SpongeBob and Friends: Splendor in the Kelp
James Dobson of Focus on the Family has tossed a new harpoon in the culture wars, claiming that SpongeBob SquarePants is being used to promote a homosexual agenda. He doesn't know the half of it.
When it comes to sex outside of marriage, the oceans that cover 71% of our planet are rife with reproductive strategies and behaviors that would make Caligula, or even Bill Clinton, blush.
SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, who has a background in marine biology, had to be aware that in creating a cartoon sponge he'd be opening himself up to charge of marine-based immorality. Sponges can reproduce asexually, for example. And if Dobson's followers don't object to that, I'm sure they'll be distressed to learn that they also can be hermaphrodites. Single sponges not only produce both sperm and eggs but are broadcast spawners, indiscriminately releasing sperm in such profusion as to turn seawater smoky white.
Life in the sea, in fact, is largely about reproduction, not traditional family values.
Take the blue crab, pound for pound one of the most fearsome creatures on the planet, yet when the female undergoes her molt of puberty, she releases a scent that makes the male's aggression dissipate like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the presence of Maria Shriver. They'll then copulate for between 10 and 48 hours before regressing to single-crab combat.
The sex life of the blue crab raises the question, do marine organisms have orgasms? Which leads to related questions such as, do they need to? And how does that make you feel when you order a tuna fish sandwich?
We don't really know how much fun blue crabs or tuna are having. We do know that many species of fish vocalize, or at least produce sounds from within their bodies, at the moment they "broadcast their gametes."
And that's only the beginning. Certain species, like blue-headed wrasses, are transgender. They all start out as females; some then flip a hormonal switch in order to function as males when they spawn together.
Groupers also go through sex changes, but slowly over time. They start out life as females but as they grow older and larger they become males. Unfortunately, with people catching a large percentage of the larger fish, the remaining groupers tend to be female with few opportunities to meet guys and make baby groupers.
