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Fish for the holiday: Get to know the wonderful world of Mediterranean fish

Right in front of the beach where you will swim during the holiday, the Mediterranean is buzzing with fascinating and intriguing creatures.

The most pleasant sea temperature this season, and whoever enters snorkeling now, will be able to be impressed by the richness of the fish variety in it.

So what creatures will you see?

Here is a selection of the spectacular fish that swim not far from us

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• Fish

• Mediterranean

Yoav Itiel

Tuesday, 07 September 2021, 09:27 Updated: 09:28

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In the video: Sharks chasing a band of fish about 800 meters from the shore in Haifa (Photo: Haifa Municipality)

When admiring the beauties of Israeli fish, it is customary to display the fish of the Red Sea, but the Mediterranean is also rich in spectacular fish.

Right in front of the beach where you will wade or swim during the holiday, the Mediterranean Sea is buzzing with fascinating, wonderful and intriguing creatures.

The water temperature is the most comfortable this season, and those who enter the water with a snorkel with real professional diving equipment will be able to be impressed by the richness of the variety of Mediterranean fish.

So what are living creatures in the sea?

Why is it difficult to identify the beta?

And what size does the stinger reach in marine reserves?

Here is a selection of Mediterranean fish.

More on Walla!

View documentation: A shark jumped out of the water and attacked a tourist on the Red Sea coast

To the full article

Big-thorn blackberry

A large-thorny blackberry is so named because of the large, thick thorn in its goat fin.

Its nose is rounded and its color is uniformly copper-brown.

Its fins are yellow-black.

It lives in niches and caves, in small flocks, among rocks 5-40 meters deep and feeds on small fish and invertebrates.

The species can be seen more frequently in the Rosh Hanikra Nature Reserve in Achziv.

Summer breeding season (July-August).

Size: 15-50 cm.

Big Blackberry Thorn (Photo: Dr. Shabi Rotman, Steinhardt Museum of Nature)

Sparisoma Cretense

The plantain family is characterized by teeth reminiscent of a parrot's beak, hence their name. Thanks to the strong teeth and jaw and other structural adjustments the parrots form rock pieces. They scrape algae from the substrate very efficiently and thus they regulate the growth of the algae and their quantities and contribute to the balance between them and other sedentary creatures, for example corals, which compete with the algae for free space for settlement. Therefore, their ecological importance is great.

In the Mediterranean there are two representatives from the family - the Cretan and the saddler (a species that migrated from the Red Sea). For the adult male and female of the Tukhidag I knew different colors: the male is gray while most of the female's body is red with a large spot on the front of the body in the shape of a saddle in gray, accompanied by smaller yellow spots and a yellow stripe covering the eye.

The cognitive archipelago is usually found in shallow water, up to a maximum depth of about 50 meters. It lives in areas with a rocky bottom covered with algae and also in seaweed mats (less in our country).

Nutrition: The squid feeds mainly on algae and small invertebrates that it scratches from the rock with its strong teeth.

Reproduction: Males can hold harem of females, but can also live in groups with few females.

Tukidag (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Sarah Ohayon)

Rock Pheasant (Epinephelus marginatus)

The Rock Decker is so named because it lives in a cave between rocks which gives it a hiding place and protection. Also known as red locus, or daor. It is a territorial and solitary fish, and the cave in which it settles is its permanent abode. The popular name also mentions this - a locus from the word "place" in Latin.

The rock decker is found in relatively shallow water, 60-4 meters. During the breeding season, in spring and summer (April-July) he leaves his cave for a mass breeding event, called by the fishermen "wedding", where there are few males and many females. Other species of stingrays also join the "wedding." Reaching 85 cm, about 7 years old, about two years after reaching sexual maturity, some individuals change their sex from female to male. It feeds on large fish and invertebrates such as crabs, squid and octopuses, which are ambushed. , Hooks and fishing rifles. Its population suffers from overfishing.

