Sea Fever and the Ocean's Colorful Creatures

[beautress]

I miss my brother Jack. He passed a couple of years before my husband. 2014 & 2016. Lucky me. Two of the best people I ever learned from in my own family. *sigh*

 

[beautress]

Jack signed up for the Navy because of our Uncle Wimpy. He was a sailor in WWII, survived a devastating attack just off Australia, where he met his future wife. I don't know what ship he was on, but when we went to Uncle Wimp's house to visit, there were 4 rooms in his house that had aquariums from floor to sealing (we're talking 50's and 60's home aquariums) along all the walls, and they were lighted, too. He had every tropical fish you ever heard of swimming by the dozens in each tank. It was better than Disneyland going to Uncle Wimpy's place. He still kept a radio in a hall that blipped on and off all day. Fascinating fellow and great guy. He knew all those fishes specie names, too. He never minded answering my silly questions: "Gee, what's that one called?" My brother loved them too. As kids, that was probably all we ever were in total agreement about. We were military brats through and through.

 

[beautress]

Can't find one exactly like Uncle Wimpy's wall, but found some a lot more modern ones...

 

[beautress]

One more like Uncle Wimpy's but too modern.

 

[boedicca]

Amarillo? That used to be our place between Casper Wyoming and Houston, TX where we'd spend the night as our half-way point, for 35 years! Nice town, but a lot bigger the last time I was there than in 1970! Seems the growth there was exponential. I have to hear your funny story about why they call you Squid. I'm all ears!

This thread is Mermaid Approved.

It's also Squid approved. (My nickname around here in Amarillo is Squid, because of being in the Navy. Funny story about it if you're interested).

Do tell!!!!!

Well, since you guys asked nicely...................

When I first got to Amarillo, I came here to be the LPO and Head Classifier for the Navy at Amarillo MEPS. I also rode a motorcycle and hung around biker bars.

Well, there was one bar here in Amarillo called Boondocks, and it was a serious biker bar. I started hanging around, and after a month or so, the owner asked me if I'd like a job as a bar back a few nights a week. I said sure, because the extra cash would be welcome and started there as a bar back, eventually being promoted to bar tender/manager.

Everyone knew that I was an active duty Sailor, and one night they started to have fun at my expense, because someone said that all Sailors were seamen, and then someone else shouted out "Hey Sperm ya seaman (although, their intent was to say "semen"), bring me a beer".

After the second or third person called me Sperm, I politely stood in the middle of the bar and told them that all Sailors were actually called Squids, and the next asshole that called me Sperm was gonna get a beer bottle upside the head.

From that night on, they have called me Squid.

Great story! Thanks.

 

[Mr Natural]

Airdale = Naval aviation.
Surface Sailor = regular Navy
Bubblehead = submarine Navy

But, if you are a bubblehead, you believe there are 2 kinds of ships, subs and targets.

I can’t remember what the slang term for the SeaBees was.

 

[beautress]

America's four redfish: What Is a Redfish? The Four American Species
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1. Red Snapper
The first species of redfish is the red snapper. These guys can be found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southeastern coast. They have been seen as far north as Massachusetts, but are not very common that far. Red snapper are light red, with a higher intensity of color on their backs, and white bellies.

2. Red Drum
The second species often referred to as redfish is the red drum. Like the red snapper, red drum are most often found in the Gulf of Mexico and up/around the coast to Florida. They have also been seen as far as Massachusetts. Immature red drum prefer the grassy, marshy areas in bays and estuaries while mature red drum, including bulls, prefer rocky outcroppings like jetties and other man-made features. They have a dark red/brown coloration on their back that fades to white on their bellies. They nearly always have a black spot on the upper part of the tail near the base. They can have multiple spots, although it is somewhat rare. The red drum is a protected game fish as of 2007 and, as a result, commercial fishing for red drum is not allowed in federal waters or most state waters.

3. Rose Fish
The third species on this list is the rose fish. The rose fish is a species of rockfish most commonly found in the North Atlantic. They prefer deeper water ranging from 330 feet to 3,280 feet. Mature rose fish are bright red in color while immature rose fish are a lighter/browner color and can be found in more coastal waters. Rose fish can reach upwards of a meter in length, but are often only half that size.

