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Let’s be clear from the start, you should never throw trash in the oceans. It is a huge ecological problem, and this type of pollution is responsible for a huge amount of environmental damage and the death of many creatures living in the sea.
That being said, however, there are times when the animals are able to take some of the trash and use it to their benefit. That is what was seen by Hanna Koch when she was snorkeling in the Florida Keys. Koch is the Director of the Artificial Reefs Program for Monroe County, Florida. Snorkeling in the Keys to look for locations where she and her team can install artificial reefs is undoubtedly one of the best parts of her job.
While she is out in the oceans, she will often come across human trash, which she tries to pick up and remove from the oceans. On this day, she found an old glass beer bottle, and she explained what happened in her interview with IFLScience.
“I was swimming along, saw the bottle, picked it up intending to throw it away but wanted to make sure nothing was living inside, so I flicked out a couple of shells stuck in the mouth of the bottle and peered inside. That’s when I noticed what looked like an eyeball staring back at me.”
This was undoubtedly quite a surprise at the time, but the bottle does provide a lot of protection from predators. The animal living within the bottle was likely the Atlantic pygmy octopus (Octopus joubini), and it wasn’t just one of them. Koch goes on to explain that it was a mother octopus with her brood of children.
“I could clearly see the mama octopus staring at me with one eye while her arms were gently wrapped around her brood of babies. The babies were fully formed, you could see their eyes, arms, and chromatophores, which are special skin cells that allow them to change colors for camouflage and communication purposes.”
Luckily, Koch had a camera with her and was able to get a video of this amazing sight, which you can see here:
While normally she would have removed that glass bottle, Koch placed it gently back onto the sea floor so that the octopus family could go on living undisturbed. This is not the first time that she has found sea life living inside of trash that humans left in the oceans. She explains:
“From my understanding, it’s not uncommon for marine life, including octopuses, to utilize human-made objects for shelter. In fact, the following day I was conducting surveys in a different area and I found a stone crab hiding out in a glass jar.”
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She does make sure to be clear about the fact that while these animals are using the trash, that does not in any way mean that humans should keep throwing more in the oceans. If the trash were not there, the animals would use other natural areas as their homes, which is much better for the overall ecosystem. Koch says:
“While these are neat finds, I don’t think we should be happy about marine life using discarded materials for shelter. They deserve better.”
That is part of what she hopes the artificial reefs that her group builds will provide for these types of animals. The artificial reefs are made with specific materials to not just be safe for the animals, but also to help encourage coral and other things to grow on them until they can become a natural part of the ecosystem.
This type of effort is needed largely because of human pollution and climate change, which have killed off large areas of coral reef that would have previously been home to millions of plants and animals in any area.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.
Categories: ANIMALS, NATURE/SPACE
Tags: · animals, artificial reefs, coral, ecosystem, Florida Keys, marine biology, octopus, pollution, science, single topic, top