This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, Information, Sites, Snorkeling, Snuba. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Photo Courtesy Katie Velasquez
One of the most deadly and dangerous animals of the ocean is the cone snail. In the above photos, a textile cone (also known as ‘cloth of gold’) is tending to her nest in the left photo and eating a snail in the right photo. Notice the beautiful pattern in the shell. To a rookie shell collector who wishes to obtain this shell for a collection, beware. This animal creates the design in her/his shell using the mantel, which polishes and creates, but also this creature packs a real wallop in the form of venom, which he/she uses to kill their prey. They eat other snails and fish. The venom is, according to researchers, 1,000 times more powerful than cyanide and if a human were to be envenomated, you can only hope to get to a hospital on time to be intubated, time being the only healer to allow the body to deal with the venom while a machine breathes for you, and if necessary, machines to do anything else needed to keep you alive. There is no anti-venom known to science at this time. What is truly amazing to this author is the fact that these snails are being used in science for the venom and the secrets it holds. The properties of peptides and having the capability to provide the best analgesic known has put these snails on the list of most amazing animals. They are raised and milked for their venom, (not destroyed) which is then sold to pharmaceutical companies, who, in turn, make an amazing medicine called Prialt. This medicine is given to those terminally ill patients, and is not addictive, according to scientists. The patient doesn’t have to continually hit that button. That is a wondrous thing, isn’t it?
They are hunters. They are also distinctly male or female, and must mate to produce young. The female then makes a nest, creating these beautiful paper-like packets, which will hold thousands of eggs. The little ones will hatch out after two-three weeks of incubating. The babies are called veligers and will be free swimming and on their own.
Will the average snorkeler be able to see these wonders of nature? The answer is, yes, of course, but one must be very observant since these animals live hiding under rocks, ledges, and maybe burying in the sandy bottoms. Also, most folks know to not touch anything when cruising through coral reefs or peering around in the ocean realm, but these critters give us an extremely good reason to keep our hands to ourselves and teach the children to keep the same respect. The ocean is an amazing place with such a myriad of animals to get to know. Keep visiting this blog site to stay ‘in the know’!
