Today the YME students,COB students had an amazing time with the Rotaract Mentors at the BREEF Sculpture Garden! We all got a chance to explore the underwater world of art, education and fun!
 This past weekend the students of YME C.V. Bethel and Government High School, along with the YME COB Chapter came together on a group effort to clean the COB campus pond of algae and trash. The students recognized the importance of the pond ecosystem and saw the ills that affected the health of the pond and came up with the initiative to revitalize the pond. The YME members at the College of The Bahamas were very welcoming to the YME high school students. The COB students gave a tour of the campus and a shared few do's and don'ts for college life. They also enlightened the students on what to expect and got them thinking about their future careers. This pond cleaning exercise has lead to plans for a pond restoration project. Follow us on Instagram, twitter, and like us on facebook to stay up to date with what YME is doing to shape the future of the Bahamas. The Bahamas is made up of 180,000 square miles of ocean space with shallow banks, troughs up to 3 miles deep and thousands and thousands of underwater caves and blue holes! With all of this ocean and all of these habitats, The Bahamian waters are home to some really cool (and really strange) organisms that most of us never get to see. Follow this blog to learn about some of the coolest and strangest things living in our backyard. Here is the first cool creature on our list: 
This Scaleless Black Dragonfish was found by researchers from the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization (BMMRO) in August 2014 and it is a member of the genus Melanostomias, the barbeled dragonfishes. These fish live at incredibly deep depths of 1000-5000 meters! At such the depths, the conditions are extreme: low temperature, high pressure and total darkness. To assist them in these no-light conditions, these fish have adapted a process called bioluminescense. This means that these fish are capable of producing their own light! This light is emitted from the white dots on the length of their body to allow them to communicate with other dragonfish and through a 'lure' at the end of the long, barbel dangling under their chin. The lure attracts prey that will not see the dragonfish until they are snatched up in its long sharp teeth. Very similar to Angler Fish! 
For photo credit and more information on this finding, check out the BMMRO blog at http://www.bahamaswhales.org/news/2014/news_Aug14.html.
Be sure to keep an eye out for the next installment of Cool Creatures! |
