Reproduction: Related Content
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Elephant Seals Tussle for Territory
Male northern elephant seals face off on the beach by vocalizing through their extended noses, called proboscises. Every winter, when the seals return to the beach where they were born to breed, males arrive first to tussle for territory. The winners of these fights are the "alpha" males, and they get the biggest and best territories. After the beachfront property is divvied among the alpha males, the females arrive for breeding.
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Snapping Shrimp Queen with Eggs
This snapping shrimp female (Synalpheus regalis) is the queen of her colony which means she is the only female to have babies. She stores her clutch of eggs under her abdomen until they hatch - some of the eggs have already developed eyes. Similar to other social animals like ants and bees, non-breeding shrimp are tasked with protecting their sponge from intruders.
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Cardinalfish Dad with a Mouthful of Eggs
Cardinalfish (Cheilodipterus sp.) dads do their part to protect their eggs by gingerly carrying them in their mouths. However, the dads could easily swallow the whole bunch in one gulp! To keep her eggs alive, the cardinalfish mom will often lay a number of yolkless dummy eggs along with the real ones. These dummy eggs trick the dad into thinking he has more future offspring in his mouth -- and thus the clutch is worth careful protection.
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Celebrating Marine Moms
This Mother's Day we honor moms everywhere. Whether with gills, fins, flippers, claws, tentacles or arms, we appreciate all you do for us. Here is a Happy Mother's Day salute to devoted moms above the waves and below.
To learn more about ocean moms check out our blog post on marine menopausal mammals.
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Laysan Albatross with a Chick
The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) breeds mainly in Hawaii and other Pacific islands where male and female pairs will incubate their egg for nine weeks. The pair participates in an elaborate courtship dance where movements and noises bond them together for the rest of their lives. After breeding season is over the birds move north and west towards Japan and Alaska.
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California Market Squid
Two California market squids, Loligo opalescens, mate in the waters off of California's Channel Islands. While spawning, the males' arms blush red as he embraces the female; a warning to other competing males to back-off.
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Sockeye Salmon, Adams River, British Columbia, Canada
“Every four years, sockeyes come inland from the Pacific to spawn. The year 2010 was the largest run in 100 years, reaching more than 30 million fish. On this day, I waited for the right sunlight, then quietly slipped into the river. Fighting the rush of the current, I positioned myself in front of the fish as they hugged the shore." -- Nature's Best photographer, Todd Mintz
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Menopausal Moms: A Mammal Mystery
In honor of Mother's Day, the Citizens of the Sea blog salutes ocean-going mothers everywhere. Especially a 60 year-old albatross named Wisdom. She holds the seabird records for both oldest bird and oldest new mother. No stranger to motherhood, it is estimated that she has already birthed 30-35 other chicks.
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Coral Spawning by Moonlight
A coral (Montastraea faveolata) has just spawned. Each of the hundreds of polyps living in the colony releases a small pink bundle of sperm and eggs.
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A Tale of Sex and Stress in the Ocean
Welcome to Citizens of the Sea, a new blog series where ocean life comes to life. Our book by the same name came out in September, but no sooner had it gone off to the printer than new ocean stories started streaming in. So every other week, we’ll use this series to explore some interesting aspect of marine life forms and their weird and wonderful ways of getting by.
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Devoted Dads: Photo Spread from Citizens of the Sea
"Devoted Dads" spread from Citizens of the Sea by Nancy Knowlton.
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Podcast of Life
The Ocean Portal and the Encyclopedia of Life have teamed up to bring you the Podcast of Life. In this podcast about great white sharks, students from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School in Massachusetts and La Salle Academy in Rhode Island question shark researcher Greg Skomal about this charismatic predator at the top of the ocean food chain. Learn some surprising facts and the answers to such questions as what preys on the Great White and do they mate for life?
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What Is Coral? A Coral Polyp and Zooxanthellae
What are corals? Corals themselves are animals. But tropical reef-building corals have tiny plant-like organisms living in their tissue. The corals couldn’t survive without these microscopic algae–called zooxanthellae (zo-zan-THELL-ee). This cutaway diagram of a coral polyp shows where the photosynthetic algae, or zooxanthellae, live—inside the polyp’s tissue. The coral gives the algae a home. In return, the algae provide the coral with food.
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Mangroves: A Mudflat Fiddler Crab
A male mudflat fiddler crab (Uca rapax) waves its huge claw to impress females and threaten male competitors. More about mangrove swamps and forests can be found in our Mangroves featured story.
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The Mudflat Fiddler Crab
A male mudflat fiddler crab (Uca rapax) waves its huge claw to impress females and threaten male competitors. More about the animals and plants living in mangrove ecosystems can be found in the Mangroves section.
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Squid Babies
These newly hatched squid larvae (Doryteuthis plei) are tinier than the head of a dissecting pin, which is even smaller than a common sewing pin. More about the giant squid can be found in our Giant Squid featured story.
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Squid Embryo
Smaller than the head of a pin, this squid embryo looks almost like a miniature adult. It is from a medium-sized squid—the arrow squid (Doryteuthis plei). Explore more cephalopds and the largest known squid, the Giant Squid, on the Ocean Portal.
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Fiddler Crab
Male fiddler crabs, like this one collected on Moorea, wave their enlarged claw as way of signaling to other crabs, especially during mating season. Learn more about the Island of Moorea in the Pacific Ocean, including its biodiversity and the scientific effort to catalog all the life found on its land and in its waters.
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Phoenix and First Calf
In 1996, at age nine, Phoenix has her first calf (North Atlantic right whale #2605) off the southeast coast of Florida. More about the right whale can be found in our Tale of a Whale featured story.
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A Right Whale Named Phoenix
Phoenix swimming with her calf in February 2007 in the Southeast calving grounds off the coasts of Georgia and Florida. More about the right whale can be found in our Tale of a Whale featured story.
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Coral Spawning
A purple hard coral (Acropora cerealis) releases bundles of pink eggs.
