The Boy in the Submarine

The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 10: Bigfin Reef Squid

[https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Bigfin_reef_squid_11760-1024x768.jpg]Bigfin Reef Squid image CC-BY-SA “Rhododendrites [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rhododendrites]“ Bigfin Reef Squid is the name of a tiny squid close to Owen’s heart… or so we thought! These sneaky, sparkling squid turned out to be a cryptospecies complex: several different kind of squid that all look so much alike that scientists couldn’t tell them apart until they studied their DNA. That’s okay – owen loves them all. Bigfin reef squid are one of the only kind(s) of squid that can hear, and they are one of the most social, they know and stick close to their families. They sparkle because of special cells in their body called scinitillophores. Some important fish we eat like swordfish and tuna live on these little guys, and we eat lots of them, too. They are very important to us!

The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 9: Jellies!

[https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/jellyfish-6222849_1280-819x1024.jpg] Jellies might look like blobs, but they are very complicated invertebrates that come in hundreds of shapes and can be microscopic or as big as a whale! They can fill almost any ecological niche from prey, to keystone species, to predator! Jellies’ chemistry is a little different from other creatures, and can be mysterious. Some jellyfish seem immune to aging! While most people think of common jellyfish like the sea nettle, there are many strange and beautiful species, like the comb jelly, which looks kind of like a crystal space ship strung with twinkling Christmas Lights! [https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/jellyfish-7253822_1280-1024x682.jpg]

The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 8: Crown of Thorns Starfish

[https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/5158637805_fd7dd38535_c.jpg]Crown of Thorns Starfish Image CC-BY Joi Ito The Crown of Thorns Starfish is an very unusual species of Sea-Star. It has a round-flat body with a much bigger central body and stomach than most sea stars, and is symmetrical with an even number of arms, while most sea stars have odd numbers. It is called a “crown of thorns” starfish because of the rings of sharp spikes growing on the top of its body. The Crown of Thorns Starfish is toxic. Eating it or getting pricked by it can cause pain like a bee sting and cause a stomach upset that can last over a week. Only a few types of sea creatures have the body chemistry to be able to eat them. The Crown of Thorns Starfish likes spots where the air in the water is a bit thinner like crevices and nooks. Where water has become polluted, they seem to be thriving these days. They like eating invertebrates that make calcium crusts around itself like sea anemones and especially coral. They are a big contributor right now to the disappearance of our world’s coral reef.

The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 7: Pearl Oysters

[https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/pacific-oyster-57652_1280-1024x768.jpg] Oysters, clams, and mussels are a type of mollusc called a bivalve. Bivalves grow two shells, one on the right side of their body and one on the left. They hold them closed except when they need to open them with a powerful muscle. Oysters grow together, sometimes little ones make a home on a shell of a bigger oyster and grow right off of them. This can lead to hills of oysters called reefs, or big stretches of sea floor covered in oysters called beds. Bivalves sometimes get grit and sand stuck in them, which hurts. When they can’t get rid of it they secrete a thick mucus we call mother of pearl which hardens into a shiny resin, they coat the grit until it is a smooth ball with no hard edges to hurt them. This is where pearls come from. A few kinds of pearl are called “pearl oysters” because they make big, perfectly round, beautiful pearls. We grow them and put and in them on purpose to get big beautiful pearls. Bivalves like the pearl oyster are living water filters: they suck in water, and clean it by taking out pollutants and bacteria, they spit it out much cleaner. That makes them a very important part of the environment.

The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 6: The Portuguese Man O’War

[https://boyinthesubmarine.stormheadproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/portuguese-galley-3929359_1280-1024x682.jpg] People long thought that the Portuguese Man O’War was long thought to be a strange jellyfish that evolved to float on the surface. It wasn’t until we saw other Siphonophores deep underwater that we figured out it was a type of Siphohophore, too! The Portuguese Man O’War, sometimes called the Man O’War, Box Jellyfish, or Bluebottle Jellyfish is in fact a siphonophore made up of seven different kinds of creatures: the big bubble with the sail on the back that lets it float on the surface and catch wind with its sail is a creature called a pneumatophore. It’s tentacles are creatures called Tentacular Zooids, that work just like jellyfish tentacles: they sting and paralyze prey, then bring it up to two other kinds of creatures that work together to eat and digest prey, then feed it to the others. Another creature helps push the Man ‘O’War through the water. The seventh one is a mystery: we don’t know what it’s job is yet. The Man O’War is famous for its deadly sting. In reality, most people get a welt that hurts for 3 hours or so, but if its venom goes to the wrong place in your body it can kill you. Portuguese The Man O’War paralyzes and eats small fish as it sails the warm seas in most of the oceans. It can be found almost anywhere where the water is warm. They are eaten by few other creatures, but are a favourite food for some kinds of sea slugs and nudibranches.