Feb. 13, 2022 - Sea Critters

We are once again staying on St. George Island, Florida, for January and February. One day we drove to Panacea to visit the Gulf Specimen Lab. One of their tanks had several Lionfish in it. Lionfish are venomous, not poisonous. That means they use their spines to inject venom into their victims. Lionfish flesh contains no venom or poison, so they are safe to eat. There is currently an “Eat Lionfish” campaign which hopes to create a market for this seafood item. Lionfish are considered invasive so any help in reducing the population is welcomed.

LionfishGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201

Sea Cucumbers live on the ocean bottom, and they are found in all of the world’s oceans. There are about 1250 different species of Sea Cucumber. They range in size from less than an inch to over six feet long. This one is only about four inches long.

SeaCucumberGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201

When I was looking in one of the touch tanks, I mentioned to a volunteer that I was hoping to photograph some Sea Stars, but I didn’t see any. He started digging around in the sand and came up with several different species. This one is called a Brittle Sea Star.

SeaStarBrittleGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201

Here’s another type of Sea Star that the volunteer found. However, I forgot to ask the name of this one.

UPDATE: I found out that this is a Two-spined Sea Star (Astropecten duplicatus).

SeaStarPointedGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201

This is the coolest one of all, called a Chocolate Chip Sea Star. It’s found in the warm waters of the Indo-Pacific region. The volunteer told me they can’t put more than one of these sea stars in a tank because they will eat the “chocolate chips” off of each other. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding me or not.

SeaStarChocolateChipGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201

They also have a large tank with several Octopuses in it. We were there during feeding time, and Diana got to feed a piece of fish to one of them.

OctopusCommonGulfSpecimenLabPanacea20220201