The Black Sea: the inhabitants of the depths. Photo and description

Who was not at least once on the Black Sea coast, did not dive into a gentle transparent wave, did not bask on pebble beaches under the rays of a summer or autumn sun, he probably lost a lot! And in warm, like fresh milk, water, of course, we have repeatedly met inhabitants of the Black Sea: dangerous and not very much. About who lives in one of the most unique seas of the planet, read in our article.

Uniqueness of the environment

The Black Sea, both in composition and in the nature of the settlement of living beings and vegetation, is unique and very peculiar. It is divided in depth into two different zones. To the depth of 150, sometimes 200 meters, there is an oxygen zone, where the inhabitants of the Black Sea live. Anything below 200 meters is a hydrogen sulfide zone devoid of life and occupying more than 85% of the water mass. So living is possible only where there is oxygen (less than 15% of the territory).

Who lives here?

Inhabitants of the Black Sea are algae and animals. The first - several hundred species, the second - more than two and a half thousand. Of these, 500 are unicellular, 1900 are invertebrates, 185 are fish, and 4 are mammals.

Phytoplankton

Black Sea ... Its inhabitants - all kinds of algae: ceratsium, peridinium, excuvilla and some others. At the very beginning of spring, the peak of algae reproduction is observed. Sometimes even the water seems to change its color, becoming from turquoise and blue brown. This is due to the increased division of plankton (the flowering of water). Rhizosolenia, hetoceros, and skletonoma multiply intensively. While the mass reproduction of phytoplankton is timed to the beginning and middle of summer. Among the bottom algae, it can be noted phyllophora, which is more than 90% of the total mass. Phyllophora is common in the north-west. Cystoseira, another algae, is more common near the southern shores of the Crimean part. There lives a lot of fry, feeding and living among algae (more than 30 species of fish).

Benthic animals

Among animals living on the ground or in the bottom of the sea bed (benthos) - various invertebrates: crayfish and crayfish, worms, rhizomes, sea anemones and mollusks. Benthos include the gastropods, for example, all known rapana, and other inhabitants of the Black Sea. The list can be continued: mussel, scallop, mollusks - plate-gill. Fish: flounder, stingray, sea dragon, ruff and others. They form a single ecosystem. And a single food chain.

Jellyfish

Permanent inhabitants of the Black Sea are jellyfish, large and small. Cornerot is a large jellyfish, very common. The size of its dome sometimes reaches half a meter. Cornerot is poisonous, he can cause injuries similar to nettle burns. They cause mild redness, burning, sometimes - blisters. That this large jellyfish with a slightly purple dome does not sting, it is necessary to take her hand to the side, holding the top and not touching the tentacles.

Aurelia is the smallest jellyfish of the Black Sea. She is not as poisonous as her brother, but still meeting with her should also be avoided.

Shellfish

Sea inhabitants of the Black Sea are mussels, oysters, scallops, and rapans. All these shellfish are edible and represent raw materials for delicious dishes. For example, oysters and mussels are bred specially. Oysters are very tenacious and can do without water for about two weeks. They can live up to 30 years. Their meat is considered delicate.

Mussels are less refined. Sometimes in a large shell find a pearl, usually a pinkish color. Mussels are sea water filters. At the same time, everything accumulated in them that has been filtered out. Therefore, they can only be eaten with careful processing, and it is better to avoid eating mussels that have grown in the port or in other places with heavily polluted water.

Sea inhabitants of the Black Sea are scallops. This peculiar mollusc can move in water, using a reactive force. He quickly slams the sink shells and is carried by a stream of water for a distance of more than a meter. And the scallops have a hundred useless eyes. But with all this, this mollusc is blind! These are the mysterious inhabitants of the sea.

In the Black Sea is found and rapa. This mollusc is a predator, and its prey is the same mussels and oysters. But he has very tasty meat, reminiscent of sturgeon, from which you get a great soup.

Crabs

In total there are eighteen species in the water area. All of them do not reach large sizes. The largest is the red one. But he is no more than 20 centimeters in diameter.

Fish

In the Black Sea, there are about 180 species of all kinds of fish, including: sturgeon, beluga, anchovy, herring, tulka, horse mackerel, tuna, flounder, goby. Seldom swims sword fish. There is a sea horse, a fish-needle, a sea cock, and the sea.

Of commercial fish - mullet, which is as many as three species, bearing ash, imported from the Sea of Japan and became an object of fishing. Due to the strongest water pollution, the mullet population has recently decreased.

Among the original specimens - a starfish fish or a sea cow. She buries into the silt deeply, so that on the surface was exposed one antennaic, which resembles the appearance of a worm. Antenna fish lure small fishes and feed on them.

The sea needle and the horse spawn not into the water, but into the skin folds on the backs of the males, where it is located right up to the conclusion of the fry. It is interesting that the eyes of these fish can look in different directions and rotate autonomously relative to each other.

Stavrida is distributed throughout the coastal water area of the sea. Its length is 10-15 centimeters. Weight - up to 75 grams. Sometimes he lives up to three years. It feeds on small fishes and zooplankton.

Pelamida is a relative of mackerel. It reaches a length of up to 75 centimeters, lives up to 10 years. This predatory fish, feeding and spawning in the Black Sea, for the winter leaves through the Bosporus.

Bulls are represented by 10 species. The largest is a martovik, or a toad. The most numerous is a round timber.

Zelenushek in the sea - 8 species. They feed on worms and molluscs. During the spawning period, nests are built between the stones.

Flounder-kalkan also occurs in the Black Sea everywhere. She eats fish and crabs. Reaches a weight of 12 kilograms. There are other types of flounder.

