The blog of a Leslie Wong
Moon Jellies, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
“These alien-looking creatures are named for their translucent, moonlike circular bells. Instead of long, trailing tentacles, moon jellies have a short, fine fringe (cilia) that sweeps food toward the mucous layer on the edges of the bells. Prey is stored in pouches until the oral arms pick it up and begin to digest it.”
Nikon D70, 18-55 f3.5-f5.6, 18mm, f5.6, 1/4 sec, ISO 400. 2-25-10, 3:17:19 PM PDT.
Spot Prawns are the largest shrimp on the west coast of North America. I stuck a ruler in the photograph at the left so you can see that these shrimp are no shrimps. They are over 8 inches (20 cm) long.
The Spot Prawn (Pandalus platyceros) have four white spots on the abdominal segments – you can see one of them in the photo near the top of the first segment. A few of these happen to have roe, also.
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, “Spot prawns change sex as they grow. They spend the first part of their lives as males, then change into females.”
As with many of the aquatic species at the aquarium, they also make good eatin’.
Yellowfin Tuna, Monterey Bay Aquarium. Nikon D70, 18-70 f3.5-f4.5, 27mm, f3.8, 1/10 sec, ISO 400. 7-23-07, 4:48:23 PM PDT.
(Monterey Bay Aquarium membership courtesy of Gwen Monteith and Robert Klei)