~ firefly-dreaming a virtual home to learn (or teach!) alternative methods of solving problems we find facing us each day. By sharing ideas & knowledge on living with less stress, more joy & embracing tolerance & compassion we are working towards building a sustainable future for all living beings.
I`m a day late this week, in posting reminders of what kind of life we stand to lose due to the oil gusher in the gulf.
I know it is presently capped, albeit temporarily, but I worry about the situation going south fast.
I feel that the decisions that were made in the last few weeks, are to hide to the public, the fact that they (BP) are not very confident they can stop this disaster, even with the relief wells so near completion.
But I post these images in hopes that people will never forget this disaster, man made, I should add, & never allow it to happen again.
It seems like greed has taken over, regardless of the consequences to the livelihood of humans, & the lives of all the defenseless animals above & below the surface.
Here I am once again & as promised I will only post images of life that is not visible from the surface.
Many people tend to think that life in our oceans consists mostly of fish, crabs, shrimp, & shellfish, like oysters, scallops clams & snails, plus mammals like dolphins, whales, & I have to also mention turtles, the darlings of the gulf.
What many don`t realize is that the above mentioned species make up a small fraction of the biodiversity of the oceans.
In the following images, try & look beyond the main subject, & look to the backgrounds of the images. Every bit of color is a living organism.
The purple on the reef structure is coralline algae.
Every little nook & cranny has little "bugs" living in them.
Every little filament you see is some kind of worm.
The reef is covered with billions & billions of life forms, & I`m just talking about these numbers, pertaining to my reef tanks.The sand at the bottom contains billions of these per cubic inch.
Now these are the bottom of the food chain, but also sometimes the first to die off when the water chemistry is changed by even parts per billion.
When the first link in the food chain is destroyed, the other links fall apart in rapid succession. That`s why I post these images. They are not spectacular in any way as images, but as examples of the spectacular life in the oceans that the planet depends on.
Regardless of their microscopic sizes.
