SCIENCE LAB SCHEME* : TOXIC COMPANION

En garde. You really want to take a chance? : Every night after dusk, one of the world's largest migrations begins, as deep sea creatures rise to the surface to feed.

For blackwater divers, who dive into offshore waters at night, the migration offers an opportunity to glimpse tiny animals.

'' You're just out there drifting with the current and checking out all this life that's in the ocean,'' said Rich Collins, a blackwater photographer and diver affiliated with the Florida Museum of Natural History.

But blackwater photographs capture more than glamorous fishes. By studying the photos from Mr. Collins and other divers, scientists have found that young fishes and anemones are interacting in ways rarely seen before.

In a new study published in The Journal of Fish Biology, scientists documented larval and juvenile fishes that hide behind or carry larval sea anemones, close relatives of jellyfish that also have the ability to sting.

Adult anemones attach to the seabed, but the larvae sloat freely in the ocean.

By holding an invertebrate than can be toxic, the young fishes might be scaring predators away, said Gabriel Afonso, a doctoral student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who led the study.

The Publishing continues to Part [2].

The World Students Society thanks Alexa Robles-Gil.