitational pull of the Moon, the Sun and the Earth. Where the Earth's gravity is higher than average, the surface of the sea is lower than where it is less strong. The gravitational pull of the Moon, and to a lesser extent the Sun, is stronger on the surface of the sea which is directly facing these celestial bodies, causing the daily cycle of tides, with intervals of approximately 12 and 24 hours. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
RWeather: The Oceans and Weather
Length: NA;Depth: NA
FLORIDA
The interplay between the oceans and the atmosphere is complex, with each affecting the other in different ways. For example, wind direction is determined in part by temperature differences between land and ocean, which result in onshore breezes at night when the land is cooler and offshore breezes during the day when the sea is cooler than the land. Ocean surface currents are in turn affected by wind speed and direction. Another important role of the oceans in weather and climate is as a store of water, which evaporates from the surface under high temperatures, forming clouds and ultimately falling again as rain when the atmospheric conditions change.
Tropical ocean areas, which lie outside 5 N and 5 S of the Equator, are also the breeding grounds for violent storms, including hurricanes, which cause much damage when they pass over the surface of neighboring land. On a larger scale, changes in ocean circulation have marked effects on regional climates and weather, as happens during the El Nino Southern Oscillation, when rainfall is reduced in Australia and Southeast Asia. If climates change under the influence of the "greenhouse effect" or from other causes, then changes in ocean circulation may be expected, with possible major consequences for marine and terrestrial ecosystems. ...FROM "THE RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS"
Of all the fish in the ocean, none is larger than the slow-moving whale shark. Adult whale sharks can reach lengths of up to 60 feet and weigh as much as 10 tons. Some whale sharks have measured an unbelievable 75 feet long when caught. Whale sharks should not be confused with whales, which are marine mammals and can be much, much bigger than any fish. A blue whale, for instance, can grow to twice the length of a whale shark.
Whale sharks, as their name attests, are members of the shark family. Yet, whale sharks are not killers. In fact, the whale shark is one of the most docile creatures in the sea. Whale sharks get their nourishment by filter feeding much like the blue whale or the manta ray. They live entirely on microscopic animals known as plankton which they scoop up in their giant mouths and then filter through a giant set of gill slits.
To satisfy their tremendous hunger, whale sharks spend most of their time moving very slowly through the warm waters of the tropics and subtropics where there is a rich abundance of plankton. Like other filter feeders, whale sharks must scoop up many thousands of gallons of water a day just to get enough plankton to maintain their body weight.
Whale sharks usually swim alone. They are so slow that many fish will follow behind them for food and protection. Not many fish in the sea are willing to tackle a whale shark, however peaceful it might be. Underwater divers who are lucky enough to encounter a whale shark have been able to hitch rides on their giant dorsal fin.
For more than 300 years this whale was indeed the "right" whale to hunt because of its beautifully silky baleen and high oil yield. It was also slow and quite easy to spot and kill. Sadly, it was so heavily fished that today the right whale is very rare.
The right whale has a very compact, stocky body and adults are black with a mottled black and white underbelly. When baby right whales are born, they are pale white in color. Right whales are easily recognized by a heavy outcropping of skin callouses around their upper and lower jaws. These strange looking growths are home to whale lice and barnacles.
The right whale can be found throughout the Antarctic, South Africa, southern South America, Australia and New Zealand. It feeds mostly on copepods and krill. Since a worldwide ban on right whale hunting went into effect two decades ago, the numbers of this gentle giant have risen slowly, but they are still one of the most endangered whale species alive.
The wolf eel (or wolffish as it is sometimes called), really does look like a big, bad wolf! Its five-foot-long eel-shaped body doesn't have scales and is covered with a disgusting mucus. This brownish gray fish has a huge gaping mouth full of highly developed teeth that are powerful enough to grind up sea urchins, mollusks and shells.
The wolf eel lives mainly in the cold and temperate seas off the coasts of Iceland, Norway and North America. It is mostly found in shallow waters, and lives near rocky coastlines.
The wolf eel, despite its hideous appearance, makes a very tasty meal. It is especially popular dinnertime fare in Scandinavia and Spain.
This white tip reef shark can be a heart-stopping sight to any inexperienced diver swimming in a coral reef. The truth, however, is that white tip reef sharks are one of the less dangerous warm-water sharks. Well known for their curiosity, white tip reef sharks will swim very close to anyone or any thing that happens to be in their territory. But they almost never attack, unless of course, they are provoked. With their slender bodies and large teeth, white tip reef sharks are very effective hunters. They will eat most of the animals found in a coral reef, including fish, crustaceans and marine reptiles. Unlike many sharks, white tip reef sharks can stop swimming for short periods of time without depriving themselves of oxygen that comes from the water passing over their gills. The only time to beware of a white tip reef shark is during a feeding frenzy with other sharks. This usually happens when there is too much blood and flesh in the water. White tip reef sharks are also known to grab a fish off a fishing line or a spear.
The live cells of the sponge are organized around microscopic limy or glassy needle-like structures called spicules. Spicules take on a variety of shapes but mostly look like dumb bells, arrows, darts, angles, and donuts. If you take a live sponge and push it through a fine screen, the cells will be separated into a disorganized lump. However, if this lump is kept in clean sea water, the cells will get together again to form a new living sponge.
Most sponges are rounded or columnar, hollow in the center, and have a wide opening at the top. Numerous very small pores and holes connect the outside walls with the inner hollow tube, also called the atrium. The cells that line these small pores have hairlike flagella that constantly wave to move currents of water inside to the atrium. From the atrium the water escapes through the opening in the top of the sponge, called the ostium. Once it was thought that the water flow was due only to the lashing of the flagella. Scientists now know that the sponge grows with its ostium positioned in the currents, which also helps pull the water into the atrium. It remains a mystery as to how an animal without a brain can be so smart!
vYellowfin Tuna: Gang Violence
Length: 4 Feet/1 Meter;Depth: 93 Feet/28 Meters
PACIFIC OCEAN
Tuna are one of the largest predators in the open oceans. They can be found in almost every ocean in the world. There are many different kinds of tuna. Some tuna, like the blackfin tuna, weigh only ten pounds. Others, like the bluefin tuna, can grow to a weight of one ton or more.
The yellowfin tuna in this picture swims in giant schools and covers vast distances in search of food. With its streamlined, muscular body, yellowfin tuna are fast, efficient swimmers. Some schools of tuna can cross thousands of miles of ocean in just several months.
Because they are always moving, tuna have enormous appetites. Their favorite meals consist of schools of small fish like herring or shrimp and squid. Tuna's special hunting technique is to encircle a large school of smaller fish and then drive them up to the water's surface. Once the small fish are near the surface, the tuna close in and eat them.
Tuna are hunted by sharks, killer whales and humans. Each year, fishermen around the world catch hundreds of thousands of tons of tuna. Eventually these tuna make their way into cans of tuna or foods like sushi.
