Underwater ’treasures’

When the Lionfish was first discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida (around 1990), many people, including scientists, had no idea how quickly the species would spread and what an impact it would have in the Caribbean.

Shells: Spiny oysters

Of course, you can also find shells of bivalves such as oysters on the beaches in the ABC-islands. And one of the families you can encounter is the genus of the Spiny Oysters.

Forests on the semi-arid ABC islands (2) – Wet forests

The most striking ‘wet’ forests in the world, but still somewhat the ‘underdogs’ of the forests as a whole, are the mangrove forests, the only forests that can grow and flourish in and near salt water.
Mangrove forests were the neglected child, forgotten by many despite major information campaigns by nature organisations over the years.

Shells: Atlantic dove snail

A common shell found on beaches on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.

Blue-legged hermit crabs

There are several species of hermit crabs and one of them is the blue-legged hermit crab, an animal that can be found in shallow water in various parts of the Caribbean Sea and therefore also on our island.

Shells: Caribbean Four-tooth Nerite

Marine snails which are part of the Nerite family often have small teethlike protrusions which can often be found on the mouth plate (columella fold), the calcerous part at the opening at the bottom of the shell where the slug’s body moves to the outside.

Ten-legged alien

This beautiful and delicate creature is a relatively abundant inhabitant of the Caribbean coastal waters. It belongs to the order of Decapoda which is Latin for ten (deca) legged (poda), but most non-scientists will just refer to the name crabs while talking about these creatures.

Shells: Common purple snail

In 1758 Linnaeus gave the scientific name Janthina janthina to a tiny and very delicate purple / blue snail shell and its snail inhabitant.

Shells – The Bleeding Tooth Nerite

This snail and shell species has quite a name in English: the Bleeding Tooth Nerite. It is kind of logical though if you take a good look at the shell this snail species builds for itself.

A plastic cup on the head

If you look around critically in any random supermarket or shop and analyse how much plastic is used, how much plastic is available and how much is disposed of as…

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