Clownfish keep their anemones breathing at night
The anemone shields the fish with stinging cells. In return the fish cleans, feeds and, a 2013 study found, fans oxygen through its host after dark.
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How a fish thought extinct turned up on a trawler
In 1938 a South African museum curator found a coelacanth on a fishing trawler. Textbooks said the fish had died out with the dinosaurs.
Humpbacks tune their bubble nets, and may learn them from others
Humpbacks blow a rising curtain of bubbles to pen krill and fish, tune it as it tightens, and seem to learn the trick by watching other whales.
Coral polyps build reefs from the skeletons they leave behind
A coral reef is limestone laid down by tiny animals. Each polyp builds a skeleton from calcium carbonate, and the skeleton stays in the reef after it dies.
Kelp forests slow waves and cut coastal erosion
Kelp forests drag on currents, calm the waves that reach the shore and shelter young fish. Urchins, warming seas and pollution can strip a forest bare.
A dead whale feeds the seafloor for a century
Sharks, hagfish and bone-eating worms work through a sunken whale for 30 years or more. A stranded one can explode before anyone moves it.