Artist Interview for Art After Dark by Highlight Media (from the last show)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEi_w3MPdJc
Mermaid Scientist Interview at Art After Dark
Category Archives: Mermaid Alphabet
Introducing the characters in The Mermaid Alphabet Book
U is for Urchin – part deux – in color
Pyllacanthus imperialis – Imperial Pencil Urchin
Echinometra mathaei – Matha’s Sea Urchin
Mesplia globula – Jewel Case Sea Urchin
Tagalog/Tagbanua: Tayong
There is a lovely variety of colorful sea urchins with all lengths and sizes of spines in the Coral Triangle. The Imperial Pencil Urchin is a dramatic orange maroon, Matha’s Sea Urchin has brown white tipped spines like a hedgehog and the Jewel case urchin has a vibrant royal blue that shines within the sea grass beds.
Z is for Zooxanthellae
Z is for Zooxanthellae
Scientific name/Genus: Symbiodinium
Tagalog word for green: Berde
The teeny green Zooxanthellae,
Lives like a freckle in an anemone tentacle.
They sway together in the sun,
Sharing and growing until the day is done.
W is for Whale Shark
Scientific name: Rhincodon typus
Tagbanua/Tagologue: Butanding
The biggest fish in the entire ocean.
A gentle giant, a ‘’whale of a shark ‘’.
She cruises the ocean and eats pink clouds of krill,
She does not have teeth like other sharks,
so no need to worry if you meet in the warm tropical seas of the Coral Triangle.
U is for Urchin
Pyllacanthus imperialis – Imperial Pencil Urchin
Diadema spp. – Long Spined Urchin
Echinometra mathaei – Matha’s Sea Urchin
Mesplia globula – Jewel Case Sea Urchin
Tagalog/Tagbanua: Tayong
There is a lovely variety of colorful sea urchins with all lengths and sizes of spines in the Coral Triangle. The Imperial Pencil Urchin is a dramatic orange maroon, Diadema is a dramatic black with electric blue highlights, Matha’s Sea Urchin has brown white tipped spines like a hedgehog and the Jewel case urchin has a vibrant royal blue that shines within the sea grass beds.
(this is a pencil sketch pre watercolor)
T is for Turtle
T is for The Green Sea Turtle
Scientific name: Chelonia mydas
Pawikan
I am a Green Sea Turtle and turtles are reptiles.
I munch on tasty sea grass shoots.
I glide through the ocean hunting delicious jellyfish.
I can hold my breath for 7200 seconds, That is 2 whole hours.
Unlike land turtles, I am super fast!
With a flick of my fins away I go
Away to the places only sea turtles know.
S is for Sea Snake Secret
Scientific name: Laticauda colubrina
Common Name: Banded Sea Krait
Tagalog: Walo Walo
I am shy, slender and graceful.
I swim gently along the sunny reef looking for tiny fish to eat.
I float on the surface to fill my lungs
I float to warm up in the sun.
Once in a blue moon I go ashore, to a sea cave hidden from the world.
There is a dry sandy beach where my secret is safe.
The secret is my dear little sea snake babies.
The sea cave is where my babies are born from their eggs.
Being born in a safe cave will protect them from hungry sea monsters.
R is for Reef
R is for Reef Realestate
Native Name: Bahura
The Reef is an underwater ocean city
Made of the colors & creatures also found in the depths of your imagination.
Brilliant blue angels & purple porcupines
Tangerine sponges & lemon sharks
Dolphin queens & dugong kings
Creepy crawlers, poisonous spines, silky pearls & polka dots
of every shape and size.
Some eat plants, some eat each other.
Forever living, forever breathing, watching, building, swimming and eating.
They dance, enchant and take your breath away.
Forever & ever & ever
Q is for Quinque
Q is for Quinque
Scientific Name: Quinquelineatus
Common Name: Five-lined snapper
Tagalog: Maya maya
A lot can be found in a name.
This is a school of Five Lined Snapper aka Lutjanus quinqueliniatus
We enjoy swimming and eating together over the coral reef.
Quinque means five.
Qunique is an important part of our scientific name.
