Get to Know the Sealife Creatures on the ABC Tea Towel Design printed by Spoonflower
Do you like to know more about each creature living on this ocean ABC tea towel? Find out some information about each illustrated element bellow:
E for Eel: Within the eels, you can find about 800 species. Mostly they live in shallow waters and burrow into mud, rocks or sand. Sometimes you can find them living together in holes. Eels range in length from 5 cm to 4 m, and they swim by generating body waves.
F for Flute fish: Flute fish can reach about 1,7 meter in length. Typical for them is a long, tubular snouts and they live in tropical waters. Flute fish eat little fish and crabs. For camouflage, the animals may also adopt spot patterns. When hunting, they can drift motionlessly near schooling fish, and suddenly dash forward to catch their prey.
K for Killer whale: also known as orca is the largest member of the dolphin family. They have a diverse diet and feed on fish, marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles. They could also attack other adult whales, and don’t have other animal preys on them. They are highly social and their groups can be the most stable of any animal species. Their hunting techniques and vocal behaviours are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations. They can be trained and are often described as intelligent.
O for Octopus: This intelligent creature has a soft body which can easily alter in shape, eight limbs, and excellent sight. The large eyes are on top of the head. There are about 300 species within the octopuses. To defend themselves, they can expulse ink, use camouflage or deceit, or hide quickly in the water. Both males and females die after reproduction.
Q for Queen parrotfish: A characteristic of parrotfish is the strong beak. Adult males show are bluish-green coloured whereas the young males and females are a reddish-brown colour. Queen parrotfish are herbivores and live on coral reefs. Before sleeping, the parrotfish produce a cocoon-like structure to protect them from intruders, such as sharks.
H for Hammerhead shark: Hammerhead sharks show an unusual and distinctive head, which gives them a hammer-like shape and can be used as a weapon when hunting prey such as stingrays, one of their favourite food. You can find hammerhead sharks worldwide in warmer waters, and some hammerhead species swim in schools during the day and hunt solitary at night. They can range in length from 0.9 m to 6 m. Compared to other shark species, their mouth is disproportionally small. Hammerhead sharks give birth to live young, but the parents don’t care about their babies. The baby sharks swim together to warmer waters until they are large and old enough to survive on their own.
W for Whale: Whales are marine mammals, and their closest relatives are the hippopotamuses. They consist of eight families and range in size from 2.6 metres to 29.9 metres, with blue whale being the largest. Some species can dive to great depths to catch favoured prey. Whales evolved from land-living mammals and must breathe air regularly. Most species prefer colder waters, but give birth at the equator. Some species can travel thousands of kilometres without feeding.
X for X-Ray fish: This fish is called X-Ray fish because of its translucent body. It is up to around 5cm in length and lives in the Amazon and Orinoco basins as well as in coastal rivers in the Guianas. It lives in large groups and males are smaller than females. It feeds on small insects and plankton.
A for Anemone: Sea anemones are named by the anemone plant because they often look so colourful. Sea anemones are typically a polyp with tentacles to catch passing prey, and are able to move. Many species live in a symbiotic relationship with other animals such as crabs or most famously, the clownfish.
B for Bannerfish: The bannerfish is a small fish that can reach a length of approximately 20 cm. Bannerfish can feed on zooplankton, and sometimes they act as cleaner fish which means they are cleaning parasites from other fish. Most species live in pairs or larger schools, and it’s a famous aquarium fish.
C for Clownfish: Clownfish are also called anemonefish, and most of us know it from the movie “Finding Nemo”. They can be yellow, orange, or a reddish or blackish colour, depending on their species and form a symbiotic mutualism with sea anemones, each providing benefits to the other. The largest and most aggressive female lives with a group of males. If the female dies, one of the largest and most dominant males becomes a female.
P for Pufferfish: Pufferfish live mostly in the tropical waters and includes many familiar species. Some species of puffers are one of the most poisonous fish in the world when eaten. A pufferfish is covered with pointed spines and can fill its stomach with water until it is much larger and looks like a balloon. When inflating, it’s a defence strategy of the fish. Many species can change the colour or intensity of their patterns and can move their eyes independently.
S for Surgeonfish: The family of surgeonfish includes about 86 species which many of them are brightly coloured and usually live around coral reefs. The distinctive characteristic of surgeonfish is that they have scalpel-like scales on either side of the tail. Also, the spines are very sharp. Surgeonfish often feed in schools on algae.
U for Unicornfish: A character of the unicornfish is the hornlike extension of the forehead. It belongs to the surgeonfish family and bears sharp blades at the base of their tails. You can find unicornfish in the tropical Indo-Pacific region.
