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Weekly Newsletter | Sammy the Seal

Sammy the Seal
Remember that together, all of us can make a difference. Check out a Sammy the Seal toy or Keychain this week and get 15% off your purchase! AND, remember, with the purchase of any and every Shore Buddies, $1 goes to the Ocean. Now that is fun!

Wisdom Wednesday | The Dwarf Zebra Lionfish

image of Dwarf Zebra Lionfish by instagram user Danny Lee

The Dwarf Zebra Lionfish is easy to distinguish from the other lionfish species because of the enlarged pectoral fins. The fins are full and fan shaped and the fin membranes extend almost all the way to the end of the rays. They are usually found on sandy areas of reef flats ranging from between 3 meters to 25 meters in Tanzania but can be found down to 80 meters. Dwarf Lionfish feed at night and prey on small fishes and crustaceans and pretty much anything that fits in their mouth. They are ambush predators and move into positions where small fishes are likely to congregate. They use their proportionally large mouths to create a vacuum and suck in and swallow the prey. Being smaller than other Lionfish they go after smaller prey. They will sometimes use their pectoral fins to herd prey into a position where they can trap them. Little is known about their reproduction.

Wisdom Wednesday | The Weedy Sea Dragon

image of a Weedy Sea Dragon by instagram user Danny Lee
A Weedy Seadragon looks just like it sounds.. A mini sea dragon that would blend in with corals and seaweed very well! To avoid mouthfulls of sand when feeding, this animal will feed on its side and suck up tiny mycids! Compared to the leafy sea dragon, weedies have less flamboyant projections and are usually reddish in color with yellow spots. Weedy sea dragons have very long, thin snouts, slender trunks covered in bony rings, and thin tails which, unlike their seahorse cousins, cannot be used for gripping.

Wisdom Wednesday 08/05/20

Photo of a flying fish by Instagram user @jillma2sh21

Flying fish are marine oceanic fishes of the family Exocoetidae. They are about 50 species, and they live worldwide in warm waters. They are noted for their ability to glide. They are all small, with a maximum length of about 45 cm (18 inches), and have winglike, rigid fins and an unevenly forked tail.  From 1900 to the 1930s, flying fish were studied as possible models used to develop airplanes. There are at least 40 types flying fish and they can reach 37 MPH underwater. They do not fly actively: their fins do not flap. What they do is speed towards the surface and keep on going. 

Wisdom Wednesday 07/29/20

The sargassum fish has an upturned mouth with an illium over the margin of the eyes. All frogfishes have a “lure” which is a fine antennae which stems from the top of the frogfishes head and dangles a bait-like looking appendage directly in front of the frogfish to attract prey. When frogfishes have prey in front of them they are incredibly fast to open their mouths and they suck in their prey whole, without chewing.

Wisdom Wednesday 07/22/20

Image of sea otters from Instagram user @jillma2sh21
Sea otters need to constantly fuel their little bodies to keep up with their constant energy output, and typically eat around a quarter of their weight in food on a daily basis. Humans generally eat between three and four pounds of food each day. If you weigh 140 pounds, that’d be like you eating around 34 pounds of food every day. 34 pounds is equal to somewhere around 74 of the average six-inch subs from Subway.

Wisdom Wednesday 6/3/20

Tiger Shark photo from Instagram user Jason Washington
And maybe the most bizarre fact of all.. One individual tiger shark found itself in the middle of a murder mystery! In April 1935, Coogee Aquarium in Sydney, Australia was looking for a big fish to occupy its newly-built pool. On a fishing trip off Coogee beach, Bert Hobson snared a 13-foot tiger shark for the aquarium. The shark was a big hit at the aquarium, but it didn’t last very long. Seven days after its arrival, it got sick and vomited up a bird, a rat, some nasty-looking brown goo—and a human arm, which had a rope tied around its wrist and a forearm tattoo of two boxers. An amateur boxer named James Smith had recently gone missing, and he had the exact same tattoo on one arm.

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 5/06/20

Tasmanian Blenny photo from instagram user Danny Lee @submerged_images
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 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 2/26/2020

Swimming with dinosaurs! Longnose Gar (and other species of this family) are ancient fish perfected suited to thrive in conditions that would easily kill most fish. They can gulp air when necessary, allowing them to survive in low oxygen and higher salinity water than most fish.

Wisdom Wednesday 2/19/2020

Shipwreck artificial reef photo by John Garza on Instagram
In some instances, however, the negative ecological impacts of artificial reefs may outweigh potential economic gains. For example, development of artificial reefs may cause an increase in overall visitation to an area, meaning more visitors to both artificial and natural reefs.