ON THE REEF, OYSTERS, SCALLOPS, CLAMS AND MUSSELS ARE PRETTY MUCH THE INACTION FIGURES. Mostly, they just sit there. If you come close, they clam up, so to speak, until you go away. Yet, environmentally, economically and, yes, culinarily, they’re big players in the oceans and in our kitchens. Spoiler alert: The bivalve mollusks you’ll see on the reef are unlikely to be the ones seafood lovers salivate over. But, they’re likely to be more
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FOR A LONG TIME, DURING MY NEW ENGLAND DIVING DAYS, the northern moon snail (Euspira heros) represented a mystery to me. I kept seeing these structures I knew were moon snail “sand collars,” mucus-bound masses of sand that were said be be egg-laden. Except that there didn’t appear to be any eggs. SANDY SAND COLLARS MOON SNAIL SAND COLLAR MYSTERY SOLVED Then, one day, I found this: BIGFOOT SIGHTED! Thinking about moon snails brings to
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NOT THE ONES ON YOUR DINNER TABLE (presumably). But scallops you might be eyeing during a dive may well be looking back at you, possibly contemplating an escape with a sort of jet propulsion created by clapping their shells together. And, they see through as many as 200 grain-sized, complex eyes located at the tips of tentacles extended past their shells, each resembling the structure of a reflecting telescope with a tiny concave mirror. “WHAT”
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THE HEADLINE SOUNDS WHIMSICAL – Yes, oysters can ‘hear.’ They probably wish we’d clam up. But the concept is serious. A team of researchers in France have determined that oysters react to many of the sounds of underwater noise pollution, like the engines of passing ships, wind turbines and pile driving. NOISE LIKELY A THREAT TO MANY FORMS OF MARINE LIFE Underwater noise pollution has long been a concern regarding whales and fishes. It’s been
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