Secret has always attracted and attracts people. The depths of the oceans have long been considered the mysterious realm of Leviathan and Neptune. Tales of snakes and ship-sized squids made the most seasoned sailors cringe. Unusual and interesting inhabitants of the sea will be considered by us in this article.
We'll talk about dangerous and amazing fish, as well as giants like sharks and whales. Read on, and the mysterious world of deep-sea inhabitants will become more understandable to you.
Sea life
Water surface occupies a much larger area than land. In the depths of the world's oceans lies more than one thousand mysteries that attract scientists and thrill-seekers. Today, only a fraction of the animals that inhabit the water column are known.
In this article we will try to briefly touch on the most interesting facts about marineinhabitants. You will find out why the deep-sea angler has a fishing rod with a flashlight on his forehead. Get acquainted with the diversity of sharks and understand that only a few species pose a real danger to humans.
We will also consider some deep-sea fish. Photos of these unusual animals resemble the fauna of fantasy worlds from Hollywood movies. Nevertheless, these are real inhabitants of the ocean on planet Earth.
So, our tour begins with an overview of deadly fish species that live in the seas and oceans.
Dangerous inhabitants of the sea
In this article we are talking about a variety of marine animals. Before touching on large specimens such as dolphins, sharks and whales, we will consider the dangerous inhabitants of the sea.
The leading cause of death for unlucky divers is poisoning, not shark attacks as it might seem.
There are several types of fish that are deadliest. These are stone fish, puffer fish, zebra fish (or lion fish), stingray, moray and barracuda. The first three are very poisonous. The fluid contained on their spikes causes a nerve-paralytic effect. A stingray can kill with a single blow with a bone sword on its tail or electric current if stepped on an electric member of the species. Moray eels and barracudas are less dangerous, but they can confuse a diver's leg or arm with a fish and inflict a laceration. Without proper help, a person, as a rule, does not survive.
Also, a special danger lies in the crevices of stones at the bottom and accumulations of algae. Not only the above fish are found here, but alsoscorpionfish, lionfish, warts and pufferfish. These animals are harmless and will never attack first. But an accidental provocation is possible due to careless touch. The fact is that they are very well camouflaged and it is difficult to distinguish them against the background of the surrounding landscape. In view of this, divers are advised to swim in pairs or groups rather than alone. In the event of a sudden injection and a deterioration in well-being, you should immediately rise to the surface and consult a doctor.
During the article you will see photos of the inhabitants of the sea. These will be giants and dwarfs, unusual anglers and fish in the form of jelly.
Shark species
The most dangerous inhabitants of the seas are sharks. Today, scientists have more than four hundred and fifty species. You will be surprised, but there are very small representatives of these predators. For example, off the coast of Colombia and Venezuela lives the deep-sea shark Etmopterus perryi, whose length is about twenty centimeters.
The largest species is the whale shark, which can reach twenty meters in length. Unlike the extinct megalodon, it is not a predator. Her diet includes squid, small fish, plankton.
It is noteworthy that sharks do not have a swim bladder characteristic of fish. The way out of this situation was worked out by different species in their own way. For example, sand sharks draw air into the stomach and create a semblance of a non-existent organ. Most use the liver instead of the bladder. Squalene bicarbonate accumulates there, which is quite light.
In addition, sharks have very light bones and cartilage. This createsneutral buoyancy. The rest is created by constant movement. Therefore, most varieties sleep very little.
People often ask which sharks in the Black Sea can attack a person. The answer is unequivocal. Only two species are found in this reservoir - katran (spotted spiny shark) and scillium (feline). Both varieties are perfectly safe.
Only divers can meet them face to face, but even then the only threat will arise when trying to catch a katran with your hands. It has poisonous spines on its skin. They will not attack, since the person is larger than them. The length of these varieties ranges from about a meter.
Which seas have sharks
This information will not interfere with those who are going on a trip. Tourists are often interested in the question in which seas sharks are found. Usually such excitement is caused by concern for one's safety. In fact, a shark attack on a person is a rather rare event.
Statistics say that only a few species of sharks attack people. And the reason is often that the fish did not figure out who was in front of it. In fact, human meat does not belong to the selected products of this predator. Studies say that after biting into it, sharks usually spit it back out, because it is not the high-fat food it needs.
So, how many seas can become a haven for dangerous predators? These are the majority of coasts that are directly related to the waters of the oceans. For example, the Red Sea, the seas of the Far East and others.
The most dangerous are only four types of sharks - long-winged, tiger, blunt-nosed and white. The last two are among the most deadly. The white shark is one of the most powerful predators. She can feel a drop of blood at a distance of five kilometers and sneak up on the victim unnoticed. All this is due to the specific color that makes it invisible from the surface.
Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique, according to unofficial statistics, are considered the most dangerous countries in terms of shark attacks. According to official data, these include Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, the USA and South Africa.
The long-winged and tiger sharks are among the most dangerous species in the Mediterranean Sea. These same fish can swim from the ocean to the Red Sea. The northern seas, as well as the Black and Azov, are completely safe in terms of attacks on humans by sharks.
Types of whales
The biggest inhabitants of the sea are whales. To date, despite their impressive size and fairly large populations of some species, animals are poorly understood. Every year there are unexpected discoveries of new units or specific habits.
At the moment, scientists know about eighty species of whales. Readers will no doubt be interested to know that the closest relative of this mammal is the hippopotamus. In addition, initially whales lived on land and were artiodactyls. Researchers say that the ancestor of these giants descended into the water about fifty million years ago.
Biologists distinguish three orders of cetaceans - toothed, baleen and now extinct ancient whales. To the firstinclude all kinds of dolphins, sperm whales and porpoises. They are carnivores. They feed on cephalopods, fish and marine mammals like seals and seals.
Baleen cetaceans, unlike the first, do not have teeth. Instead, they have plates in their mouths, better known as "whalebones". Through this design, the mammal draws in water with small fish or plankton. The food is filtered and the liquid is thrown out through a special hole in the form of the famous fountain.
These are huge animals. The largest of the baleen whales is the blue whale. Its mass reaches one hundred and sixty tons, and its length is thirty-five meters. In total, researchers count ten species. These are blue, gray, pygmy, humpback, southern and bowhead whales, sei whale, fin whale and two subspecies of minke whales.
As you can see, the sea and its inhabitants keep many interesting secrets. Let's see where these giants are found.
Whales live in seas
Sailors say a whale in the sea is like an elephant in a china shop. It is common for these giants to surf the depths of the oceans. Only occasionally do they appear in inland seas, more likely to enter marginal and interisland seas.
The family of minke whales, for example, humpback whale, blue whale, fin whale, minke whale and sei whale, prefer to stay in the seas of northern latitudes. The reason for this behavior is that in more southerly waters, various parasites and sticking cling to them.
For example, whale lice can cause ulcerative sores on the body of these giants.
Among the minke whales, it is the aboveindividuals are the most common inhabitants of the seas.
The names of the water bodies they swim in are as follows: White, Barents, Greenland, Norwegian and Baffin Seas in the Atlantic and Chukchi in the Pacific Ocean.
The blue whale is currently known in four varieties. Its northern and southern species live in the cold seas of the respective hemispheres, while the dwarf and Indian species tend to live in tropical latitudes. Due to the special interest of whaling, this animal was almost exterminated by the middle of the twentieth century. In 1982, a moratorium began to be introduced. Today, about ten thousand individuals are known in the world.
Thus, whales, like dolphins, photos of which will be presented below, live in almost all areas of the world's oceans and in marginal seas. They do not swim in inland waters like the Mediterranean and Red Seas due to insufficient depth and lack of necessary food.
Dolphin Species
Undoubtedly, the most popular and human-friendly marine life are dolphins. Photos of these mammals will be presented below.
To date, about forty varieties are known. Eleven of them live in the waters of the Russian Federation.
If you divide these marine inhabitants by genera, you get a rather interesting picture. There are motley, gray, black, as well as Malaysian, Irwadi, humpback and large-toothed dolphins. There are humpbacked, long-beaked, beaked, short-headed and protodolphins. This also includes killer whales, smalland pygmy killer whales and bottlenose dolphins.
In particular, it is the latter type that is the most promoted in literature and cinema. With a high degree of probability, the inhabitants of the word "dolphin" will remember a representative of this species.
But not all dolphins are sea creatures. There are four river species. They have poor eyesight and weak sonar. Therefore, these mammals are on the verge of extinction.
For example, the Amazonian river dolphin has a pink color and is considered sacred by Indian tribes. These amazing creatures also live in the Ganges, Chinese rivers and La Plata.
If we talk about the external signs of this animal, we can mention the following. They are able to reach two meters in length, pectoral fins - about sixty, and dorsal - up to eighty centimeters long.
The number of teeth in dolphins is not constant. It varies from one hundred to two hundred. It is noteworthy that there are quite large flocks of these mammals, up to several thousand heads.
Some amazing facts about dolphins. Their brain is three hundred grams heavier than a human. It also has twice as many convolutions. They have the ability to sympathize, and their "dictionary" has up to fourteen thousand different sounds. Signals are sonar (for orientation) and communicative.
