Friday Sea Creatures @friday-sea-creatures - Tumblr Blog

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Hello hello, what's up my friends? Sit back, relax, pour yourself a littoral libation, and put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes. The world is crazy right now, but not crazier than sea creatures, because let's be honest, sea creatures are fucking insane. Case in point:

The Pearlfish (Carapidae)

Pearlfish Facts:

So picture this, you're a sea cucumber, right? Going about your daily business, breathing through your anus, just doing normal sea cucumber stuff really. Then, right as you yawn - it's getting a bit late - a pearlfish swims headfirst straight up your butt, and eats your 'nads. Them's the breaks, kid.

Actually, some enter headfirst, some enter tailfirst, and our boy Edwin Linton, the godfather of parasitic worm research, says some "tap once or twice, as though politely but excitedly asking permission." (His seminal 1907 paper on the pearlfish is worth a read in its entirety, but in short, he was bored in his lab, was squishing sea cucumbers to pass the time, and when he squished his third or fourth one, a pearlfish came out.)

So what can I, a poor helpless sea cucumber, do to defend myself against this menace?! Chris M, on his excellent echinoderm blog Echinoblog, sums it up: "two words: anal teeth." (Google further at your own risk.) Ah yes, the old anus dentata defence.

In addition to their unusual domestic habits, pearlfish are also the Jim Marshalls of the ocean, pioneering the use of oyster shells as underwater amps, which presumably go up to eleven. What instruments do they use to produce their melodies in the first place? A hardened part of the swim bladder that is called, I kid you not, the "rocker bone." Rock on, pearlfish

And remember friends, as the saying goes, don't cast pearlfish before swinefish.

Bonus Pearlfish:

Hakuna matata,

Mike

VP of Sea Creatures

#whatwhatinthebutt

FSC: 3-27-20

Hello hello sea creature a-fish-ionados, I hope you are well. I'm lucky to be quarantined together with my wife (we have not killed each other yet) but I know some of you are out there by yourselves - and all of us are separate from friends, family, and lovers in one way or another. It can be a bit lonely, can't it? Well this Friday we're celebrating a creature who knows your pain, and could honestly use a little company herself. So put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes and check out the

52-Hz Whale (Species unknown)

52 Hz Whale Facts:

The 52 Hz Whale (we'll call her 52H from here on out) is a single, unique, unknown whale that sings at a frequency almost twice as high as other blue and fin whales.

First recorded by oceanographers at the Woods Hole Institute in the 1980s, the world only learned about her in a 2004 paper based on declassified US Navy Sound Surveillance System data.

Says Watkins et al., "Only one series of these 52-Hz calls has been recorded at a time, with no call overlap, suggesting that a single whale produced the calls... These tracks consistently appeared to be unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species (blue, fin and humpback) monitored year-round with the same hydrophones." In the paper's summary - with a pathos uncharacteristic for those of the scientific bent - to suggest that this whale, roaming around out there thousands of miles from her kin, maybe without kin, "just might be the loneliest whale in existence."

It's also possible that, like a cetacean Prince or Frank Zappa, 52H is simply a musician way ahead of her time.

Much like a 7th grader showing up after summer break, 52H's voice has dropped, technically now making him/her the 49 hz whale.

To paraphrase moral philosopher Eric Hoffer, "In men, as in whales, it is loneliness that makes the loudest noise."

Fortunately, friends, we are not like 52H - eventually our solitary migration through the sea of quarantine will come to an end, and we will rejoice together, and sing our exuberant whale songs, and if it be summer or winter, we'll feast on Alaskan krill or plump Baja shrimp and know that it is good to be alive.

Since there are no pictures of the damn thing, for your bonus content, I present noted whale-song producer Roger Searle Payne's seminal 1970 album: Songs of the Humpback Whale.

Nothing but bangers, every track.

Thinking of you, 52H,

Mike

VP of Sea Creatures

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What up what up sea creature lovers, I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and happy during this actual public health crisis, and even bigger collective social media freakout that I, frankly, need to take a break from for a few days. So chill out, put on some relaxing FSC tunes, make yourself some tea, get cozy, and enjoy the

Striped Pajama Squid (Sepioloidea lineolata)

Pajama Squid Facts:

Much like me (and maybe you?) while working from home for the past two weeks, these little squiddos are permanently wearing pajamas.

They are also super adorable.

If you ever need your underwater football game refereed, these guys have got it covered.

Not strictly pajama-squid-related content, but if you're quarantined at home and need some light reading, here is an excellent illustrated and annotated guide to the world's cephalopods that I just found.

Pajama squids are one of the few poisonous cephalopods and can cover themselves in toxic slime which is powerful enough to kill humans. Less cute!

In case you didn't catch Wilder vs. Fury a few weeks ago, here is Pajama Squid vs. Crab for your viewing pleasure.

Bonus Squiddos:

Gettin' colorful.

Two squiddos mid-coitus. As per usual in the ocean, the male dies afterwards.

Also never not wearing pajamas,

Mike

VP of Sea Creatures

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Hello and happy Friday my fishy friends! It's Friday once again, so you know what that means: another episode of benthic beatitude, marine mirth, seafaring shenanigans, and pelagic playfulness. So put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes and sit back because we've got another SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT this week:

New Frontiers In Jellyfish

Fanciful, Frightening, and Gelatinous News You May Have Missed

Jelly Facts:

Apparently you don't need a brain to sleep - new research shows that jellyfish like naps too!

Oh, did I mention that we are in the midst of a global jellyfish crisis? In some habitats jellyfish biomass is overtaking fish biomass. I really think the title of this paper says it all: "The jellyfish joyride: causes, consequences and management responses to a more gelatinous future." I think we all wonder what would happen to us in a more gelatinous future....

Don't worry, not all the science is doom and gloom - these scientists made a robot with soft, gentle robot arms so that it can give any jellies it meets a hug.

In slightly more alarming news, these mad scientists made an a zombie frankenstein autonomous jellyfish biorobot out of rat muscle tissue. Yes, there's a video. Yes, it's horrifying.

Apparently jellyfish actually have really good eyesight but pretty much all need glasses.

More robots.

Some jellyfish throw grenades when they get mad. Deadly snot grenades, to be exact (Ed. note: "deadly snot grenades" is an excellent band name, no?). Don't piss off jellyfish.

And last but not least, jellyfish are the source of everyone's favorite genetic engineering tool, Green Fluorescent Protein. It's most famous use is in the GloFish, the first transgenic animal to be commercially sold as a pet. Some say the GloFish is the harbinger of a new industrial revolution in genetic engineering, a revolution that will usher in a new golden age for humanity. Others say that we are playing god and that we will bring about the very downfall of our race. Either way, the jellies are responsible.

Bonus jellies:

Your gelatinous leader,

Mike

VP of Sea Creatures

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What up what up what up my fellow sea creatures and sea creature lovers! I know some of you were worried, despite my assurances to the contrary, that F.S.C. was dead. Well fear not! We're back, baby, and with a fishy promotion to boot. So put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes, relax, and enjoy the

Blanket Octopus(Tremoctopus violaceus)

Blanket Octo Facts:

I know what you're thinking, "Mike has been on a real octopus kick lately." Well, yeah. They're awesome. And terrifying. Anyway, just had to get that out of the way. We'll do other stuff too, don't worry.

The blanket octopus is related to his much lamer cousin, the wet blanket octopus (he ruins everything).

You know how some animals, including octopodes, use tools? Well the blanket octopus takes that one step further, ripping the tentacles off of Portuguese Man'o'war jellyfish and using them as weapons of mass destruction.

Do not attempt to build a blanket fort out of blanket octopi. It will not end well.

Blanket octopi invented tie-dye.

