Animal Profiles

How do green sea turtles (known in the Hawaiian language as honu, scientific name chelonia mydas) get their name? From what they eat, or their diet! The algae they eat stains their subdermal layer of fat inside their body a green tint!

Historically, there were three different species of monk seals in the world consisting of the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Hawaiian monk seals. Today, the Hawaiian monk seal is listed as endangered about 1,400 individuals remaining here in the islands.

What is a cetacean? A cetacean is a mammal that spends its entire life underwater such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. What makes a cetacean different from a fish is that cetaceans have skin, whereas most fish have scales as well as lungs to breathe air!

Sea Lions, along with Seals, and the Walrus belong to the family called Pinnipeds. Pinniped means fin, or flipper, footed. Our California sea lions divide their time between basking, snoozing, diving, floating and, of course, eating.
 

Echinoderms are the group of animals that consists of sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, brittle stars and crinoids. If we break the word down echino = spiny and derm= skin, so sea stars and their cousins are part of the spiny-skinned animals.

What makes a fish a fish? Some fish have adaptations like countershading, or having a light underside and dark top allows sharks and some fish to blend into the ocean and sneak up on their prey while others exhibit mimicry to imitate other species.