Live cover is defensive camouflage for some Spider Crabs, Libinia spp.
"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength." ~ Rachel Carson, The Sense of WonderAtlantic Horseshoe Crabs -- Limulus polyphemus, mating. Polyphemus after a giant cyclops in Greek mythology, limulus means slightly askew or odd in latin. The ancestors of horseshoe crabs predate dinosaurs, and existed at least 350 million years ago. However they are not actually crabs and are closer relations to scorpions.
Pink Shrimp -- Farfantepenaeus duorarum, plays an important role in estuarine and marine food chains as predator, prey and competitor. Approximately 80% of gulf marine organisms rely on mangrove estuarine habitat during their juvenile years.
'Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.' ~ from "The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot'And learn O voyager to walk
The roll of earth, the pitch and fall
That swings across these trees those stars:
That swings the sunlight up the wall.
And learn upon these narrow beds
To sleep in spite of sea, in spite
Of sound the rushing planet makes:
And learn to sleep against this ground.' ~ "Seafarer" by Archibald MacLeishMother ocean is a multifaceted lens for viewing a sponge, "simplest" of multicellular animals yet often challenging to identify. For fascination, consider that sponges have no excretory, respiratory or circulatory systems, yet they consume the broadest food spectrum of all filter feeders, often relying on bacteria more than plankton.
mating Crown Conchs -- Melongena corona -- females typically larger than males. as predators they eat snails and bivalves, but are also opportunistic scavengers of a variety of life forms.
'... What is a snail's fury? all
I think is that if later
I had parted the blades
above the tunnel and saw the thin
trail of broken white across
litter, I would never have
imagined the slow passion
to that deliberate progress.' ~ Thom Gunn, "Considering the Snail", 2009.Sunray Venus Clam -- Macrocallista nimbosa, has been considered for commercial potential. grows to about 4".
'Then, if you'd be impressive,
Remember what I say,
That abstract qualities begin
With capitals alway;
The Good, the True, the Beautiful,--
Those are things that pay!' ~ Lewis Carroll, "Poeta Fit, non Nascitur"the White Ibis has the right tools for fiddler crabbing here
'You may charge me with murder -- or want of sense --
(We are all of us weak at times):
But the slightest approach to a false pretense
Was never among my crimes!' ~ from "The Hunting of the Snark" by Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, Fit the Fourth -- The Hunting.Blue Crab -- Callinectes sapidus. Callinectes = 'beautiful swimmer', sapidus = 'savory'.
Mangroves continually shed their nutrient-rich leaves, providing a consistent source of glucose energy for an elaborate food chain. One acre of mangrove will shed about three tons of leaf and twig matter per year.Florida Horse Conch -- Triplofusus giganteus, FL state shell, largest snail in the Americas grows to 2' long and can weigh more than 11 lbs.
Not a true conch, our largest gastropod preys on other large gastropods including tulip shells, lightning whelks, queen conchs, and more. Top predators play critical roles in maintaining ecosystem balance. Note to humans: do your duty.