Fish and things

baby fish hiding under the bell of a jellyfish and using its stinging threads as protection from circling predators. this “floating safe house” will provide the fish with protection and food until they’re big enough to venture out on their own. (x)

Cuttlefish can change color to fade into the background. It can do it amazingly fast.

Dwarf cuttlefish - Notice how this male darkens his stripes as one of his siblings strays closer. These cephs have complex ways of communicating through their body patterns and postures, even if we don't always know for certainty what they might mean!

[Image description: A sea otter at the ocean surface.]

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Triple stack! These swell sharks are exhibiting a "dogpile" behavior commonly seen in many bottom-resting shark species, but something not so common about these sharks is their ability to biofluoresce, only recently discovered by scientists. This is not to be confused with bioluminescence, the ability to produce light, but rather they absorb light and and re-emitt it, like a glow-in-the-dark sticker!

Cuttlefish use their twin feeding tentacles in sniper fashion, sneaking up on prey or mesmerizing it with a strobe-like color display before striking with incredible precision! This dwarf cuttle (Sepia bandensis) pins a mysis shrimp to the acrylic.

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Our Planet (2019) - Episode 4: Coastal Waters

Areas where sea otters have been extirpated, on the other hand, have degenerated into “urchin barrens”; barren rocky areas of seafloor where only urchins and other invertebrates can flourish.  Even worse is that these urchin barrens can spread; once a population of urchins has eliminated all of the kelp in an area, they will move on to destroy another kelp forest.  The reintroduction of sea otters to areas such as coastal British Columbia has dramatically improved the health and productivity of the coastal ecosystems.

CA51 Family Encounter (x)