Sadly my trip to the Florida Keys
has come to an end today as me and my fellow classmates flew back to the
Atlantic City International Airport this afternoon. After spending a week
diving, shark tagging, taking tours of labs and museums as well as exploring
the local nature I really started to become familiar with the area and all of
the amazing wonders that can be found there. My fellow researchers and I were
lucky enough to have been able to witness so many of the beautiful creatures in
the area including sea turtles, dolphins, manatees, moray eels, parrot fish,
lobsters, damsel fish and sharks all of which we spent studying and analyzing the
previous semester. The only creature that we were unfortunately not lucky
enough to see, which is one of my favorites , was a nudibranch. One of the possible
locations we could have seen it was on the last day at the Bahia Honda state
park off the beach in the sea grass.
Nudibranchs are a type of sea slugs
in the mollusk family that are found in shallow reefs and sea grass beds. These
organisms are commonly called the butterflies of the sea because of their beautiful
arrays of color. These colors are used as a defense mechanism to deter
predators from making them prey. They also contain toxins that will get
released if they feel they are under threat. Nudibranchs have a very unique way
of creating this toxin because they sequester it from the food they eat. Their diets
mainly consist of sponges. When the sponge is consumed the nudibranch takes in
the nematocysts and creates a secondary metabolite that can be used to defend
itself in a time of need. Many scientists
are now studying this process of creating the secondary metabolite because they
believe it can be used to selectively kill cancer cells in humans.
This trip was definitely one to
remember and I learned a great deal of information. Not seeing a nudibranch may
have been a blessing in disguise because it gives me a reason to come beak to
visit and explore the area again in search of one of these creatures.
For more information on nudibranchs
and their use for medical research please see the link below:
I was really hoping to spot a lettuce nudibranch. I've heard they can be found here. Still got to see a lot of critters up close!
ReplyDeleteIt is such a shame we never got to see nudibranchs though I'd imagine with their small size it would be very hard to find them. Nudibranchs would have made this trip even more exciting then it already was with how alien and strange nudibranchs are.
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