My Science School

Jethro the lobster has been delighting visitors to the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in New Brunswick (Canada) with his unusual colouring. Jethro is a 'half-and-half' lobster whose colouring is perfectly split down his body - one half blackish-brown, one half bright orange-attributed to a genetic abnormality.

It is not known how many half and-halfs are out there, but Jethro is "one in a few million at least". The colourful crustacean, which was caught by a fisherman, will live out his days - which could be decades in a tank at the Centre with other lobsters.

Picture Credit : Google

Plastic has been found throughout the world's seas, with pieces showing up everywhere from Arctic sea ice to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Often its harmful effects are obvious, marine creatures from fish to seabirds and from turtles to seals perish by mistakenly ingesting large quantities of plastic rubbish or getting entangled in larger pieces of plastic-like discarded fishing nets.

But now researchers have found that microplastics can even affect an animal's ability to protect itself from a predator. The common periwinkle (Littorina littorea) is a main food source for crabs. Usually the snails evade predator crabs by withdrawing into their shells or hiding under rocks. But in water saturated with tiny plastic pellets, the snails failed to pick up vital chemical signals drifting their way in the water from crabs. They were slow to withdraw into their shells and didn't wait as long as they should have before re-emerging.

Picture Credit : Google