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Asked by chloemack98 to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by ellesseb, rachelnb, lisamarie1909, lajos, rsmrouse.
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Ozge Ozkaya answered on 14 Jun 2011:
Hmm it’s a difficult question, but it has to be krill, but again I AM biassed 🙂
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Dave Sproson answered on 14 Jun 2011:
That is indeed a difficult one – there are so many really different animals to choose from. At the risk of stepping on Glo’s toes I’m constantly amazed by the colour changing ability of the cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish etc.). Also the bio-luminescence (ability to produce light) of some of the deep-sea fish is really cool.
My favourite fish, though, would probably either be the sailfish (the fastest recorded fish in the ocean – swimming at up to 70 mph) or the sunfish, which are odd bullet-shaped fish which can often be seen ‘sunbathing’ in the surface waters. These can be pretty massive and have been recorded at over 2 tonnes!
While we’re talking about massive, there is of course the whale-sharks which are absolutely beautiful…
In other words the oceans are too full of amazing things to be able to pick just one 🙂
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Gloeta Massie answered on 14 Jun 2011:
Dave – it’s ok. I am actually in more of a narwhal mood at the moment. I just like the idea of an animal that has a giant tooth growing out of its head. Having said that – I am an absolute 100% fan of bioluminescence – (bio – life, lumen – light) there is simply nothing like being underwater and watching it glow around you like that first night scene from Avatar. Here’s a little video clip that shows just how bright the water can light up: http://youtu.be/EN1Yxq8KMsw It’s amazing!!!!!
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Sean Clement answered on 14 Jun 2011:
Hey Chloe.
I’m going to show a little bit of bias here too and say Coral. Specifically reef building ‘hard’ Corals. I’ve been fascinated with them for a long time and being able to dive and see them up close has been amazing. Take this picture for instance. Not very exciting to look at but everything you see within the picture (apart from the fish, obviously) in some form of reef building coral. [MYIMAGE2]
Then think that these corals can stretch for miles and miles, all covered in living coral animals, constantly growing and building these little underwater mountains of living rock and it starts to blow your mind (or mine at least!) They’re so important too. Even small Coral reefs play host to many thousands of fish which can form often the only source of food for small coastal villages like those in Madagascar. Plus, from a purely personal point of view, they’re really cool to swim through!
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Clare Woulds answered on 14 Jun 2011:
My answer is really due to the fact that I was recently in the Southern Ocean on a research cruise. While we were there we were often followed by Wandering Albatorss. These seabirds can have a wingspan between 2.5 and 3.5 metres (no, that’s not a typo!), the biggest wingspan of any flighted bird alive. They are very beautiful birds, and they appear to float around on the air currents around the ship, and skim over the waves, nearly dipping in their wing tips. They fly thousands of miles across the ocean in search of food, and always go back to the same place on land to breed with the same partner. A single bird might follow a ship for several days (it’s like having a friend bobbing around in the air), and in all the time I was at sea (6 weeks) I never saw one of them flap its wings, they are such efficient fliers.
Comments
chloemack98 commented on :
thanks for your answers! theyre so interesting!! 🙂 x