Sea Anemone

ABOUT

Take a look at the photo to the right and take a guess. Do you think sea anemone are plants or animals? Did you say ‘animal’? You’re right! Sea anemone are actually named after a colorful flower, but they are marine animals. And even though they look so pretty and they are soft (most of their bodies are made of water), sea anemone can be dangerous. On their tentacles are stingers that have poison that they use to help catch their food. So imagine you’re a fish swimming around the ocean and you go to closer to see this beautiful flower-looking thing. That’s when the tentacles reach out and sting you! The poison in the stingers paralyses their food so it can’t escape before they eat it. There are lots of different kinds of sea anemone that come in different colors, but most have the same basic shape: a cylinder-shaped body that ends in a disc. In the center of the disc is the sea anemone’s mouth and all around it are the tentacles. Sea anemone don’t usually swim around, they like to hang out in one place. But if they feel threatened, they can detach from the rocks they are on and move to a new place. And you know what else is very cool about the sea anemone? Scientists have discovered that their venom can be used to make some important medicines to help people, too!

IN TROUBLE

Sadly, just like all of the plants and animals in the ocean, climate change is threatening the safety of sea anemone. Now, maybe sea anemone – with their poisonous stingers – sounds dangerous and not something you want in the waters anyway, but they are so important in the sea environment for healthy algae and for creatures like clownfish and coral. We do need to protect these very pretty creatures. Scientists have found that sea anemone are eating the tiny pieces of plastic that are polluting our waters and, of course, this makes them very, very sick.

HOW TO HELP

Have you ever volunteered for a beach clean-up? Helping to keep garbage our of
our oceans doesn’t just help sea anemone, of course – it helps ALL of the plants and animals in the
ocean. Sea anemone are one of the creatures – like clownfish – that people like to put into their fish
tanks at home. We think it’s probably best that sea anemone stay in the actual sea!