DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #856: SEX IN THE CITY... ER, OCEAN
In the early daze of my Dive Dry columns, I used to sprinkle tales about the sex life of fish, invertebrates and marine mammals in my columns. One week I wrote about squid orgies with thousands of market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens, formerly Loligo opalescens) doing "it" in our waters (even better than most of the 1960s be-ins and love-ins I attended). Then a mother complained that she was reading the column to her five year old and found it offensive. Of course I wondered what she was doing reading a column about sex to her child!
Well, sex is critical to all species. As my cable TV show "Munching and Mating..." suggested, these are two of the most critical activities of any species (well, maybe with the exception of the asexual ones)! Individuals must chow down on their favorite menu items to sustain themselves. Then when they reach sexual maturity, they need to reproduce so the species itself survives. Survival of the individual and the species is the name of the game.
As Steinbeck wrote in the Log from the Sea of Cortez "John Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez "Marine biologists are the tenors of the scientific world: temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing and healthy... The best man fitted to observe animals, to understand them emotionally as well as intellectually, would be a hungry and libidinous man, for he and the animals would have the same preoccupations." Therefore I am well suited for my profession!
I find the sex (er, reproduction) in my columns to be far more respectable than "locker room talk" from some people. It is as critical as munching... and breathing (although columns about respiration don't seem to titillate my readers). The variety of modes of reproduction in the marine world are informative. In addition the gender changes that occur in nature may be illustrative... California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) changing from female to male, blue-banded gobies (Lythrypnus dalli) changing from female to male and back to female and the sex of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) depending on water temperature (males like it cool, ladies like it HOT!).
Now I feel comfortable in my gender role as a hot-blooded male marine biologist, and have a decided preference for the hot-blooded ladies, especially if they are wearing neoprene. While beneath the sea, I am always looking out for interesting reproductive behavior. The various dances males in the surfperch family perform to entice their ladies are pretty cool. When I dance with a lady, all she gets is sore feet from my stepping on them.
And very few marine critters adopt the missionary position. They have their own edition of The Kama Sutra. I should state that I have never tried any of their poses myself. Mating rituals are often fairly amusing. Some males such as largemouth blennies (Labrisomus xanti) and painted greenlings (Oxylebias pictus) develop special mating coloration. I do turn red at times when talking about sex.
Sea hares including the California (Aplysia californica) and black (Aplysia vaccaria) and other opisthobranchs are not only hermaphrodites with both sex organs in each individual, but form amazing mating orgies. Many species of fish spawn in large groups at certain times of the year or month. Years ago my buddy Scott Patterson and I saw a huge school of California barracuda (Sphyraena argentea) numbering possibly in the thousands. I'd only seen much smaller schools in the dozens before. My assumption was that they might be spawning.
Now don't get me wrong. Not all ocean critters are as carefree about their mating rituals. Some have the modesty of a Puritan. Our own California wreckfish (aka, giant "sea bass" or Stereolepis gigas) is one of them. Although I have watched males do battle for the attention of the ladies (I don't favor such a bar fight approach), and even foreplay between mated pairs, I have never seen them actually spawn. Back when I worked on a documentary for NHK (Japanese public TV), we tried to film them in "the act" without success.
Of course the mating rituals of these critters don't do much to "excite" me. It's a strictly educational endeavor so I better understand the ecology of a species and our kelp forest ecosystems. I think more divers need to spend time observing all the behaviors of the different species here... not just mating. On one dive I sat enthralled (and shivering) as I watched a solitary zebra "perch" (Kyphosus azureus, formerly Hermosillo azurea) chowing down on a species of red algae. Yes, I know... we marine biologists get our kicks from some strange things!
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Mating market squid and orgy of black sea hares; California sheephead and blue-banded goby; male largemouth blenny in mating coloration and giant "sea bass" pair.
In the early daze of my Dive Dry columns, I used to sprinkle tales about the sex life of fish, invertebrates and marine mammals in my columns. One week I wrote about squid orgies with thousands of market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens, formerly Loligo opalescens) doing "it" in our waters (even better than most of the 1960s be-ins and love-ins I attended). Then a mother complained that she was reading the column to her five year old and found it offensive. Of course I wondered what she was doing reading a column about sex to her child!
Well, sex is critical to all species. As my cable TV show "Munching and Mating..." suggested, these are two of the most critical activities of any species (well, maybe with the exception of the asexual ones)! Individuals must chow down on their favorite menu items to sustain themselves. Then when they reach sexual maturity, they need to reproduce so the species itself survives. Survival of the individual and the species is the name of the game.
As Steinbeck wrote in the Log from the Sea of Cortez "John Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez "Marine biologists are the tenors of the scientific world: temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing and healthy... The best man fitted to observe animals, to understand them emotionally as well as intellectually, would be a hungry and libidinous man, for he and the animals would have the same preoccupations." Therefore I am well suited for my profession!
I find the sex (er, reproduction) in my columns to be far more respectable than "locker room talk" from some people. It is as critical as munching... and breathing (although columns about respiration don't seem to titillate my readers). The variety of modes of reproduction in the marine world are informative. In addition the gender changes that occur in nature may be illustrative... California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) changing from female to male, blue-banded gobies (Lythrypnus dalli) changing from female to male and back to female and the sex of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) depending on water temperature (males like it cool, ladies like it HOT!).
Now I feel comfortable in my gender role as a hot-blooded male marine biologist, and have a decided preference for the hot-blooded ladies, especially if they are wearing neoprene. While beneath the sea, I am always looking out for interesting reproductive behavior. The various dances males in the surfperch family perform to entice their ladies are pretty cool. When I dance with a lady, all she gets is sore feet from my stepping on them.
And very few marine critters adopt the missionary position. They have their own edition of The Kama Sutra. I should state that I have never tried any of their poses myself. Mating rituals are often fairly amusing. Some males such as largemouth blennies (Labrisomus xanti) and painted greenlings (Oxylebias pictus) develop special mating coloration. I do turn red at times when talking about sex.
Sea hares including the California (Aplysia californica) and black (Aplysia vaccaria) and other opisthobranchs are not only hermaphrodites with both sex organs in each individual, but form amazing mating orgies. Many species of fish spawn in large groups at certain times of the year or month. Years ago my buddy Scott Patterson and I saw a huge school of California barracuda (Sphyraena argentea) numbering possibly in the thousands. I'd only seen much smaller schools in the dozens before. My assumption was that they might be spawning.
Now don't get me wrong. Not all ocean critters are as carefree about their mating rituals. Some have the modesty of a Puritan. Our own California wreckfish (aka, giant "sea bass" or Stereolepis gigas) is one of them. Although I have watched males do battle for the attention of the ladies (I don't favor such a bar fight approach), and even foreplay between mated pairs, I have never seen them actually spawn. Back when I worked on a documentary for NHK (Japanese public TV), we tried to film them in "the act" without success.
Of course the mating rituals of these critters don't do much to "excite" me. It's a strictly educational endeavor so I better understand the ecology of a species and our kelp forest ecosystems. I think more divers need to spend time observing all the behaviors of the different species here... not just mating. On one dive I sat enthralled (and shivering) as I watched a solitary zebra "perch" (Kyphosus azureus, formerly Hermosillo azurea) chowing down on a species of red algae. Yes, I know... we marine biologists get our kicks from some strange things!
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Mating market squid and orgy of black sea hares; California sheephead and blue-banded goby; male largemouth blenny in mating coloration and giant "sea bass" pair.