These octos exhibit the most extreme form of sexual dimorphism of any animal. Sexual dimorphism, by the way, isn't a kink (as far as I know), it means that the ladies are huge and the dudes are tiny. Six and a half feet versus one to two inches, to be precise.

And as per usual sea creature protocol, the dude octo dies after mating. Sheesh, what's the deal, ocean?

Bonus octos:

Wrapping you up like a blanket,

Mike

VP of Sea Creatures

FSC: 1-31-20 “A Very Special Friday Sea Creatures”

Hello sea creature friends! It's a bit of an emotional day for me, as it is my final day at BP. I've worked here for almost 8 years, and over that time I've made lifelong friends, learned how to be an engineer, listened to a lot of Friday Sea Creatures tunes, and met my wife.

While I will be stepping down from my role as Technical Director and Director of Sea Creatures at BP, fear not! I will continue my FSC work as Co-founder and VP of Sea Creatures at SKS. My business partners and I are committed to quality engineering, quality construction, and also quality sea creatures.

This week I would like to feature the salmon. Like a salmon, I am about to embark on a difficult, life-changing, and terrifying adventure, as I leave the river of my spawning here at BP and strike out on my own into the open ocean, an ocean full of wonders and terrors, fantastic and awesome sea creatures. I'll live there, and grow there, and experience fishy things I've never imagined.

But like a salmon, now and then over the years, I'll swim back upstream and visit my home, and spend a minute with you, my fellow salmon, my friends. I'd jump straight up a waterfall to do it.

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Hello hello friends, former colleagues, and sea creature lovers all! It's friday and you know what's up - it's time for another edition of Friday Sea Creatures. Put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes, pour yourself a drink, and check out the:

Hooded Nudibranch (Melibe leonina)

'branch facts:

The body of M. leonina is translucent and is usually colorless to pale yellow or green, and, unusually, lacks jaws or a radula. "How do they eat?!" you ask. Good question:

Adults feed by pulling back their oral hood until it is almost perpendicular to the body, and then thrust it forward until contact is made with a prey organism. Once prey has been contacted, the hood closes and the rows of cirri interlock to prevent escape. The hood is compressed further, pushing excess water out and forcing the prey towards the mouth. So basically, they vacuum their prey up with their giant mouths. Biologists call it the "tilt and squeeze" method of feeding. Check it out!

If you're the kind of person that like to smell sea creatures (guilty), you'll find out that the hooded nudibranch smells just like watermelon.

Locked in a deadly feud for centuries, their mortal enemy is the kelp crab.

The technical term for multiple nudibranchs is a "bouquet".

Bonus Nudies:

Let’s get nudie,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

#letsgetnudie

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Hello hello hello, and welcome back to Friday Sea Creatures! The year is ending, the holidays are upon us, and there's a lot going on in our lives and our country. Well I don't want to add to your stress level, but this week we're doing something a little bit different. That's right, put on some Friday Sea Creature tunes and prepare yourself for a special investigative report:

Octopi: America's Greatest Enemy?

Evidence:

Octopus's limbs are capable of independent thought and action. You may cut their arms off in battle, and those arms will continue to fight against you....

They can see with their skin.

"Marine Biologist Ben Savard was photographing an octopus at Middlebury College in Vermont on Monday when the animal suddenly grabbed the camera and snapped some photos of its own." Presumably for intelligence-gathering purposes.

You know when you tap your friend on the opposite shoulder to trick them into looking away? Octopi do that too, as a way to murder their prey.

They are masters of disguise.

They can predict the future.

They can sneak into your sink through your faucet. (Highly recommend you read the rest of the content on www.octupustruth.com as well.)

Kind of like Scarlett Johansson in that Luc Besson movie, they can edit their own genes to make themselves smarter.

They have caused blackouts in entire aquariums. No doubt they have their sights set on the power grid next.

No cage can hold them.

