Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Smorgasbord where we have some fun, wacky and weird news to share with you. First off is some stunning macro photography from photographer Alexander Semenov. We’ve seen his amazing work before and now the Russian biologist gives us a closeup view of starfish. The stunning images and vibrant colors are inspiring and to think these are just little old starfish!
[via Colossal]
We know the crown-of-thorn starfish is devastating to reefs and in American Somoa, National Park Service divers have killed almost 90 off the unwelcome starfish to protect the reef. The hungry starfish can eat more than 100 square feet of living coral each year and have devoured more than 80 percent of American Samoa’s reefs in 1977, the last time there was an outbreak.
Several hundred unusual fish were stranded on the shores of Valelunga beach near Pula, Croatia in Adriatic Sea earlier this week after an earthquake rattled the region. The strange fish around 1.5 meters long, were seen on the shores both alive and dead. People were trying to save some of the fish, returning them to water, only to have the fish keep coming back on shore. One local biologist believes it is probably Trahipterus trahypterus, also known as the fish sword, which usually live in a depth of 200 to 500 meters and very rarely comes to the surface.
[via The Watchers]
We love it when fish poop sea foam becomes something so fun and playful. After a cyclone hit the seas around Australia, a copious amount of sea foam blanketed parts of Australia’s Sunshine Coast. After seeing what comes out of our protein skimmers, we’re not sure we’d be out there playing it it.
