By Andrea Launer
Slough murky water
Stripes make sharks swim faster
Where are they going?
Haiku of the Week: Tagging Leopards
Author: mlmlblog
Follow me to Open House
By Michelle Marraffini
Invertebrate Zoology Lab
The labs are a buzz gearing up for this year’s Open House festivities. If you haven’t heard, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories host an annual Open House during our spring semester. This large public outreach event allows our neighbors, local school children, parents, and hopefully incoming graduate students to interact with current students, faculty, and staff in a fun, exciting way. This event will include a scavenger hunt, seminar talks, dune walks, a marine themed puppet show, and so much more. Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to take a behind the scenes look at our lab and the research we are doing.
See you there April 21st and 22nd!!!
For more details visit our website at openhouse.mlml.calstate.edu
Moss Landing Scientists Contribute Four New Shark Species
by Angela Szesciorka, Vertebrate Ecology Lab
One hundred and forty two new species were discovered last year. Four of those were deep-sea shark species discovered by Moss Landing Marine Laboratories’ Dr. David Ebert and his colleagues. Their findings, as well as some interesting facts about the sharks, were featured in National Geographic among the new species found in 2011.
The previously unknown shark species they described included Pristiophorus nancyae, Etmopterus joungi, Etmopterus sculptus, and Squatina caillieti (does that last one sound familiar?).
Pristiophorus nancyae was named by Ebert and Dr. Gregor Cailliet after it was accidentally captured in a 490-meter trawl off Mozambique. This species, also called the African dwarf sawshark, is the seventh species of known sawshark. Like all sawsharks, P. nancyae has an elongated beak (rostrum) like a sword. It will swim with schools of fish, sideswipe prey with its rostrum, then snatch them up. P. nancyae was named for Nancy Packard Burnett because of her support for chondrichthyan (sharks and rays) research at the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Labs.
- Pristiophorus nancyae (Photo: Dave Ebert)
Etmopterus joungi, a new species of lanternshark, was named by Ebert, James Knuckey, and Dr. George H. Burgess after being discovered in northeastern Taiwan (for sale at a fishmarket!). Knuckey is a master’s student in the Pacific Shark Research Center (PSRC) at Moss Landing Marine Labs studying the phylogenetics of eastern North Pacific skates. The new lanternshark is morphologically similar to the Etmopterus pusillus group. The body of the lanternfish contains light-producing organs called photophores, which can be used to light up the darkness of the deep-sea and for luring prey.
- Etmopterus joungi (Photo: Dave Ebert)
A second lanternshark, Etmopterus sculptus, was described by Ebert, Leonard J.V. Compagno and Marlee J. De Vries after being found off the coast of southern Africa. E. sculpus is morphologically similar to the Etmopterus lucifer group and was named after the sculpted appearance of its linear denticles. E. sculpus is found along the upper continental slopes between Namibia and southern Mozambique at depths between 450 and 900 meters. Unfortunately there are no publically available photographs of this new species, so the drawing below must suffice.
- Etmopterus sculptus (Photo: Schaaf-DaSilva)
Squatina caillieti, an angel shark, was named by Ebert, Jonathan H. Walsh, and Compagno in honor of Moss Landing Marine Lab’s Gregor Cailliet, and is the only known representative of its family. It was named from a single specimen collected at 370 meters depth off the island of Luzon (Philippines). As a bottom-dwelling shark, S. caillieti has wing like pectoral fins and lies partially buried in sediment waiting to ambush passing prey.
- Squatina caillieti (Photo: PSRC)
According to the PSRC, these discoveries are part of a recent boom in new species as well as shark and ray finds.
“Over the past decade, about 200 new [shark] species have been described, compared with fewer than 200 in the previous three decades”, Ebert said.
MLML is the second highest contributor to the discovery boom, especially with respect to publications, according to Knuckey. And the rates of description have been increasing every decade. The graph below shows the trend of new species discoveries since the mid-1700s.
- Named species since 1758. (Photo: Journal of Fish Biology)
According to the Journal of Fish Biology’s review of the taxonomy of chondrichthyan fishes, the Australian National Fish Collection, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Moss Landing Marine Labs have contributed descriptions for 125 species since 2000.
