Ocean of Hope

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The Endangered Animals of Finding Nemo: Seahorses

Endangered Animals of Finding Nemo, Seahorses
seahorses, endangered species
Sheldon the Seahorse from Finding Nemo

Did you know that 1 out of 6 animals featured in Finding Nemo is endangered? Here’s one:

Hi, I’m Sheldon, the seahorse from Finding Nemo. Ahchoo! The following are characteristics I share with all other seahorses; some of them are unique only to seahorses!

1. Males get pregnant and give birth (the eggs are from mom though!)

2. Seahorses are fish, even though they have a unique body shape

3. Seahorses have no stomach so they must eat constantly

4. Seahorses have prehensile tails (like a monkey) to grab onto things (and keep us from drifting away in the current!)

5. Seahorses have bony plates all over their body for protection

6. Seahorses can change color to match their surroundings

7. There are 47 known species of seahorses

8. The largest seahorse is the Pot-bellied Seahorse at almost 14 inches (35 cm) long

9. The smallest seahorse is the Pygmy Seahorse at less than an inch (2 cm) long

10. Over 20 million seahorses are caught and sold a year

Many species of seahorses are threatened or endangered with extinction. Seahorses are caught and dried for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and sold as souvenirs. Live seahorses are caught for the aquarium trade.

Seahorses are also caught as by-catch in fishing nets. Seahorses are also threatened by habitat destruction. Even deforestation on land can cause silt (fine dirt) to flow onto the seagrass and coral reef areas where many seahorses live. Pollution can affect all habitats that seahorses live in, including coral reefs, seagrass areas, mangroves, and estuaries.

You can help seahorses by:

1. not buying seahorses live or dead

2. supporting marine protected areas (like national parks for the ocean)

3. reduce the pollution flowing into the ocean (remember Gill said to Nemo, “All drains lead to the ocean, kid?”)

4. support forest conservation along the coastlines where seahorses live.

Visit Project Seahorse

Endangered Species International

Eew, the Freshwater Eel and Why You Shouldn’t Eat Me!

Other Marine Animals
Monterey Bay Aquarium's seafood watch
Freshwater Eel

Hi, I’m Eew, a freshwater eel. I got my name because, well, humans don’t seem to like eels very much. Maybe it’s because we’re slimy, long, and very snake-like. Maybe it’s because we have a mouth full of sharp teeth, and we open and close our mouths often so we can breathe. Honestly, I’m not that scary! I would keep your fingers out of crevices while visiting a coral reef because our first instinct is to bite. It’s not like we have any limbs to use on self-defense!

Want to know something funny? Even though we are called “freshwater” eels, we actually spend a portion of our lives in the ocean! Eel larvae (newborn eels) live in the ocean, and when large enough they enter estuaries (water in bays that is less salty than ocean seawater), and then finally to freshwater rivers. Adult eels enter the ocean to spawn, the opposite of salmon. Salmon leave the ocean to make the trek up rivers to spawn where they were born. There about 6 species of freshwater eels used in sushi, where it is called unagi.

I’m on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch red list, which means that you should not eat me! That is because the current freshwater eel fishery is not sustainable. About 90 percent of the eel consumed in the United States is farm-raised. While that sounds nice, it doesn’t take in account that young eels are captured from the wild to be raised in farms. These young eels are not allowed to grow up and reproduce, hence the unsustainable part of the fishery. Ugh, I would hate to live in such crowded quarters, with poop and disease everywhere! Besides, since eels are carnivores, farmed eels just end up eating wild caught fish anyways (which is very inefficient if you think about the farm animals humans raise to eat).

So, in short, please do not order unagi with your sushi! All of us freshwater eels thank you!

Please download Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch app for information on other seafood not to eat.

UPDATE: Maine’s (USA) eels are being illegally caught to supply Asian market. Read more in this Economist article

Polar Bears and Climate Change: Hear from a Polar Bear!

Marine Mammals, Polar Bears
”polar
I’m the poster animal for climate change!

How Climate Change Affects Polar Bears

Hello, my name is Ursula. I am a polar bear. While it is flattering to be the poster “animal” for climate change, it just plain sucks to be a polar bear in this day and age. Don’t get me wrong, as I am very grateful to be alive. But life has gotten so much harder than when I was a cub. I was one of three triplets for goodness sakes! Food and mom’s milk was plentiful, and we cubs had plenty of time to play wrestle. When I give birth now, I am lucky if even one of my cubs survives.

The smell of change is in the air. There used to be a clean and cool scent that permeated the Arctic air. I especially liked it when that smell included the faint whiff of newborn seals! Now I sense restlessness, and the air smells foul, which hampers the scent of my prey.

