National Geographic: Jewels of the Caribbean Sea Page #5

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The baby heads instinctively

for its ocean home.

If a female, she may return to

this very beach to lay her own eggs

in 25 years or so.

If a male,

he will never again leave the water.

Now the baby turtle must cross

the reef and make its way to

the open ocean.

It's a dangerous crossing.

Predators gather quickly when the sea

is full of hatching turtles.

But this turtle is lucky.

After 36 hours of nonstop swimming,

the hatchling finds shelter.

It will spend its first year near

the sargassum fronds, later head north,

then eastward across the Atlantic

to the Azores and the Canary Islands.

The flotsam of the sea accumulates

where ocean currents converge.

Sargassum weed and other drifting plant

and animal life also gather here,

along with an increasing mass of

human rubbish.

Jellyfish congregate here too,

and one is the first meal

for the newly hatched loggerhead.

These waters often teem with jellyfish

and some of them are

voracious predators.

This large stinging cauliflower

has captured several moon jellies.

They are helpless

in its deadly tentacles.

The medusa fish may be resistant to

the cauliflower's stinging cells

or just incredibly nimble.

It feeds on scraps and leftovers from

the cauliflower's meals

and uses the broad bell as

a personal magic carpet.

Convergent currents drive

moon jellyfish together

by the tens of thousands.

Their translucent bodies form

a gently pulsing cathedral in the sea.

The sargassum weed is a safe nursery

for many Caribbean reef fish.

Spawned on the reef, schools of

baby fish hide here in the open sea

until they are old enough to return

to their more hazardous home.

A loggerhead turtle

is hunting for lobster.

The lobster uses its spiny antennae.

They are covered with sharp barbs

and the lobster aims them

at the turtle's eyes

with uncanny accuracy.

Eventually the loggerhead discouraged

and returns to his home in the wreck.

In a long, slow-paced life,

one lobster more or less

makes little difference.

Adult loggerheads lead settled lives.

They hunt by day and at night

usually hole up to sleep

in a favorite crevice.

Another turtle, a hawksbill,

is on the prowl.

She eats sponges.

She spends her days searching out

the varieties she likes best.

When she finds one, she contents

herself with just a few bites

and then moves on.

The sponge will survive.

Its tissue will heal and later

the turtle will be back for more.

For the French angelfish the sponge

is now an easy meal,

because the turtle has torn through

its outer layer.

But this sponge has a defender.

Some damselfish are farmers.

They cultivate patches of algae

on sponges that they rely on for food.

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