Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Monday, 13 December 2010
Letter to Santa Claus
Dear Santa.
How are you in the sky? My name is Jackie and I am 14 years old, the following paragraphs are all true from the bottom of my heart and it is real.
Well, Christmas which is your birthday is coming in 11 days’ time. I am very glad and sad. Glad because you are having your birthday and we all will be very happy; sad because these 11 days although it is a short time. But it might be the worst days of my life. I will tell you what happened to me here.
You know, when I did not study for even a little while or even a moment, my mom will nag at me or even scold me, but when my younger sister did not study for a day or even few days. My mom did not say anything to her but said nicely to her or even did not say anything to her and let her play which is a big difference from my sister to me.
Christmas is coming, so here I am to Happy Birthday to you and of course Merry Christmas to everybody in the world no matter if you are poor, rich, children and adults. Christmas is for everyone.
So my wish is that I hope I can exchange with my sister for at least one day, that is very enough and I will appreciate for even one day.
Yours Sincerely,
Jackie
How are you in the sky? My name is Jackie and I am 14 years old, the following paragraphs are all true from the bottom of my heart and it is real.
Well, Christmas which is your birthday is coming in 11 days’ time. I am very glad and sad. Glad because you are having your birthday and we all will be very happy; sad because these 11 days although it is a short time. But it might be the worst days of my life. I will tell you what happened to me here.
You know, when I did not study for even a little while or even a moment, my mom will nag at me or even scold me, but when my younger sister did not study for a day or even few days. My mom did not say anything to her but said nicely to her or even did not say anything to her and let her play which is a big difference from my sister to me.
Christmas is coming, so here I am to Happy Birthday to you and of course Merry Christmas to everybody in the world no matter if you are poor, rich, children and adults. Christmas is for everyone.
So my wish is that I hope I can exchange with my sister for at least one day, that is very enough and I will appreciate for even one day.
Yours Sincerely,
Jackie
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Strong Stomach
The starfish has the bizzare ability to capture and eat prey by turning its stomach inside put and thrusting it out through its mouth!
The Terminator
Mantis shrimp may be called shrimp, but they are really only distant relatives. These vicious predators can grow to be up to a foot long. Some species of mantis shrimp have razor-sharp claws that resemble a swithblade and can slice a fish in tow-or cut a human hand to the bone-in less than a second. Othre species have a club-shaped front leg that they use to smash open the shells and snails. In April 2004, researchers filmed a peacock mantis shrimp repeatedly hitting a tegula snail with its club and were able to measure the incredible speed and force it used.
The Cod Father
The National Marine Fisheries Service, along with Oregon State University, has developed a '' classroom'' where baby salmon learn how to avoid the predatory codfish. The cod are placed in a large tank, inside of which is a smaller salmon tank. By watching how the cod try to attack them, the salmon learn how to dodge their main predator.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Good Grooming
There's nothing a cleaner wrasse likes better than a mouthful of parasites. These fish set up shop in special areas of the coral reef where larger fish, such as the giant moray eel, come to let the wrasses rid them of annoying pests. Wrasses will even pick the parasites from between a fish's teeth!
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Living Fossils-Sea creatures
Out of the Blue: In 1938, scientists were amazed when South African fisherman caught a blue, five-foot-long coelacanth-a fish that was thought to have been extinct for at least 60 million years.
Big Snout: First caught in 1897 by Japanese fisherman off the coast of Yokohama, the rare goblin shark is a throwback to sharks that lived 25 to 30 million years ago. With its dagger-shaped snout, it could not look more prehistoric
Jet-Propelled: The chambered nautilus has changed very little in the last 150 million years. To swim, it uses a kind of jet propulsion, sucking water into its shell, then shooting it back out to push itself in the opposite direction.
Fooled Ya: The 24-inch long mimic octopus can discourage predators by changing its form to resemble poisonous creatures such as the lionfish and the banded sea snake.
Not Clowning Around: Unlike other fish, clownfish are immune to the sting of anemones, whose poisonous tentacles make the perfect haven for a clownfish on the run from predators.
Hot Tip: Stay away from the fire urchin-or you'll find out how it got its name! This sea urchin's pines have bulbous tips fulled with venom that cause a fiery sensation if touched. Small shrimp often live among the spines for protection.
Gulp: When threatened, the porcupine fish gulps down water until it balloons into a ball of sharp spines, making it impossible for a predator to swallow.
