Marine Life Facts

The oldest known individual animal was 'Ming' the ocean quahog clam, who lived for 507 years before being discovered off the coast of Iceland in 2006.

Sea otters hold hands while sleeping to avoid drifting apart, forming groups called 'rafts' that can range from a few individuals to over a hundred.

One cubic mile of seawater contains about 25 tons of dissolved gold.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.

A jellyfish is 95 percent water

There's a fish, known as Salema porgy, that causes severe hallucinations for up to 36 hours when ingested. During the Roman Empire, it was a party drug.

One of the largest manta rays ever caught was by Capt. A.L. Kahn in 1933 off Brielle. It weighed over 5,000 pounds and was over 20 feet wide.

A raw oyster is likely still alive when you eat it.

Dolphins sometimes have fun by blowing bubbles and creating rings of air underwater, which they then swim through.

NYC's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) dumps old subway cars into the ocean to serve as artificial reef.

Whales and dolphins can't taste anything other than salt.

The rarest shark in the Gulf of Mexico is 5 inches long, glows in the dark, and shoots clouds of luminous fluid from tiny pockets near its fins — basically a living flashbang grenade.

In 2017, marine biologist Nan Hauser was diving in the Cook Islands when a 50,000-pound humpback whale began pushing her. For 10 minutes it tucked her under its fin and nudged her toward her boat. She thought it was trying to kill her. Then she saw the 15-foot tiger shark below. The whale had been shielding her the whole time. 28 years studying whales. It had never happened. Caught on camera.

Melby the manatee swam up a Florida storm drain chasing warm water during a cold snap and got stuck under a street, unable to turn around. Rescuers tore up 10,000 pounds of concrete to pull the 410-pound animal free. Eight weeks of rehab at SeaWorld later, Melby swam home 105 pounds heavier.

A young humpback whale got tangled in more than 800 feet of coaxial cable off Maui in 2017. It was something rescuers had never seen before. They cut it free, not knowing if it would survive. Seven years later, a stranger's photo of a whale's tail turned up on a tracking website. Researchers matched it to the very same whale. It was alive and fully healed.