Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Blue Feet

I couldn't pass up this find on flickr. Beautiful organic, natural images...and color! From the site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doubtful_guest/397388183/in/set-72157594553172409/

"the blue fleet is a term coined by Sir Alistair Hardy to describe a community of floating animals including the infamous bluebottle, blue dragon nudibranchs, violet snails and other associated organisms. a floating raft of monochrome drifters, the blue fleet sails the world's oceans at the whim of the tides, winds and currents.













Blue bottle
"Bluebottles have a float or bottle-shaped blue sac, which sits on the water's surface. They have many string-like tentacles hanging down from the float."










Blue Dragon
"A blue dragon, a pelagic sea slug which floats about the ocean on its back (that's it's belly and foot you're looking at) feeding on blue bottles."









Violet Snail
"violet snails also feed on blue bottles. they produce a "raft" of mucus bubbles, float about the oceans with the flocks of jellys, and, i imagine, chow down whenever the fancy takes them. this one had picked up a bunch of bivalve hitchhikers. "










Blue Button Jelly
"the blue button jelly (Porpita porpita) forms part of the "blue fleet", a huge drifting community of organisms which includes the infamous bluebottle. the blue colour apparently provides protection against uv light and, i imagine it also provides quite an effective camouflage against predators hovering above. "








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