Oddly relatable marine guys

That is all. Best fishes -Ray

As an introvert, I spare a thought for Beebe's mystery fish often. This group of fish, described only during William Beebe's bathysphere expedition. As far as we know, the only humans to ever observe these creatures were Beebe and the bath Otis Barton -the bathysphere's creator- who accompanied him in the primitive steel ball on a visit to the depths of the ocean man was never built to experience. Their most famous expeditions occurred from 1930 to 1934 off Nonsuch Island, Bermuda. The two men were lowered into the darkness, relying solely on the cable that connected their unpowered metal receptacle to the ship like a great umbilical cord. Through the 15cm window, the men recorded observations of many fish already accepted by scientists. However, five of which have yet to be rediscovered, if they ever existed in the first place. These fish are known as the giant dragonfish, pallid sailfin, three-starred anglerfish and the abyssal rainbow gar. The only evidence we have of these fish are Beebe's descriptions and the interpretations done by artist Else Bostelmann. The image shown above is Bostelmann's illistartion of the giant dragonfish (Bathysphaera intacta). Beebe and Barton claim to have witnessed a pair of these mystery fish and described them as reaching six feet (182.88cm), with constantly open jaws in a head that resembled that of a barracuda and displaying bioluminescence. Interestingly, the bioluminescence he spoke of not only appeared in the spots down the body, but also the bulbs at the end of the twitching lures on each end of the body, the bulb affixed to a stem dangling from the head region glowing a soft, pale blue and the caudal bulb glowing red. Most intriguing, if the giant dragonfish were to be proven as a valid species, it would outsize the current largest known dragonfish, the obese dragonfish (Yes, that is what they are called) by more than two thirds. If these fish do, in fact, exist somewhere in the vast darkness of the sunless ocean, we can only hope to one day re-discover them. For now, all we have can be read from the source, William Beebe's book Half mile down, along with many of his other adventures. Or perhaps we should leave them well alone, they might just be shy.

Stenpodidea's fate is an oddly poetic lifecycle of quite literally mating for life, spending each and every moment together until their shared home becomes their shared tomb. In fact, in some historical Asian cultures the dried skeleton of a glass sponge is given as a wedding gift, representing the loyalty and devotion of the little crustacean couple that once resided there. A physical representation of the human pair's promise of "'till death do us part".

Terrible news everyone! Turns out the 'boymum' phenomenon is not limited to members of the human species. Female orca (Orcinus orca), especially post-menopausal individuals, often seem to spend a large amount of time coddling their useless adult sons. These mothers often share food with their larger sons and solve scuffles between them and other members of their pod. Why do these females dote on their adult sons and not their daughters? Researches believe it is all down to passing on the most of their genetic information. An orca mother only produces one calf per gestation period, a process that takes an average of 17 months and usually only has a calf every 3–5 years. A male however, can mate with multiple females per year. By ensuring their sons are well-fed and avoid fights increases their chances of procreating even more, thereby maximising the amount of individuals in the next generation carrying part of her genetic information.

Photo: Shaun lee

Convergent evolution is the evolution of 'analogous' or similar structures in organisms that are not closely related. Such as the wings of insects, birds and bats. One potential example of this is the Diplomoceras maximum, an extinct squid-like creature who is clearly analogous to, or a distant cousin of Clippy the paperclip. This amazing creature lived 68 million years ago, with the most notable fossil found at the cephalopod rich López de Bertodano Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctica. An area that was formerly warmer before further movement of tectonic plates. The fossil shell measured an impressive 1.5 metres and is formed from ridges, speculated to grow a section annually. These ribs are thought be similar to tree rings, being used for dating samples and gaining insight about the environment of the prehistoric sea, such as measuring the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the shell. Paleoart by James McKay

Ever made one of those charming little tin can phones? Turns out there is a marine equivalent, sort of. A SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Ranging) channel occurs due to the stratification of the ocean, the most dense water which is cold and saline sinks and warmer, fresher water stays at the surface. This drives the entirety of the global ocean conveyor belt, a massive scale system of currents upwelling, downwelling and moving with the gradients. The intermediate layer has been used by naval ships to send and receive audio information since the second world war as the sound can travel thousands of miles in the empty ocean due to the fact that the sound waves bounce off the boundaries of the neighboring layers without dispersing, like when a human cups their hands over their mouth to call out. Scientists have made record of strange low-frequency noises traveling through the channel, these are theorised to be caused by fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) diving down to make use of these natural telephones to communicate with other whales from vast distances.