Dorset fishermen discover albino lobster

A rare albino lobster that could be more than 30-years-old has been caught in a lobster-pot off the Dorset coast. The two Bridport fishermen who found the crustacean near Portland Bill handed it to Weymouth Sea Life Park. Albinism is caused by a lack of melanin in the skin, which means there is a lack of colour pigment. Fiona Smith, from the park, said: "There have only been one or two other albino lobsters found around the UK in the last 20 years or so."

Without camouflage she added, it was "incredible" this one had not been eaten by a predator such as a shark. Ms Smith also explained that the size of a lobster determines its age. At 40cm (15.7in) long, including its claws, she said this animal was "pretty big".
"[It] could easily be more than 30 years old," she said.
Lobsters can grow up to 75cm (29.5in) long and live for up to 50 years.
They shed their hard shells as they outgrow them. It will not be known if Santa Claws' condition is temporary until it next moults.

Sea Spider

Sea Spider

Sea spiders are also known with the names Pantopoda or pycnogonids. Sea spiders are the marine arthropods, which belong to class Pycnogonida. Sea spiders can be found world wide. They are found especially in Arctic, Antarctic Oceans and Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. There are around 1300 species of sea spiders. There sizes varies from 1mm to 90 cm. The large spiders are found in the deep waters, while the smaller ones are found in the shallow depths. The large sea spiders are found in the Antarctic waters.

Sea spiders have small body and long legs. They generally have eight walking legs (four pairs), while some species also have five and six pairs. Sea spiders are very small in size that each of their muscle contains only one cell surrounded by connective tissue. The front part of the spider contains proboscis, by which they suck the nutrients from soft-bodied invertebrates. Their proboscis has a limited lateral and dorsoventral movement.Their digestive track has diverticula extending into the legs.

Sea Dragons

Sea dragons, like sea horses , are a type of pipe fish.

Sea dragons , unlike sea horses do not have a gripping (prehensile) tail. They do have extra parts that look like sea weed which help them to hold onto seagrass. This also helps them to hide in the seagrass beds where they like to live. To help with their camouflage the sea dragons rock back and forth to imitate seagrass being moved by the ocean currents.

The sea dragons body is hard, almost like armour. This hard outer surface, called a 'hide' is made of bony rings. The hide makes the sea dragons body very ridged it can't move quickly and is easily caught.

Sea dragons like to eat tiny mysid shrimp known as 'sea-lice', plankton and small deep sea fish. They don't have any teeth so they eat by taking in small amounts of water containing their prey.

Sea dragons have a courting ritual that takes place before they mate. During this time the male goes through rapid colour changes when passing close to the female. The male sea dragon carries the eggs. This is known as 'paternal brooding'. The female lays about 200 bright pink eggs in the males 'brood patch' which is on the underside of the tail.

The brood patch is made up of tiny egg cupped shaped suction cups that hold the eggs. Once hatched the young can leave their fathers tail and look after themselves. They eat tiny zooplankton until they are big enough to eat mysid shrimp.

Sea dragons are pipe fish that look similar to sea horses. They have seaweed looking parts on their head and body that allow them to hide in sea grass and sea weed. They have a variety of colours including yellow, pink and orange. The juveniles are pinker in colour.

Sea dragons are unique to the southern waters of WA and South Australia. They can be found in areas that have seagrass, seaweed beds and around reefs. As the number of sea grass beds are decreasing the sea dragon has less places to live. They usually swim in shallow areas but have been seen in depths of 50 metres.

Abalones cling to life as recovery plan forms

Long before Southern California baby boomers started plucking abalones from jetties for dinner, Native Americans used plate-sized, iridescent shells of the once-common mollusks for trading across the Southwest.
Abalones were a staple of coastal life for centuries — a nearshore fishery once topped 5.4 million pounds — until they were all but wiped out by disease, overharvest, predatory otters, poaching and habitat destruction.

By 1997, state officials had shut down all abalone fisheries south of San Francisco in hopes of saving the species. Today there’s just one small recreational fishery for free divers harvesting red abalone on the North Coast, along with several commercial operations — including one in Carlsbad — that farm nonprotected varieties for seafood.

While white abalones are on the road to extinction, there’s evidence of successful reproduction in a few black abalone colonies on the Channel Islands in recent years, giving researchers hope that they eventually can be restored in parts of the region. Optimism is fueled by research that suggests some of the remaining “black abs” are resistant to a type of bacteria that nearly wiped them out starting in the 1980s.

The National Marine Fisheries Service recently formed a task force to save the black abalone, which was listed as federally endangered in 2009. A recovery plan is expected in about two years, though scientists said it’s complicated by poaching in the United States, limited harvest enforcement in Mexico and the potential that climate change will speed the spread of disease in the population.