Just in time for All Hallow’s Eve here’s a line-up of the ocean’s most festive Halloween animals! Check them out in all their ghastly horror, they’ve been waiting all year to get some haunting attention.
Halloween Crab (Gecarinus quadratus)
This list certainly could not begin without the arthropod waiting all year for its time to Trick and Treat. The Trick? Halloween crabs are not as beachy as you might think. They spend most of their lives in mangroves and rainforests along the Pacific coast of Mexico down to Panama. Since they have a planktonic larval stage, they only head to the ocean to spawn. The Treat? Racoons love them! Halloween crabs are an important food source in areas where the range of these two animals overlap.
Species: Gecarcinus quadratus Common name: Halloween Crab. Photo by E. Mena
In public aquariums, you might had the privilege of viewing an embryo developing in its egg case watching it grow from a little alien-like body to a fully developed shark or skate.
Big skate embryos developing. Photo credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium
But, have you wondered how did the aquarists were able to exhibit this without harming the developing embryos? I'll tell you! For my thesis, I have been monitoring the development of a species of skate called the Big skate (Beringraja binoculata). In order to do that, I had to learn how to cut open the egg case, and what better way to learn this technique from than from the experts at the Monterey Bay Aquarium?
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a popular exhibit where they display embryos developing in an egg case, so I was very lucky to have one of the aquarists, Kelsey Barker teach me how to implement this.
First of all, we need fertile egg cases. Similar to birds, skates can lay unfertilized eggs in their egg cases, but dissecting an infertile egg case is not the best idea as it becomes very messy. This species, the Big skate (B. binoculata) is really interesting, because unlike other species of skates (currently 287+), it is one of TWO species of skates that have the ability to produce multipleembryos within an egg case! How cool is that? All other sharks, skates, and chimaera species produce one embryo per egg case. These Big skate egg cases range from 20 cm to 32 cm in total length (TL).
Egg case ready to be dissected.
Once we have a fertile egg, we make sure that the horns of the egg case have opened up. These horns will allow us squeeze trapped air once we enclosed the egg case back up again. This protocol only requires several minutes, we have to take the egg case out to make sure the embryos don't float away! We carefully make an incision with a scalpel on the flat side of the egg case, as it's easier to glue the viewing window. Then using scissors, we cut a square opening in the middle of the egg case.
Cutting open the egg case to reveal embryos! Photo credit: M. CruickshankEmbryos present! Cutting a square to place the viewing window. Photo credit: M. Cruickshank
Once the egg case has been successfully dissected, we dry the outer corners of the square, and use the two most highly 'scientific' items to place the viewing window; super glue and sheet protectors! We wait for the glue to dry and then immerse the egg case back into the water, squeezing any air bubbles out.
Finished product! Viewing window with embryos photo credit: J. Jang
Now the egg case is ready to be on exhibit or observed. Here is a picture of my tank setup!
These embryos will fully develop within six to eight months, this is around the time when they used up their yolk sacs, then they emerge out of their egg cases ready to show the world that being a baby skate isn't easy!
Have you ever come across a strange peculiar object that looks like a dried out husk along the beach? Believe it or not, they're not driftwood or anything plant related, but are egg cases!
Egg cases of Common (Dipturus batis) off the shore of Scotland. Photo courtesy of http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Mermaid.htm
These egg cases are also commonly known as mermaid purses and vary in shape, sizes, and texture. Species of sharks, skates, and chimeras are know to lay mermaid purses.They are all created internally by the mother, then deposited on the sand floor or wrapped around kelp.
Most of the time, they end up washed up on shore, with nothing in them. Now, you may wonder, what is actually in mermaid's purse? Instead of giving live birth, these oviparous (egg-laying) species of sharks, skates, and chimeras, have found a method of producing offspring limiting the gestation period inside the mother. The eggs are internally fertilized in the female, this is also how the egg case is formed. The egg case is made of keratin, similar to the material from our hair and fingernails, the mother lays the egg case near kelp or on the sand camouflaging the egg case.
Inside there is a tiny embryo waiting to become a shark, skate, or chimera! These embryos are left to fend for themselves as soon as the mother deposits the egg case. Once placed in the perfect environment, the embryo will stay in their egg cases from three to 18 months, even longer, depending on the water temperature. After using up their yolk sacs, these embryos wriggle out and are ready to take on the next step of their lives! Interested in learning how aquariums manage to make a viewing window in an egg case? Click here!
