Amazingly Striking Scene of the Underwater Paradise

Hi, I'm Nemo (the orange one), one of the famous stars in a movie called "Finding Nemo".  I prefer to have myself nestled in an anemone. I've symbiotic relationships with certain anemones. I'm happy to live together with Mr. Anemone. We can get along very well here, and always benefit from each other. Our friendship is TRUE as he provides me protection, and to repay his kindness, I feed and clean his body.

Though these naked sea slugs have a relatively large arsenal, their sizes are roughly of a human's index finger. Their average sizes can reach to about 50mm. That's why they always become a quick snack and an easy digested food for turtles, sea stars, humans, and even marine organisms(quoted from my previous article entitled Butterflies of the Sea: Flamboyantly Decorated Marine Animals).

The flamingo tongue snail (cyphoma gibbosumn) is a small, colorful sea snail which lives on various species of soft corals in the Caribbean.This creature almost-literally wears its heart (soul and colors) on its sleeve... And they're only beautiful (with all that color) while they're alive. The dead ones are just ugly white shells... (quoted from my previous article entitled Odd-looking marine animals).

This snake-like deep sea creature is called Fimbriated Moray Eel, or scientifically it is named as Gymnothorax Fimbriatus. It is found lying under a coral reef ledge on a shore off the coast of Anilao in Philippines (quoted from my previous article entitled Exploring the most incredible world of sea aliens of the deep).

Most hatchet fish have tabular and large eyes that pointing upward to enable them to search for food falling from the above besides helping them to combat predators. At the great depths, their eyes are sensitive to light  (quoted from my previous article entitled The Spookiest Deep Sea Marine Animals).

They're known as Nudibranchs which means "naked gill" in Latin as they carry their exposed plume-like external gills on their backs. Unlike the snails, they don't have shell to cover their soft bodies from injuries and scratches. Despite the absence of the hard shells, they use a defend strategy called cryptic coloration or in a simple word "camouflage" to protect themselves (quoted from my previous article entitled Butterflies of the Sea: Flamboyantly Decorated Marine Animals).

She's Hawksbill turtle. She has an elongated head and a beak-like mouth. She's among the most unique marine animal here. I've long admired her patience and strength to struggle for life here. But sadly to say, these days, I've hardly seen her smiling. Thinking of how her species are being threatened by the loss of feeding and nesting habitats, coastal pollution, and excessive egg-collection, she's immersed with tears. Her tears break my heart off. I therefore urge you humans to protect this endangered animal and please don't hurt her again!

Corals appear in many spectacular shapes. Staghorn corals, fire corals, sea-fan corals, mushroom corals, brain corals are some of their examples. They've no bone, just like any invertebrates you found on earth. To protect their soft bodies, they grow in a hard case, in which the case resembles a small cup. Generally, corals are living animals, they aren't plants anyway. Therefore, they must obtain food to survive in the marine environment.

Today, coral polyps don't have a colorful body to be proud of as during the time of their ancestors. Many of them have turned white due to warmer temperature water. It's called coral bleaching by the scientists. Coral polyps, nowadays, have either no color or bright color as they don't obtain the important nutrients anymore from their plant guests. In the worst situation, they stop growing and may even die.

The world's ocean is now facing global warming. Perhaps, one day, the diver can only gather chunk of corals instead of the REAL beauty of the corals. Perhaps, one day, you may not know how beautiful our world is as our environment has been seriously polluted by a build-up of certain poisonous gases, harmful chemicals, heavy metals, oil spills, that have day by day get our habitat contaminated and destroyed.

It isn't too late for you humans to do something to save the life of my friends which include coral reefs, turtles, shrimps, crabs, sea slugs and other marine creatures. Please help save our environment! Let's not damage our habitat but keep our beautiful and magical underwater dream lands blossoming!

Now, you can read more of my works at my science blog ScienceQuest.