Diving Alongside the Creatures of The Underwater

Diving Alongside the CREATURES OF THE UNDERWATER CommonTypes of RAYS - Also known as short tail stingray, or bull ray, is the largest of the world's stingrays It can weigh well over 350 kg (770 Ib) and stand across over 2m (6 feet) in diameter and have an overall length of up to 4.3m (14 ft) including its tail SMOOTH STINGRAY Commonly found in southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico SOUTHERN STINGRAY - It has a flat diamond-shaped body with mud brown upper body, white underbelly and venomous barbed tail - Has large bright blue spots on its oval, elongated disc and blue side-stripes along the tail They reach a maximum length of about 70 cm BLUE-SPOTTED RAY Tend to live in the open ocean rather than on the bottom of the sea Their tails are quite long and they have well-defined rhomboidal shape featuring distinct wings EAGLE RAY One of the most beautiful rays and is also known as the bonnet ray -Its inky blue body is covered with almost star-like white spots SPOTTED EAGLE RAY Largest of all ray species The mantra ray grows to a width of 7.6m (25ft) across and weigh about 2,300 kilograms (5,10olbs) MANTA RAY Most Popular Species of SHARKS -This type of shark is not a man-eater but focuses on what it can find in the bottom of the ocean ANGEL SHARK The coloring allows them to blend well with the bottom of the ocean - Has a long head that looks like the end of a hammer on both sides of it Unlikely to attack a person and out of the 9 hammerhead species only 3 types HAMMERHEAD SHARK are dangerous to humans Able to adapt to life anywhere even in captivity - Are loners and seldom interact with other sharks unless it is time for breeding REEF SHARK Considered as one of the most dangerous sharks in the world Due to their speed and strength, very few of its prey has a chance for survival BLUE SHARK -Best known species but the most dangerous in the world - People are able to see them as they are among the rare species that do raise their heads above the water GREAT WHITE SHARK Second largest fish in the world with a whopping weight of around 4 tons - Grows to about 10 meters in length and are generally migrating species found in the deep waters BASKING SHARK - Considered to be extremely dangerous as its powerful body helps it to have sudden bursts of speed - Spend their days beyond the reef edge to depths of around 150 meters TIGER SHARK Types of CORALS SOFT CORALS HARD CORALS GORGONIAN HYDROCORAL Fire corals or stinging coral gives a painful, burning feeling when it touches your bare skin - Lace corals produce many branched, hard calcium carbonate skeletons with three growth patterns (branching, blade and box) Attached to a hard surface by a single anchor at the base of a stem - The stem is like a tree trunk with different branching patterns The inter-connected net-like branching is typical for sea fans while sea whips and sea plumes have pinnate branching pattern STONY CORAL BLACK CORAL Polyps live in the skeletal surface Black coral polyps make a black substance that becomes extremely hard and strong and built up in circular layers to form a wire-like skeleton Grow in colonies and are slow growing - The basic building blocks of tropical coral reefs - The polyp of hard corals make a hard, protective shell like a cup out of calcium carbonate called coralite - Hard corals grow in colonies that gives the reef's structure lots of calcium carbonate LEISUPEPP'S AQUAVIIEWS ONLINE SCUBA MAGAZINE www.aquaviews.net References: www.sharks-world.com/types_of sharks.html www.buzzle.com/articles/types-of-sharks.html www.naturefoundationsxm.org/education/coral_reefs/stony_coral.htm www.aquaviews.net/explore-the-blue/meet-the-rays-types-of-stingrays-eagle-rays-and-manta-rays