Parrotfish Poop! | JONATHAN BIRD'S BLUE WORLD Extra

In this short Jonathan Bird's Blue World Extra, Jonathan discusses where sand comes from and you may be surprised to learn that a lot of sand is actually fish poop!

Jonathan Bird's Blue World is an Emmy Award-winning underwater science/adventure program that airs on public television in the United States.

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Have you ever wondered where sand comes from?

Sand is basically just fine particles of rock, which have been eroded away from larger rocks. The color of the sand on a beach is determined by what kind of rocks the sand came from.

Around extensive coral reefs, coral rock is the source of the sand, so the beach is bright white like the rock it came from.

Near volcanic islands like Hawaii, the sand may be very dark, having originated in dark basaltic rock from a volcano.

And while much sand is formed by wind and waves eroding away the rocks, there is another most unusual source of sand in the tropics: the parrotfish.

Parrotfish love to munch on live coral. Coral only has a very thin skin of living tissue over the limestone skeleton it produces. Parrotfish dine on the coral by scraping it away with extremely hard teeth. The parrotfish inevitably bites off quite a bit of the limestone as it feeds on the living coral.

That limestone passes through the fish’s digestive tract and emerges out the other end as finely ground sand particles. Yes, you heard me right, parrotfish poop out sand! A lot of sand.

One scientific estimate suggests that as much as 85% of the sand on a tropical beach is made by parrotfish. So the next time you are enjoying a great day at the beach, you can thank a parrotfish for all the free poop.

[walaasami]

Thanks, Parrot fish for the free poop 😂

[marksaid]

Hilarious, but the wonders and works of Mother Nature are amazing!
Thanks for the video, mates.

[orange]

So when I was little when I ate sand it was poop from a fish?!? Well there goes my sand castle dreams;-;

[albinonemo]

That is both mildly unsettling and very interesting.

[connorlordbxd]

So, if most of he sands are poop then when kids made sand castle they were actually made poop castle am i right?

[cartledge_]

My favourite video is about the Beluga Whales.

[mariefranco]

Hey! I'm just gonna share this, it was really thrilling as I did snorkeling with my friend here in Philippines its really cool to see so many parrot fishes. They very cool and cute creatures.

[t-rexstudioproductions]

The Beak of a parrotfish is so strong, they can bite through rock

[AleXanDraPR]

My whole life has changed, I grew up in a tropical island and all this time I didn't know that I was walking on fish poop

[karimM]

thanks for the info john in the red sea in egypt its full of parrot fish

[letstrythis]

Jonathan, I watch every videos of yours. They are simply amazing. Good job! <3 <3

[heidiwallace]

Jonathan, you are AMAZING I LOVE your vids I go through all of them each day and watch them 😃😃😃😃

[moto__shark]

Wow, that's very interesting. Thanks!

[elaineb]

Sharky says one fish's poo is another fish's treasure!!!

[Ferinm]

This makes it clear, how important parrotfish is to the ecosystem...so, all the people who catch fish spare the parrotfish. I am a beachlover and I can't see the world beaches without sand.

[JohnsVlog]

its the rocks and limestand that makes them poop sand cause when they eat live coral the parrot's hard beak scratches the limestone and rocks and mix in their food as they eat the live coral so the result is they poop sand and waste mixes

[bigbellyrebuilds]

Just found your channel TODAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2021. My nine year old son and I LOVED this video! We had a great laugh over it! Thank you! Ruthie B. Howard 11-20-21

[jayforerunner]

I don't know why that's not stopping me from going to the beach

[Miliradian]

I was just gonna search parrotfish and i accidently clicked 'Parrot Fish poop'. dying of laughter now

[Javier-pmfs]

I'm gonna laugh of parrot fish poop😂😂😂😂😂😂😂