SEA SAPPHIRES ARE SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS ON EARTH.
Their bodies contain microscopic crystals that reflect blue light. They use this shine in courtship displays, & in Japan, fishers call this tama-mizu: jeweled water.
📽️ http://bit.ly/2T0fcgG

WE NEED JELLYFISH!
Jellyfish are often the subject of disdain. But we KNOW jellyfish matter. They are nursery grounds, transportation, HABITAT! These young fish are using this jelly as protection. Healthy oceans NEED jellies.
📸Eric S. Javier https://bit.ly/3Kip2bD

Ummm...baby snails look like butterflies?!

Some marine snails have wings when young & float through the ocean before finding a permanent home. They also use their wings, called velar lobes, to catch food. Stylish AND functional! Go baby go!
📸Alicia Choo http://bit.ly/3IrK46g

@oskay It's the best 🥹

Marine biologists when someone sees 'something weird' at the beach

Happy Valentines Day from our whole Global Ocean Surface Ecosystem Alliance (GOSEA) team!

These are soft crystalline seashells.

These beautiful shells come from the mysterious open-ocean Corolla snails, which sail through the water using butterfly-like wings.

Because Corolla snails live far from shore, these shells are extremely hard to find.
📷 on iNaturalist

@tealeg In some sense, Portuguese man-o-war are complex colonies, these are more similar to single solitary animals.

Blue button jellies float on the ocean’s surface, and are members of the mysterious ocean surface ecosystem. Even though these animals live right at the air-sea boundary, because they drift with the waves and currents they are hard to find and even harder to study.

Blue sea dragons float on the ocean's surface, a habitat that covers over 70% of our planet. Animals like this are the 'average' Earthling, we humans, living on the hard dry Earth, are the exception. If aliens had to describe life on our planet, this is what they'd see.

@rtn I've seen videos where the fish will attack turtles that are trying to eat the jellies, so I think the jelly may get the same kind of protection (or at least attempted protection!)

@AdaraAstin same!

@Gleng2 Not sure! I've seen fish defend their jelly from predators. So I think there's some potential there.

This fish isn't being eaten by a jellyfish. Travally fish HIDE INSIDE jellyfish on purpose. These fish travel with jellyfish for protection, and when they feel unsafe they wiggle underneath. A jellyfish security blanket.
📸 Songda Cai http://bit.ly/2MkUNPm

A friendly reminder that when you’re swimming in the open ocean and it LOOKS empty, you’re actually totally surrounded. Brought to you by the giant open-ocean amphipod Cystisoma. Video by Alejandro Damian-Serrano.
#OpenOceans

Happy New Year from the fireworks jellyfish, filmed 1225 meters under the sea off Baja California, Mexico.
📽️ @EVNautilus (Twitter) https://bit.ly/3JvOh7o

This is what BABY JELLYFISH look like!
They are so small they fit in a drop of water and are shaped just like snowflakes.
📽️ me

@barrygoldman1 Haha everything is red in the deep sea! I don't see the resemblance.

AMAZING RARE sighting of massive phantom jellyfish. These jellies can grow to an astonishing 10 metres (33 ft) in length! This giant was spotted 990m (3,200 ft) below the surface off the California coast.

Video by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

EXTREMELY RARE footage of the elusive box jellyfish Chirodectes. Larger than a soccer ball, this jelly is a true ocean mystery, and this video is one of the only in existence, filmed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2021.
📽️Scuba Ventures Kavieng bit.ly/3FE29tL