Top ten reasons to LOVE the ocean

14 October 2014

We don't need an excuse to celebrate our oceans - we love them every day! Here are ten reasons to love oceans that'll make your day a little brighter.

1. A whole lotta heart

Octopuses have three hearts. That’s good news when you’re a sucker for tangling your tentacles. They have lots of heart and arms to share.

Screen Grabs from Great Barrier Reef Clipreel

 

2. Totally devoted

Many seabirds mate for life, returning faithfully to nests and partners, sometimes halfway around the globe. Other ocean critters are so devoted to their offspring that they give up their life to give them a good start, like the awesome Giant Pacific Octopus which guards its brood with its last breath.

Pribilof Canyon, Bering Sea

3. Fatherly love

The ocean is an equal opportunities environment, and ‘traditional’ parenting roles are turned upside down by those curly tailed cuties, the seahorses. Not content with sharing the baby-sitting duties, it is the male seahorses who brood the eggs and give birth to the small fry too.

Short-head Seahorse in the Great Australian Bight

4. Sharing is caring

Symbiosis is when opposites attract. Different creatures have a mutually beneficial arrangement that involves them sticking together. Perhaps the cutest and most colourful of these are anemone / crab bromances that not only benefit both animals, but also make it look like the crab has some funky fashion sense.

5. Heart shaped reminders

Not only are some islands and coral reefs shaped like hearts, but some less ostentatious ocean dwellers are too. Heart urchins are spiky seabed dwellers. Confusingly they are often also called sea potatoes … not quite so romantic!

6. Big Bang

Many ocean critters take procreation very seriously, and make it into a big, messy group affair. When coral get amorous, or shoals of fish spawn all at once the sea becomes cloudy with er, passion, and in turn provides a feast for filter-feeders like manta rays and whale sharks.

Manta Rays off the Coast of Nusa Penida

7. Love chain

Underwater love doesn’t always seem so straightforward. Hermaphroditic sea hares, a type of sea slug, form long chains to share the love, acting as both males and females to different partners at the same time. In Facebook terms, that would probably fall under the ‘it’s complicated’ relationship status.

8. Stoned love

Adelie penguins in Antarctica don’t go in for fancy schmancy presents, instead they show their adoration by presenting gifts of pebbles to their mate. Worth knowing if you’ve been caught short and the shops are shut.

 

Adélie Penguin Colony in Antarctica

9. Deep sea serenade

Whale songs travel enormous distances, if they don’t get drowned out by man made noises. Sometimes these salty serenades can be heard half way across ocean basins. In humpbacks they have been found to be constantly evolving and very intricate songs.

10. Kiss of life

Every second breath we take originates in the oceans. Take a big, deep breath and be grateful.


Take action to protect our oceans! Tell the Federal Government: I want to know what seafood I am eating – and demand accurate labelling now.