Whew, today might be the FREAKIEST Fish Friday yet. That is…until next week.
We’ve done Top Ten Ugliest, but we haven’t rocked out while freaking out to a lineup like this, ever.
Check it out:
Got the shivers yet?
Want to know more about these awesomely freaky wonders of nature?
We do, too.
TELL US WHO FREAKS YOU OUT AND GET YOURSELF ON O4E!!
Comment below and tell us your fave freaky ocean creature from this video, and if you are the first to claim it, we’ll give YOU the opportunity to write your own guest blog post all about it on an upcoming Freaky Fish Friday! It’s fun, and we’ll help you as much or as little as you like! (Kids: get parental permission first, please!)
We weren’t sure we would do an FFF today, because we’re feeling worried about the future of oceans, due to the oil spill.
But, we decided it’s better to get you fired up about freaky fish than sit around and mope.
The sea gooseberry, aka pleurobrachia pileus, is a member of the Phylum Ctenophora, which as a group are often called “comb jellies,” because the eight rows of tiny cilia they use for swimming look like…you guessed it, combs.
But there’s one problem with their nickname: sea gooseberries are not related to jellyfish AT ALL. Could have fooled us!
These comb jellies have two long tentacles that can retract and store themselves in special side pouches on a gooseberry’s body. Amazing!
If you have never seen a sea gooseberry in action or in photos, check out this video. The comb rows it uses to swim might put you in a trance if you stare too long.
Freaky, but beautiful.
Have a great weekend, and please start thinking thinking about how you can help ocean creatures recover from this horrible accident (and you can help, no matter where you live or how old you are).
Hello, O4E readers! It’s not Halloween, but it IS time again for freaky fish. This our first Freaky Fish Friday in more than half a year, so we want to warm things up for 2010. Are you ready?
Today’s du jour is (drumroll, please)…the GOBLIN SHARK! This is one incredible creature that definitely does NOT like the limelight. Let’s jam it up with some important facts about this amazingly freaky shark (in your face, JAWS!):
This shark is a deep water-dwelling shark, often found out and about at night at the bottom of an abyss – usually around 900 feet to as far down as 4100+ feet. Rarely ever is one spotted in shallow waters.
The biggest one found to-date was about 12.5 feet long and 463 pounds.
The Goblin shark has been found off the coast of Guyana (Atlantic) as well as off the coasts of Japan, Austrailia and New Zealand (Pacific), in the Indian ocean and even off the California coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Few Goblin sharks have ever been caught, making a sighting, much less an encounter, a rare event.
But here is the rare event - a video featuring an up-close encounter with a Goblin shark. I know it’s in Japanese, but don’t worry if you don’t understand it – you won’t want to miss these chompers in action (in your face again, JAWS)! What do you think?
Dive in - the water is perfect, and the ocean's wonders await you. On O4E, we have fun, we educate and we ask our readers to think of and act for the future of the world's oceans. Plus, it's by a 10 year-old (with a little help from her journalist mom).