As a logical person, you might be thinking, "well, this is all terrifying, but why don't we just recruit sharks to fight the octopi for us? I'm a tactical genius!" Not so fast, Napoleon.

And finally........ here is a video of an octopus fighting a bald eagle.

I can't really sum it up better than our friends at www.octopustruth.com in their article "The Road Ahead" so I'll just quote them here:

"An octopus has eight tentacles, and knows how to use them. So, too, must we know how to use the tools that God has given us: our friendships and relationships; our brains and skills; our ability to create technologies that will stand the test of time. This fight will not be easy, nor will it be waged on the cheap. But it must be fought, and, indeed, won. It is merely a question of whether we can marshal our resources and act with sufficient speed. We are down—but not out. Are we our brother’s keeper? Only time will tell."

The threat has been recognized since at least 1877.

Keep up the good fight,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

Lieutenant Colonel, 41st Anti-Octo Battalion

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Hello and happy Friday friends, I know it's been a tough week for some of you but hopefully it's been a good week for others? Anyway, whether you need to jump for joy like a dolphin or drown your sorrows in the deep blue sea, we've got a great sea creature for you this week. So put on those Friday Sea Creatures tunes and take a voyage across the Pacific to meet:

The Parrotfish a.k.a. "Uhu" (Various Chlorurus and Scarus)

Parrot Facts:

Parrotfish (known as Uhu in Hawaii and henceforth in this edition of FSC) sleep in a snot balloon. In some cases the mucus can reach 3" thick. Why? Keeps the eels from smellin' them. It also works a natural sunblock so give it a try the next time you forget your Coppertone.

Next time you want to catcall a good-lookin' kane or wahine walking down the street, do it the Hawaiian way and say: “Momomi wale ku‘u ‘ono i ka uhu mā‘alo i ku‘u maka.” (“My mouth waters for the parrotfish passing before my eyes.”)

Uhu are loud eaters (seriously you can actually hear them underwater and track them from the chewing noise they make) and frequently fart out plumes of sand and coral after a snack. You know all those gorgeous white sand beaches? Fish poop, the whole lot of 'em.

I'll leave you with this recipe for Uhu that I dug out of my recipe box, entitled "Sad Hawaii Fish Recipe":

"First, get your long-term girlfriend to break up with you right before a family trip to Hawaii. Then go on the trip, with just you and your parents. Go spearfishing, shoot some Uhu, and clean and fillet them. Crush up a bag of Maui brand potato chips. Dip fillets in flour, eff, and then in chips and pan fry in peanut oil. Serve with stir-fried cabbage, scallions, and Maui onion, with some soy sauce on the side, while drinking straight Sailor Jerry's and concealing your sobs from your parents."

Bonus Uhu

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What up what up what up! Welcome back to another edition of Friday Sea Creatures. There's a chill in the air, the leaves are turning, pumpkin spice abounds, and I saw a guy dressed up as Jesus riding a hoverboard through traffic at high speed around 11pm last night in Midtown. That's right, it's Halloween, friends, so sit back, put on some FSC tunes, and enjoy a spooky-ass sea creature... the

Crab Hacker Barnacle (Sacculina carcini)

Hacker Facts:

Seriously, it's called the "crab hacker." I can't make this shit up.

Female Sacculina larvae crawl across the body of a host crab until they find a joint it its armor... they then shed their barnacle shells and inject their newly soft bodies into to crab. Immediately, they begin to eat its 'nads for sustenance, and slowly grow into a squishy sac that hangs down out of the crab's undercarriage.

As time goes on, the Sacculina grows a series of tendrils that intertwine with the host crab's organs. Eventually they reach the brain. At this stage, the crab is a full-on barnacle zombie. It can no longer grow, reproduce, molt, regrow lost limbs, or think for itself.

