Interesting Marine Creatures Trivia Quiz

Answer: Smell

Salmon are a family of fish that also include trout, char, grayling and whitefish. Native to the Pacific and North American areas, this fish has been introduced into other parts of the world, particularly for the purpose of farming and harvesting. From the farm to the plate.

The poor creatures never get a chance to swim wild and free in the ocean and leap up beautiful rivers to spawn. That trait of moving between ocean and river to reproduce is known as anadromous. Interestingly, most salmon return to the spot where they were "born" when it is time to spawn.

They rely on their olfactory (smell) memory in order to do this. With a life span of approximately five years, salmon usually die after spawning. At least they die happy.

Answer: Bluefin

Tuna belong to the mackerel family of fish. Of the different kinds of tuna, sizes range from 4lbs right up to 1,500 lbs. How amazing is that! The largest tuna, the bluefin, can live up to fifty years. Who could kill such a glorious creature as that? Sadly though, some species of tuna have been fished almost to the point of extinction by man.

This innocent creature is among the fastest swimmers of the deep, with the ability to reach speeds of 75 K.p.h. I have to tell you that it's a tad deflating to realise that a tuna can swim faster than we're allowed to drive around here.

Answer: Yes

Herring are fish that travel in large schools around the coastal perimeters of most countries in the northern hemisphere, as well as the western coast of South America. Because of this accessibility for fishermen, this fish has been a valuable source of readily available food for thousands of years.

They can be eaten in various ways, included salted smoked or pickled. There are more than 200 different species of this fish and these range in size from six to fifteen inches. When spawning, the female can lay an average of 30,000 eggs. Amazing! They do have many predators though, apart from man, that consume a sizable proportion of developed herring, so it's just as well Mrs Herring is so prolific a breeder.

Answer: Oyster

Belonging to the Ostreidae family, oysters, those slimy, slithery clam-like seafood, can be eaten raw or cooked, or harvested for the pearls they have the ability to create from an invasive parasite. Not all oysters possess that gift though and under natural circumstances, only about four out of several thousand produce these lustrous gems. They do so by covering that foolhardy parasite with a layer of nacre, and adding further layers over several years. A female oyster produces millions of eggs after fertilisation. Amazingly, these develop within a few hours. Known as spats at that stage, they move around the area where they were delivered for several days, before dropping to the sea bed to begin their maturation process.

Oysters, more interesting that you would think, are male for their first year, during which time their sperm is released here, there and everywhere, but after that first year, they become female and start releasing eggs instead. Not only that, but because they easily consume bacteria, ammonia, nitrates, phosphates and organic matter, plans are under way to release these small little miracles by their thousands into areas of the world where water nitrogen content is too high for human safety, to clean it up for man. Incredible, isn't it? They give us a drink of clean water with a pearl chaser. Italian film director, Federico Fellini (1920-1993) remarked once that "All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography". How lovely is that?

Answer: He bites her pectoral area

He sounds like a Klingon. Surprisingly, stingrays, of which there are eight different types, are from the same family as sharks. Their famous barbed stingers, which have killed people such as Australia's famous wildlife expert, Steve Irwin, are used for defence only. They contain a deadly venom. Manta and porcupine rays, on the other hand, possess no stingers at all. One learns something new every day on Fun Trivia. I thought stingrays and manta rays were the same creature. Found in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world, the diet of the stingray consists of small sea creatures such as crab or very small fish. When a male stingray is courting his lady of choice, he keeps close to her and displays his intent by biting her pectoral area.

When the female obligingly mates, she usually procures live offspring, numbering between five to thirteen. Until they're ready for birth, and without the benefit of a placenta, the mother feeds them while they're developing through a kind of sac, or by milk she creates within her uterine cavity. This is amazing: If she is kept in captivity, and providing she has mated while free, the female stingray has the ability to store sperm until she is ready to have babies. This was noted recently in a London aquarium, when two females, who had had no contact with males for many months, delivered babies more than two years after captivity. Stingrays can be eaten as a food, and the Japanese in particular then use their skin to makes objects such as belts, jackets, shoes and wallets.

Answer: Nacre

Abalone is the name given to assorted marine gastropods and sea snails. There are approximately 130 scientifically classified members of this species, most of which are noted for their inner shells of iridescent, exquisitely coloured mother-of-pearl. Known as nacre, the purpose of its production, from the abalone's point of view, is a defence mechanism that is used against invasive parasites, as noted in the oyster question discussed above. Man, however, has used this product for thousands of years for various ornamental purposes.

These include trimming on ceramic tiles, buttons, the handles of guns and knives, jewellery, different parts of musical instruments, and assorted architectural trimmings. More recently, its incorporation into the manufacture of glass has resulted in glass that is two hundred stronger than normal glass.

The flesh of the abalone itself is considered a culinary treat and can be consumed either raw (shudder) or cooked. This little creature, sadly so, is now in danger of extinction as a result of overfishing and the possible changing pH of the oceans. We're never going to learn, are we?

