Diving in the Caribbean

On Friday, Wayne and Karen Brown took us on another Ocean Adventure! While their last presentation at the Creation Museum revealed some new reasons to respect sharks (in addition to the hundreds of sharp teeth), this was a totally different dive, exploring the ocean creatures of the Caribbean.

After a fun review of the six days of creation, the Browns demonstrated some of the ways fish hide from predators in the sea. Using four young volunteers to “hide” and the audience to hunt, they showed how God gave the fish great survival skills for their watery world. Then a group of volunteers demonstrated the SCUBA equipment used for the Caribbean dive.

When the Browns went to the Caribbean, they documented their dive with amazing photos of the creatures they encountered there. They took us along with them using the photos, and they shared how God provided an array of adaptations to enable the fish of the sea to thrive.

Have you ever heard of a parrotfish? It’s a colorful fish with a sharp beak. Parrotfish are harem fish, which means they hang out in groups of many females, juveniles, and one male fish. What happens if the group loses the male? Why, one of the females changes into a male, of course! Within just a few days, the most aggressive female changes, including her coloration, into a male. This allows for the protection and continuation of the entire group’s way of life.

The flounder has a simple but amazing survival skill. It lays flat on the bottom of the ocean and blends in with the sand. It sounds easy, but imagine being on the bottom of the Caribbean, lying on your side, if your eyes were on the sides of your head like most fish. The limited view would be a disadvantage that might outweigh the advantage of blending in. So young flounder go through an amazing change—one eye migrates to the side of the fish that becomes the “top” side, so by the time they are adults, flounder actually have both eyes on top to watch out for trouble.

We observed a few examples of symbiosis, which is a way of life employed by many marine organisms. My favorite is the anemone crab—a small crab that saunters around with anemones all over its shell. The anemones get a free ride, allowing them to search for food in more places, and the crab gets protection because predators don’t want to mess with those stinging tentacles.

We did get to see one shark on this adventure, a large reef shark. It swam peacefully by Karen, making a mockery of the myths of man-eaters on the reef.

Many other fish made an appearance in the virtual dive, and we clearly saw God’s creativity in designing a complex and beautiful world in the sea. We appreciate the Browns’ sharing of the fruits of their hard work and talent.