How stunning: The cuttlerfish changes color at will for a variety of reasons, one of which is to hypnotize its prey !
Sand Trap: Sand diver lizardfish bury themselves in the sand, both to hide from predators and to ambush any unwary prey that may wander by.
Turned on: Flashlight fish are equipped with glowing pockets of bacteria below their eyes, which help while hunting in dark water. When a predator is around, however, they can raise a special flap of skin to hide their light and prevent themselves from being seen.
Hiding it Plain Sight: Only a few parts of the Lycoteuthis squid are not transparent-and they are hidden by light organs, which break up the squid's silhouette, making it hard to detect by predaotrs and prey.
Lightheaded: The female anglerfish doesn't have to hunt for her meals. She simply relise on the bulblike lure filled with light-producing bacteria on the top of her head to attract fish for dinner.
Brilliant Blobs of Light: When a crowd of luminous jellyfish get together, they glow so brightly that they can light up the dark sea for miles.
Red Light, Green Light: The stoplight loosejaw fish has red and green light pockets neat its eyes and loosely hinged jaws that are longer than its skull.
Lights Out: The deep-sea shrimp can emit a cloud of light to temporaily blind or distract a predator, allowing the shrimp to disappear into the dark water.
Fairest of Them All: When it comes to natural beauties, none are ovelier than fairy basslets, which make their home among the coral reefs.
Top Notch: The jeweled-top snail would not look out of place in a jewelry box, but the place to find it is in the kelp forest in Monterey Bay, California, Tucked inside its shell are tentacles that the snail uses for smelling and touching.
Hidden Beauty: Brightly colored Tubastraea, or cup orals, live in shady places and feed on microscopic sea creatures.
Muppet Man: No wonder the red spotted blenny spends so much time hidden inside its coral hime. If you looked like a Muppet with measles, you'd probably hide, too.
R-eel Tame: Despite ts unfortunate face, the wolf eel is a charming fellow. Though their sharp teeth and powerful jaws are good for crunching sea urchins, wolf eels have been known to take food gently from the hands of divers.
Batty Looking: Only a mother could love the ugly batfish which uses its fins to crawl along the ocean floor.
Deep Thought: In 1979, Alvin, the world's first deep-sea submersible, gave scientists their first glimpse of geothermal vents, which are called smokers, and the strange sea lige that thrives around them.
Smokin: Geothermal vents(below) blast out hot dark fluids filled with minerals and poisonous gases, such as hydrogen sulfide. Bacteria that live in hydrogen sulfide support entire ecosystems of larger sea creatures.
Gutless Wonders: Adult tubeworms don't have eyes, mouths, or guts. How do they survive? Billions of bacteira living inside their bodies convert hydrogen sulfide into nutriennts for the tubeworms.
Big Snout: First caught in 1897 by Japanese fisherman off the coast of Yokohama, the rare goblin shark is a throwback to sharks that lived 25 to 30 million years ago. With its dagger-shaped snout, it could not look more prehistoric
Jet-Propelled: The chambered nautilus has changed very little in the last 150 million years. To swim, it uses a kind of jet propulsion, sucking water into its shell, then shooting it back out to push itself in the opposite direction.
Fooled Ya: The 24-inch long mimic octopus can discourage predators by changing its form to resemble poisonous creatures such as the lionfish and the banded sea snake.
Not Clowning Around: Unlike other fish, clownfish are immune to the sting of anemones, whose poisonous tentacles make the perfect haven for a clownfish on the run from predators.
Hot Tip: Stay away from the fire urchin-or you'll find out how it got its name! This sea urchin's pines have bulbous tips fulled with venom that cause a fiery sensation if touched. Small shrimp often live among the spines for protection.
Gulp: When threatened, the porcupine fish gulps down water until it balloons into a ball of sharp spines, making it impossible for a predator to swallow.
How stunning: The cuttlerfish changes color at will for a variety of reasons, one of which is to hypnotize its prey !
Sand Trap: Sand diver lizardfish bury themselves in the sand, both to hide from predators and to ambush any unwary prey that may wander by.
Turned on: Flashlight fish are equipped with glowing pockets of bacteria below their eyes, which help while hunting in dark water. When a predator is around, however, they can raise a special flap of skin to hide their light and prevent themselves from being seen.
Hiding it Plain Sight: Only a few parts of the Lycoteuthis squid are not transparent-and they are hidden by light organs, which break up the squid's silhouette, making it hard to detect by predaotrs and prey.
