Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Voyage of the Magical Ship / Day 2

Prompt for Tuesday, Day 2 of April 2016 Mini-Challenge, Voyage of the Magical Ship: Monday was all about flowers and foliage - and someplace warmer! Tuesday is about water. Rain even counts as water. Let's see where we can go that has plenty of water. If you like, you can repeat Monday's prompt and take us someplace with plenty of colorful flowers.

Water

Just Facts:

Chemistry tells us water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. The human body is more than 60 per cent water. Blood is 92 percent water. Muscles are 75 percent water and bones are 22 percent water.

Amniotic fluid starts out as mainly water containing parts that are electrolytes, then at 12 to 14 weeks of the baby’s life proteins , carbohydrates, lipids, phospholipids and urea are added.

Moving On:

After climbing around in trees to get great bird pictures and crawling in and out of many cave entrances on Seran a little rest on the ship with a good book will be welcome. I spread out on deck with sunscreen, sunglasses, and my straw hat in a cosy deck chair. I thought about getting Andre to play a game of Scrabble but he is to busy climbing the mast and throwing fish heads to the seagulls that follow the ship everywhere. So I will go back to reading “The Girl In The Spiders Web.”

Several Days of Travel Later:

This morning, I talked to the captain about where we are headed. He said we better dig out the Scuba gear and do all relevant checks. I’m guessing the next stop involves lots of H2O. Did you know you can reach 70 per cent of the planet when you can breathe under water? Floating weightlessly in water with your eyes closed can still your mind. It is a good way to meditate.

At one time, maybe 60 years ago diving was a dangerous specialty. But, like everything now, with the information age, technological advances have put it within the reach of the average person. Of course, there are technicalities that have to be met. For instance, you have to fill out a Fitness for Diving Medical Questionnaire and take training classes. But, we are on the Voyage of the Magical Ship so I assume all those preliminaries are already handled.

It may be as high as one forth of the ocean’s species that depend on Coral Reefs. The startling figure of $172 billion US dollars are made from coral Reefs every year. Some estimates of the value of the reefs on the USA coastlines go as high as $30 billion. The money is made from medicine, tourism, fishing, science research and other types of use.

Coral is a living creature. Tropical reefs are made of the calcium carbonate skeleton of stony corals. The name coral includes many different species of this sea creature. And, like many wild things coral is ecologically under attack. Climate change is destroying the Coral reefs with the temperature fluctuations in the water. The reefs need clear water for high light penetration to continue to survive. That’s why the best reefs with the most species are present in the Indo Pacific Oceans. Corals are also found in the Atlantic Caribbean areas as well but not in as many numbers.

They have two ways to reproduce. One: sexual reproduction increases genetic diversity. Two: Asexual reproduction, is the division of the poly when it reaches mature ability which increases the size of the colony. Everything depends on the stability of water temperatures and light. So many other species of fish depend on the coral for habitat and food.

Coral reefs hold a beauty of color and species diversity, it makes them fascinating to observe. Well, the captain just called down to the deck. The guide is ready and I have my scuba gear on. Hey! Andre, quit throwing coconuts into the water and get ready to dive everyone else is already in the water.

Lets Dive!:

References:
A. www.Scuba.About.com
B. www.Wikipedia.org
C. www.Youtube.com/national geographic
D. Ocean.si.edu/corals-and-reefs (Smithsonian Ocean Portal)
E. Coralreef.noaa.gov.