Horn Shark (Heterodontus francisci) hatching out of egg case. photo credit: https://boredomfiles.com/Little Skate (Leucoraja erinacea) emerging from egg case.
In the past few months, I have been asked more questions about oceanography than in the entirety of my career at Moss Landing. Inquiring minds want to know: what is this "El Niño storm" that will save us from the drought in California?
What is an El Niño?
We can look at El Niño events in the context of the ENSO, or El Niño Southern Oscillation. ENSO is a term for a "climate event" that is so large that it can affect global atmospheric circulation. ENSO fluctuates between three phases, which we refer to as El Niño, La Niña, and Neutral. How are they different? Let's talk about the Pacific Ocean.
Under La Niña conditions, the Pacific Ocean sees below-average sea-surface temperatures. Strong trade winds blowing from east to west along the equator push surface water out of the way and allow deep, cold water to rise to the surface in the eastern Pacific. December 1988 in the below figure is a good example of La Niña conditions (think colder than average surface temperatures) across the Pacific.
Data and figure from NOAA Climate.gov
But check out the bottom image in this figure from December 1997: the strong east-to-west trade winds that blow the warm surface water out of the way for La Niña phases have lessened or even reversed. This allowed that warm water to pool on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean. The water has sloshed back! The average sea-surface temperature is much higher than normal, and we call these conditions El Niño.
Notice how Peru is surrounded by warm water during an El Nino year? South American fishermen were some of the first to notice the ENSO phenomenon, because this warm water around Christmas time could do some serious damage to their normally very productive fisheries! They named this massive event "El Niño", in a seasonal reference to the "little boy" Christ child.
Enough about the ocean, what about the weather?
We cannot forget that what happens in the oceans is linked to what's happening in our atmosphere. Warm water in the ocean leads to rising air and tropical storms. La Niña phases usually have an increased amount of rainfall over Indonesia and decreased rainfall over the tropical Pacific.
In addition to the atmospheric conditions, the above figures illustrate how water is pushed to the west in the La Niña phase and east in the El Niño phase. Keep thinking of sloshing water in a Pacific-Ocean-sized glass. The sloshing leads to warm or cold water at the surface and different atmospheric conditions as a result.
What does this mean for California?
I think you can see by now that El Niño is not a storm. It is not even a system of storms that will tumble through California, with enough water to save us from a series of drought years. It is much, much bigger than that. El Niño means changes in the ocean, which means changes in the atmosphere, which can affect atmospheric conditions and weather where YOU live.
Because we have been measuring and tracking the sloshing of the Pacific for several decades now, we can make some predictions about our atmosphere and our weather in an El Niño year like 2015. Scientists have seen the trade winds weakening and even sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific that are comparable to some of our strongest El Nino events, like November 1997.
Image from NOAA
Some climate variables may be different from previous years, but what scientists have seen this year has lead them to predict that we might get lucky (with the rain) if El Niño conditions continue to strengthen. In the past, El Niño has lead to wet winters in California. Storms in the Equatorial Pacific (remember that pool of warm water?) have the chance to be swept north by a branch of the jet stream. They might be carried far enough to the north that we will see rain in the northern parts of California. However, there are no perfect models, and this year might be different.
Will it help the drought?
Even in this lengthy piece, I have not described all of the factors affecting our winter weather. I simply cannot, and if you are curious, your research has just begun! You may have heard of "The Ridge" and "The Blob" (aren't meteorologists great at naming things?), which have affected rainfall in California. There's even a super-cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation that relates to ENSO, not to mention unknown effects of climate change on our global atmospheric patterns.
However our rainy season turns out, we should keep in mind that heavy rain on a dry landscape can mean dangers like flooding and landslides. California had trouble with this during our last strong El Niño of February 1998, so stay safe this winter!
You (and I) might want to do a little more reading:
Have you ever heard of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary? If not, I bet you've stepped foot in the Sanctuary! If you've ever gone to the beach and stuck your toes into Monterey Bay waters (like many of our MLML graduate students have time and time again), you're in the Sanctuary! A National Marine Sanctuary is like a National Park or Forest, except that the protected area is underwater, starting at the high tide line. There are a total of fourteen Sanctuaries in United States' waters, including four along the California coast (from south to north): Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones, and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries. Like Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), the other Sanctuaries were created to ensure that as we utilize the ocean's resources available to us, we also work toward sustainable practices and habitat protection.
