A slideshow of the newest features on Poseidon’s Web – Explain the Reef!
If your idea of how fish feed on the reef is ferocious hunters swooping in to grab other fishy prey, you’re very unlikely to see that on most dives. But the 28,000 species of bony fishes in the world’s oceans make their livings in a myriad of ways – and they’re doing it all around you. IF YOU’RE SURPRISED AT HOW LITTLE FISH-ON-FISH FEEDING ACTION YOU ACTUALLY SEE WHILE YOU’RE UNDERWATER, a major reason is
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This is a video sidebar to a longer feature on “How Fish Feed.” Less than two minutes in length, it shows the differing techniques used by four species of bottomfeeding fishes to find and capture small crustaceans, mollusks and other invertebrates buried in the sand flats surrounding reefs. “BOTTOMFEEDING” IS A PRODUCTIVE WAY OF LIFE for lots of fishes and other reef denizens. We may see a sandy seafloor as something like a desert, devoid
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From queen angels to sea jellies, whales to nudibranchs, marine life stamps are a medium for appreciation of life under the sea around the world. SOMETIMES THE FOCUS OF MARINE LIFE STAMPS is on fishes important to an nation’s economy, like Latvia’s 2004 recognition of the turbot, an important food fish in Baltic Sea waters. Sometimes, it’s on the exotic reef creatures that draw divers and other tourists to their waters, like Australia and Caribbean
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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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With grape-sized, sac-like membranes, bubble corals look soft, squishy and egg-like from the outside. But underneath, Plerogyra sinuosa and its like are hard, stony corals. Although they’re popular with home aquarium enthusiasts, it’s somewhat of a find to spot bubble coral on the reef. WHEN YOU COME ACROSS CLUSTERS OF BUBBLE CORAL, at first glance you might take them for large fish eggs, or perhaps errant egg clutches of some animal, say a cephalopod. Once
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More properly known as remoras, the “sharksuckers” that famously hitch rides on sharks also stick themselves to tunas, manta rays and other large fishes, turtles, whales, boats and anything else that might move. Including, occasionally, divers. SHARKSUCKERS – REMORAS – USE LARGE SUCTION PADS on the tops of their heads to stick to their hosts, relying on those sharks, rays or whatever to do the heavy work of actually moving. The suction pads are transformed
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FISH GOTTA SWIM…THEY ALSO GOTTA BREATHE. Or, more properly, they need to continuously restock their blood supply with oxygen from the surrounding water column to maintain the functions of living. Key to how fish breathe is the constant streaming of water past thin, permeable membranes in their gills that enable the diffusion of oxygen from the water into the blood stream. Fish maintain that flow of water by either of two methods – ram ventilation
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FAR FROM BEING FREE-RANGING LONERS, MANTA RAYS BOND WITH EACH OTHER in relationships that often last for extended periods, according to a five-year study of manta ray socializing in Indonesia. Some mantas form loosely connected groups to hang out with. Not surprisingly, like their human counterparts, female mantas form much tighter friendships with other females than males do among themselves. The males? Well, the boys’ groups were looser and they tend to cruise more. MANTA
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GOOGLE THIS FISH, THE SPOTTED PRAWN GOBY, and most of the posts you’ll find are for the aquarium trade. Amblyeleotris guttata appears to be a popular fish for home saltwater aquariums. Www.fishbase.org carries a listing for it, but it’s largely related to it colors, size and distribution (which is the Western Pacific from the Philippines down to the Great Barrier Reef at Australia. This photo was taken on the GBR). IT’S A SHRIMPGOBY All
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THREE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MANGROVE FORESTS: 1) They aren’t swamps. They grow in shallow ocean waters along tropical coasts, surviving tidal fluctuations and thriving on the edge between land and sea. 2) Mangrove trees generate the freshwater they need for survival by using a variety of mechanisms to filter the salt out of the ocean water. 3) They’re essential parts of reef systems, key to the reef life. ABOVE AND BELOW Above water,
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