Do Spiders give you the heebie-jeebies? Well if so, the Sea Spiders are sure to make your skin crawl, leaving you repulsed yet strangely intrigued. When you first hear about the existence of Sea Spiders, it sounds rather strange, and you picture a rare endangered species living deep in some abyss or in the Arctic on its verge to extinction. However quite surprisingly Sea Spiders are rather prolific and found almost everywhere, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the Arctic to the Antarctic Oceans, and from shallow rock pools to the deepest abysses.
Completely unrelated to terrestrial spiders or Arachnids, despite resembling them in appearance, Sea Spiders belong to the marine species known as Pycnogonida. This species have long legs in contrast to a very narrow and small body size and unlike terrestrial spiders, have varying pairs of legs depending on the species ranging from four pairs (Eight Legs), five and even six pairs (twelve) of legs!
There are over 1300 known species of Sea Spider, ranging in size from 1 to 10 millimeters to over two feet in length. However most range in the 1-10mm size range which makes them difficult to spot.
Sea Spiders are especially prevalent in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas and the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans and most of the smaller ones live in relatively shallow depths while those found in deeper waters around the poles are considerably larger.
These unique marine dwelling creatures have two pairs of feeding appendages with pincers and a proboscis mouth at the ends and stab and suck the nourishment out of their victims which mainly comprise of small marine worms and sea-anemones, sponges and bryozoans.
Quite unusually, the Sea Spider has no respiratory system, owing to its tiny body size, and gases are taken in and out through diffusion.
Researchers have recently been studying the Sea Spiders found in the deep frigid waters of the Southern Ocean as part of an international project to take a census of Antarctic marine life. The species of Sea Spiders found here are known as Giant Sea Spiders growing to unusually large sizes (1-2 feet) due to a phenomenon called gigantism which is commonly found in creatures inhabiting the deep waters of the Antarctic. What is fascinating is that these Giant Sea Spiders were found at depths as much as 7000 feet deep, in the complete absence of any light whatsoever.
While you may not get the chance to spot these Giant Sea Spiders in the depths of the oceans around the poles, your best chance of capturing the smaller sea spiders is probably around the rock pools during low tide. Scuba Divers passionate about underwater macro photography simply cannot resist the draw of capturing one these tiny bizarre creatures on camera if they manage to spot them. With over 1300 different species of Sea Spider, no wonder they are adored by photographers and divers alike.
photos from flickr by: Ken-ichi , asbjorn.hansen, MuseumWales