The fourteen National Marine Sanctuaries in the United States. One of the fourteen locations (Papahanaumokuakea) is designated a Marine National Monument. Photo Credit: NOAA.
MBNMS was established in 1992, in part thanks to the efforts of a grass roots campaign by Santa Cruz citizens who wanted to ensure that no offshore drilling would occur along this stretch of coastline, which is an essential area to both many different marine species and humans alike. It protects 276 miles of California's coast (almost 1/4 of our state's coastline!) and more than 6000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants, and it stretches from San Francisco to Cambria.
Those of us living near the MBNMS are aware of its importance, but others around the globe may not be as informed. That's where "Big Blue Live" comes in - it's a production by the BBC and PBS, on August 31st to September 2nd at 8:00PM PT, and it will highlight all the amazing features of the MBNMS. The BBC has been filming here in the MBNMS for the past couple weeks, and will continue to throughout "Big Blue Live" to highlight all the amazing aspects of the MBNMS. Be sure to tune in to PBS starting tomorrow (KQED is our local PBS channel for NorCal) and check out the wonders of our Sanctuary!!
Some of our faculty members were consulted by the BBC for "Big Blue Live." Jim Harvey, MLML's director and marine mammal expert, and Dave Ebert, MLML's expert on sharks, skates, and rays, have served as information sources regarding natural history of these animals. Numerous specimens have been borrowed from our museum collection such as birds, whale bones, baleen and shark jaws. They've also borrowed our 3D model of the Monterey Bay and its submarine canyon. Dave Ebert has provided guidance on juvenile great white sharks that have been spotted in the area over recent weeks, and his student Catarina Pien has been a resource for elasmobranchs in Elkhorn Slough.
It's essential for us to understand the importance of the MBNMS, not only to protect its inhabitants - which include 34 marine mammal species, 94 different species of marine birds, about 350 species of fish and 450 species of algae, and thousands of invertebrate species - but also to learn from our past mistakes. Many of the animal populations are on the rebound from being hunted by humans in the past centuries.
Sea otters were hunted for their luxurious fur, which has one million hairs per square inch, and whales were hunted for their blubber for meat and oils that were often used in lamps that lined the streets. Local fish and invertebrates that we often enjoy at restaurants were also hunted without foresight into how the populations may suffer in the future. Now, with the MBNMS intact, all of these animal populations are on the rebound, thanks to a better understanding of sustainability and better fishing practices.
Us locals know how breathtakingly beautiful our Sanctuary is, and it's great that we're getting some global spotlight on the wondrous Monterey Bay. Thanks to the BBC and PBS, the videos of humpbacks breaching and sea otters eating clams will promote the central message of the Sanctuary, "To understand and protect the coastal ecosystem and cultural resources of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary," to others globally. Hopefully "Big Blue Live" will attract visitors from all over who will recreate and enjoy visiting the Sanctuary while also understanding and respecting the history of Monterey Bay.
So, tune in to your local PBS station to watch "Big Blue Live" and to find out more about the MBNMS!
Below are a bunch of links about "Big Blue Live" for you to check out:
Amanda is a first-year graduate student working in the Invertebrate Zoology lab at MLML. She's here to provide an insider's opinion on the graduate process beginning with day one. You can follow Amanda on Instagram (@scatter_cushion) for more sciency goings-ons and the weekly #SeaCreatureSunday.
Greetings to any and all fellow readers and allow me to take the time to introduce myself. My name is Amanda and I am but a small part of the new cohort of graduate students here at Moss Landing. I'm coming into the Invertebrate Lab under Dr. Geller. During orientation, the lack of a new student's perspective was bemoaned by the powers that be, and so I have offered myself up as candid, quivering bait. I realize that there's not much I can say that can be of much import, returning as I have to the low wrung of the academic ladder. But all self-deprecating aside I hope that at least some of my fellow new blood can read this and know that maybe it's ok to feel any and all things I'm sure we have felt this week.
This is me! (Photo courtesy of Colin Prior)
Orientation began with the usual posturing; tepid glances and shuffling feet abound. I actually stood in my living room (apple in hand, I swear it), and made my house mate wish me good luck on my first day of school. Seventeen is deemed large for an incoming class, but when you consider that we'll be navigating the same obstacles course of deadlines, expectations, and discovery, it feels a bit more intimate. We managed the perfunctory "go around the room and tell a bit about yourself," and I'll expand on that a bit here so you can get a sense of how one of us came to be.