Scuttail is a relative of a shark. He eats crabs, shellfish, shrimp. Has on the tail a needle with barbs, equipped with a poisonous gland. Her injection for a person is very painful, sometimes even fatal.

The speaker, or sea bass, often comes across in the spring and in the summer when he visits these waters for spawning. It feeds on zooplankton. The weight of the perch barely reaches 100 grams. It is considered one of the main types of production of an amateur fisherman.

Sargan - a fish longer than half a meter, arrow-shaped, with an elongated beak. Spawns in May - August. Migrates and hibernates in the Sea of Marmara.

Luffar refers to predatory and herd fish. It weighs up to 10 kilograms, reaches a meter in length. Body of fish from sides oblong. Mouth large, with large jaws. Only feeds on fish. Previously it was considered commercial.

Sharks

Catran (or sea dog) rarely grows up to two meters. A cat's shark (scillium) - more than a meter. These two species of sharks, which are found in the Black Sea, do not represent any danger to humans. But for many species of fish, these are cruel predators. Meat sharks (as well as their liver and fins) are used to prepare various dishes of the Black Sea cuisine. From the liver katrana make a medicine that blocks the reproduction of cancer cells.

Katran has a streamlined body, a crescent-shaped mouth and sharp teeth, arranged in several rows. His body is covered with small, but sharp thorns (hence the nickname - prickly shark). Katran is a viviparous fish. The female produces light at a time up to 15 small fry. Keeps and feeds Katan flocks. Spring and autumn - close to the shore, in winter - at depths.

Inhabitants of the Black Sea - dolphins (toothed whales)

In total there are three types in these waters. The largest are bottlenose dolphins. Slightly less - blondochki. The smallest ones are sea pigs, or Azov.

Afalina is the most common inhabitant of dolphinariums. For science, this species is of great importance. It is the bottlenose dolphin that scientists around the world are studying for the presence of reason. They are born circus performers. The amphibians are happy to perform a variety of tricks. It seems that they really have intelligence. This is not even training, but some kind of cooperation and understanding between the dolphin and man. Afalines understand only caress and encouragement. Punishment is not perceived at all, then any trainer ceases to exist for them.

Afalina lives up to 30 years. Its weight sometimes reaches 300 kilograms. The length of the body is up to two and a half meters. These dolphins are well adapted to the aquatic environment. The front fins serve as the steering wheel for turns and brakes at the same time. Caudal fin - a powerful propeller, which allows to develop a decent speed (over 60 km / h).

The achalines have acute sight and hearing. They eat fish and shellfish (they eat up to 25 kilograms per day). They can hold their breath for more than 10 minutes. Dive to a depth of 200 meters. Body temperature is 36.6 degrees, as in humans. Breathing dolphins, periodically rising outward, air. They are actually sick with the same diseases as people. Sleep bottlenose dolphins half a meter from the surface, under water, periodically opening their eyes.

The way of life of dolphins is herd and family (up to ten generations together). The head of the family is a female. Male individuals are held by a separate clan, showing an interest in females mainly only during mating.

The dolphins are very powerful. But as a rule, it is not applied to a person. With people, dolphins maintain the most friendly relations, as if with brothers in the mind. During the long history of the relationship between man and the dolphin, no attempt was made to offend the "big brother". But people often infringe on the rights of dolphins, putting experiments on them, imprisoning them in the dolphinarium.

A lot has been written about the language of dolphins. We will not say, like some scholars, that he is richer than human speech. However, it contains a huge set of sounds and gestures, which allows you to still talk about some kind of dolphin's mind. And the amount of information that they can transmit, and a large (more than a human) brain - to that weighty evidence.

It remains to add that seals are found in mammals on the Black Sea, but recently there has been very little of them because of the harmful activities of man.

On the land

Not only sea inhabitants and the human tribe feed on seafood. Some species of birds living on land produce their own feed in water. Inhabitants of the land, who produce food in the sea are gulls and cormorants. They feed on fish. Cormorant, for example, can perfectly swim and dive, eating a large amount of fish, even when full. Features of his pharynx allow you to swallow a fairly large prey. Thus, birds are the main inhabitants of the land, extracting food in the sea of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the Crimea.

Black Sea: dangerous inhabitants

Not all holidaymakers and tourists coming to the Black Sea coast know that people bathering in the water may be in danger. They are associated not only with the storm warning and the pitfalls, but also with some representatives of the marine fauna.

Scorpion, or sea urchin, refers to such unpleasant surprises. Her whole head is studded with thorns, and on her back - a prickly dangerous fin. It is not recommended to take scorpion, since its thorns are poisonous and bring quite unpleasant, albeit brief, painful sensations.

Scuttail (sea cat) is also a danger, sometimes even fatal to humans. On the tail of the animal is a bone spike, smeared with poisonous mucus. This spike with notches often inflicts lacerations that last long. Also, from a stingray, vomiting, muscle paralysis, and a heart beat increase. Sometimes death comes, so be careful.

Another, seemingly inconspicuous, fish - sea dragon - is dangerous to humans most of all. At first glance, you can take it for an ordinary bull. But on the back of this fish is a spiny fin, very poisonous. A prick is tantamount to a bite of a poisonous snake. In some cases, a lethal outcome is possible.

Jellyfish rooters and aurelia inhabiting the Black Sea are dangerous inhabitants for humans. Their tentacles are equipped with stinging cells. Possible burns (as from nettles and stronger), leaving traces for several hours. So it's better not to touch the jellyfish - even to the dead, thrown by the waves on the shingle.

Neither shark, nor other species of animals and fish are dangerous for people in the waters of the Black Sea. So bathe boldly, coming to the famous Black Sea resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus, observing, of course, reasonable care!