365 Project, Day 64
Here is my day sixty-three submission to my 365Project:
I've been so fascinated, yet somewhat weirded out, by the busy-ness of the design of these structures. There is just so much going on here...all the pipes!!
Oh and here are some other photos from today:
A nice close up of a natural gas flare off the same rig...these things light up the offshore night and I've woken up more than once thinking it was early morning when really it was just the lights of all the installations offshore industry!
This humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaced just off our port bow this afternoon. It was rolling at the surface doing pec waves and pec slaps and after I downloaded my photos I noticed something on the whale's back near the tail. After zooming in to the photo (second one below) I realized it had a remora (Family Echeneidae) attached to it and as the whale surface the remora was flung through the air...but remained attached :)
Fun fact of the day:
Remora's likely attach themselves to their hosts for transportation, protection from predators, increased courtship/reproduction potential, enhanced respiration and expanded feeding opportunities. They feed opportunistically on parasitic copepods (most of their diet), zooplankton, small nekton, food scraps from their hosts, and sloughing epidermal tissue and feces of the host.
A couple of years ago on a dive off Zanzibar, Tanzania we had a remora swimming with us the entire dive and it tried many times to attach to myself and the other divers!
To read more about remora and their association with marine mammals check out this pdf.
I've been so fascinated, yet somewhat weirded out, by the busy-ness of the design of these structures. There is just so much going on here...all the pipes!!
Oh and here are some other photos from today:
A nice close up of a natural gas flare off the same rig...these things light up the offshore night and I've woken up more than once thinking it was early morning when really it was just the lights of all the installations offshore industry!
This humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfaced just off our port bow this afternoon. It was rolling at the surface doing pec waves and pec slaps and after I downloaded my photos I noticed something on the whale's back near the tail. After zooming in to the photo (second one below) I realized it had a remora (Family Echeneidae) attached to it and as the whale surface the remora was flung through the air...but remained attached :)
Fun fact of the day:
Remora's likely attach themselves to their hosts for transportation, protection from predators, increased courtship/reproduction potential, enhanced respiration and expanded feeding opportunities. They feed opportunistically on parasitic copepods (most of their diet), zooplankton, small nekton, food scraps from their hosts, and sloughing epidermal tissue and feces of the host.
A couple of years ago on a dive off Zanzibar, Tanzania we had a remora swimming with us the entire dive and it tried many times to attach to myself and the other divers!
To read more about remora and their association with marine mammals check out this pdf.
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