I moved to Santa Cruz in 2010 and pursued a degree in Marine Biology with a minor in chemistry at UCSC. My first job was working in an invertebrate reproductive ecology lab, but I went on to pursue a variety of opportunities, any which way I could get them. I tutored upper division courses, spent a summer in Big Sur tracking sea otters, braved the frigid pre-dawn to romp among the elephant seals out at Año Nuevo. After graduating in 2013, I decided to pursue my graduate degree, but if Moss Landing was my ultimate destination I took a very roundabout way of getting there. I studied abroad in both Australia and South Africa. During that time I did a fair bit of travel, including Indonesia, London, Ireland, Malaysia, and most recently Thailand for my Divemaster certification. I hiked 240 miles in the Sierras and eventually came to rest about 35 miles to the north working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
I'm a bit strange; you will learn this.
After work one night I went to a talk at Hopkins Marine Station being given by Jim Harvey on how to maintain integrity whilst pursuing a career in the sciences. I remember asking during the course of this talk how it was possible for young scientists such as myself to reconcile the quandary of obviously wanting to work towards furthering causes we believed in, to work towards the creation of innovative and novel science, while also accounting for the fact that...it's hard out there right now. There isn't a lot of money or a lot of jobs available to those of us making our start, and sometimes we don't have the luxury of maintaining high-minded goals when the bills have to be paid. And I remember his answer, verbatim, as being "I don't know how to answer that."
I left feeling a bit disillusioned, and I've thought about it a handful of times since, but there's a point to be made here. Because I ended up at Moss Landing Marine Lab, where Jim Harvey is the director, when I could have ended up somewhere else. And this time when I met him, when he came to speak to the incoming cohort as a part of orientation, it was to hear about his journey and how it was not so very different from my own. We both lived for a time in San Diego, shared a major (and a minor) from universities near the Monterey Bay, where we were no doubt profoundly shaped by the beauty and richness of the marine world, and we both received (or will receive if he doesn't boot me out for writing this) Master's degrees from here at Moss (MLML). He of course has gone on to cultivate an extremely inspiring career in the marine sciences, and this is how he got his start.
Photo courtesy of Lindsey Dealey.
So, maybe in accepting our own positions here and in making the active choice to align ourselves with this university, we have all similarly taken steps in creating a career that we can pursue with integrity and pride. I can already tell it's going to be insane. It's only been four days of proper instruction and I'm feeling the rust that two years outside of academia can leave behind. There's no end to the different aspects of this new life that will make demands upon our time. All the same, there's endless potential.
The academics are, of course, a big component of any grad student's first year. I'll have several research projects to formulate as part of my classes, and I'm really looking forward to getting out in the field. This week we're planning to get muddy as we observe invasive snails in Elkhorn Slough. In addition, I'm also taking a course on scientific diving. Being affiliated with an institution such as Moss allows us to access sites like Hopkins that require some academic or research-oriented purpose. We're very fortunate in that regard, and I tend to think there's a certain complacency whereby we forget how lucky we are to have access to some of the best habitat in the world. If I don't ultimately use diving for my own thesis, I certainly hope I can at least make myself available to other students for help with their work. In that same vein, I'd like to use my time at MLML to get involved in the small boats program. It's yet another opportunity to make myself more well-rounded as a scientist.
The misty romanticism of weighing hundreds of epiphyte (tiny stuff that lives on sea grass) samples.
Lastly, we're all settling into our new role as members of an active, high-functioning research laboratory. There's hierarchy to be dealt with, new social interactions, new protocols to learn, and a general sense of being thrown into the deep end. I feel fortunate, because thus far I've been welcomed warmly by the lab group who will become by extension my family of choice. Soon I'll be working in the lab, assisting with various grant-funded projects. I imagine I will rely on them consistently for guidance and support. It promises to be a busy few years.
So here's one take on all this madness. A little sentimental for a science blog, I know. But, I feel no qualms about admitting to being nervous, or excited, or optimistic, or overwhelmed. My hope is that in time, the stories of all of us will come to light. Each person brings to Moss something unique. Our many arrows of scattered directionality have aligned and straightened for a time in a single trajectory towards progress here at Moss Landing. When we leave, they will scatter yet again, in any and all directions. Allow me to introduce myself now, at the beginning of great things, and to say that the pleasure is mine.
