Ocean Soup in the "undisturbed" waters off SE North Carolina:

Out here these animals are the ordinary inhabitants, and we are the curious looking aliens.

I've called these beroids or beroid ctenophores. They are a family within the Phylum Ctenophora known more commonly as Comb Jellies. Beroids lack the tentacles found in comb jellies but, like comb jellies propel themselves through the seas with luminescent cilia set along prominent longitudinal ribs. Look closely, and the flashing luminescence can be seen; most notably on the left marginal rib in the second picture. The lateral zipper-looking line is the animal's mouth, and when feeding will gape open to swallow prey whole. All the white and blue dots in the water column are planktonic organisms and possibly a potential meal for the beroid. It also appears the beroid has severely damaged tissue along its left side. This beroid is round 12cm/5 in. in length and if it continues to survive wounds and dodge predators may grow to 30cm/12in.

It reminds me of automobile designs when I was a kid. ; )

 Ocean Soup and the Garden of Live Flowers:

In the waters off SE North Carolina: More macro by Julep Gillman-Bryan. These appear to be some sort Telesto-like octocoral. I don't ever recall seeing them until we processed this frame. So I've no idea other than they are obviously octocorals. If anyone recognises them, please educate us. Beyond that, they are exquisitely beautiful. And as always, we do well to remind ourselves of how much the "undisturbed" seas off our coast and the organisms within GIVE to us.

 Ocean Soup and the Garden of Live Flowers:

In the "undisturbed waters" of offshore South East North Carolina: This photo was taken by Julep Gillman-Bryan. She has not been able to get round to posting her work; so I'm taking on the task. This a Macro photo shot of small, sessile marine invertebrates called Telestos. In our waters, they are a commonly observed sub-family of soft octocorals. The stems are coloured red to orange and in my observations, do not extend more than 60-80 mm above the substrate. The polyps give the appearance of bright white flowers with a spread of 20-30 mm This picture is an example of colonial stems with individual polyps emerging to spread their eight tentacles into the current and capture passing, small, organisms for a meal. If threatened the polyps withdraw into the stem. They can be found in groupings from a single colony a few sq. cm in area or massed in an area several metres square. I'm uncertain as to what their range of depth is. I've observed them a depths from 16m/50ft to 35m/115ft. They seem tolerant of colder water temps to 10C/50F.

Waving in the currents in a spellbinding dance of life and sustenance. Such animals are bits of the whole, not only linked together as a biological unit but in the natural churning and cycling that maintains the mutual health of the whole ocean...for them...and us.

A poem by Hafiz from the book ‘The Subject Tonight Is Love’, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

The sky
Is a suspended blue ocean.

The stars are the fish
That swim.

The planets are the white whales
I sometimes hitch a ride on,

And the sun and all light
Have forever fused themselves

Into my heart and upon
my skin.

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,

For every sign Hafiz has ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,

“Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloveds Divine
Game

O, in the Beloved’s
Wonderful
Game

 

You're my babe, got my eye on you! A Coney, a small seabass, takes in the activities of the neighbourhood.

"There is an inner wakefulness

that directs the dream,

and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.”

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī 

 The Small Things that Linger in the Corner of My Minds Eye:

A Brittle Star, Ophiuroidea sp. moves along the outer surface of an Iridescent Tube Sponge. The five armed Brittle Stars shelter within larger invertebrate organisms, primarily sponges and coral heads during daylight; emerging after sundown to scavenge for a meal of organic detritus that has settled on their host.