An Octopus Nursery in Warm Springs: Why Thousands Gather Deep Below California
At the Octopus Garden, the clue is a faint shimmer above the rock—and the payoff may be years removed from the wait for an egg to hatch.
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Stories from beneath
the surface.
The lives of marine animals, the places they inhabit, and the science behind what you see in the water.
Why Underwater Photos Turn Blue—and What Actually Brings the Color Back
Before changing cameras, follow the light from its source to the subject and back to your lens. That route explains both the blue cast and the fixes that work.
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The Moray Eel’s Second Bite: How Hidden Jaws Pull Prey Down Its Throat
The teeth at the front catch your attention. The remarkable part of a moray’s meal happens just behind them, where another set of jaws takes over.
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Little Cayman’s Grouper Moon: Why Thousands of Fish Gather to Spawn
The grouper you pass alone on a reef may later join a crowd at the island’s edge. Watch its markings and the direction of its movement: the gathering is building toward a brief release into open water.
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Green Turtle, Hawksbill, or Loggerhead? The Details That Give Them Away
Watch the head, then the shell’s trailing edge. Those two views often tell you more than the color that first caught your eye.
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Why some parrotfish sleep inside a mucus bubble
The transparent covering around a resting parrotfish can be a defense against tiny nighttime parasites. Its story links reef behavior, chemistry, and an unusually revealing experiment.
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Bonaire’s reef begins in the mangroves: the hidden nurseries of Lac Bay
Some of the fish on Bonaire’s reefs spend their early lives among roots and seagrass. Following those connections changes what a reef destination looks like.
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How a bluehead wrasse changes sex when its social world changes
A change in the reef’s social order can set off a transformation in behavior, appearance, and reproductive anatomy. Those changes do not all happen at once.
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Monterey’s kelp forest puzzle: why sea otters leave some urchins uneaten
A forest and an urchin barren can sit side by side. The explanation lies partly inside the urchins—and in the feeding choices of the otters above them.
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Why young blue tangs are yellow—and adults raid other fish’s gardens
The Atlantic blue tang changes more than its color as it grows. Its life reveals a reef divided into feeding grounds, defended borders, and opportunities to join a crowd.
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Where green sea turtles meet the Florida Keys
A habitat-first way to use SeaLifeWiki when looking for green sea turtles in the shallow waters of the Keys.
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