Man uses these mammals for both peaceful (pet-therapy) and military (mine detection, kamikaze for submarines) purposes.
Which seas are home to dolphins
How many seas on the planet, so many habitats for different species of dolphins. Buttheir range is not limited to such reservoirs. They live both in rivers and in the open ocean.
The varieties of dolphins vary according to the sea temperature. For example, in the colder northern latitudes, the so-called "northern" representatives live. These include beluga whales and narwhals, or sea unicorns.
The first live in places where there is no permanent ice crust. They are not able to break through the thickness of frozen water. In cold winters, beluga whales migrate south to the B altic or the Sea of Japan. It is noteworthy that this species cannot be without breathing for more than fifteen minutes, so they do not dive deep. Also, beluga whales do not jump into the air, like their southern counterparts. The breathing hole has time to become covered with a crust of ice even in the second that they inhale.
Narwhals are more adapted to northern conditions. The tusk, for which they are called unicorns, is an exaggerated version of the tooth. Usually males have it, and most often on the left side, although they are also found with two tusks.
Narwhals pierce openings with their horn so that unarmed females and cubs can breathe. Therefore, they constantly keep in herds.
However, the southern varieties are more popular. A photo of these mammals adorns many logos and is replicated in various industries. Representatives of dolphins of the warm seas are filmed, they are admired by tourists. Also, these animals are used for therapy.
They can be found in any sea from temperate latitudes to the equator. But the most famous isAtlantic bottlenose dolphin. They reach four meters in length, consume about fifteen kilograms of fish per day. Easily trainable, non-aggressive, on the contrary, very friendly.
The main difference between ocean dolphins and sea dolphins is the depth of diving and the ability to do without oxygen for longer.
Magic World of the Black Sea
Now we will touch upon the fauna of one of the most interesting seas of our planet. This is the Black Sea. It has a maximum length from east to west of 1150 kilometers, and from north to south - 580 kilometers. The specificity of the reservoir lies in the fact that not a single living organism is found deeper than two hundred meters, except for anaerobic bacteria. The fact is that further, to the very bottom, the water is highly saturated with hydrogen sulfide.
Therefore, the fish living in the Black Sea choose the upper layers or the shelf, where the bottom varieties are concentrated. These include gobies, flounders and others.
Biologists say that four times fewer different species of living creatures live in this reservoir than in the Mediterranean Sea. Of these, only one hundred and sixty types of fish. The poverty of the fauna is explained not only by the high content of hydrogen sulfide, but also by the low salinity of the water.
Sea dragon, sea cat and scorpionfish are the most dangerous fish that live in the Black Sea. On their skin and tail there are poisonous growths, spines and thorns. There are only two types of sharks in this reservoir, which do not pose the slightest threat to humans. This is a sea dog (katran) and a cat shark, which, like swordfish, sometimes penetrates the Bosphorus.
Also in the Black Seathere are salmon, trout, anchovy, herring, sturgeon and other types of fish.
The most interesting deep sea fish
Next, we will study the most unusual inhabitants of the sea. They are different in color, structure, method of searching for prey and protective mechanisms. You will be surprised at how unlimited fantasy nature has.
The palm is undoubtedly occupied by the deep-sea monkfish. This is a predator living at a depth of one and a half to three kilometers. It is noteworthy that males are parasites on the body of the female. They are about five centimeters in size, with a female up to sixty-five centimeters and weighing about twenty kilograms.
The main feature of this fish is a special outgrowth on the forehead with a gland at the end. Outwardly, it resembles a fishing rod, for which the monkfish is also called anglerfish. Bacteria in the gland can emit light, which flock to the fish that serve as food for this predator.
The second unusual marine inhabitant is the sack-swallower. This is a fish up to thirty centimeters in size. But he can swallow a victim four times his own size and up to ten times heavier. This ability is achieved due to the absence of ribs and the presence of a large elastic stomach.
Like the previous representative of marine inhabitants, a big mouth can swallow a victim larger than itself. The specificity of this fish is that the head with a huge mouth makes up a third of its body, the rest resembles an eel.
There are also completely extraordinarydeep sea fish. You can see a photo of a drop fish below. This is an incomprehensible animal in the form of a jelly. Despite the fact that its meat is not edible and it is found only near Australia, this species is on the verge of extinction. Fishermen catch it for souvenirs.
Thus, in this article, dear readers, we got acquainted with the terrible and dangerous inhabitants of the seas. Learned about different types of whales, sharks and dolphins. We also talked about what latitudes are likely to meet them and how deadly some individuals can be.
