The sea is always a mystery. Infinite and deep, which mankind has solved for centuries and can not solve. The ebb and flow, the Bermuda triangles and the nature of the storms are all, of course, a mystery. But more people were interested and continue to be interested in marine life - from small fish to a huge whale. Each of the types of inhabitants of the underwater world is, in fact, a separate people, professing their traditions and protecting their tribe in all possible ways.
One has only to listen to the stories of divers: not even the most experienced of them retains in memory some interesting fact about the marine inhabitants and can spend hours describing amazing landscapes of the deep sea.
Everyone touches the underwater kingdom or a specially equipped viewing aquarium: live corals, colored little fish, sea urchins (if you stay away from them) and even evil sharks - some of which, as it turned out, are not bloodthirsty at all. But for many years smart dolphins have remained a hit of human sympathy.
Intelligent, outgoing, empathic
Oceanologists who know a lot about sea creatures have long come to the conclusion: dolphins are the most perfect and unique of them. Firstly, no one is closer to a person from the citizens of the underwater state. Moreover, dolphins are very similar to us: they like to have fun and come up with ways to diversify their underwater and surface leisure activities (for example, they blow air bubbles and rings under water using their breathing tool); they feel responsible for relatives who are weakened or in trouble, will never be left to the mercy of an elderly or injured dolphin, and are always next to a female whose birth process is complicated. In all these cases, they are not just present, but help and support.
Dolphin: doctor or medicine?
Dolphins are the friendliest marine inhabitants, for children they can become swimming coaches, and nannies in the pool, and a cure for mental disorders, and a number of unpleasant diseases: cerebral palsy, autism, depression. By the way, now adults do not hesitate to undergo dolphin therapy: it is both pleasant and effective.
According to mental abilities among mammals, dolphins occupy the third place.
In favor of the intellectual abilities of these cute mammals, their habit of using improvised means during hunting, for example, to protect their nose from spiny fish with the help of a sea washcloth, speaks in favor.
In the mouth of a dolphin - a hundred small teeth that he never uses for the intended purpose one hundred percent - with his teeth dolphins only capture prey, but never chew.
The height of the dolphin jump above the water can reach 6 meters, and the depth of the maximum dive - up to 305 m, but only during the hunt. Dolphins usually live at a depth of 2-10 m.
Miracle Judo Fish Whale
No less remarkable are the largest marine inhabitants - whales. At the mere mention of these giants, many interesting facts about marine life pop up maxi size.
The fact that the whale is huge does not mean at all that it is clumsy. In the waves, whales play and frolic like children, demonstrating a graceful (almost graceful) diving.
Whales can dive to great depths - up to 1000 m. And the pressure at the bottom of the sea is very different from the pressure on the surface. Here are the whales and adapt: during the dive, their pulse slows down to ten beats per minute, providing blood only to the heart and brain. The skin, fins and tail remain “disconnected” from the power supply.
The pattern on the whale tail is as individual as the fingerprints in humans.
In the world there are only two species of mammals that can sing. This is a man and ... a whale. The shortest whale song lasts about six minutes, and the longest - half an hour. Both males and females sing. At the same time, it was noted that whales “women” are more likely to sing, songs are intended for their children. And what is most surprising - whales completely lack vocal cords.
Another interesting fact about the marine inhabitants of the whales, which cannot be ignored: these giants are constantly busy analyzing the sounds made by the sea. They have well-developed hearing, but there is no sense of smell and vision is atrophied.
“We are funny jellyfish”
Many representatives of the jellyfish species are indeed very “cheerful” in color, just carnival. Possessing such a bright appearance, they cannot help but defend themselves, therefore they are poisonous.
Perhaps the following fact is not entirely interesting about marine life, but it is very instructive: getting into exotic latitudes, you must be wary of the jellyfish, called Flecker's sea wasp. She is a killer. On her account every year one dead. Its venom acts as a powerful cardiovascular agent. The only effective way to escape from a deadly substance is kapron pantyhose. This wardrobe item is very popular among Queensland fishermen.
And in the Caribbean, farmers have learned to use jellyfish poison with great benefit - with it they poison rats and other harmful rodents that damage the economy.
The main thing is the drawing on the shell
The most incredible facts about marine life arise not without the help of a person. And it's not that he composes them - he even provokes them. In a good sense of the word.
Here, for example, the hakegani crabs that live off the coast of Japan survived and developed their population only thanks to the carapace pattern. He very much resembles the harsh face of an angry samurai.
When a crab with such a pattern fell into fishing nets, it was reverently released, sincerely believing that a restless samurai soul had settled in this creature.
Thanks to the belief of Japanese fishermen in reincarnation, the mechanism of artificial selection was launched, which saved heikegani from extinction.
Shrimp also wants to live!
For some reason, any interesting fact about marine life, simultaneously received the status of yummy, tied to culinary features: weight, the amount of protein in milligrams, the benefits to the body.
Even a child knows that tiger shrimp is the largest. But how big? The length of the female reaches 36 centimeters, and weight - 650 grams. Among tiger occur and kilogram specimens.
Some of these sea crustaceans can kill fish with sound. They are called shooting shrimps and have a device on the claw capable of emitting a loud click, deadly for fish swimming near.
The shrimp also hunts, also defends itself and really does not want to end its life as a snack.
I am a star!
The most beautiful sea creatures are stars. Who saw the bottom strewn with these bright creatures, argues that all the most curious facts about marine life simply fade before this amazing sight.
For his sake, divers plunge underwater with cameras to reveal to the world the real stars of the deep sea.
One can safely state the uniqueness of starfish: they are not fish, because they do not know how to swim, but move along horizontal and vertical planes using tenacious suction cups.
They are diverse in color and shape, but all have the same “shape” - in the form of a five-pointed star. But five rays is not the limit. Maximum is 50.
The star is the only marine creature whose limbs are called hands. It reproduces in two ways: by throwing eggs and sperm into the water or dividing one individual into parts.
Where do coral beads live?
Like all other types of marine life, corals have their own “zest”, interesting not only to researchers of the oceans, but also to women of fashion boutiques.
Tiny and inconspicuous creatures found a way to become famous, organizing themselves in atolls and leaving behind their “eternal” skeletons, very beautiful and useful: they not only make jewelry from them. Inhabitants of the deep sea use coral for pest control - rubbing themselves on a coral branch, they get rid of parasites.
Corals are thermophilic; therefore, an almost uninterrupted line of reefs is located along the equator almost over the entire circumference of the planet.
Monsters of the sea. Interesting names of marine life
The sea kindly provides a person for observing and studying various types of marine life. But there are among them those who are frankly scary and unpleasant to study.
The most ugly inhabitants of the oceanic depths are sea devils, or anglers. They live at the greatest depths, as if hiding from prying eyes and realizing their unattractiveness.
The uniqueness of this species is that males are not just gigolos - they are parasites living in the body of the female.
Viper fish is also disgusting, looking like a standard snake before a meal, and then like a puffed ball.
Among the frightening creatures include dragon fish, saber-toothed fish, bolsherot and Atlantic giant squid.
An interesting fact about sea creatures - horror stories came from the time of the Second World War, when surviving sailors from sunken ships in horror told of a huge monster that dragged their comrades to the depths.
They really look like people from the Mesozoic era and live in the darkest corners of the ocean, so meeting with such "fish" is a rarity, although you need to know about their existence. Just in case.