Marine Life on Pitara Kids Network

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Sun, 25 Mar 2001 02:34:10 +0000

If there is one person who single-handedly fascinated millions of landlocked viewers to venture underwater into the unknown, through television, it is the Frenchman Jacques Cousteau. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in the town of St.-Andre-de-Cubzac near Bordeaux, in France, to Daniel and Elizabeth Cousteau.

As a child, Jacques was quite sickly but he nonetheless learned to swim at the age of four. His initial dip led to his everlasting love for the sea.

The Fish Which Changes From Female to Male

Tue, 02 Oct 2001 14:17:26 +0000

There is a fish called the blackspot angelfish, which can change from female to male. No, it cannot do it by simply wishing to become male. The change happens for a specific reason.

The angel fish live in groups. And each group has one male fish, which is blue in colour, and four female fish, which are yellow in colour.

The male angelfish is the strongest and largest member of the group. He is the one who protects and looks after the females and acts like their ‘security guard’. When the male dies, the group needs a ‘security guard’. This is when the largest female fish in the group begins to change its appearance.

An Organism that is visible from Space

Sat, 10 Aug 2002 10:30:36 +0000

The elephant is the largest land animal. The Blue whale is the largest sea animal. But however big these animals may be, they can not size up to the colonies built by tiny little sea creatures – the coral. The colonies built by corals are called coral reefs. Coral reefs can be as huge as big islands or even as big as a country!

These reef-building corals are not single animals. A coral is a colony made up of many individual animals called polyps. These are connected to each other.

The Price of Pride

Mon, 15 Oct 2001 06:28:51 +0000

This is one story from the book “The Best Thirteen: A collection of the best stories from 13 languages of India”.

You know that a pearl can be so valuable that it is said to be without price. Pearls are formed inside oysters who live on the ocean-bed inside their shells. This is the story of one such oyster.

This oyster was very pleased with himself because he believed that he was the most important creature in the world. Of course, the silkworm was quite useful too, but silk did not fetch the same price as pearls, so the oyster felt that he had good reason to think well of himself.

Can Fish Lay Eggs in the Mouth?

Wed, 23 May 2001 04:23:36 +0000

There is a kind of fish which does not use its mouth for just eating. It keeps eggs in its mouth instead of its stomach. And, it is the male fish which does it, not the female.

Jawfish (Opistognathidae) are paternal mouthbrooders. Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation, is the care given a parent by holding its offspring in its own mouth for extended periods of time.

A Nest in the Mouth [Illustration by Shridevi]

After the eggs are fertilised, the male puts them in his mouth, and carries them around for a month. And, while the eggs are in his mouth, he starves! That is because there is no space left for him to eat.

Jellyfish: Fragile Creature of the Sea

Mon, 14 May 2001 13:16:11 +0000

A sudden influx of jellyfish, in the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean is worrying both scientists and fisher folk alike. The Gulf of Mexico is bordered on the north by the United States, on the east by Cuba, and on the south and west by Mexico.

Fragile Creature of the Sea [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

Jellyfishes are invertebrates (animals without a spinal column). Some are also venomous and their sting can cause paralysis. However, the Jellyfish that have the fishermen worried are not on a stinging spree. Instead, they are clogging propellers, ripping fishing nets and eating up the sea plankton.

The Deadliest Animal in the World

Tue, 06 Mar 2001 22:37:42 +0000

Do you know, it is one of deadliest creatures in the world? No, it’s not the cobra.
It is the sea wasp. It is a kind of jelly fish and is called the Chironex Fleckeri, commonly known as sea wasp.

It has a bell-shaped body with long tentacles that trail behind it. These tentacles have hundreds of thousands of tiny cells, which contain a cobra-like poison. When a victim brushes against the tentacles, the poison is injected into his body, killing him in less than five minutes.

Marine Militants: Bioinvasion propagated through Cargo Ships

Fri, 01 Nov 2002 21:59:37 +0000

What would happen if all the lions in Africa are carried away to some other place? The deer population will rise as there will not be anyone to kill them. With this population boom, the deer would need more food.

