Ocean Curious

Amazing 🤩The octopus found a perfect perch where he could look for clams to eat

Spotted Boxfish (Ostracion meleagris)

The Harlequin Shrimp, Hymenocera picta, is a species of saltwater shrimp found on coral reefs in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The sailfish is the fastest fish on Earth, reaching speeds of 110 km/h, using its massive dorsal fin like a net to herd and confuse thousands of sardines before striking with lethal precision. It can change its skin color in milliseconds during the hunt — flashing electric blue stripes to disorient its prey and communicate with other sailfish mid-attack.
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blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena genus), one of the ocean's most beautiful yet deadly creatures.

It’s giant, it’s thorny, and it’s an oyster... Let’s hear it for the giant thorny oyster (Spondylus varius)! Found in the Indo-Pacific ocean, this large bivalve mollusk can grow up to 7.9 in (20 cm) in size. Like other bivalves, such as clams and mussels, it’s a filter feeder that sucks up water and siphons out microorganisms to eat. During this process, oysters remove pollutants from their environment, including excess nitrogen. In fact, oysters are such efficient natural filters that individuals from some species can clean up to 50 gallons of water in a single day!

Photo: rowanwattpringle, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

Marine Mystery Solved 🌊🔍

Starfish, also called sea stars, were once plentiful in tide pools along both U.S. coasts. But over the past decade, billions of animals, representing some 20 species, have died of sea star wasting disease (SSWD)—most dramatically on West Coast beaches from Alaska to Mexico.

Though scientists for years have searched for the pathogen that causes SSWD, the sea stars’ alarming deaths remained a mystery.

Until now. Last summer, a scientific team identified a novel strain of a bacterium, Vibrio pectenicida, as the sea stars’ killer. Discovery of the novel Vibrio strain slaying sea stars is giving scientists and conservationists hope that they can finally stop the deadly spread of SSWD.

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