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Fish round-up: (deep) Sea Pig

par Ksso le 22 avril 2011

After a post on the Sea Cow and another one on the Sea Cucumber , I guess Sea Pig has to be next.The sea pig is a funny invertebrate than can be found at depth over 1000m (3000ft). He gets his chubby look because of his especially unusually large round feet and the pinky skin got him this common name. As you can see on the map below, it's pretty widespread, although due to the insane depth there are few records of his presence.

Sea cow round-up : the Dugong

par Ksso le 18 avril 2011

Steve (see Steve's dives on Diveboard) who has been diving tens of times in Egypt's Red Sea told me last Friday about the Dugong, and I got absolutely fascinated by this huge mammal.The Dugong is a cousin of the Manatees and spends most of his time eating seagrass at the bottom of the sea. The Dugong and by extension the members of the Sirenians are more related to the elephants than to other marine mammals.Wikipedia tells us that the word "dugong" derives from the Tagalog term dugong which was in turn adopted from the Malay duyung, both meaning "lady of the sea." Other common local names include "sea cow," "sea pig" and "sea camel."Dugongs are found in warm coastal waters from the...

Fish round up : Harlequin Shrimp

par Ksso le 19 mars 2011

Couldn't resist to share another incredible pic by Doug.Deep. Harlequin shrimp are fairly tough to spot, since the only live in the Pacific Ocean (and even there they're not ultra-common as the obis map below shows). It may actually be easier to spot them in a sea aquarium since this specie is also "cultivated" and fairly easy to buy in any aquarium shop (a quick google search shows a pair retailing 69.99USD).Contrary to what obis shows, there is also a hawaian harlequin shrimp, which differs from the pacific one by being more shy and hiding in dark spots.The appearance of the harlequin shrimp isn't the only aspect that sets them apart from other shrimp. They have a truly unique diet as...

Sea wonders : White christmas tree worm

par Ksso le 12 mars 2011

Like for the slugs, the worms under the sea are way cooler than their earthy counterparts. The "Sabellida" order is composed by plethora of variations around the sea worm theme. Those worms hide in a tube (like the trunk of a tree) and anchor themselves onto living coral or rocks thus being sedentary. The head is mostly concealed by feathery branchiae. As sedentary inhabitants of coral reefs, tree worms feed primarily by filter feeding.Whenever they sense unusual current or presence, they withdraw all the radioles (the feather-like tentacles) inside the tube.Most species are not hermaphrodite and produce eggs that are fertilized externally and turn into larvas that hunt for a sweet spot...

Fish round-up : the Grouper

par Ksso le 9 mars 2011

In many places, seeing a grouper is kind of a huge achievement, and the bigger the grouper the better. Groupers can size over a meter and weight over 100kg, so when bragging about the grouper you've spotted you can be pretty pushy (but remember the rule: no picture, no proof => it did not happen ! ). The "giant grouper" can even grow up to 2.7m (8.9ft) and 600kg (1300lbs), but he can only be spotted in Madagascar, Indonesia and Australia and apparently not very easily...Groupers are usually laying still near rocks, and their grey spotted skin combined to their stillness makes them actually fairly hard to spots. They don't like humans so much so as soon as they understand you've grown...

Sea wonders : nudibranchs

par Ksso le 3 mars 2011

Nudibranchs are also known as "sea slugs". Yet contrary to their earthy counterparts they come on a wide range of shapes and colors. They get especially amazing in warm shallow water, making them even easier to go meet. Their amazing colors are actually a defense mechanism against potential predatorsNudibranchs can size from 2 to 60cm (0.79 to 24 in). Most of them are carnivorous eating things like sponges, some can even be cannibals and eat other sea slugs. Nudibranchs are hermaphrodite, and while they do bear both organs, they still need to mate to procreate.While nudibranchs won't attack you, some may hurt you by secreting an acid on their skin if you try touching them.

Fish round up : moray eel

par Ksso le 28 février 2011

The moray eel has give my my first underwater adrenaline rushes while I was still training on my CMAS 1*. Luckily we've got a couple of those in the Mediterranean sea usually hiding below the thermocline, thus requiring a little bit of skill to get to see them, first to get to their depth (around 20m and up to several hundred meters), second some level of stillness to no scare them up.Moray eels can range from 11.5cm to 4m (4.5 in to 13ft). They eat small fish and have 2 sets of jaws stuffed with teeth, second one being in their throat that they launch into the mouth to catch the prey. Their teeth are often angled towards the throat, so anything that goes within that mouth is bound to go...

Fish round up : The prehistoric Coelacanth

par Ksso le 23 février 2011

Life origins from the oceans, that's something we've all learned at school. We also learned that at some point during the evolutions fish started wandering on the firm ground and got new appendixes to help them move on the ground more easily.The coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to be extinct since the cretaceous period ( 70 to 140 million years ago). They are considered to be the link between the fish and the tetrapods (all things four-legged). With much surprise one specimen was fished in 1938 off the east coast of south africa and scientists discovered that the species is still present but only migrated to deeper water. Subsequently, a second species was fished in 1998...

Fish round up : the Sperm Whale

par Ksso le 16 février 2011

Sperm Whale Encounter from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

The sperm whale, also known as the common cachalot, can grow 20.5 meters long (67 ft), is the largest living toothed animal. The head can take up to one-third of the animal's length giving him the lagest brain of any animal on earth. It can live for 70 years.The sperm whale emits clicking vocalizations but while it's the loudest sound produced by any animal its function remains uncertain.It has been widely hunted between the 18th and late 20th century for the spermaceti (a white substance found in the animal's head and giving him the name), sperm oil and ambergris (a biliary secretion ) it produces and which are used in the perfume and...

Fish round up : the Cuttlefish

par Ksso le 13 février 2011

Contrary to its name, the Cuttlefish is a mollusk of the class Cephalopoda (just like the Squid and Octopus). The Cuttlefish is fairly widespread and can be easily spotted in Europe and Asia. The Cuttlefish has only one "bone", the cuttlebone, which works as an internal shell. They range from 15 to 25cm (5.9 to 9.8in)The Cuttlefish is fairly remarkable by its ability to change its skin color in seconds, just like a chameleon. He can do so either as a camouflage or as a means to communicate with fellow cuttlefish. Their skin is made of groups of red, yellow, brown, and black pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective iridophores and leucophores at a resolution of 359 DPI -...