Under complete alien control, the infected host of either sex will begin to care for the parasite’s eggs (that rest on the crab’s abdomen where its own eggs would be). When the time is right, the crab acts out its own reproductive cycle by climbing to a high rock and tending to the egg pouch. When the hundreds of eggs are ready to hatch, the crab bobs up and down in the water to release them; he/she then stirs the floating eggs with his/her claw to set them on their way to new hosts, where this cruel cycle will continue.

Says Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences PhD student Leah Stone: "They can't infest humans.... probably not, anyway. Don't eat them though. Just to be safe."

Nature is terrifying. Happy Halloween.

PS, during the research phase of this issue of FSC I stumbled upon the wonderful science blog "Parasite of the Day." Enjoy.

Bonus Crab Hackers:

Jesus Hacker Christ on a hoverboard, what a world,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures from Hell

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Hey hey hey happy Friday and welcome back to another glorious edition of Friday Sea Creatures! Sit back, relax, put on those Sea Creatures tunes, and pour yourself a drink - that's what I'm doing! My lovely fiancé is in China this week - still trying to figure out if it's for business or pleasure - but in any case she's been gallivanting around from the rivers to the sea, viewing sea creatures, eating sea creatures, and hopefully not accidentally bringing back any

Snakehead (Channidae)

Snakehead Facts:

An invasive species from Asia, they are "one of the most dangerous fish in the world." “These fish are like something from a bad horror movie,” Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton said in 2002 when she proposed a ban on the import and interstate transportation of the “voracious” live snakehead fish in the United States.

Many, if not most states, place a bounty on their heads. They can bite through steel-toe boots. They will eat your dog.

The can slither hundreds of meters over land like a snake.

They can breathe air.

Just last week, an angler in Georgia reeled on in for the first time in the state. Puzzled by his unfamiliar pescatarian friend, he called the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and asked what to do. They responded with clear instructions: "Kill it immediately. Then freeze it. Remember, it can live on land." So, it's basically the terminator of fish?

Did I mention that they can grow to be four feet long?

And..... aaaaannndd..... they're in Central Park. Cheers!

Bonus Snakies:

Keep on swimming,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

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Hello and welcome to another edition of Friday Sea Creatures! We have some new members this week - we're so happy to welcome you to our sea creature family!

These are tumultuous times... the climate is warming, the oceans are acidifying, and we just today saw some damning text messages confirming that our corrupt president demanded that a foreign country interfere in the 2020 election in return for aid. So in celebration of that epic squid pro ro, take a minute to put on some sea creatures tunes, because we're going to celebrate the:

Japanese Flying Squid (Todarodes pacificus)

Flying Squid Facts:

Not to belabor the point, but it's a goddamn squid that flies (by the way that is possibly the only video footage of a flying squid in the world).

Basically the rocket scientists of the ocean, flying squids have perfected jet propulsion. The launch sequence of a flying squid goes something like this: first, inhale a bunch of water, then shoot it out your butt really hard, then spread your fins to glide and use your tentacles to keep going in the right direction, then furl your fins before impact and BOOM, you're a sea creature but you just flew like a bird.

Interestingly, they don't do it to escape predators as some scientists thought - in fact it's a technique to save energy during migration. Guess they're lazy? Also seems pretty fun.

They also fly faster than Usain Bolt. Take that, Usain!

Their ink contains dopamine, a neurotransmitter that in human brains, produces the sensation of euphoria. So, I'm pretty sure you can get high on Japanese Flying Squid ink? Only one way to find out...

Be careful if you eat a flying squid.

Bonus squids:

Keep on swimming,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

FSC: 9-27-19

Hello dear friends, colleagues, lovers, associates, frenemies, bandmates, crewmates, research assistants, marine engineers, and all the rest of the wonderful Friday Sea Creatures community! Summer is ending but it's still a beautiful Friday so put on some Friday Sea Creatures tunes, pour yourself a glass of rosé, get on a balcony, and enjoy the

Venus Flower Basket Sponge (Euplectella aspergillum)

Sponge Facts:

Their tissues contain glass-like structural particles, called spicules, that are made of silica. So they are literally made out of glass.