Answer: Diabetes

Related to whales and porpoises, there are almost forty different species of dolphin in our waters. Until this question was researched, I thought dolphins and porpoises were the same creature. There are distinct physical differences between the two however, with the porpoises having much shorter beaks and different shaped teeth altogether. Wow, this is interesting: Whereas many land animals once evolved out of sea creatures, dolphins, whales and porpoises evolved out of land creatures instead! It is believed that their pelvic bones were once hind legs. That's incredible. The word dolphin itself is of ancient Greek origin, which translates roughly to fish with a womb. Oh my goodness, this is even more amazing: Dolphins possess a remarkable ability to recover and regenerate their form from even the deepest gaping wounds.

Other facts about these extraordinary creatures include the following: Dolphins are known to develop type II diabetes but in a natural way. Scientists are studying this in order to try to develop a cure for mankind's unnatural development of the disease. Most dolphin possess excellent eyesight and hearing. Using a form of echolocation in pinpointing sources of sound, it is believed that their teeth act as a form of antenna to aid in this. Their method of tasting water to find sources of food acts in the same way that our olfactory sense does when we smell something tasty. Dolphins are highly intelligent and social creatures and have a strong altruistic sense which allows them to help injured creatures other than their own species. This includes sometimes helping guide stranded whales back into deeper waters. Oh my goodness, they also possess the ability to use tools as well. And their sexual behaviour is almost human like in its various forms. Alas, dolphins can also be eaten by man, but usually only by a small minority of Japanese population.

Answer: Yes

Turtles, classed as reptiles, have been around for approximately 220 million years. Of the 330 species or so alive today, many are now endangered. Writing this quiz was just a little heartbreaking at times. Turtles range in size from the daintiest of creatures weighing only five ounces to whoppers topping more than 2,000 lbs on the scales! When threatened or alarmed, some turtles withdraw their necks below their spines under the protective covering of their shells. A few species however withdraw their necks to the side instead, but also under the shell. Depending whether they are land or sea dwellers, the positioning of the eyes varies as well, with the land turtles having lower eye placement than the sea ones. Turtles did possess teeth at one stage, but these appear to have devolved some 150 million years ago. Today's turtles use knife or serrated shaped horny ridged jaws to chew and tug at food instead. I wonder why their teeth disappeared?

The top layer of a turtle's shell is covered in scales known as scutes. These are the equivalent of our top layer of skin. Scales on other parts of the skin of a turtle are shed by their owner one at a time OR are allowed to accumulate, layer upon layer - growing from below - to form thick protective knobs. It is possible to estimate a turtle's age by counting the layers of a knob's older stacks of scutes on top of the newer layers coming through, but only if you know how many scutes are replaced each year by the individual species.

A couple of bits of fun trivia for you: Turtles are better than rats at negotiating mazes, but I guess, being turtles, they take a lot longer to get there - turtles cannot poke out their tongues - and the collective term for a group of turtles is a bale.

Answer: Tadpole

Tadpoles are the early larval life of creatures such as frogs and toads. These baby amphibians that do not have any arms or legs at that stage of life, move through the water with a wiggling motion powered by their long tails. As it develops into its adult form, a tadpole's tail begin to disappear as its limbs grow, with the legs growing first.

Its mouth begins to widen at the same time, and, because this enables it to change its diet, its intestines begin to alter shape as well. Depending on the species of frog it becomes, tadpoles can range in size from just over one inch to almost ten inches in length.

The downside to the size advantage means that tadpoles are used as food in some countries. This is particularly so in Chinese, Indian and Peruvian cultures.

In Peru, they are also harvested for medicinal purposes.

Answer: Bell

Jellyfish are marine creatures with large mushroom shaped heads, known as bells, from which dangle various trailing tentacles. Stay away from those tentacles though. In many species, they can provide very painful stings - and some have the ability to even kill a human. These unusual creatures which are beautiful to see floating in their natural environment do not possess a respiratory system. Instead, because each one has a skin so translucent and thin, oxygen is obtained by a type of diffusion action as it moves through the water. The body of a jellyfish in many species can comprise almost 98% water, believe it or not. Almost 700 million years old, the size range of the bells on the various types of these creatures spans 1 centimetre to a staggering two metres. Amazingly so, some tiny jellyfish reproduce by splitting in half! The spawning in other species is controlled by light, usually around sunset and sunrise.

There are three species of this most unusual of creatures that have the ability to live forever. As the end of an adult cycle nears, they transform themselves back into the polyp stage. Scientists, as you can imagine, are abuzz about this, with one Japanese university in particular saying these species of sea creatures may possess the key for immortality (I almost typed immorality there) for mankind - because we are genetically very similar to jellyfish. I thought we were supposed to be genetically similar to apes? One wishes scientists would make up their minds. Do we eat bananas or start paddling?