Dr. Valerie Loeb is an adjunct professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Currently, she functions as an independent Antarctic ecosystem research scientist collaborating with Jarrod Santora of UC Santa Cruz. In April, she headed out to sea with a new NSF funded project entitled “Pilot Study: Addition of Biological Sampling to Drake Passage Transits of the ‘LM Gould'”. The following are updates from the field by Jamie Sibley Yin who is in charge of communications.
05/02/15 - Fish for Days
Palmer sunrise.
We are on another fishing trip. We left a day early from station because the seawater pumps failed in the Palmer Station aquarium and all the fish died. It was tragic, and the need for more fish was urgent. Since this leg of the cruise was dedicated to the fishing group, and we were not sampling, I was left with little to do and so helped with the fishing efforts. This included deploying the pots and trawling.
First we deployed the pots, which are left out for 24 hours. We had to prepare bait for the bait bags that lure the fish into the pots. The bait is hung on the mesh inside of the pots by large, industrial safety pins. The irresistible smell of slightly rotten fish lures the Notothenia coriiceps (one of their target fish) into the metal pots. I use a large kitchen knife to slice mackerel and sardine into chunks. The partially frozen fish are easy to chop but some of the fish have thawed, instead of creating firm bite size pieces of fish, my knife mashes them, brown guts ooze onto the plywood I’m using as a cutting board.
Over 100 lbs of fish later, and the bait bags are done. The marine technicians (MTs) load them into the pots. The pots are then lined up on the back deck of the ship in preparation to be pushed off into the water. They are kept close together in their groups of four, the rope that links them together is coiled atop each one. We move them as a unit, which means four people need to move them at the same time. It takes all my body weight to shove the pot across the deck into the line. They are pushed into the water by the MTs, we will retrieve them in a day.
The LMG Olympics are here, aka time to pull in the fish pots. Deploying them is pretty straightforward but pulling them up is a whole other kettle of fish. It takes six MTs and four scientists to coordinate the reeling in, and unloading of the pots. The boat gets as close to the pots as it can and then drifts towards them. Once the head MT, Jack, thinks the boat is close enough, he takes a four-pronged hook and lassos the buoy. The buoy has a GPS on a pole attached to two large orange balls, which are in turn attached to a set of pots. There are four sets of pots--16 in total. The buoy and balls are hauled onto the deck, coils of blue rope are reeled in and set aside. The 1st pot comes up, it’s full of fat Nototheniids, their pectoral fins splayed, trying to stabilize themselves as we roll the pot over the deck, their mouths agape as they gasping for water. Kristin, one of the PIs, unlatches and rips open the pot and hands me a wriggling fish. Its’ whole body flops in protest, mouth wide, I hold it like a baby and walk swiftly to the aquarium room where I drop it into one of the tanks.
Squid and pteropod.
Trawling is exciting because of the sea life that is pulled onto the deck from the ocean depths. Hundreds of sea stars, milky white octopuses, bryozoans, sea cucumbers, wriggling spiky amphipods, gelatinous tunicates—my eyes can’t pick out everything in the tangled squirmy mass hauled on to the deck. I go to bed as images of sea spiders and mystery fish flash through my mind. I could have spent hours picking through the by-catch, commanding the creatures to identify themselves.
Although MLML has some great resources on campus, students also occasionally have opportunities to get out of central California and do some work in other areas. Some of you may remember my post about my time in the Gulf of California last year with MLML’s “Baja class” where I studied herbivorous fishes. Well, I was given the opportunity to go back to Baja earlier this year to build upon the study that I began previously. In mid-June, I was part of a research team with two other MLML students and our dive safety officer / research faculty, Dr. Diana Steller, to help out on some projects through UC – Santa Cruz and to work on the herbivore project.
Because we needed to transport some large supplies, including scuba tanks and the field air compressor (to fill up the scuba tanks), we needed to drive down and back again this year. Although it sounds tough, the drive is only 3-4 days, and it’s definitely part of the adventure!
