Word: shrimps
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...glory of the Aquarium was here. It was the scarlet shrimp, its little transparent legs regretfully descending to the seabed, its filigree antennae brushing the tubular plants nearby; a miniature, delicate, barely perceptible glass sculpture, shyly animate. He was a tenuously fashioned creature, seemingly held together ?? his good nature and preserved from summary consumption by the sea's deference to his harmless beauty-too small and pure to cause jealousy. He was cheerful, diffident, rubicund, a gloryfish...
...discussing creatures that form lasting bonds with their mates (jackals, gibbons, geese, etc.), Wickler included Hymenocera elegans, or the painted shrimp. Almost in passing, he mentioned that the shrimp feeds on starfish, including the crown-of-thorns. To the Talbots, who have been looking for ways to cope with the sudden and mysterious proliferation of the crown-of-thorns, the beautifully colored russet-and-white shrimp seemed a promising answer...
Soft Underbelly. At the Talbots' request, Wickler set up a demonstration of the painted shrimp's effectiveness; he staged an extraordinary laboratory encounter between a crown-of-thorns and a pair of painted shrimps.* It was hardly a match. Oblivious to the starfish's poisonous spines, the shrimps quickly lifted one of its arms (it can have as many as 21) and began tickling the tiny tubular feet of its prey. Instantly, the starfish retracted them, effectively immobilizing itself. Then, after only a few minutes of joint effort, the two-inch-long shrimps succeeded in toppling...
...efficient dispatch of the starfish convinced Wickler and the Talbots that the painted shrimp, in sufficient numbers, might quickly bring the crown-of-thorns under control and end the threat to Pacific reefs. Although the shrimp are not common around Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other threatened areas, they could be mass-produced in laboratories and set free in the ocean; a single female, laying between 100 and 200 eggs at a time, can theoretically produce a new generation of adult shrimps every 18 days...
...Hickel was justly outraged. The recent Gulf of Mexico oil fiasco, during which a cluster of twelve offshore wells owned by Chevron Oil Co. blazed for a month, has caused even greater repercussions than last year's Santa Barbara debacle. Beyond oil, Louisiana's largest industries are shrimp and oysters, and the rich Gulf of Mexico beds may have been irreparably damaged by the spill. Scientific tests conducted at Woods Hole, Mass., last week produced the first solid evidence that oil pollution can disrupt the life cycles of marine creatures...