Shore Buddies webblog
Wisdom Wednesday 5/27/20
All seven species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered. This is a reflection of the growing issues surrounding coastal development and ocean conservation. To help ensure that sea turtles have a future in our oceans, the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Care Center™ aids sick and injured sea turtles in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
Wisdom Wednesday 5/20/20
Sea robins are good swimmers but they also can use their pectoral fins to “walk” along the bottom of the ocean, looking for prey. The sensitive fins let the fish feel things they encounter and they can be used to move and manipulate small objects. It also uses its head as a shovel to dig down and uncover small sea creatures to eat. Sea robins will eat just about anything they can find, including segmented worms, crustaceans, shrimp, squid and mollusks. Sea robins vibrate their swim bladders to make a croaking sound that is easy to hear when the fish are lifted out of the water. They head for the bottom and quickly burrow into the sand when threatened, leaving only their eyes and a bit of their heads exposed.
Wisdom Wednesday 5/13/20
“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 5/06/20
Tasmanian Blenny fish are odd looking fish that bring joy to the reefs with a large head, a blunt snout with a steep profile, and a large frilled tentacle over each eye. Tasmanian Blennies are pale brownish to dark brown or bluish-grey with a pattern of irregular bars and blotches on the sides, and two dark bars radiating from below the eye.
Wisdom Wednesday 4/29/20
It’s not a jellyfish! The Portuguese Man o’ War may look like a bloated jellyfish, but it’s actually a siphonophore—a bizarre group of animals that consist of colonies made up of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of genetically-identical individual creatures.
Wisdom Wednesday 4/22/20
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
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 4/1/20
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
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
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.