Brian wolterman, age 7, of Battle creek, Iowa, for his question:
What is a sea robin?
The red breasted robin is at home in the garden. You would never Expect the little fellow to go to sea or to be a sailor. Well, our feathery friend is not a sailor, and he does not go to sea. The so called sea robin is not related to him. He is not even a bird.
The sea robin is a scaly fellow with fins. HE has toothy jaws and gills for breathing oxygen from the water. In fact, he is a fish not a bird. HE is an ocean fish who spends his time on the floor of the eea. Some people say that he walks on the sandy sea floor, but WE know for sure that he makes a singing noise.
This very unusual fish lives in the Atlantic ocean along with several cousins Very much like himself. HE may be two feet or even three feet long. His large head is covered with a bony helmet. His body may be scaly or covered with more bony plates of armor. Chances are, our sea robin is daubed with patches of bright red, yellow or vivid blue.
His fins are more noticeable than his colors. The side fins that are where his arms should be are very long and spiky. They curve downward and End in pointed fingers. He uses these fins to feel his way over the sandy floor of the sea. If you look down on him through the water, the sea robin seems to be walking, he is really grubbing for his food. Sometimes he finds a fat sea worm or a small fish. Sometimes he catches a clam before it has a chance to shut its shell. The sea robin's favorite food is tiny crabs, sea snails and water fleas.
Almost all fishes have air pockets inside their scaly bodies. Air, of course, is lighter than water, and a balloon full of air floats on the surface. It may be light Enough to lift a small weight to the surface. The air bladder of a fish helps him stay up near the top of the water. When he wants to swim at a lower level, he lets some of the gas out of his air pocket.
The sea robin has another USE for his air bladder. He squeezes it to make noises. HE can chirp and twirp, cackle and crackle. And some peop1e claim that these noises sound like the singing of a bird. This is why he is ca11ed a sea robin, even though he has fins and scales instead of feathers.
Mrs. Sea Robin lays her eggs early in the summer. Thousands of the little yellow eggs are left floating in the water. Some of them hatch and grow up to be large sea robins and spend the rest of their lives on the ocean floor. Summer is their busy, Egg laying season, and when the sea robins sing their loudest. People on the shore can hear their underwater cackles and crackles from Canada to South America.