It describes who we are and what we look like.
We have five of something, can you figure out what?
Hint: it’s long and blue.
P is for Purple Parrotfish Poop
P is for Purple Parrotfish Poop
Scientific Name: Scarus niger
Palawan: Mol Mol, Tagalog: Loro Loro
These Parrotfish are one of many contributors to the beautiful tropical white sand beaches in The Coral Triangle. They are particularly fond of eating the algae film that grows on coral. They chomp into the coral with their beak (actually fused teeth) to get a mouthful of both coral and algae. The crushed coral helps the fish digest the algae and is then pooped out in the form of particularly perfect, soft, white sand. Next time you are relaxing on your tropical vacation, remember to thank the parrotfish.
Side Note: These particularly pretty purple parrotfish look most like the male Swarthy Parrotfish – Scarus niger. The ones observed here have slightly different spot patterns behind the eyes but it could be a local variation or due to a shift between initial and terminal phases. This is the way I saw them so this is the way I paint them. There is also that glorious possibility that they are a new species, sigh, the scientific holy grail.
pen ketch of Female (above) and Male (below)
O is for Octopus
O is for Octopus
Scientific name: Amphioctopus marginatus
Tagalog: Pugita
The Coconut Octopus of The Coral Triangle is a multi-talented mollusk. He can change color to tell you how he’s feeling, solve puzzles, catch fish, blow ink, swim, crawl, explore, befriend mermaids
AND, most impressively, he joins the elite group of species on planet earth who use tools. His favorites include coconuts and clam shells and uses them for protection. Like the nudibranch, he is a soft and squishy little guy who feels exposed and naked when walking across the ocean floor. A clam shell acts like an army helmet or bunker, making a safe place to hide when a hungry sea monster attacks.
Video: http://bcove.me/u67wa3sj
N is for Nudibranch
N is for Nematocyst Nipping Nudibranchs
Scientifice name: Chromodoris elizabethina (left) & Chromodoris annulata
Tagalog: Dugo Dugo
“Nudis” are a brightly beautiful group of sea snails without shells. When you are a tiny, squishy sea creature with out a shell, you can feel a little nude and unprotected. Anemones don’t have shells either but they do have stingers. Nudis have a special way to collect anemone stingers (aka nematocyts).
First they go up to the anemone and touch it to make sure it is really an anemone. Then they retreat back to a safe distance. Next, they charge back to the anemone and start munching on the dangerous tentacles, they swallow the stingers and absorb their power. Soon the little Nudi is able to sting like an anemone. This is why Nudibranchs eat the poisonous stingers off of anemone tentacles. Stingers are not just delicious treat for these brilliant little sea slugs.
M is for Mola Mola
M is for Mola Mola
Scientific Name: Mola mola
The Mola Mola is also known as The Sunfish because she likes to bask in the sun. She dives into the cold dark depths of the ocean to fill up her belly with jellyfish. When the cool deep waters chill her bones, she swims all the way back up, up, up to the surface, lies on her side and soaks up the warm sun rays. Sometimes a sea bird will drop down and pick off all the little hitchhiking bugs on her tail. Because they are so slow and docile, they are the most highly parasitized fish in the ocean (Disgustingly long tape worms are a common hitchhiker).
The little orange fish on the left is a baby picture, from when she was a teeny tiny microscopic mola mola floating in the plankton as she grew and grew. Molas are the largest teleosts and grow from 10 microns to over 10 feet wide.
L is for Lady Lobster
L is for Lobster
Scientific Name: Panulirus ornatus
Tagalog: Panga
Lobsters in the tropics are a lovely combination of bright colors. They have sharp tail spines for protection against those that hope for a tasty lobster dinner. Tropical lobsters in The Coral Triangle are different from their American East Coast brethren in another way too, they do not have claws.
Wherever they hail from, all lady lobsters have wider tails so that when they become lobster mamas they have a place to carry their brood. They mature under the big strong tail, leaf shaped pleopods and sharp tail spines.
Most fisherman consider it good practice to throw lady lobsters or “eggers” back in the water so that they will make more and more lobsters to catch in years to come.
Mermaid Scientist 