Somebody gave a venus flower basket sponge to a bunch of engineers (we get weird presents) and, being the huge nerds that they are, they got inspired to make a model of what arrangement of concentric glass cylinders would have the highest strength to weight ratio. Guess what? Venus flower basket got it right on the first try.

The fact that they are made out of glass means that they can be used as a pretty effective fiber optic cable, and you can actually shine a light on one part and see the whole sponge start glowing. Why would you do that? Science.

In case all of that wasn't exciting enough, the venus flower basket sponge is the site of one of the most romantic stories in the ocean! It goes like this: two young shrimps meet. Maybe they go see a movie, maybe they go on a picnic in the park and watch the sunset.... one day, they put their mandibles together for a shrimpy kiss and realize they've fallen in shrimp love. Well Mr. and Mrs. Shrimp need a place to live and they're attracted to the venus flower basket - it's in a nice neighborhood, and the modern all-glass aesthetic plays well with Mrs. Shrimp's interior design aspirations. Time goes on, they make three or four hundred baby shrimps, all is well with the world. The baby shrimps swim away to shrimp college. And then one morning Mr. and Mrs. Shrimp wake up and realize they've grown too large to leave. They spend the rest of their lives together inside the glass house, trapped in a shrimpy embrace.

Japanese couples find this story inspiring and give each other venus flower basket sponges as wedding gifts. Go figure.

Bonus sponges:

Extra unrelated bonus sea creature fact for those who read to the end: octopods dream, and change colors while they do it.

Keep on swimming,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

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Hello and happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well. I myself am feeling a bit fishy after BP's annual company retreat, but I'll keep on swimming because we have an extra special Friday Sea Creatures today, featuring fish photography and facts documented by yours truly! So sit back, relax, put on some Sea Creatures tunes, and get to know

The Sea Creatures of Catalina Island (various species)

Any discussion of Catalinan sea creatures must of course begin and end with the Garibaldi.

The garibaldi is the California State fish. Why? No one knows for sure, but they're fake, flashy, the ocean’s version of blond, too friendly for their own good, and a little dumb... draw your own conclusions.

Garibaldis were named after an Italian soldier - Giuseppe Garibaldi - who wore bright orange and red colors out to war. He's dead now. Maybe not the greatest strategy, G.

A hardworking female garibaldi will lay about 80,000 eggs at a time. What do the male garibaldis do? Typically, they'll eat about half of those eggs to free up space and attract more females to the nest. Not super helpful, dudes...

A school of zebra perch at around 20' depth.

Another adult 'baldi, two kids (the kids had blue spots), and a kelp bass / calico bass doing his best to blend in.

Another kelp bass trying to blend in. Don't let the name fool you, they don't only hang out near kelp. Pretty much any underwater structure will do. But "structure bass" just isn't as catchy of a name...

A black perch. Not as tasty as bass but they make an alright taco. Says Milton S Love, author of "Certainly More Then You Wanted to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast" and honorary Director of Sea Creatures emeritus: "Black perch tended to aggregate around central points in groups of 20. The aggregations consisted of males and females, with males performing courtship rituals at a short distance from the group of females... After the female appeared receptive, the male would lead her to a nearby cave." Reminds me of a few bars I've been to...

A California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher). They like to hide under rocks. Turns out it's pretty hard to take photos of fish, while they are trying to hide from you, while you are holding your breath. Think this one was around 35' down.

A medium-sized Pacific Mackerel. There is a layer of thin reflecting platelets on some of the mackerel stripes. In 1998, E J Denton and D M Rowe argued that these platelets transmit additional information to other fish about how a given fish moves. As the orientation of the fish changes relative to another fish, the amount of light reflected to the second fish by this layer also changes. This sensitivity to orientation gives the mackerel "considerable advantages in being able to react quickly while schooling and feeding." It also makes them really pretty!

Also, mack sashimi is good stuff.

