THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606210735
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: SPECIAL EDITION: A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO THE EXPANDED VIRGINIA MARINE
SCIENCE MUSEUM
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 38 lines
Some of the most beautiful and some of the ugliest creatures of Virginia's offshore environment are on display in the museum's ocean aquariums in the main building.
People who have been stung by jellyfish may cringe at the sight of a moon jelly with its nearly invisible tentacles. Or a sea nettle with long tentacles armed with spiny tubes that pierce the skin and inject venom.
But at a safe distance, museum visitors may gain a new appreciation for the creatures' radial symmetry and gelatinous bodies
There is no disputing the looks of the goosefish, wiggling its dorsal spine like a fishing lure to entice its prey. A Sierra Club guide to scuba and snorkeling calls the fish, with its huge head and needle-sharp teeth, ``gruesomely ugly.'' But it's considered tasty, and fish sellers remove its head and change its name to monkfish.
Other small aquariums hold a variety of ocean life, including cod, haddock, pollock, silver hake, flounder and several crab species.
The museum's live collection also includes an Atlantic octopus, an intelligent invertebrate that has long arms covered with suction cups to snag prey and uses an inky cloud and water-jet propulsion to escape predators.
Also on view are deep-sea scallops, which are treasured as cuisine by people as well as fellow marine creatures, and a 14-pound lobster that would normally be a prize catch but, in 60 feet of water off the Virginia coast, is out of reach of most humans. ILLUSTRATION: FILE PHOTO
An Atlantic Octopus by SS