4. Acadian Redfish
The last species in the U.S. to be monikered "redfish" and the only species on the list to actually have "redfish" in its name, is the Acadian redfish. Like the rose fish, they prefer colder waters, generally being found from Virginia to Greenland/Iceland. Unlike the rose fish, they enjoy depths between 230 feet and 1,640 feet especially along the seabed in areas with clay-silt or rocky bottoms. Unlike red snappers, acadian redfish will bite just about anything and like all the fish on this list are particularly tasty. This caused the acadian redfish to be declared endangered until 2012 at which point the species' population was considered rebuilt. Redfish is a popular seafood, mostly in Maine, and is known as a good lobster bait. Now when you catch a redfish you can know what species you are eating!

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[beautress]

Found something interesting on the NASA page this morning:

NASA Satellites Find the Biggest Seaweed Bloom In the World

An unprecedented belt of brown algae stretches from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico—and it’s likely here to stay. Scientists at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg's College of Marine Science used NASA satellite observations to discover and document the largest bloom of macroalgae in the world, dubbed the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as reported in Science.

Based on computer simulations, they confirmed that this belt of the brown macroalgae Sargassumforms its shape in response to ocean currents. It can grow so large that it blankets the surface of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2018, more than 20 million tons of it – heavier than 200 fully loaded aircraft carriers – floated in surface waters and became a problem to shorelines lining the tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and east coast of Florida, as it carpeted popular beach destinations and crowded coastal waters.

“The scale of these blooms is truly enormous, making global satellite imagery a good tool for detecting and tracking their dynamics through time,” said Woody Turner, manager of the Ecological Forecasting Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Chuanmin Hu of the USF College of Marine Science, who led the study, has studied Sargassum using satellites since 2006. Hu spearheaded the work with first author Dr. Mengqiu Wang, a postdoctoral scholar in his Optical Oceanography Lab at USF. The team included others from USF, Florida Atlantic University, and Georgia Institute of Technology. The data they analyzed from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) between 2000-2018 indicates a possible regime shift in Sargassum blooms since 2011.

In the satellite imagery, major blooms occurred in every year between 2011 and 2018 except 2013. This information, coupled with field measurements, suggests that no bloom occurred in 2013 because the seed populations of Sargassum measured during winter of 2012 were unusually low, Wang said.

NASA Satellites Find Biggest Seaweed Bloom in the World

 

[beautress]

Airdale = Naval aviation.
Surface Sailor = regular Navy
Bubblehead = submarine Navy

But, if you are a bubblehead, you believe there are 2 kinds of ships, subs and targets.

I can’t remember what the slang term for the SeaBees was.

NMCBd - "Navy's Most Confused Bastards," according to Urban Dictionary. Urban Dictionary: NMCB

 

[beautress]

Red fish of the ocean ~ if you know their common or Latin names, please share! I just love to see them, even if vicariously.

 

[beautress]

"Bright Red Sea Toad"

 

[beautress]

Red necklace starfish

 

[beautress]

Diversity in Whale Species
Beaked, Beluga, Blue:

Beaked Whale

Beluga Whale

Blue Whale​

 

[beautress]

Diversity in Whale Species

Fin Whale

Gray Whale

Humpback whale​

 

[beautress]

Diversity in Whale Species

Right Whale

Sei Whale

Sperm whale​

 

[ABikerSailor]

Not for nothing Beautress, but do you really think posting pics of dead whales on the beach, alongside other pics of whales in their environment and swimming?

Sorry, but the dead pics don't really do any good for me.

 

[beautress]

Not for nothing Beautress, but do you really think posting pics of dead whales on the beach, alongside other pics of whales in their environment and swimming?

Sorry, but the dead pics don't really do any good for me.

I have reported and requested that the offensive post be removed, ABikerSailor. I just picked pictures suggested that represented different whales on Bing that were exactly the same size for the species. Each of them at where I was, if you clicked on it you got an entire page of the same specie at different angles. Some of them seem similar to others, but if you post a side view of the feature that separates the specie from other similar whales, you will understand why they have that same feature as another whale, but other factors in their outer appearance are so specific, you realize for example mouth shape or tail shape, one specie has a line of dots on its dorsal side which no other whale has, on and on. I'm sorry for seeing the forest but not the particulars of the trees shown. Thank you for opening my eyes a little wider.

 

[beautress]

The watermelons are so good this year! And they make a hit with kids when they are carved into our beloved Aquatic friends' and ocean ship's images:

Life is good!
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[beautress]

Ooo, more!

 

[beautress]

Jacques Cousteau
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