The Deep and Mysteries Thereof

[freedombecki]

Seen by vacationers near their Seward campground, AK: (and it's just one of many spectacular area photographs of resurrection bay, its flora and fauna.)

 

[freedombecki]

Credits: sou-wes diving service and hotel irifune

 

[freedombecki]

Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Denmark on behalf of the European Union, and Mexico, proposed three species of hammerhead sharks for inclusion in Appendix II. The three species proposed are the Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini, the Great hammerhead, S. mokarran, and the Smooth hammerhead, S. zygaena. The two later species are included in this proposal due to their similarity as “look-alike” species. Declines in scalloped hammerhead sharks from the mid 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s to recent years range from 98%, 89% and 26%-89% respectively in the northwest Atlantic, and 98% in the southwest Atlantic. Significant declines have been reported in the Indian Ocean, and in the Mediterranean there has been a decline of 99.9% in the past century.

Hammerhead sharks are some of the most frequently illegally fished of all shark species. Trade in meat and other products of hammerheads are insignificant compared with the trade in their fins. Their fins are primary products in international trade.

Credits: Sea Save Foundation

 

[koshergrl]

How did I miss this thread? I live on the Oregon coast...

 

[koshergrl]

 

[koshergrl]

 

[koshergrl]

 

[koshergrl]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46lgi1u1xQ&hd=1]The Spouting Horn at Cook's Chasm on the Oregon Coast - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

How did I miss this thread? I live on the Oregon coast...

Wow! Those nettles remind me of parachutes, koshergrl.

 

[freedombecki]

Triggerfish​

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[Jughead]

Extremely rare Peppermint Angelfish.

 

[koshergrl]

I am out of rep, but I will be back tomorrow...and I will post more images. It's difficult for me to post many of my own, it's cumbersome and time consuming to move the images around but I will find more. The tidepools and the water spout are frequent destinations for the kids and I...not so much this time of the year when the sea is more unpredictable than usual, but often....

 

[koshergrl]

Cook's Chasm is actually a part of the Cape Perpetua trail system...you can watch for whales from there.

 

[koshergrl]

For a little scale:

 

[freedombecki]

Green mandarin goby fish:

I machine embroidered one of these onto aqua blue towels a few years back--and love it.

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Credits​

 

[koshergrl]

How can we look at these things and not be convinced that there is a God, and He is wonderful?

 

[Jughead]

Green mandarin goby fish:

I machine embroidered one of these onto aqua blue towels a few years back--and love it.

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Credits​

What an extremely colorful fish, very stunning to look at!

 

[freedombecki]

Extremely rare Peppermint Angelfish.

He has to be one of the most photographed deep sea angels on earth, but this one was my personal fave:

[ame=http://youtu.be/NKJ8EKxlaJQ]The $30,000 Peppermint Angelfish at Waikiki Aquarium - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

This one of Mandarin and other fish is a little addictive to watch due to the coral reef atmosphere..
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[ame=http://youtu.be/EVbyMEkFK7E]green mandarin dragonet/goby - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

I don't know a lot about the Flying Fish, but the above is a pink-winged flying fish, family is Exocoetidae. I'm still looking for its exact specie name, though.

There are other Pink-Winged Flying Fish online. The above came from Wikimedia.

This one was making a beeline for Angola:

There's a blogger who wrote up his knowledge of them, having seen many of them, plus he took some pictures of them when he was in the Indian Ocean. His article says they can fly up to 50 meters, although he said something to the effect that they look awkward when flying. 50m would save them from some fearsome predators as an elusive tactic.

He wrote Do You Believe In Flying Fish? I Do. Here is one of his pictures:


















Another site, Wikipedia, said the fish are generally 30 cm or less (~12") although a few grow to be 45 cm (~17.7")

A page on Flying fish at Wikipedia says this:

Exocoetidae is a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes of class Actinopterygii. Fish of this family are known as flying fish. There are about sixty-four species grouped in seven to nine genera. Flying fish can make powerful, self-propelled leaps out of water into air, where their long, wing-like fins enable gliding flight for considerable distances above the water's surface. This uncommon ability is a natural defense mechanism to evade predators.
The oldest known fossil of a flying or gliding fish, Potanichthys xingyiensis, dates back to the Middle Triassic, 235–242 million years ago. However, this fossil is not related to modern flying fish, which evolved independently about 66 million years ago.[1][2]

I love the sea and all its secrets.