News for the kids to learn about the bay? ou ready Are y of Tampa Bay! Got a Question? Winter 2018-19 Ask a Scientist! I love the ocean! In This Issue: Can the ocean be • Learn How are Named! my valentine? • Mark your Calendar: Coastal Cleanup The ocean would make a • Meet and Greet: Festive great valentine! There are Friends many ocean animals that • Valentine’s Fun Facts are always in the Valentine’s • Fun Activity: Valentine’s Fish Day spirit! The pink anemone, flamefish, red porgy, polka-dot Image: Classification of Humans. ribbonfish, pink candy crab, rose coral, and the cuttlefish, to name a few! How do an organism. The categories range from really these animals get these festive names? large and broad—containing many different Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish scientist born organisms—all the way down to the double in 1707, created a simple, standard way name, or scientific name, which describes the to classify and name organisms. Because distinct name of a specific organism. of this, Carl Linnaeus is known as the If we were going to sort humans using this “Father of .” (Taxonomy is way, we would start in Kingdom Animalia the science of how living things are (animals), moving down the pyramid to grouped, classified, and named.) Before Phylum Chordata (having a spinal cord), Linnaeus, many biologists gave animals Class Mammalia (animals that nurse their long, complicated, and unreliable names. young), Order Primates (animals having large Two scientists could be calling the same Mark your Calendars! complex brains and opposable thumbs), organism by two different names—you Family Hominidae (ability to walk upright), can imagine how confusing this could be! GREAT until we get down to the Homo Linnaeus wanted to stop this confusion (human), and sapiens (modern AMERICAN and developed the naming system we human). Human’s scientific name is Homo still use today! CLEANUP sapien. This double-name system is called Taxonomy at its most basic level is binomial nomenclature. Every organism ever MARCH 16, 2019 sorting. Linnaeus ultimately sorted discovered is categorized and named using The Great American Cleanup is organisms into different levels: kingdom, this system! This double name is used and Saturday, March 16 from 9 am - phylum, class, order, family, genus, understood by scientists around the world, Noon at several sites in Pinellas and species. The organisms are sorted even if they do not speak the same language, County. into these different levels based on making taxonomy essential for understanding characteristics about them: their size, Visit tampabaywatch.org/ life on our planet! shape, and structure. Imagine that each volunteer to register your Sources: kidsdiscover.com, marinesciencetoday.com, is a part of an upside-down pyramid; mensaforkids.org, milnepublishing.geneseo.edu, ucmp. family! every level tells you a little more about berkeley.edu Meet & Greet: Our Ocean Valentine Friends

CUTTLEFISH ROSE CORAL PINK CANDY CRAB Sepia officinalis Hoplophrys oatesii Cuttlefish aren’t actually as Rose corals do not look The pink candy crab, also known cuddly as their name might like your traditional red as the soft coral crab, is a small imply! Cuttlefish are amazing rose. These corals are colorful decorator crab that cephalopods. Related to octopuses, an olive green- to grey- lives in the Indo-pacific they are extremely intelligent and colored hard coral that can on soft corals. This masters of camouflage! be found in the Caribbean pink and white Cuttlefish are known as the and southern Gulf of spine-covered crab “chameleons of the sea,” since Mexico, in shallow reefs, has incredible they can change both the color and in seagrass beds. camouflage! and pattern of their skin almost These corals are related This crab will instantly! This helps them to brain corals and will “decorate” its blend in with surroundings, grow with bends and body with small to communicate, and to avoid curves that can be said to pieces of the predators! resemble the petals on a bright soft corals Sources: animaldiversity.org, fao.org; rose! they live on by montereybayaquarium.org; seas.harvard.edu; pt.gde-fon.com Sources: bioweb.uwlax.edu; coral. pinching them off and aims.gov.au; sciencenetlinks.com; sciencesource.com attaching them to their backs. Sources: peerintoyourworld.com; species-identification.org; Bryan Mayes, flickr.com Can You Commit to the Ocean?

Show the ocean some love this Valentine’s Day 3. Recycle cards by doing some simple things to help reduce your that you do not waste—especially your plastic waste! plan on keeping. It is said that around 18 billion pounds of plastic waste 4. Recycle during makes its way from the coast and into the oceans every holiday parties. year. It’s estimated that by 2050, the ocean will contain 5. Say no to single- more plastic by weight than fish! use plastics! Single-use plastics are things Here are some simple tips you can use to reduce your made out of plastic that are designed to be waste this holiday! used only once, like plastic straws and eating 1. While searching for your Valentine’s Day cards or a gift utensils. for a loved one, don’t forget to bring your reusable 6. Try to avoid buying balloons for Valentine’s shopping bags! Americans use around 100 billion Day parties or for loved ones. Balloons that plastic bags a year! are let go or disposed of improperly often 2. Make your own Valentine’s Day cards! Try making end up in the ocean. Balloons can then be your own valentines this year out of materials that ingested by animals that mistake them for you already have at home. Reusing recycled items food! or discarded materials in a new and inventive way to 7. Try to avoid buying candies and gifts with create a product of higher quality is called “upcycling!” extra plastic packaging.

Sources: biologicaldiversity.org; epa.state.oh.us; forbes.com; news.nationalgeographic.com; oceancrusaders.org; encenter.org

Fun Facts about the Ocean’s Valentines! Octopuses have three hearts! Sea otters will hold hands so that they do not drift away from one another while sleeping. Seahorses mate for life. The male and female meet every morning and dance together to reinforce their bond!

Sources: mnn.com; news.nationalgeographic.com; smithsonianmag.com

A blue whale’sDid heart weighs You around Know... 400 pounds! That’s around 640 times as much as a human heart! Source: blog.education.nationalgeographic.org Fun Activity: Ocean-Themed Valentine’s Day Cards There are many fish in the sea! Show your love for the ocean by making these cute ocean-themed Valentine’s Day cards! Materials: • Construction paper • Scissors • Glue • Googly eye • Markers • Optional: markers and extra decorations Instructions: 1. Ask for an adult’s help. 2. Cut out two large hearts (around five inches) from construction paper. These will be used for the head and body of the fish. 3. Cut out one medium heart (around three inches) from construction paper. This will be used for the tail. 4. Cut out two small hearts (around two inches) from construction paper. These will be used for the fish fins. 5. Flip one of the large hearts and glue the two large hearts together. They should be glued top-to-top, like in the photo. 6. Attach the medium heart for the tail to the tip of the bottom heart. 7. Glue the googly eye near the front of the large top heart. 8. Glue one of your small hearts on top of the fish’s body (top large heart) for a pectoral fin. Attach your second small heart on the top of your fish’s body on the underside for a dorsal fin. 9. Write your Valentine’s Day message on the back! Sources: Audrey Mitchell, Pinterest.com

Kids’ Pages is a quarterly newsletter supplement to the Bay Watch Log. Please get your kids involved and sign them up to be a member today! Email [email protected] or visit tampabaywatch.org. Cover masthead artwork drawn by Sarah Kelly, one of Tampa Bay’s talented youth artists.