Bad asses of the ocean

Bad Ass # 1- Phacellophora camtschatica, aka. the fried egg jellyfish.
This guy is a cannibal! It uses its big poisonous tentacles to trap other innocent little jellyfish, and slowly pulls them in, letting them struggle hopelessly, until it eats them.



Bad ass #2- The Humboldt Squid
This vicious mofo also occasionally dabbles in cannabalism. And I quote: "The squid use the sharp, barbed suckers on their feeding tentacles to pierce the flesh of prey and drag it to their mouths where a fierce, baseball-sized beak tears it to shreds." Although they tend to focus on the more typical prey, like lanternfish and shrimp, they have been nicknamed "diablos rojos" ("red devils" in Spanish- side note, that sounds way more bad ass in spanish; side note #2- red devil was also the nickname of my evil 70s style metal framed backpack I used when backpacking though Costa Rica. That thing was a true bad ass), due to their tendencies to attack divers. They also flash several different colours when attacking. Some suggest this is due to vicious squid rage (that's the technical term).



Bad ass #3- California Mantis shrimp.
It was hard to find a picture of this guy! Every time I did a google image search, all I got back were images of shrimp cocktails and shrimp sandwiches. Although this guy doesn't look very tough, they are seriously hardcore. They are really antagonist and will fight off anything that threatens them- I saw one scare off a hungry octopus. Furthermore, their claws are faster than a .22 caliber bullet and can break through double safety glass. I'm pretty much hiring one as my bodyguard.



Bad ass #4- Wolf eel
Look at this guy! Do I even have to explain? He is totally making that sea cucumber his bitch! He also regularly dines on super spiny sea anemomes. And he has one hell of a heinous mug. Okay, so apparently the wolf eel is actually remarkably gentle and prefers to spend time at home with the missus than out whoopin' fish ass. I don't believe it. This guy totally eats whales for breakfast.


Bad ass #5- Nudibranch
This guy looks like a big mass of goo. But don't let its tame appearance fool you. It launches sneak attacks on tube anenomes. While most predators can't eat the tube anemones, because of their super venomous tentacles, the nudibranch rips them off, and through some super digestive process, eats them and somehow has the stinging cells transferred to their back for their own defense. Double burn to the anenome! And I watched these big lumps totally avoid a sneak attach by a big lumbering sea star.



Bad ass #6- Crown of thorns sea star
Look at it. Do I even need to explain?






So, yeah, the Duke and I went to see Deep Sea Imax in 3-D today , hence my wealth of knowledge. It was seriously one of the coolest things ever. Very highly recommended. It looked like jellyfish were inches from my face! The kids beside me were trying to battle off enormous octopii. I was giggling like a little girl when scallops ran away from bumbling sea stars, and I jumped when sharks came towards me.

Votes for the most bad ass??

Do you like how I'm pretending that someone actually reads my blog??

I'm totally going to make up alter-egos and vote.