Brown Curryfish Sea Cucumber (Stichopus vastus)

Yellowish brown, creased and somewhat rectangular body with dark harlequin markings and a few short knob-like papillae. Inhabit sandy areas often mixed with sea grasses.

Sea cucumbers from this genus is the one you usually find on luxurious Chinese food. XD

Pari Island, Seribu Islands

Photo by me (Lyra)

rhamphotheca:

Garden Eels (Gorgasia barnesi ), off the coast of East Timor, talking shit to each other.

(photo: Nick Hobgood)

ichthyologist:

Razorfish (family Centriscidae)

Razorfish congregate in groups and swim in a synchronised, vertical manner. It is unclear as to why they swim in fashion, although it may be to confuse potential predators.

Divemecressi on Flickr

(Source: , via rhamphotheca)

rhamphotheca:

Clown Frogfish (Antennarius maculatus)

A brightly colored clown frogfish shows off its stuff on a reef near Bali, Indonesia. Members of the frogfish family typically keep a much lower profile, relying on the art of camouflage—even changing colors—to stay hidden in their reef homes. Frogfish boast an array of stripes, spots, warts, and other skin anomalies that allow them to impersonate surrounding rocks or plants.

(via: National Geo)        (image: Gary Bell, Oceanwide)

rhamphotheca:

Mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus)

Mandarin fish secrete mucous that has an unpleasant smell and a bitter taste. They also have a layer of sacciform cells on the skin which produce and release substances with some toxins. It is suggested that this secretion is used as a repellent from predators and other competitive fish. The significance of the vibrant display of colors of the species is not known. However, it probably makes them highly conspicuous when feeding and mating and may be an aposematic warning.

Mandarin fish feed on the bottom. They eat small crustaceans such as amphipods and isopods, small worms and protozoans. Much of its food intake is found living in the reefs and other live rock. If there is a substantial amount of live rock, mandarin fish do not need any other outside source for food. In captivity, the fish usually do not eat prepared food, therefore it becomes difficult to maintain them. They need a great supply of live rock to feed. Mandarin fish have a relatively small mouth, therefore they eat only small food items …

(read more: EOL)         (image: Luc Viatour)

ferrrox:

i’m making bread and it it needs 20 more minutes of rising before i can put it in the oven, but in the meantime i am just thinking—

in the process of making this loaf of bread i have pretty much enslaved 180,000,000,000 individual yeasts to do what i want them to, and when they are finished, i am going to bake each of them to death, then eat their corpses

Y34H!

(via primevalsoup)

orbiculator:

sublime.

(Source: earth-song)

rhamphotheca:

Coral Growth Rings

Ultraviolet light illuminates the growth rings in a cross-section of a 44-year-old Primnoa resedaformis deep-sea coral collected off the coast of Newfoundland in about 400 m (1,312 ft) of water. Similar to tree trunks, cross-sections reveal coral-growth rings that can be used to determine their age. These growth rings can also reveal information about ocean conditions during the coral’s life span.

(via: Smithsonian - Ocean Portal)

rhamphotheca:

Raising Baby Corals for Reef Restoration 

Restoring the Florida Keys, one piece at a time. 

by Rachel Nuwer

May-June 2012 - Ken Nedimyer has been diving in the Florida Keys for 42 years. He used to make his living collecting tropical fish for the aquarium trade. At first business was good, but then Nedimyer began noticing a disturbing trend. “The reefs were dying around me,” he says, “and dead reefs didn’t have as many fish.” While scientists studied the declines, Nedimyer began devising solutions to help bring back coral.

There are many reasons for coral death. Damage from boats and overfishing are problems, while other corals “die by 1,000 cuts,” Nedimyer says, through an accumulation of assaults from disease, hurricanes, cold winters, hot summers, and the like. Brian Tissot, a Washington State University marine ecologist, adds that seemingly innocent activities—like buying dried starfish or shell jewelry—can support destructive activities, too. Since the 1970s about 98 percent of a type of coral species that provides critical structure for reefs has disappeared from Caribbean waters, according to the Acropora Biological Review Team. 

With ideas borrowed from the aquarium trade, Nedimyer and his daughter started experimenting with methods of growing and mounting corals. From a handful of original specimens, his underwater nursery has since burgeoned to roughly 25,000 corals. Largely fueled by volunteers, Nedimyer’s nonprofit Coral Restoration Foundation has transplanted thousands of corals from the nursery out into the reef, and replanted still more fragments of broken ones…

(read more: Audubon Magazine)       (photo: Ken Nedimyer/CRF)