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Bhagavad Gita

Chapter I - Wonder World Under Water I [This book has been distributed into different chapter for easier access. Picture shown - are not part of the book.]

Nearly three-quarter of our earth is covered by water. Yet we, living on land, usually know more about land creatures than our aquatic denizens. We have many kinds of watery environments, from the fast, clear, clod streams of the Himalayas to the placid rivers of the plains, and natural as well as man-made lakes and ponds. Moreover, we have a long coastline of some 5,600 kilometers, where live creatures so strange and fantastic that it is difficult to believe that such beings exist.

Aquatic life has had to make various adaptations in order to live successfully under water. Some creatures have made minimal changes; for example, the insect Halo bates, which is found hundreds of kilometers away from the shore walking on the sea surface, look very much like land insect and breathes air. In contrast, there are others, like sponges and starfish, which do not have any representatives on land.

One of the first changes necessary for aquatic life is in the manner of breathing. While land animals breathe by means of lungs, aquatic animals normally use gills, though some fishes have developed organs which function like lungs and enable them to breathe air directly from the water surface.

The body fluid of seawater fishes is less salty than the seawater as fishes living there are continually losing water through their skin and gills. Water always moves from a weak solution to a stronger one. To make up for this loss they must keep drinking water. In the case of freshwater fishes, however, their body fluids are stronger than the surrounding water and so they are continually soaking up extra water. They have well-developed kidneys which help get rid of the excess water.

Animals and plants are heavier than water, so some means of buoyancy has to be provided. This may be in the form of oil droplets or fat within the body; or spines, hairs, and flat projections from the body, which present a board, surface to the water and thus slow down sinking. Of course, swimming animals can use their muscles to swim up from below. An advantage of living in water is that the density of water relieves the creature of the necessity of having to support its heavy weight as on land or to withstand the effect of gravity. Hence bones can be light, and aquatic animals can grow to a much bigger size-for example, Whales.

Animals living in streams and ponds, as well as those on the seashore, face the danger of the water drying up. Many animals cope with this by burrowing into the bottom mud and living in a state of suspended animation, where breathing and body activities become very slow.

Plants and animals living in turbulent waters have to avoid being swept away. This they do by developing suckers which help them cling to the water bed or to cracks between stones, and by having a flat body offering little resistance to water currents.

Compared to land creatures, reproduction is easy. Animals only have to shed their eggs and sperm in the water where these will unite and develop into young.

Many aquatic animals have developed a unique method of obtaining food. They let water-containing food particles enter there mouth or body. The water passes over sieve-like devices where the food particles are retained and swallowed. Even the baleen whales, the biggest animals in the world, do this successfully.

Continue to Chapter II - Wonder World Under Water II [One-Celled Animals]