Yet very little is known about the discovered species’ behaviors or their predators. Many shark species are restricted to narrow ranges and have limited habitats. Funding tends to go toward higher profile species, so research for lesser-known species is scarce.
“A lot of [shark] species are going under the radar because they're not as high profile as, say, the great white shark”, said Ebert.
According to Knuckey, “One other thing that the common layperson, or even scientist, doesn’t seem to understand is that most new species out there aren’t ‘sexy’ species … They are often small or deep water, drab-colored species that have only been seen once. Even though they don’t get the publicity of some well-known species, it is important to know what species of ‘non-sexy’ species are out there, because if you don’t know what species exist then you cannot protect them adequately.”
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 32 percent of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, especially due to overfishing. It is estimated that more than 73 million are killed annually, many just for their fins. Because sharks take years to mature and have few young, they are particularly sensitive to overfishing. Despite these threats, little is being done to protect them.
In 2010 Hawaii became the first state to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins followed by Washington, Oregon, Guam, and most recently (the much anticipated and not without controversy) California.
You can read The Pew Environment Group’s 2011 paper on The Future of Sharks here.
The complete list of new species found in 2011 is listed on the California Academy of Sciences website. The list includes one reptile, three coral species, 11 plants, 9 sponges, 13 fish, 31 sea slugs, and 74 arthropods (mostly ants and goblin spiders). The list can be found here.
Haiku of the Week: Rhinoceros Auklet Genetic Structure in the Pacific
By Marilyn Cruickshank
Rhino birds fly home
Genes map bird group histories
Separate species?
From Diving to the laboratory
By Michelle Marraffini
Invertebrate Zoology and Molecular Ecology
A six hour drive and an hour long boat ride from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories brings you USC’s marine laboratory, Wrigley Institute of Environmental Science on Catalina Island. Here several current and past students are working to understand the unique habitats surrounding the coves of this island, Rhodolith beds. Rhodoliths are free living coralline algae that branch out from a central axis to form a round ball. These balls aggregate to form beds which provide a great amount of habitat heterogeneity in area that is surrounded by soft sediment. These beds are home to a large amount of invertebrates including white urchins we found on our last dive trip down to Catalina Island. Scott Gabara, blog co-author and phycology student, is studying the invertebrate recruitment of invertebrates to these beds. He brought a group of Moss Landing students, lab helpers and divers, down to help collect and analyze recruitment devices placed in the beds last October and to collect samples for isotopic analysis of the community. The results of this experiment are yet to be analyzed but we had a blast collecting them.
Basking Shark on the Move
By Dave Ebert
Pacific Shark Research Center
A Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) tagged off the California coast in June 2011 has turned up northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. The shark, which was first spotted, and tagged with a pop-up satellite tag, traveled nearly 2500 miles over the past 8 months, making this the longest recorded movement of this shark species in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to the distance moved by this shark, data on the water temperature and the depth that the shark traveled was also recorded. This information will be important in determining habitat preference and utilization.
Despite their coastal occurrence in temperate seas, this large (up to 30 feet or more) charismatic species is poorly known. This is especially true in the Eastern North Pacific where no studies have been made on their abundance or population structure. The IUCN lists the Basking Shark as vulnerable globally, but in the Eastern North Pacific it is listed as endangered. In Canada it has been listed as endangered where its population has undergone significant historical declines. More recently (April 2010) the U.S. listed the Pacific coast Basking Shark population as a “Species of Concern”.
The Basking Shark is the second largest shark species in the world and has been reported globally from high latitude seas, including arctic waters, to the lower latitudes including the tropics. The distribution of these sharks changes seasonally with their abundance shifting from higher to lower latitudes in the autumn and winter months. As they move into warm temperate and tropical seas they exhibit subtropical submergence diving to cooler waters often several hundred meters below the surface. This explains why they are rarely, if ever, seen in the tropics. Read more
Take a Hike!
