Cylinder anemone
Cylindrical or Cylinder anemone, Cerianthus membranaceus, (anemone cilindrico), is one of the species of deep sea anemones typical of the Mediterranean Sea. Autochthonous to the Mediterranean Sea, it can also be found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, on sandy or muddy bottoms from a few meters up to 40 meters deep, even if in this dive we are on a rock and sand bottom that varies from 45 to 48 meters deep. Cylinder anemone Cerianthus membranaceus Anemone www.intotheblue.it
It lives in a tube produced by the animal itself, buried in the ground and up to one meter long, from which the food tentacles protrude in a crown, which can reach a diameter of 40 centimetres. The coloring is very varied, ranging from white to violet, sometimes even black. It has a variable number of stinging tentacles surrounding the oral opening.
In the video we have deliberately left some footage where you can see the usual ghost nets and lost trammel nets that now characterize the appearance of our seabed, the hope is that the few remaining fishermen will develop a certain sensitivity by replacing the eternal nylon nets with hemp fishing nets, which were used until the end of the 19th century and which are now becoming a new reality.
Cerianthus membranaceus is a large tubiform anemone. The oral disc can have a diameter up to 40 cm. There are two spirals of tentacles. Those in the outer spiral are long, slender and armed dicycidocytes (stinging cells) and are used to capture prey. The tentacles in the inner spiral are shorter and work to transfer the captured food to the central mouth. The tentacles are sometimes banded and are available in a range of colors; white, yellow, orange, green, brown, blue, black and purple. The color of the inner spiral often contrasts with that of the external spiral.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerianthus_membranaceus
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