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Pondering Fish
 There are so many fascinating things in this world. And we don’t have to drown in love or hate nor do we need more than what one needs without involving in fancy foods that sometimes disrupt one’s task because it is of the sea.
Most of us don’t know much about what swims and twists and flips around under the waves or the dark side of the sea. I just discovered about fireflies of the sea. In fact, off the coast of Panama, there are minuscule crustaceans called sea fireflies. Now we above the sea enjoy fireflies, especially when summer begins to bring about flying tiny lights and swatting things that bite and snip and just irritate our skin. If you don’t cover your arms with some sort of ingredient that scares away mosquitos, fleas, fireflies but more important, the mosquito bites.
Well, look on the right side. Imagine fireflies of the sea. These miracles survive along the coast of Panama, a sea that is roughly the size of a hand of sand.
The discoverers said, it is the size of a grain of sand and resembles a sesame seed with two tiny eyes. At twilight, the males propel themselves up from seafloor grass beds and then descend in a corkscrewing motion. When spiraling down, they use their upper lip to combine two chemicals in a kind of snot to create several bursts of blue light. It’s literally like a handlebar or a mustache of glowing light right above their mouth.
It’s stunning like a string of glowing pearls. When one male starts, those around him follow - each producing more luminous snot and gets further away from any rivals. It’s a firework display underwater, says researcher Hensley. There are so many things below the realm of our sight or even our ability to deep breathe. The objects are so small, so infinitesimal that most of them would consider they are a slap of hair, and that’s it. It swishes or wishes away and at least, somehow, we have had the delight of at least meeting a drop of living water. Don’t chock on a breath that you cannot take at that moment. It needs to be inhaled through a tube, so your lungs don’t flip and flop out of fear of what is going on.
There are two things beside dogs that I love. Wild and twisted and ancient trees - no matter where you are in this world - and the infinitesimal swim of a tiny fish usually in a bundle or some curiosity that brings them to circle near you, just in case. Meanwhile an underwater lobster is snapping, and it pauses at whatever he failed to eat or at least tried to eat. Personally, I prefer oysters, yes, fried.
Now the other extreme is dealing with sharks. It’s not so easy a buddy, in fact. It doesn’t seem to like humans at all, much less fellow fat fish who twirl around the big guys now and then to see if any kind of small fish is traveling on its skin. They can sip in a minute or swallow with a gulp if they have any taste at all.
Sharks have circled the seas for more than 400 million years, even though they fought the sea before dinosaurs but instead, were part of Asian cuisines in life and you see this when you walk the streets of China or Japan. It drove some sharks into extinction. But in 1992, the New York Times claims that in” finning,” fins are removed, and carcasses are discarded equally. But in modern times, the practice of finning has stopped. There was a time when fishers were required to land whole sharks, and that increased demand for their meat. It was an effort to stop killing off some sharks as they crowded the deep seas, but that didn’t help. Still, it hasn’t stopped the decrease in fat sharks. Killing has grown popular and is increasing.
Research in Nova Scotia began three years of calculating global patterns of shark fishing and mortality and fixed them with many sharks who were under their control. Then more than 80 million were eliminated. So, when fishing resources faded out, it opened a window with demand for fish and sharks became the food, and it was killed worldwide just by swimming near shores in 2017 - from 76 million in 2012. The third of sharks killed were threatened species.
Now the secrets of the spectacular mating display of a new species of sea firefly were found off the coast of Panama. They were tiny crustaceans- E.G.D or “entraining grass-fed downer” but hardly the size of a grain of sand, and it mocked a sesame seed with two tiny eyes. At twilight, the males propelled themselves up from seafloor grass beds and then descend in a corkscrewing motion. During each downward journey, they used that upper lip to combine two chemicals in a kind of snot to create several bursts of blue light. It’s literally liked a handlebar mustache of glowing light right above their mouth. Author Nicholas Hensley, from Cornell Univ. pointed that out to the NYTimes. The result is stunning- like a string of glowing pearls. And when one mate starts, all the mates around it follow each, producing more luminous snot the farther it is from its rivals. Great conversation. There are even fireworks display underwater.
Now there is another tough issue about sharks. People have tried to protect sharks from human obsession with them, putting them in their pools or wherever they toss a line. Hunters and collectors have been snipping away at the shark’s skin but worse, they have become a popular meat. Sharks have been swimming around in the seas 400 million years, before there was anything called dinosaur. But Asian cuisines had to have the sharks. They became addicted to their taste. Not until 1990s did nations draw up rules for 70 percent of countries but that was just a farce. There has been more slaughter of sharks than ever. Imagine, 80 million sharks were killed worldwide in 2017. Sadly, it is a threatened species. Do you think one day will come when some freaky animal/body would slaughter a majority of the various fishes that swim under the waters of our shores? I pray someone gets it together and continues an extraordinary fight to give Sharks and all sorts of beautiful fish of the seas with whom we can live in peace.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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