SEA DRAGON
Guide of SEA DRAGON
Leafy Sea Dragon
The photographer writes; Though close relatives of sea horses, sea dragons have larger bodies and leaf-like appendages that enable them to hide among floating seaweed or kelp beds.
Sea dragons feed on larval fishes and amphipods, such as and small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids ('sea lice'), sucking up their prey in their small mouths.
Many of these amphipods feed on the red algae that thrives in the shade of the kelp forests where the sea dragons live.
As with their smaller common seahorse (and pipefish) cousins, the male sea dragon carries and incubates the eggs until they hatch.
After about eight weeks, the brood hatches, but in nature only about 5 per cent of sea dragons survive to maturity (two years).
We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains.
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SEA DRAGON
Leafy Seadragon Photo 1
Information about our Leafy Seadragon Photos below ¬ .
About Our Leafy Seadragon Photos The Leafy Seadragon exhibit at the Waikiki Aquariums was undoubtedly THE most fascinating of all we saw during a visit in April 2003 to see what was new since our tour in 1998 .
<< View and copy this Seadragon Photo Negative Computer Art creation made by Debbie, and find out how to make an image like this one with your own photos.
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info: SEA DRAGON
Photo by www.tribe12.com
Biogeography of Leafy Seadragon
Seadragons belong to the family Syngnathidae, which also includes the seahorses, pipefish and pipehorses.
Unlike its seahorse cousins, the leafy seadragon has a laterally flattened body and swims horizontally through the water column.
"Leafies" are best known for the incredible skin filaments that hang off of their head, body and tail like so many blades of brown seaweed.
The temperate coastal waters of Southern Australia contain an astounding variety of marine life with diverse ecosystems ranging from large metropolitan seagrass beds to saltmarsh and mangrove areas.
The leafy seadragon is superbly camouflaged as a floating piece of seaweed and spends the entirety of its life swimming among the three genera of brown algae, Macrocystis, Ecklonia, and Lessonia, that comprise the mid-littoral kelp beds of the Southern Australian coast.
The fronds of the tall kelp forests considerably reduce both cross-shore water movement and along shore currents; an important asset to the weak-swimming seadragon (Lobban & Harrison 1994).
Seadragons are comfortable throughout the water column of the mid-littoral zone, ranging in depth from roughly 5-35 meters, but are most commonly found at between 5-15 meters feeding on mysid shrimp and other small invertebrates.
Benefits
MH-53E Sea Dragon
Additional mission capabilities include air-to-air refueling, hover in-flight refueling, search and rescue, and external cargo transport operations, in both land and seaborne environments.
Sea Dragon is capable of carrying up to 55 troops or a 16-ton payload 50 nautical miles or a 10-ton payload 500 nautical miles.
SEA DRAGON: