New Staff

A warm welcome to Cheryl, who has just joined our Neco Marine team!

Cheryl is our new cashier and is most probably the fastest typist in Palau.

Ater a few years in US, she decided there's no place like home.

DIVING NEWS

Aggregations seem to be the word these days. Could be the red snappers, the moorish idols or the surgeon fish that get together to spawn.

Of course the sharks and the other predators can't miss the opportunnity to form hunting packs and "get to work".

It goes without saying that all of the above generates quite a show.

This is something you don't see everyday, a black manta ray.

And when I say black I don't mean just the top but also the underside.

Critter Corner: Mantis Shrimp

Mantis shrimp or stomatopods are marine crustaceans, the members of the order Stomatopoda. They are neither shrimp nor mantids, but receive their name purely from the physical resemblance to both the terrestrial praying mantis and the shrimp.

They may reach 30 cm (12 in) in length, although exceptional cases of up to 38 cm have been recorded.

They are commonly separated into two distinct groups determined by the manner of claws they possess: Spearers and Smashers.

Spearers are armed with spiny appendages topped with barbed tips, used to stab and snag prey.

In smashers, these two weapons are employed with blinding quickness, with an acceleration of 10,400 g and speeds of 23 m/s from a standing start, about the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet. Because they strike so rapidly, they generate cavitation bubbles between the appendage and the striking surface. The collapse of these cavitation bubbles produces measurable forces on their prey in addition to the instantaneous forces of 1,500 N that are caused by the impact of the appendage against the striking surface, which means that the prey is hit twice by a single strike; first by the claw and then by the collapsing cavitation bubbles that immediately follow. Even if the initial strike misses the prey, the resulting shock wave can be enough to kill or stun the prey.

Mantis shrimp appear to be highly intelligent, are long-lived and exhibit complex behaviour, such as ritualised fighting. Scientists have discovered that some species use fluorescent patterns on their bodies for signaling with their own and maybe even other species, expanding their range of behavioural signals. They can learn and remember well, and are able to recognise individual neighbours with whom they frequently interact. They can recognise them by visual signs and even by individual smell. Many have developed a complex social behaviour to defend their space from rivals.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

Did you know...

The lowest known point on Earth, called the Challenger Deep, is 11,034 m deep, in the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific. To get an idea of how deep that is, if you could take Mt. Everest and place it at the bottom of the trench there would still be over a mile of ocean above it. The Dead Sea is the Earth's lowest land point with an elevation of 396 m below sea level.

Source: http://marinebio.org/MarineBio/Facts/