Tag: ocean

Histioteuthis

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Histioteuthis

There are many weird creatures in the ocean, especially as you go deeper. Cock-eyed squids, as their name suggests, have two very different eyes—each detects a different type of light, and points in a different direction. The mesopelagic zone starts at the depth where just 1% of sunlight penetrates and extends down to the point where no light reaches at all; so this is a cool adaptation that allows the animals to survive in a very low-light environment. Interestingly, the eyes are the same at birth, but the left one morphs as it grows.

Megastraea undosa

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texture

The largest shell I find on our local beaches is the wavy turban snail. I was alarmed to learn that this gastropod is being harvested for food in growing numbers, with no oversight and no research. Sounds like another extinction waiting to happen. And before that, a radical decrease in the size of the turbans, as they pick off the largest ones.

sky

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roll cloud

We rarely get spectacular cloud formations here, but I am fond of the fluffy rolls that sit on the ocean’s surface some mornings. According to Wikipedia, roll clouds are a type of arcus cloud, usually associated with thunderstorms. However they can also arise along the shallow cold air currents of sea breeze boundaries, which I assume is what we are seeing here.