A few random marine facts I’ve learned:
- some southern sea otters eat so much purple sea urchin that their skulls turn purple
- the whales in Monterey bay don’t need to do bubble net feeding because there is so much food, unlike the situation for whales elsewhere
- California sea lions work with humpback whales where the sea lions corral the fish, the whales open their mouths and feed, and any fish that comes out stunned is picked up by the sea lions
- a sea urchin’s mouth is also called Aristotle’s Lantern (watch a video)
- Mola Mola eventually evolved the ability to retract their eyeballs into their sockets so that when they were lying on the surface, having their parasites cleaned by gulls, they won’t peck out their eyes too
- the orca in Monterey don’t eat the whales, but they like to nip at them. So some whales have rake marks on their bodies that continue to look obvious and visible even if they got them as calves
- whale milk has the consistency described as like if cottage cheese was also toothpaste, and is ejected directly into calves’ mouths with minimal loss in seawater
- sunflower sea stars are carnivores