How can humans doubt that climate change is happening right under their noses…oh wait, humans have a poor sense of smell compared to me, that must be why they don’t get it! In any case, climate change affects my every waking moment when the ice is around. Sea ice melts seasonally, but the ice season is much shorter now due to the environment warming. Sometimes the ice is gone before the newborn seal pups are born. Not good for them, and especially not for my tummy!

I love to swim, which is why I am a marine mammal. While I can swim for hours (up to 61 miles/100km), I would prefer not to! It would be nice to have the ice platforms closer together. Then I can conserve my precious energy hunting the fewer seals left! There are fewer seals not just because the ice is melting earlier in the season, but also because humans are overfishing many of the fish the seals eat.

Also see How Seals are Affected by Climate Change
and How Sea Otters Fight Climate Change

For more on climate change and polar bears, visit National Wildlife Federation

Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtle Conservation Day in California

Sea Turtles
pacific leatherback sea turtle is California’s official marine reptile
Leatherback Sea Turtle (photo by Mark Cotter)

I’m Tuga, and I’m a Pacific leatherback sea turtle. Today in California (October 15) is Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtle Conservation Day (note: it officially starts in 2013)! That is because I am now California’s official marine reptile! To boot, earlier this year 42,000 square miles of ocean off the West Coast of the United States (off California, Oregon, and Washington) was designated as a protected area for us leatherback sea turtles!

How appropriate California is celebrating my kind, as right now I am off the coast of California feasting on jellies (jellyfish). I just completed my annual 6,000 mile migration across the Pacific Ocean from my nesting beach in Indonesia.

I am one of seven species of sea turtles. I am the largest, at up to 7.2 feet (2.2 m) and 1,500 pounds (700 kg). I am the only sea turtle without a true shell. Instead I have thick leathery skin on my back, hence my name “leatherback!”

I am among the deepest diving marine animals, as I can reach depths of 4,200 feet (1,280 m), and hold my breath for over an hour! The deepest known diver is the Cuvier’s beaked whale, which can dive to 6,500 feet (2,000 m) deep. Elephant seals can dive to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) deep for over two hours.

I also challenge the notion that turtles are slow, as I can swim as fast as 21.92 miles per hour (35.28 kph)!

Six (of seven) species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered. There are only a few hundred of us leatherbacks off the West Coast of the United States. Sea turtles all around of the world are in peril because of:

1. destructive and wasteful fishing methods like long lining (we end up as bycatch)

2. poaching of sea turtle eggs from nesting beaches

3. loss of nesting beaches due to development

4. light pollution, which confuses hatchlings using moonlight to find the ocean

5. plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is the most insidious: a dead sea turtle was found with 74 pieces of trash in its stomach, most of it plastic. 260 million tons of plastic a year finds its way into the ocean, and many animals ingest it, especially us jelly loving sea turtles. Plastic bags suspiciously look like jellies to us, and we can’t help but eat it.

You can help by “precycling,” which means avoiding buying plastic to begin with. If you do buy something in plastic, please recycle it! Also bring your own reusable bags to the store in order to avoid using single use plastic bags that often end up in the ocean. All wildlife in the ocean thanks you for your help! You can make a difference everyday!

For more information on sea turtles, visit Sea Turtle Restoration Project.

For information on sea turtle ecotourism visit SEE turtles.

Sign petition to protect sea turtles from deadly drift gill nets

Vampire Squid: I’m no vampire, and I’m not even a squid!

Cephalopods, Squid
”vampire
Vampire Squid (photo by MBARI)

My scientific name is Vampyroteuthis infernalis, which translates to “vampire squid from hell.” Too bad I’m not actually a squid or even an octopus, even though I have characteristics of both. I’m not a vampire either as I don’t suck blood! I do have a vampire-like cloak that I can wrap myself in (see MBARI video, it’s really cool!). As for being from hell, I dare you to live in pitch black darkness at 2000 feet deep (610m) 24/7 and not consider it hell! Just kidding, I am perfectly adapted to life in the deep sea, as my species has been around for millions of years. I am still a cephalopod, a group that includes octopuses, (true) squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses.

I have been in the news lately because a study found that I eat feces and corpses. They are some of the components of marine snow, the organic bits and pieces that drift down from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. Maybe humans would not eat those things, but food is scarce in the deep sea. I’m constantly on the move, and I trap food in long, sticky, and retractable lines that I cast out from my body. My one inch (2.5cm) wide azure eyes are perfectly adapted for seeing in low, or no, light. I also have dark blue bioluminescent photophores (lights) all over my body. Bioluminescence (i.e. glow-in-the-dark light) is the only source of light in the deep sea.

So like octopuses I have 8 arms, but I don’t have ink sacs. Instead my “ink” is a mucus ball comprised of bioluminescent lights. It works for me when I feel threatened, and besides, black ink in the black deep sea wouldn’t do me much good.

I hope you can appreciate me now that you know I am more than just a feces eating scavenger, as I am one cool and wholly unique species!