Marine Life

Hi frndz.....

I've been to Sea life last week. Though I watched about sea life in Animal planet and Discovery channel, I was more fascinated to see them in live. Those vivid colors, lovely fishes, picturesque settings in aquarium have really pleased me. So you all guessed right, this post is all about fishes and their beauty.

Fish is a non-tetrapod carinate, a cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate. These have been on earth for more than 450 million years (well before dinosaurs). There are 31,500 diverse species of fishes. Some species of fish can fly, others can skip along the surface and others even climb the rock....interesting isn't it. 

As you all know the largest fish is Great Whale Shark which can reach 52 feet. Whereas Stout infant, Philippine goby are few known smallest fishes. When I saw those sharks in the aquarium I was so excited. Though they were not very huge in size but everyone could feel their presence. As sharks are very aggressive, the constantly keep swimming in order to breathe and they cannot sleep for long. One more interesting fact that Tiger shark can lose up to 20,000 teeth in its life time! Incredible..., I wish humans could lose at least 5 teeth in lifetime then I wouldn't had to rush to dentist every time I have odontalgia.

        

Many of them were debating about the display of sharks in the aquarium. Most of them were against it, whereas I felt it is good to have them as they provide education for the coming generation, unlike divers we cannot see them lively, it is good to display them in aquarium. 

         

Here are few pics which I've taken in sea life, few of these pics are deteriorated because of low light. 

         

This is Yellow tang, very famous salt water aquarium fish. When I was kid, I used to like anything and everything which is yellow in color, later pink dominated yellow. While looking at this fish tank with tangs, it was very joyful. This tank also had Achilles tang, cardinal fish and clown fish.

           

Below is a collage of Southern stingrays. They have large, flat, diamond-shaped disks without distinct heads. Stingray's skin in processed in to leather that's strong and durable and almost indestructible. Wallets, boots and other accessories made with this stiff leather are now in great demand (>800$). I tried to harass them, one of the staff members admonished me saying that they have venomous spines with serrated barbs on the bases of their tails. Whereas my husband was very kind to them, they were responding very well to him. 

Southern stingrays

 

Below is a collage of Jelly fish, these can grow up to 50cm in diameter and are found in Indian ocean, Pacific ocean and Atlantic ocean. They have a life span of 2 years. These Jelly fish mainly feed on zooplankton, very small marine creatures. They tolerate exceptional changes in temperature -6^oC to 31^oC.  Their stinging cells do not harm human beings.

Jelly fish

Jewel anemone

Jewel anemone are one of the most interesting animal species that exhibit a high degree of color variability. These reproduce asexually by splitting, which leads to cluster of identically colored clones, and these patches joins up to amazing quilt works of gaudy colors. Their tentacles are short ending with knobs. When I touched them at the centre with my fingers they held my fingers gently with their tentacles. I also held star fish in my hand, it was thrilling experience. 

Flatfish are more obviously asymmetric with both the eyes facing same side. Sometimes on right side or left side. Flatfish lays eggs and the baby fish will be symmetric. During metamorphosis in to adult form their eyes migrate across the top of the head onto the other end side of the body, leaving the fish blind on one side. Then loses swim bladder and spine and sinks in to the bottom, laying its blind side on the underlying surface. If you keenly observe you can find three flatfish in this snap.

Flat Fish

You have seen how beautiful the sea life is, but now most of these species are getting eradicated. The most destructive fishing practice, bottom trawling are destroying deep sea life even before scientist can unravel the mysteries of the deep sea. In the past 50 years more than 90% of the big fish is eaten. There is oxygen depletion in pacific ocean because of this, as most of the oxygen is generated by oceans. 

This is Green sea turtle, it is largest sea turtle belonging to the family cheloniidae. These are among those species which are facing survival threats like continues hunting. More dangerously they are struck by boats, fishermen nets which lack Turtle excluder device. They are also one of the species affected by pollution and habitat destruction. 

Tuna fish is from sconbridae family are fast swimmer (43 mph). Some larger species display a warm-blooded adaptation. Tuna is one of the over fished sea animal, it is  added in to Sea food red list by Greenpeace. If the fishing is not stopped, it will be wiped out by 2012. While Tuna fishing they use very big nets during that many small fishes also come and fall in to the net, the do not have any value in the market. So these fisherman will throw away those fishes back in to the ocean. According to 2008 statistics, for every 1 pound tuna 10 pounds of small fishes are wasted and thrown away. 

Frozen Tuna

Toxic wastes are dumped in to ocean. These are poisonous waste which harm sea life and humans too. Toxic waste gets in to the sea by landfills, dumps, mines and farms. These chemicals can have very harmful effect on the marine life. This is a chain, it will in turn effect human beings through sea food. 

Below are the images taken from Google Images show the effect of oil spills and toxic wastes. 

          

Residents of Faroe Island, slaughter and eat pilot whales every year. The animal rights organizations have largely backed off because due to the fact that this process is an integral part of the Farose culture. Isn't is brutal, this practice is killing humans too. Many of them get sick because of high mercury levels in the whales. Mentally retarded children are born at high rates.

There are many organizations (IWC etc) and campaigns against whaling, still the whaling is prominent in Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Japan etc. Many measures are taken around the world to stop the gruesome whaling and killing of fishes brutally, there are still so many steps need to be taken to stop this. 

People say cradle to the grave now in the case of whales its from wave to the plate. 

Vrinda.