Lightheaded: The female anglerfish doesn't have to hunt for her meals. She simply relise on the bulblike lure filled with light-producing bacteria on the top of her head to attract fish for dinner.
Brilliant Blobs of Light: When a crowd of luminous jellyfish get together, they glow so brightly that they can light up the dark sea for miles.
Red Light, Green Light: The stoplight loosejaw fish has red and green light pockets neat its eyes and loosely hinged jaws that are longer than its skull.
Lights Out: The deep-sea shrimp can emit a cloud of light to temporaily blind or distract a predator, allowing the shrimp to disappear into the dark water.
Fairest of Them All: When it comes to natural beauties, none are ovelier than fairy basslets, which make their home among the coral reefs.
Top Notch: The jeweled-top snail would not look out of place in a jewelry box, but the place to find it is in the kelp forest in Monterey Bay, California, Tucked inside its shell are tentacles that the snail uses for smelling and touching.
Hidden Beauty: Brightly colored Tubastraea, or cup orals, live in shady places and feed on microscopic sea creatures.
Muppet Man: No wonder the red spotted blenny spends so much time hidden inside its coral hime. If you looked like a Muppet with measles, you'd probably hide, too.
R-eel Tame: Despite ts unfortunate face, the wolf eel is a charming fellow. Though their sharp teeth and powerful jaws are good for crunching sea urchins, wolf eels have been known to take food gently from the hands of divers.
Batty Looking: Only a mother could love the ugly batfish which uses its fins to crawl along the ocean floor.
Deep Thought: In 1979, Alvin, the world's first deep-sea submersible, gave scientists their first glimpse of geothermal vents, which are called smokers, and the strange sea lige that thrives around them.
Smokin: Geothermal vents(below) blast out hot dark fluids filled with minerals and poisonous gases, such as hydrogen sulfide. Bacteria that live in hydrogen sulfide support entire ecosystems of larger sea creatures.
Gutless Wonders: Adult tubeworms don't have eyes, mouths, or guts. How do they survive? Billions of bacteira living inside their bodies convert hydrogen sulfide into nutriennts for the tubeworms.
Trigger Happy
A triggerfish has two dorsal fins on its back. The front fin usually lies in a groove along the fish's back. To keep itself safe at night, the triggerfish finds a good hiding place, tehn raises the first fin, snaps together the first two spines inside, and sticks the now rigid fin up into the rock or coeal to lock itseld in place.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Monster Seaweed
Giant kelp can grow up to 2 feet per day and reach a height of 175 feet. Kelp forests are found along the open coasts of North and South America, where seawater flows over the kelp's leaflike blades, providing nutrients. Sea creatures in live in every part of the forest, from the canopy at the surface to the rootlike holdfasts that anchor the kelp to the ocean floor.Believe It or Not!: Giant Kelp forests might not exit if it weren't for sea otters. Why? The otters eat sea urchins, which feed on giant kelp and, if not kept under control, could destroy an entire forest.
Bottom of the Food Chain
The microscopic, single celled plants that float in the sea are called phytoplankton. They are the primary food source for zooplankton-microscopic animals such as bacteria, larvae and krill (tiny shrimplike animals). In some places, a single gallon of water can contain thousands of phytoplankton and as many as half a million zooplankton !
Life Lists
Earth's oceans are teeming with life. In gact, animals live in all five zones. More than 270,000 species of sea creatures have been named, and new ones are being discovered all the time. In 2000, the Census for Marine Life, a network of scientists from more than 70 countries, began a ten-year project to learn more about life in the oceans.Along the Mid-Altantic Ridge during just two months in 2004, scientists discovered more than 300 new fish species, 50 new squid and octopus species, and so many microscopic creatures they haven't yet identified them all !
Colour -coding
Many sea creatures are color-coded to blend in with the zone where they live. In the sunlit zone, some fish are dark on top and light on the bottom. When a predator is above such fish, they blend in with the darker water below. On the other hand, when a predator is below them, the fish are hard to see against the sunlit waters above.
Going down
If you could take an elevator to the bottom of the sea, you would notice that the ocean is made up of five distinct zones: sunglit, twilight, dark, abyss, and trench. As you go down through each level, the sea chages from the warm, bright blue waters of the sunlit zone to the freezing cold, coal-black waters of the trenches-some of which are deeper than the planet's highest mountain
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