Today's Catch

This four-foot long fish sculpture was created by art students at A.W. Cox Elementary School in Guilford, CT. The purpose of the Rakefish Project is to raise awareness of marine litter among elementary school children as it travels to schools throughout the United States - from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii. Students covered the surface of the rakefish with single word responses and questions that relate to how they feel about ocean litter.

Hermit crabs, like this one collected in Moorea, usually protect their soft, vulnerable abdomens from predators by reusing empty snail shells.  They are picky home owners and they will trade shells with other crabs to get a better fit or a less damaged shell. This specimen shows the crab without its customary borrowed shelter. Learn more in our Scientists Catalog Life on the Island of Moorea section.

These star-shaped grains of sand, collected from southern Japan, look like miniature works of art -- but they were not sculpted by an artist. They are the shells of microscopic organisms called foraminifera, which build intricate shells from the calcium carbonate they collect while drifting through the water. Their shells have settled on the seafloor for 500 million years, and are used by scientists to study the earth's changing climate.

A mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) holds her clutch of eggs in her clubbed claws. Usually these claws are weapons that punch hard-shelled prey at speeds of more than 50 miles an hour.