Pacific football fish male vs female8/7/2023 ![]() ![]() (When was the last time you spent 24 hours in the ocean? They do it all day, every day!) Your marine mammal respect is greatly appreciated. Do not approach, try to swim with, or touch spinners in the water – they need their rest just as much as we do, if not more. On the other flipper, when you see a spinner from below, their light grey belly blends in with the sunlight streaming in from above. When someone looks at a dolphin from above, the dolphin’s dark grey back blends in with the deep blue sea below. The back of the dolphin is dark grey, the middle is a softer, lighter grey, and the lower third is a shade lighter than that. A spinner’s body coloration, called countershading, protects them from predators and hides them from prey. These dolphins are smaller and more slender than many other species, attaining an adult length of about 7 feet. There are many theories, including a) they do it for fun, b) the spinning is a form of communication, and c) the dolphins spin to shake off parasites or remoras. Spinners eat fish and squid, and no one knows exactly why they spin they way they do. They live in large groups called pods, resting together throughout the day and cooperatively hunting and feeding together at night. Spinner dolphins are extremely social, intelligent, and beautiful animals. If you are walking along the beach, and you see a turtle nest that’s been roped off, keep dogs away from it and feel free to celebrate even more! Totally cute turtle babies may be hatching soon! Most hawksbill nesting sites are in the main Hawaiian islands, and these areas are vulnerable (or already gone) due to the development of beachfront properties. ![]() Hawksbill turtles eat sponges as well as other invertebrates that live on the rocks. Deflated balloons are just one reason sea turtles have such problems near humans – they eat floating balloons that seem to be jellyfish, and afterwards they cannot dive or eat again, sometimes choke, and always die. However, do not celebrate by releasing balloons, please. If you see an endangered hawksbill while snorkeling, it is an occasion worth celebrating, because this turtle is quite rare in Hawaii. This overlapping does not occur in our more common Hawaiian green sea turtle. The “tiles” that make up their shell overlap each other slightly. Will I be able to? *tossing empty beer cans over neighbor’s fence* I’ll be honest, it’s not looking good.Hawksbill sea turtles have a narrow, sharp-looking beak, like a hawk’s. Will that require turning my whole life around? Yes. Seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the diversity of marine life lurking below the water’s surface in California’s MPAs and as scientists continue to learn more about these deep sea creatures it’s important to reflect on how much is still to be learned from our wonderful ocean.ĭid you read that?! Note to self: at least behave well enough in this life to not be reincarnated as a male Pacific Footballfish. Wild! To see an actual angler fish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why the fish ended up on the shore. Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become “sexual parasites,” eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction. While females can reach lengths of 24 inches males only grow to be about an inch long and their sole purpose is to find a female and help her reproduce. Only females possess a long stalk on the head with bioluminescent tips used as a lure to entice prey in the darkness of waters as deep as 3,000 feet! Their teeth, like pointed shards of glass, are transparent and their large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body. Details about the fish from officials at Crystal Cove State Park and not Crystal Lake State Park, because all those people got machete’d to death by Jason Voorhees: ![]() The fish normally lives at depths down to 3,000 feet, so it’s rare to ever see one at all, but especially not completely distorted as a result of its body reacting to the incredible pressure difference from 3,000-feet to sea level. These are several shots of what is believed to be a female Pacific Footballfish (I think I caught one of those in Animal Crossing!) that recently washed ashore in Crystal Cove, California. ![]()
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