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Shore Buddies webblog

Wisdom Wednesday 5/13/20

Photo of a Seal from The Marine Mammal Center on instagram @themarinemammalcenter

“The Marine Mammal Center has been conducting research on marine mammal diseases since 1975. Because animals in our care offer a unique opportunity to perform blood and tissue analyses, The Marine Mammal Center has become a leading resource for researchers and scientists to turn to for answers about marine mammal care, medicine and health data. Every marine mammal patient we treat provides a never-before-seen glimpse into human medical conditions.” 

Shore Buddies supports rescued wildlife during the COVID-19 shutdown. Many animal care facilities are struggling with providing continuous care for their patients. Shore Buddies decided to partner with 4x organizations and DONATE 100% of PROFITS for the treatment of those animals in these troubling times. One of those organizations is The Marine Mammal Center! Every purchase of Sammy the Seal goes to helping these seals!

 

Wisdom Wednesday 4/22/20

Photo of a Spiny Devilfish by Manuela Kirschner on Instagram
Not much is known about the Spiny Devilfish, but what is known mostly revolves around it’s spines. It has poisonous spines on the dorsal, anal and ventral fins. This fish is predominantly well camouflaged (and so easy to miss) and lies buried up to the eyes and mouth, waiting for prey to swim by to ambush by lunging forward and inhaling their prey with their large mouths.

Wisdom Wednesday 4/15/20

Jeweled Cichlid photo by Jim Abernethy on Instagram
Probably the most remarkable fact about the Jewel Fish, however, is the relationship of the mated couple, which comes as close to a “married life” in the full sense of the word as can be found among fish.

Wisdom Wednesday 4/8/20

Photo of a blue ringed octopus by William Soo on Instagram
This venom is more toxic than of any land animal. It is said that the venom of this octopus could kill 26 adults in just a few minutes. There is no antivenom for treatment.

Wisdom Wednesday 4/1/20

Photo of Collared Butterflyfish by Manuela Kirschner on Instagram
Many have dark bands across their eyes and round, eye-like dots on their flanks to confuse predators as to which end to strike and in which direction they're likely to flee.

Wisdom Wednesday 3/25/20

Puffer fish vary in size from one inch long pygmy puffer, to a two feet long freshwater giant puffer.  The main feature, common for all puffer fish, is ability to ingest huge amounts of water, which increases their body size and turns them into odd-looking ball-like creatures. The most elastic part of their body is skin on the stomach area. When puffer fish ingests water, skin on the stomach expands several times of the normal size of the fish. The quick transformation scares predators. 

Wisdom Wednesday 3/18/20

Flying Fish are unique in that they can reach the height of 4 feet in the air, and glide a distance of 655 feet before returning back to the water. They are usually 7 to 12 inches long with the upper side of the body being bluish-grey and their belly grayish-silver. The flying fish has forked tail with the lower piece of the tail longer than upper piece. Pectoral fins of flying fish can be spread into wing-like shape. Flying fish are shaped like a torpedo. Their fins are closed when they swim to ensure faster movement through the water. Before it emerges above the water, flying fish accelerate toward the surface of the water with a speed of 37 miles per hour.

Wisdom Wednesday 3/11/20

Instagram photo of a seal by Justin Hofman
Seals spend much of their life in water! Their thick fur and blubber offer protection against freezing temperatures. Seals have more blood in their body than other animals. Since blood cells keep the oxygen, seal can dive longer than other animals. Seal can hold its breath for 2 hours which is a record in the animal world. They can dive up to 1000-1300 feet deep when they are searching for food.

Wisdom Wednesday 3/4/20

Instagram Photo of Sea Foam by Steve Peletz
Algal blooms are one common source of thick sea foams. When large blooms of algae decay offshore, great amounts of decaying algal matter often wash ashore. Foam forms as this organic matter is churned up by the surf. Most sea foam is not harmful to humans and is often an indication of a productive ocean ecosystem. But when large harmful algal blooms decay near shore, there are potential for impacts to human health and the environment.

Wisdom Wednesday 1/22/2020

Moon Jellyfish photo by Justin Hofman on Instagram
They do sting, but their nematocysts do not fire strong enough to break human skin. The individual size of a given mature moon jelly can vary considerably, typically ranging between 2 and 15 inches in diameter. The moon jelly is composed mainly of water, which in fact accounts for 95% of its entire body composition. It is a carnivorous animal, feeding on protein-rich aquatic animals.

Wisdom Wednesday 12/25/19

Basket Star image by @justinhofman Instagram
This extraordinary invertebrate has a mass of twisting and turning arms that can measure a meter long.  The middle is a five-pointed body that’s up to a few inches across. An arm extends from each point. Each arm may have two main branches, with many smaller ones extending from each of the bigger ones. Each branch has tiny sharp hooks, allowing the creature to capture prey.

Wisdom Wednesday 12/18/19

Sea Turtle image by @zackvibes on Instagram

This week we’re switching up our Wisdom Wednesday blog to be more of an update about a popular topic in ocean pollution: Sea Turtles. Sea turtles are affected by plastic during every stage of their life. They crawl through plastic on the way to the ocean as hatchlings, swim through it while migrating, confuse it for jellyfish (one of their favorite foods), and then crawl back through it as adults. Researchers estimate that over half of all sea turtles in the world have ingested plastic. And a single piece of plastic has a 20% chance of killing them. If sea turtles disappear from the ocean, it wouldn’t only be a huge loss for future human generations but it would also threaten the longevity of other marine life. Scientists believe that sea turtle species are essential to the health of marine ecosystems.