More small creatures...
December 26, 2007 - Day 170 6.8475N,166.9380W
At the end of September, I had picked up a fishing net float from the sea. My boat was heading straight for it as I was preparing a meal, and I had felt that I could not leave that garbage in the ocean. Considering my unintended contributions to the ocean's plastic garbage problem after the difficult nights of Dec 19th band 20th, I will now make a special effort to collect an equivalent amount of garbage from the ocean when I can.
This float had a hitchhiker in the form of a parasitic eel. Remember the large remora?
Well, unlike the remora with that size-8 shoe print of a suction cup on its top, this small wiggly eel had its suction cup underneath. I had to hold it by the tail with a piece of toilet paper to keep it from sliding away. Its small pointed mouth was positioned just forward of the suction cup, and I imagined it suited to fit inside the gills of larger fish like the sharks, sucking their blood as a true parasite. What else could this creature do with such a small mouth?
Lamprey eel does the same with fish like salmon, but I have never seen the picture of one. Is this a lamprey eel?
Once out of the water, the small eel dried very quickly, allowing closer inspection. Reading glasses of the old man come in handy on that occasion ;)
Erden. |
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