标题: A Small Fry Totes Anemone [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 昨天 11:56 标题: A Small Fry Totes Anemone English dictionary:
* fry (n): "recently hatched or juvenile fishes" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fry
* pack (vt): "to carry by hand : bear on the person['s back] : LUG, PACK" (The uppercase word(s) signifies synonym(s) in www.merriam-webster.com; The verb lug is to carry by hand, whereas the verb pack, on the back (one's own, another person;s or mule's).) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tote
* The English noun anemone came from Ancient Greek. via Latin (both of the same spelling).
Alexa Robles-Gil, When Your Most Toxic Companion Really Has Your Back. New York Times, Nov 4, 2025, at page D2 (section D every Tuesday is ScienceTimesl the article is under the heading "ARMED WITH ANEMONES") https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/ ... nemones-fishes.html
[top photo is here]
Note:
(a) "Every night after dusk, one of the world's largest migrations begins, as deep sea creatures rise to the surface to feed. For blackwater divers, who dive into offshore waters at night, the migration offers an opportunity to glimpse tiny animals."
(i) Blackwater Divers Illuminate Sea Life at Night. Smithsonian, undated (under the heading "Slideshow") https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/ ... nate-sea-life-night
("Blackwater diving is a recreational form of scuba diving that occurs during the dark of night. Descending into the epipelagic zone (0-200 m), divers sweep lights to illuminate organisms, many of which have risen from the deep ocean to feed under the cover of darkness
(ii) The surface of a body of water receives sunlight, with which photosynthesis is made possible.
(iii) A blackwater diver is engaged in blackwater diving.
(b) "In a new study published last month in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists documented larval and juvenile fishes hiding behind or carrying larval sea anemones, close relatives of jellyfish that also have the ability to sting. Adult anemones attach to the seabed, but the larvae float freely in the ocean. By holding an invertebrate that can be toxic, the young fishes might be scaring predators away, said Gabriel Afonso, a doctoral student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who led the study."
(i) "In a new study published last month in the Journal of Fish Biology"
The newspaper supplies a link to
Afonso BVF, Johnson GD, Collins R and Pastana MNL, Associations Between Fishes (Actinopterygii: Teleostei) and Anthozoans (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Epipelagic Waters Based on in Situ Records. Journal of Fish Biology , _: _ (online publication Sept 5, 2025; open access). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.70214
, which carries only one figure:
(bottom photo is here)
(ii) Virginia Institute of Marine Science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi ... e_of_Marine_Science
(1940- ; :is located in Gloucester Point [10-mile aidistance east of Williamsburg, VA across York River], Virginia")
is public.
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Every night after dusk, one of the world’s largest migrations begins, as deep sea creatures rise to the surface to feed. For blackwater divers, who dive into offshore waters at night, the migration offers an opportunity to glimpse tiny animals.
“You’re just out there drifting with the current and checking out all this life that’s in the ocean,” said Rich Collins, a blackwater photographer and diver affiliated with the Florida Museum of Natural History.
But blackwater photographs capture more than glamorous fishes. By studying the photos from Mr. Collins and other divers, scientists have found that young fishes and anemones are interacting in ways rarely seen before.
In a new study published last month in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists documented larval and juvenile fishes hiding behind or carrying larval sea anemones, close relatives of jellyfish that also have the ability to sting. Adult anemones attach to the seabed, but the larvae float freely in the ocean.
By holding an invertebrate that can be toxic, the young fishes might be scaring predators away, said Gabriel Afonso, a doctoral student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who led the study. “The fish sometimes seem to be using the invertebrate as a protection,” he said.
In the photos, larval fishes from species such as pomfrets and filefishes are seen holding larval tube anemones, which belong to a class of marine invertebrates called anthozoans, in their mouths. Four families of fish were documented interacting with anthozoans in the open ocean, also known as the pelagic zone.
The strategy amounted to a “poison pill defense,” Mr. Collins said, adding, “‘Go ahead and eat me, but you’re going to eat this little poison pill at the same time.’”
For the anemone, the interaction might provide a means of dispersal, although more studies are needed to understand whether and how each species benefits.
The study gave other fisheries scientists “something new and interesting to think about,” said Simon Thorrold, a marine biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the research. “I had no idea that there was this much diversity in the relationship between fishes and anthozoans.”
Beyond the benefit to individual fish, Dr. Thorrold wondered, how important was the interaction to the survival of the population? That is one of the many avenues of research that blackwater diving is opening up.
Traditionally, baby fish have been studied by examining specimens caught in mesh nets, leaving scientists to guess at their behavior and interactions in the open ocean. “It’s hard enough studying whale sharks, who are 30 feet long, let alone a larval fish that might be 10 millimeters or an inch long,” Dr. Thorrold said.
The larval stage is an important part of a fish’s life cycle and history, in part because the mortality rate during this stage determines how many fishes survive to adulthood.
“Marine fish larvae can be as different from the adults they will become as caterpillars are to butterflies,” said Carole Baldwin, the curator of fishes at the National Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the research.
For the study of larval fish, blackwater photography is a “game changer,” Dr. Baldwin said. From photos, scientists can glimpse new behaviors, larval stages, colors and interactions not typically gleaned from fish in a jar collection. Blackwater photos are “like a gold mine,” Mr. Afonso said. Marine scientists often scour social media groups, looking for photos that reveal new species or behaviors, then contact the photographer. The collaboration between scientists and the diving community is “really beautiful,” Mr. Afonso said.
Ai Nonaka, a researcher at the National Museum of Natural History, said that blackwater photos and improved scientific techniques were reshaping how scientists study and understand the early life stages of marine fishes. At the museum, she added, “we now house over 500 larval fish specimens collected directly by blackwater divers.”
Mr. Collins, who has made hundreds of dives in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida, estimated that he had collected 1,000 specimens for the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It’s turned into sort of an avocation, as opposed to just a hobby,” he said.
“The thing that people don’t recognize is just how much life there is out there, just beneath the surface,” Mr. Collins added, “and that there’s this amazing migration that happens every day.”