Y for Yellow tang: Yello Tang is a saltwater fish and one of the most popular aquarium fish. Adult fish can grow to 20 centimetres with males tend to be larger than females. The bright yellow colouring fades slightly at night whilst a brownish patch with a horizontal white band appears. Female and male look very similar. When mating, males change colour and behaviour. Yellow tang feed on marine plant material and provide cleaning services to marine turtles.
D for Dolphin: There are 40 living species named as dolphins, the biggest one is the killer whale. Their hearing is very well developed, and they could also survive even if they are blind. They Some species can dive to great depths. Dolphins are social, and often travel and hunt in a group. They are threatened by hunting, bycatch, habitat loss and marine pollution.
J for Jellyfish: Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming with tentacles and umbrella-shaped bells. The stinging cells on the tentacles help the jellyfish to capture prey and for defence. You can find jellyfish all over the world, from the deep sea to the surface. They have been in existence for at least 500 million years and range from about one millimetre in diameter and bell height to nearly 2 metres in diameter and bell height. Some small fish live in a symbiotic way with a jellyfish: being immune to the tentacles, the fish serves as bait in a fish trap protected from predators and shares the prey caught by the jellyfish.
M for Mackerel: Mackerels include more than 30 species. You can find them both in tropical and temperate waters. Mackerel is an important food fish as it’s high of omega-3 fatty acids. Some mackerels are excellent swimmers. Mackerel schools are preferably be followed and attacked by whales, dolphins, seabirds, sharks, tuna or marlins.
I for Indian starfish: Indian starfish can reach a diameter of about 7.5 cm to 10 cm. The young are bright red mostly with black tips and change to a duller red when maturing. Usually, the Indian starfish has five arms. But when they are in a regeneration phase, you could also observe six. It lives in all kinds of substrates in lagoons and outer reefs at temperatures between 24 and 28 Degrees.
R for Ray: Rays include over 600 species in 26 families. Sharks are their close relatives. Thus, they have a boneless skeleton made of tough, elastic cartilage. Most rays have a flat, disk-like body and live on the seafloor. They mainly feed on bottom-dwelling species and fish. Manta rays feed on plankton.
V for Viperfish: Viperfish belong to the deepsea fish and have light-producing organs. It's believed that they use it to lure prey and for communication. Characteristics of viperfish are the needle-like teeth and the hinged lower jaw. They range in size from 30 to 60 cm and are found between 1000 – 4000 metres with an average temperature of 4 degree Celsius.
Z for Zebra seahorse: The zebra seahorse is endemic to northern Australia with perfect black and white zebra stripes. It lives in tropical waters and between 20-69 metres. The maximal body length is 8 cm. As common in sea horses the male carries and incubates the eggs in his pouch.
G for Ghost net: Ghost nets are mostly synthetic fishing nets lost or left in the ocean, and a big problem for several fish such as sharks, whales, dolphins, turtles, seabirds, crabs. In the dim light, the nets often are nearly invisible. The marine animals then can entangle and die cruelly in those nets.
N for Narwhal: Narwhal is a toothed whale, and the males possess a large tusk. The tusk is a canine tooth. It belongs with the beluga whale to the same family. Narwhales are medium-sized whales, and the body size can range up to 5.5 metres (without the tusk). They live in arctic waters around Russia, Canada and Greenland. Narwhales can live up to 50 years and communicate with “clicks”, “whistles” and “knocks”.
T for Triggerfish: Triggerfish are about 40 species. The fish is often brightly coloured. Triggerfish inhabit tropical and subtropical areas. Most triggerfish live at coral reefs, and most species have a maximum length of 20 to 50 cm. With their sharp teeth, they can crush shells. According to Wikipedia, they are known to exhibit a high level of intelligence for a fish and have the ability to learn from previous experiences. When guarding eggs, some triggerfish species can be quite aggressive against intruders, such as Picasso and titan triggerfish.
L for Little Red the crab: Little Red the crab has been created in my book “Yimo und die verflixte Muschel”, and you can also find him on my first fabric collection “Coral Reef”. Crabs live in all oceans, in freshwaters, and on land. Crabs vary in size from a few millimetres wide to a leg span up to 4 metres. Typically they walk sideways, whereas little Red and some others walk forwards and backwards. Some are also capable of swimming, as Little Red. By drumming or waving their pincers, crabs can communicate.
With this ocean ABC design printed on a tea towel by Spoonflower, I like to show the beauty and fascinating diversity of the underwater world so that people protect what it’s known and loved.
Source: Wikipedia
