Chase, probe, embrace, flex, push. It’s probably too much information, but that is how krill mate.The behavior was recorded on a deepsea camera 500 meters below the surface of the Southern Ocean
Chase, probe, embrace, flex, push. It’s probably too much information, but that is how krill mate.
The behavior was recorded on a deepsea camera 500 meters below the surface of the Southern Ocean back in 2011 by Australian Antarctic Division researchers – who then made an animated illustration of this special “dance.”
Krill can change from adults to juveniles, and they can survive over 200 days of starvation, reducing their size by using their own body proteins rather than molting their exoskeleton.
They are known for being an important food source for whales, seals and penguins and for helping to sequester carbon deep in oceanic waters as their exoskeletons and poo sink to the seafloor.
They are at risk from over-fishing, climate change and ocean acidification, and a new project to monitor their population from space was announced this week by researchers from University of Strathclyde, WWF and the British Antarctic Survey.
The ability to do this was recently facilitated by the identification of the signal associated with the pigment that turns the krill red.
It’s estimated that there could be up to 500 million tons of krill swimming (and mating) in the Southern Ocean.
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