By Michelle Marraffini
Invertebrate Zoology Lab
During the winter break, six students received the amazing opportunity to take the field class Global Kelp Systems, taught in Puerto Montt Chile. In the few weeks prior to the course we traveled around Chile and neighboring countries to take full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Phycology student Sara Worden, and I traveled to the Chilian National Park Torres del Paine. We were amazed at the landscape of the Patagonian steppe, enormous mountain peaks, and blue green glacial lakes that dotted the horizon. Our journey to the park consisted of a 3 day hike up to los Torres, the namesake of the park, and around to los Cuerrnos.
The mountainous group of Paine called massif consists mainly of granite and sedimentary rocks. This mountain was formed 12 million years ago (the Andes Range of Mountains formed 60 million years ago) and from a geological standpoint this landscape is considered new. The origin of the relief is from a unique combination of upheaval of the Paine Mountain Range and the erosive action of the glacial advances and reverses.
The differences in color seen in the rocks and formations are due to granite (light grey) and sediment (black or dark grey). Most of this sediment has been dated to the Cretaceous period with intrusions of Miocene laccolith.
Glacial weathering over the last ten thousand years is responsible for many of the sculptural features of Torres del Paine including the Torres where their overlaying sedimentary rock layer has been completely eroded away leaving behind the more resistant granite. Los Cuerrnos is also a great example of this glacial weathering which show dark, central bands of exposed granite with contrast their dark peaks of remnants of heavily eroded sedimentary stratum. Throughout our hike we kept using our knowledge of geology to tell the story of these thousands of year’s old formations and it made this impressive landscape even more beautiful.
Haiku of the Week: Seaweed in a changing ocean
by Alexis Howard
Seasons changing kelp
Many competing stages
Pheromone driven
It’s a Wonderful Lab
By Diane Wyse, Physical Oceanography Lab
In a day that some might describe as “the ideal lab experience,” four Moss Landing students set out to perform water sampling techniques for their chemical oceanography class, and enjoyed a day filled with surprises and adventure on the Monterey Bay. Those students, from the phycology, physical, and biological oceanography labs, took MLML’s “Hurricane” Zodiac boat out to nine sites around the bay to collect seawater. Along with two other groups that explored sections of Elkhorn Slough, the sampling effort was a snapshot of the concentration of silica in the surface waters of the bay and slough.
The day began with a lesson on instrumentation for determining temperature and salinity at each collection site.
En route to one of the sampling sites, phycology lab student, experienced boat driver, and keen marine mammal spotter Mike Fox caught sight of a pod of over 50 dolphins! As the boat slowly approached, a handful of the common dolphins gracefully whizzed along by the boat and gave the delighted marine science students quite a show. Read more
To Meet a Giant: Responding to a Stranded Baby Gray Whale
by Brynn Hooton-Kaufman
It started as any good weekend day might. A good cup of coffee, a good book, and a view of the bay. I like to park my car looking out over the tidepools at Asilomar and read, letting the crashing waves add interesting sound effects to whatever scene is playing out in my current novel of choice. Knee deep in Jurassic Park, the waves were bringing to life velociraptors crashing through the forest. Intimidating and terrifying, those velociraptors. But you can’t help but admire them, and the juveniles sound pretty cute. Given the chance, I’d probably take a baby velociraptor for a pet. At least until it started stalking me around the house.
When the sounds of my empty stomach started overpowering the thundering waves, I headed home to make some lunch and get things in order for the coming week. Not two steps into the kitchen my phone buzzed, signaling the arrival of a text message. More often than not, I’d have ignored it, as hunger usually wins out in my ranking of priorities. But as all things happen for a reason, I decided to take a look, and so for once, my phone didn’t get forgotten for hours on end as it usually does.
“hey gray whale calf alive and stranded near monterey dunes colony. TMMC is headed to the scene, we may need ur help! r u available today?”
I had to read the message twice. As much as people might think all marine biologists spend hours on end with dolphins, whales, and other majestic creatures of the sea, learning their mannerisms, capable of identifying any sleek shape that might be surfacing in the bay on a giving day, I hadn’t actually even seen a whaleup close. My closest call was a pod of orcas sighted from the bow of the Point Sur during a class cruise, and I just caught a glimpse of their backs as they headed away. Usually, my most intimate experience with whales was seeing the poof of sea spray that they leave like a footprint above the water, the proof that one of the giants had just taken a great breath before submerging. I really don’t know much about whales. I study seaweed.