Size: 15-60 cm.

Rock Decker (Photo: Dr. Shavei Rotman, Steinhardt Museum of Nature)

Alexandrian Decker (Epinephelus costae)

The Alexandrian Decker has an elongated body relative to the Rock Decker, with clear stripes along its length.

Adults also have a yellow spot on the back.

It lives in rocky areas at a depth of 5-60 m, usually alone or in small groups (up to 10 individuals).

Reproduction takes place in summer, in a mass "wedding".

Stingrays (not only of this species) are considered good markers for a successful marine reserve, and indeed in the marine reserve surveys of the Nature and Parks Authority, the number of stingrays in the reserve is considered as a measure of its success.

Decker Alexandroni was very common in the past on the country's shores, but in recent years its population has been shrinking.

It is caught in standing nets, hook arrays and rifle fishing.

Size: 60-15 cm

Decker Alexandroni (Photo: Dr. Shavei Rotman, Steinhardt Museum of Nature)

Red barbed wire (Mycteroperca Rubra)

Characterized by gray color with light spots and elongated body.

The spike also lives among rocks, at a depth of 5-50 meters and feeds on fish and large invertebrates (such as squid and crabs).

During the breeding season, in winter and spring (December-May), the barbed fish form breeding groups called "weddings", in which there are many females and single males.

These clusters also occur in other species of stingers.

Unlike other species of stingrays, the stinging population has actually grown in recent years.

This may be a result of an increase in the incidence of the invasive, marbled endangered species, which serves as its food source.

The spike fished with fishing rods, standing nets, fishing guns and hook sets.

Size: 50-20 cm

Red sting breeding session (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Andrei Aharonov, Manor Guri and Guy Levian)

Sparus Aurata

A fish from the Spruce family.

With an elongated and round body structure, its color is silvery gray and ten golden stripes along its body.

Lives mostly in large flocks in rocky or sandy habitats covered with algae.

Young individuals feed mainly on carcinogens but the adult individuals feed on algae and seaweed.

The Salafi population has shrunk significantly off the coast of Israel in recent years, and the explanation for this is competition for food with endangered fish that have migrated to the Red Sea.

The Salfit belongs to the Dakraim family.

These fish are found in oceans with temperate and tropical climates, in Israel representatives of this family in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

It is a vegetarian fish that eats algae, "grazes" in the professional language, moves in flocks of dozens and hundreds of individuals and creates a spectacular show of movement in the water.

Size: 50-30 cm

Striped selfie in the band (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Andrei Aharonov)

Bat (Taeniura)

In the meeting between the sand and the rock you can meet the "beta" seals. Various seals are fish whose skeleton is not made of bones but of large cartilage. Their side fins surround the whole body and in their movement they resemble the movement of a large chicken underwater. Some contain a large thorn at the base of the tail for protection purposes and they reach sizes of over a meter.

Bat cats and sea bats are a nickname for beta - flat fish with a cartilaginous skeleton in varied and unique body shapes.

They are relatives of sharks and most of them live close to the sea floor.

Creatures are incredibly diverse: in morphology (body shape and organs), in special features such as the ability to generate electricity (in electricians), in their food - from fish to crabs and other invertebrates - and also through reproduction.

Some, for example the thistles, lay eggs in various forms in the water.

Other species such as stingrays and guitars grow the embryos in the womb.

In the womb, each fetus is in a shell very similar to an egg.

The embryos feed on the egg yolk until they hatch in the womb and then on rich food from the uterus, until it emerges.

Some species emerge very soon after hatching.

Size: meters and up

.

A bat lies on the seabed (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Eyal Miller)

Israel is one of the only places in the world where all cartilaginous fish, including beta, are protected, and appropriate protection and living conditions may come together and allow these species to reproduce on our shores almost without interruption.

Therefore the shores of the country may be a significant and important habitat for the population of guitars and stingrays throughout the Mediterranean.

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