The Leopard Shark. Don't worry, they're cool. Says Nick J, HNIC (Head Nick In Charge): "Those are real? Sounds like bad news. Don't mix land and sea." Wise words.

The research vessel Angel.

The author, in pursuit of sea creatures.

Mahalo,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

FSC: 7-26-19

Hello, happy Friday, happy Sea Creatures! After a couple weeks of HOT weather, I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to become a sea creature myself... I'm headed to the beach this weekend and I hope you do the same. So put on those Friday Sea Creatures tunes and picture yourself as an

Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus)

Sturgeon Facts:

They're big.

Unlike most fish, they're too cool for scales, and instead armor themselves with five boy plates called "scutes." Pretty scute if you ask me...

But that also makes them one of the only finned fish that are not kosher, sorry folks. Shabbat shalom.

They are super useful! You can use them to make belts, clarify beer, or bribe a Russian aristocrat. Truly the Swiss army knife of fish.

Oh did I mention they can protrude their mouth to suck up tasty creatures from the sea floor?

They were once known as Albany beef (in fact people from Albany were historically referred to as "sturgeonites," sorry dudes) and happily after you New Yorkers ate them all, they are flourishing in the Hudson River. Don't call it a comeback, they've been here for years...

Bonus Sturge

Baby sturge.

Your Director of Sea Creatures pondering a career as a sturgeon bounty hunter.

FSC: 7-19-19

Hey! Happy Friday! It's time for another edition of Friday Sea Creatures, so put on some sea creature music, kick back, and check out the:

Sea Sponge (Porifera)

Sponge facts:

Sponges 3D print themselves.

Sponges are expert structural engineers and invented the concept of truss element buckling (Clausen column) millions of years ago.

Dolphins in Australia carry sponges in their beaks to avoid scraping their snouts on the sea bottom when looking for food (we've discussed this before).

The top speed of a sponge is 4 mm/hour. That's right, sponges live their lives a quarter mile at a time.

Much like Keanu Reeves, sponges are immortal: if conditions are bad a sponge can produce unspecialized cells. If the conditions improve and the sponge dies, the unspecialized cells will develop into a new sponge and then take over the parent's skeleton to use as their own.

Oh fuck, some of them are carnivorous.

Whoa man. Whoa.

But also, they may save us all. Thank you sponges!

Oh and just FYI they were likely the first animal on earth (mic drop).

Bonus sponges:

Spongily yours,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

FSC: 6-28-19

Hello! Bonjour! Guten tag! Happy Friday, and welcome back to Friday Sea Creatures. We're doing something a little different this week - I was just informed that it's Cephalopod Week, so instead of focusing on a single creature we're going to celebrate the joy that is the entire Cephalopod class! There's so much to choose from, so much to know... put on those Friday Sea Creatures tunes and check out the

Cephalopoda (Cephalopoda)

Pod Facts:

Let's resolve your most burning questions first: what happens when you give an octopus molly? Well, some scientists wondered that too, and being scientists, they tried it out. The results? The octopuses got a lot more cuddly, and "slid up to the edge of their tanks and even reached out to interact with neighboring octopuses."

BP often focuses on power resiliency, but so far we have not designed any systems to address octopus-induced outages.

If I were a cephalopod, I would be writing this roughly 3 times as fast, assuming two arms were reserved for drinking rose (check my math on that one folks).

They use a form of jet propulsion that's more efficient than any other in the ocean.

Much like their human counterparts, squid sex is aggressive and often ends poorly.

Just last week scientists captured the first ever video of a giant squid!

Some squids communicate with each other using Morse code.

I cannot do any better than to repeat the title of this journal article here: “Octopus Arms Are Capable of Making Decisions Without Input From Their Brains”.

Here is a poem about a very large cephalopod, by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

Below the thunders of the upper deep, Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides; above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumbered and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Bonus Pods:

All hail our cephalopod overlords,

Mike

Director of Sea Creatures

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