Activity | Reflections

5 months ago by larswitberg Another of the oceans mysteries is the flounder. We usually see them as large flat fish laying on the bottom, beautifully camouflaged and sometimes hard to spot. But did you know that they are not hatched this way. When they are juvenile they are swimming like regular juveniles and have one eye on each side of the head. They are in fact difficult to distinguish from other juveniles. When they grow through the juvenile stage one eye starts to migrate over to the other side of the head. The body slowly twist and flattens out as the fish sinks to…
5 months ago by larswitberg Swimming weightless in huge and spectacular underwater landscapes sometimes feels like being in a science fiction movie. With our limited airsupply we only get brief visits to these enormous environments. Every day we discover something new in our oceans. I often think that if I take a different direction today to what I did yesterday - I might get to a place where no human has ever been before. Who knows what might show up? New species of marine life are discovered every day and only a fraction of sunken ships are found. Not many places on earth are like…
4 months ago by larswitberg Eremos is Greek and means “living alone” and that is the reason for the name Hermit Crab. They seek refuge in abandoned snail shells and as you can see it is not room for more than one. As they grow they have to find larger shells. When threatened they disappear into the shell but usually come back out if you leave them alone for a couple of minutes. This crab was walking on a large leaf of kelp in the clear, ice cold winter water of the Oslo Fjord. Depth was only 8 meters. Sometimes the shells over grow with…
5 months ago by larswitberg Maybe it survives because it is so hard to find? It has no defense mechanisms and it can hardly swim, but when it curls its tail around pieces of kelp and move with the flow of the water, it is almost impossible to spot. I have spent so many hours looking for seahorses and found a technique that seems to work. I place myself flat on the bottom and look horizontal over the kelp. Sometimes I get lucky and see their heads sticking up. Absolutely fascinating creatures. The male has a pouch on his belly where the female deposit the…
5 months ago by larswitberg I think curiosity is one of the most important capacities we can have. Besides emotional, cognitive and a strong sense of humor, I rate curiosity among the top capacities of intelligent people. To me curiosity is like a treasure hunt. You explore, dig, search and keep all senses open – and often you stumble upon things that surprise you. It can be small or big things that makes you think, it adds to your knowledgebase and widens your horizon. To me this is the treasures that feeds the hungry mind. I just found one. I was looking through pictures from…

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