#Cool sea creatures

[protectoursharks]

hi

what's this one cause I have questions

1; is it edible

2: fun facts about it

THAMK YOU

That is a flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans)!

To answer your first question, they are edible! They're steadily becoming a more popular food choice because they have a relatively low oil content.

The first thing you might notice about this species is their very large pectoral fins. It's believed that their primary use is to scare off predators. Often the fish rest on the seafloor with the large fins tucked in, only displaying them when threatened. Additionally, they have finger-like segments of their pectoral fins which they use to walk across the sea floor.

These fish can also make noises! Using their swim bladder and jaw, they can make a grunt-like sound believed be used to scare off predators or communicate with each other.

[journey-to-the-attic]

one thing about ik is that she will always reach out

[sharkiedays]

I think i have the flu 💀

[amnhnyc]

Meet the Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus)! This reef-inhabiting cephalopod lives in warm shallow waters, spanning southern Florida to the Caribbean, through to South America’s northern coast. It’s distinguished by its eye-catching blue coloring, but this master of disguise can change its looks in an instant. Like other octopuses, it uses pigmented cells in its skin, called chromatophores, to alter its appearance. When confronted by a foe, such as a shark, it may emit a cloud of unpleasant-tasting ink to deter its enemy from further pursuit.

Photo: francoislibert, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, iNaturalist

[holdingcaulfields]

the deep ocean ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

[aegisofworms]

Artfight in 4 days so I'm finishing up my last few refs (I've got 1-2 after this?) Anyways, self-indulgence time. I've been meaning to make an artist sona type thing for ages (and started thinking about it again when drawing my spidersona thing). But having my favorite creature as a siphonophore made workshopping a design a bit of a struggle. Thankfully the worms in my brain give me many good ideas.

[dizzybizz]

please consider jellyfish john,, for me 🥺?

[onaperduamedee]

Your body no longer feels like your own.

[gachacatt]

Have you ever seen marine life as wicked as this in the aquarium? Nah I didn't think so! I'll be selling these as stickers locally in the next week, more information on that later!

[kodaswrld]

sharkie time

[aisikae]

focalors with her giant ballroom gown oceanid fins from the concept art! doodled from memory so she’s a mix of canon foca/furi too here~!🪞🫧

[protectoursharks]

Any fun facts about basking sharks? (Really big sea puppies)

Cetorhinus maximus or Basking Shark

These are the second largest shark and fish in the world (after the whale shark), they can grow to be 12 m (40 ft) long!

Also like whale sharks, they're ram filter feeders. This means that to catch prey, they simply open their mouths, swim forward, and catch whatever happens to get in their way! This is why they (and other ram filter feeders) tend to have such large mouths. The basking sharks mouth can be up to 1 m (3ft wide).

While sharks are mostly thought to be solitary creatures, a lot of species do school and the basking shark is one of them! They're usually divided by sex (except during periods of mating), and schools of over 100 females have been spotted!

And probably the coolest fact about them- THEY CAN JUMP OUT OF THE WATER. Despite weighing around 5,000 kg (approx. 11,000 lbs) they can breach 1.2 m (4 ft) into the air! It's believed they do this as a method to remove parasites.

[bestiarium]

The Aasivarluit [Inuit mythology]!

The oceans have fascinated humans for millennia. As such, it is no surprise that a great many cultures from around the world have their own stories about scary and dangerous creatures from beneath the waves. One such being is the ocean-spider, or Aasivarluit, a massive monster from Inuit mythology.

As the appellation ‘ocean-spider’ implies, the Aasivarluit resembles a spider, albeit an unnaturally large one. It is a dangerous, giant animal and it was known to prey on unsuspecting kayakers by waiting underneath the surface of the sea and then pouncing upwards when a suitable victim appeared. In the absence of human prey, the monster was known to hunt walruses and seals for sustenance. 

It doesn’t appear to be a common creature in Inuit mythology, in fact, all references I could find only mention one single story about the Aasivarluit:

A man was kayaking near the coast of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland (although it was called Godthåb back then). Suddenly he saw a massive object beneath the waves, which confused him greatly because he was familiar with this location and he knew that there was no shoal nearby. He then remembered stories about giant aquatic spiders, and quickly deduced that this must be the thing that suddenly appeared beneath his kayak. Indeed, he looked down into the water and saw a giant eye.

But the man was a skilled kayaker and he managed to get away safely. It is said that a less experienced kayaker would certainly have perished in his situation. 

The idea of a giant oceanic spider that eats people might have originated as a cautionary tale (as in, don’t venture too far from the coast or the giant spider will eat you). While stories about giant animals are not uncommon in Inuit culture, the Aasivarluit is certainly a rather strange monster, considering that there are no marine spiders in real life (although there are freshwater spiders). Technically, sea spiders do exist, but they are spiders in name only: they belong to the class Pycnogonida whereas real spiders are Arachnida. They only share a vague resemblance (though there are some really pretty and weird sea spiders out there, I recommend googling them).

Sources: Rink, H., 1974, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, first published 1875, 473 pp, p. 471. Christopher, N., 2013, The Hidden: a compendium of arctic giants, dwarves, gnomes, trolls, faeries, and other strange beings from Inuit oral history, 191 pp, p. 134-135. (image source: @another_maker on Instagram)

[sharkiedays]

WHALE SHARKS

biggest fish fr fr

[bloodiegawz]

drops a new oc and leaves

[solstrix]

Lagoona Blue counts for mermay........... right.....?