After a point, there will no grass left to feed subsequent generations. This would lead to the destruction of the entire ecosystem which thrives and sustains itself on the grass. And the grasslands will turn into a desert.

Sea Turtles

Thu, 31 Jan 2002 20:26:11 +0000

Can you name an animal that returns to the place of its birth, every single year, journeying more than 1,000 km to do so? Well, here is another hint: this animal is a sea creature that originated on earth more than 200 million years ago- making the species older than the oldest ever dinosaur.

Give up? They are none other than marine turtles, more commonly known as sea turtles. Seven existing species of sea turtles exist in the world today of which at least four (the Olive Ridley, Green Hawksbill, Leatherback and Flatback) are fairly common in the waters of the Indian Ocean. The sea turtle, or the Leatherback is the largest living turtle. It can grow up to a length of six feet and is known to weigh about 700 kgs!

What Kind of Creatures are Sharks?

Wed, 18 Apr 2001 19:04:44 +0000

Sharks can be found in every ocean of the world. To many people, there’s only one kind of shark: the man-eating white shark of the movie Jaws. They think sharks are ruthless predators that attack anything they come across.

Sharks are sometimes thought of as primitive creatures as they have been in existence for million of years. In fact, sharks are very intelligent. They have a fantastic sense of smell and hearing as well as good vision in low light conditions.

The Crane's Walk

Fri, 23 Mar 2001 01:56:34 +0000

A family of crabs lived on the shores of a giant blue sea. They frolicked in the sands and ate mussels, clams and other small sea creatures. One day the mother crab saw a beautiful crane walking about in the sand, a straight graceful walk in its long reed-like legs.

“How graceful that crane looks,” she thought to herself. Then she caught sight of her son waddling towards her and felt very irritated. “And how clumsy my son is. He is like a moving sack.”

Are Fish Dumb?

Thu, 11 Oct 2001 20:22:42 +0000

There was a time when people thought that fish were dumb creatures. Until they invented machines which could detect sounds under water. And guess what these machines heard?

A string of grunts, clicks, thumps and other kinds of sounds. It was the fish doing a lot of underwater talking! It seems that they have a lot to talk about, for each sound has a different meaning.

There is a kind of fish called the croaker. They actually croak like a frog!

The Truth about Eels

Wed, 31 Mar 1999 03:53:10 +0000

Where: Florida, USA
October 16, 2000: The recent emergence of a large number of unfamiliar eels in the waters off the coast of Florida in South-east America, is causing worry to local ecologists there. They fear that the new arrivals, eels of Asian origin, will disturb the food chain of the region with their voracious appetites.

What exactly are eels ? They are slippery serpent-like fish, inhabiting shallow coastal waters throughout the world. They are fairly common in the freshwaters of eastern and south-eastern America.

Dangerous Red Tide in HongKong

Sun, 04 Nov 2001 03:40:23 +0000

Sea beaches around HongKong have a problem. They regularly face the threat of a ‘Red Tide’.

The ‘Red Tide’ kills fish in sea farms and in the open seas. Actually, the ‘Red Tide’ is reddish brown algae that floats on water near the coastline. It enters the gills of the fish swimming about in the sea and kills them.

The gills are like noses of the fish. They help the fish breathe. When the algae enters the gills, it creates havoc.

The Day it Rained Fish

Tue, 20 Nov 2001 16:30:18 +0000

August 12: Last weekend saw some ‘fishy’ happenings across the world.

In Britain, for example, it rained fish.

The Day it Rained Fish [Illustration by Shiju George]

It happened in Great Yarmouth, a fishing port in Norfolk. Residents found a shower of dead but still fresh fish called sprats raining down on them. “I thought at first I might have had something wrong with my eyes. The whole of my backyard seemed to be covered in little slivers,” said a resident to ‘The Times of India’, which carried a report.

The great auk is one of the many sea animals that have become extinct. It u...

Mon, 17 May 2004 02:49:16 +0000

Sea mammals have no fixed home in the water but some have special sleeping ...

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 19:08:50 +0000