Solomon’s Sea Life Essay

Get excited, everyone, because this is saildogbark.com’s first ever guest blogger! Solomon is an eleven year old with a big smile and a big desire for fun. He is also, as it turns out, a very good writer!

Solomon and his dad, Eli, were our crew on the passage from Hawaii to the Marquesas. We had a blast with them and hope they had a good time too. On the way, Solomon ended up skipping three weeks of school! To make up for it, one of the things he did was write this amazing essay! The assignment was supposed to be a five paragraph essay but he ended up writing eleven paragraphs! Go Sol! Anyway, here’s the essay:

In this essay I will be teaching you about different types of fish, sharks, dolphins, and Manta Rays in the Marquesas Islands.   We will be discussing creatures such as the Bottlenose Dolphin, which can get up to 13 feet long!  

The first topic we will learn about is fish.  The first fish is the Wahoo, also known as Ono.  It has big blue stripes, but when it dies its’ tiger-like stripes fade away to grey.  Wahoo’s habitat is the surface of the open seas, usually well offshore.  Their range is Atlantic New York to North of South America, including the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.  They also live in the Pacific from California to tropical South America.

The second fish is the Mahi Mahi, also known as a Dolphin or Dorado.  They also have colorful blue, green, and yellow scales that fade to grey when it dies.  Mahi mostly eat squid, shrimp, shad, and Flying Fish.  Mahi’s regular hangout spots are at the surface to 300 feet down. Mahi also mate for life.  Males have big heads, while females have a smaller box-shaped head.  They typically live up to 6 years.  

The last fish is the Big Eye Tuna.  It is very good for sushi.  They can grow to weigh up to 435lbs, and can be up to 7’9” long!  They have metallic dark blue scales above and whitish scales below.  In Japan commercial fisherpeople use long lines to catch Big Eye Tuna.  This involves using a line that may be up to 20 miles long. A related species is Black Fin Tuna. They grow up to 3’ long.  Its’ habitat is from Massachusetts  to Brazil, including Bermuda.  

Next, we will be discussing sharks.  The first shark is the Bonnethead shark, which is part of the Hammerhead family. They can grow up to 4’6” long. The position of its’ eyes makes it so that it can look in all directions, and also gives it better depth perception.  It is grey or greyish brown on top and paler below.  Its’ habitat is shallow inshore waters, usually over sand.  The Bonnethead is harmless to people.  It feeds on a variety of crustaceans, mollusks, and fish.  They are often caught on hook and line, and sometimes eaten.

The Blacktip Shark grows up to 8’ long.  Blacktip’s backs are grey and the belly is white.  All fins have a black tip on them.  When they get older their black tips fade.   Their habitat is coastal waters and offshore.  A related species is the Spinner Shark, with a habitat of North Carolina to Florida and the East coast of Mexico.  Both of these sharks are noted for leaping and spinning.  They also swim in packs of 6-12.

Dolphins are also found in the Marquesas Islands, including the Spinner Dolphin.  They can grow up to 8’ long and weigh up to 180lbs.  Their diet consists of small fish, squid, and crustaceans.  Spinner Dolphins are fast and highly energetic swimmers.   They can be found at the surface.  Spinner Dolphins get their name because they jump and spin in the air.  There is no reliable estimate of the world population, but certainly there are many hundreds of thousands.  They are believed to be one of the most abundant dolphins in the world.  The best places to look for them are in the northern Hawaiian Islands and in the Bahia de Petatlan.

Another species is the Bottle Nose Dolphin.  They have a very big bottle-shaped nose and can be up to 13’ long.  They also can weigh up to 1300lbs.  They eat mainly fish and squid.  Scientists don’t know exactly how many there are on Earth, but their population is believed to be at least 600,000.  Bottle Nose Dolphins have a light grey belly with a grey back.

Also found in these waters is the rare Melon Headed Whale, which is also known as the Electra Dolphin, Little Killer Whale, and the Many Toothed Black Fish.  They get up to 9.2’ long and weigh up to 600lbs.  Their diet consists of squid, various types of small fish, and some crustaceans.   There is no reliable place to find them, however there are some 450 Melon Headed Whales around Hawaii, and 8,000 throughout the archipelago of Hawaii. Melon Headed Whales were thought to be dolphins but then a large herd was caught and killed in Japan.  It was discovered that they were not a dolphin or a whale, but deserved their own family.   They are, however, still considered part of the dolphin family. 

Manta Rays are another interesting species that lives in the waters around the Marquesas Islands.  The Manta Ray has a large U-shaped mouth and it’s eyes are on the sides of its’ head.  It has 96-360 teeth and 40-45 spiral valves.  Mantas are usually found in water at about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. They swim in groups of 30-50, sometimes followed by sharks, other rays, large bony fishes, and birds.  Mantas eat 13% of their body weight per week in plankton.  That is 200kg of plankton per week for a Manta with a 5 disc width.

As you can see, there are many amazing aquatic animals in the Marquesas Islands.   During my sailing adventure in the Marquesas I was lucky enough to see Blacktips, Dorado, Big Eye, Wahoo, Spinner Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins, and Manta Rays.  Hopefully someday you will get to travel here too.

SOURCES:

Carwardine, Mark.  Whale Watching In North America.  New York:  Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.  Print.

Ebert, David.  Sharks, Rays, and Chimeras of California.  Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. Print.

Gotshall, Daniel W. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales & Dolphins. New York: Alfred A Knopf Inc, 1983. Print.