Just after sunset at our desert campsite in Cataviña, Baja California.Driving isn’t too bad when you get to camp at sites such as this at Playa Requesón! Photo by Heather Fulton-Bennett
We made it safely to the island (and we even made great time, too!) and were ready to begin our work, which included studies of hawksbill turtles and their habitat, as well as studies of herbivorous fishes in the area. In order to study herbivorous fishes for this project, we first needed to conduct fish surveys to quantify fishes at multiple sites around our base at El Pardito. These surveys were part of a joint effort to survey the benthic habitats as well, and were therefore conducted in small groups, with one person surveying fish, one measuring algae, and another taking photographs of the rocky bottom.
Although the goal of fish surveys is to count and size fishes, they require a lot of underwater writing!
This year, in addition to fish and benthic surveys, we also placed a camera underwater to see what types of fishes we could capture on film when divers weren’t present. We’re still analyzing the data, but here’s a sneak peak of some visitors to our cameras!
An azure parrotfish, Scarus compressus, swimming by the camera. Note the rockin’ algal mustache.It wasn’t just herbivores that swam by, as demonstrated by this barred pargo (snapper), Hoplopagrus guentherii. (But notice the bluechin parrotfish, Scarus ghobban, in the background?)
Although we travel to these remote places to do work, and we tend to work hard in order to cram as much science into our limited time, some events are too special to pass up taking a few minutes off to experience. On this trip, that happened to be a large school of small fishes that passed by a few hundred feet offshore from the island. As this was within swimming distance, I took the opportunity to snorkel out and see it firsthand.
Although it looks almost like a cloud or shadow from far away……when you get closer, you can see that it’s actually made of thousands of small fish!
Supposedly, yellowtail jacks and even a marlin were spotted darting in and out of this giant ball of fish, but I was the only visitor at the time when I was out there. After this short break, it was back to work until we were greeted by another beautiful sunset over the Baja peninsula. Before long, it was time to head back home to California, but not after we had collected plenty of great data and made numerous amazing memories from our short time in Baja.
Dr. Valerie Loeb is an adjunct professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Currently, she functions as an independent Antarctic ecosystem research scientist collaborating with Jarrod Santora of UC Santa Cruz. In April, she headed out to sea with a new NSF funded project entitled "Pilot Study: Addition of Biological Sampling to Drake Passage Transits of the 'LM Gould'". The following are updates from the field by Jamie Sibley Yin who is in charge of communications.
04/26/15 - Let’s Get Physical
Everyone decorated Styrofoam cups and we attached them in a mesh bag to the CTD. They went down to 4000m. The air in the cups is compressed and thus shrinks the cup size.
This week’s research has been dedicated to the physical oceanographers onboard. These scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Caltech, and Princeton are studying how water masses interact in the Antarctic. They accomplish this by recording temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll levels at different depths within the water column using a variety of instruments. The area they are sampling is back in Drake Passage--about a 40 hour steam from Palmer.
The instruments they have used are expendable bathy thermographs (XBTs), conductivity temperature depth censors (CTDs), and a glider, which they are recovering. Gliders are autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) that are controlled remotely. At the beginning of the cruise they used XBTs to measure abiotic (physical) factors along the south-bound transit line across Drake Passage. XBTs are silver, oblong instruments about the size of a water bottle that are “shot” from the side of the boat. They take measurements as they fall to the ocean floor and send data back to the ship, relayed through a copper wire. XBTs are not recovered and rest forever on the ocean bottom.
This is the CTD (an instrument that measures conductivity, temperature and depth) getting ready to enter the water.
The group is now using conductivity temperature depth censors (CTDs) to record abiotic factors throughout the water column. The CTD machine is a barrel-shaped cage of pvc pipes that surround a carousel of canisters. The CTD lives in the “Baltic” room. To deploy the machine, a two-story door opens and the CTD is pushed out the door into the frigid water. As it descends towards the ocean bottom it transmits data, displayed as zigzagging colored lines on the computer screen. The lines are oxygen, fluorescence, temperature, and salinity. Fluorescence is a measure of primary production. CTD plots give us information about different water masses and their boundaries in the water column. The CTD schedule happens around the clock, therefore the crew and scientists are split into day and night shifts. As I get ready for bed, people are having breakfast and starting their day.
This CTD plot shows how salinity, temperature, oxygen, and fluorescence vary as a function of depth.
The glider recovery was a group effort. The glider is a yellow, torpedo-like, $150,000 instrument. It was left in the Drake four and half months ago to collect temperature and salinity readings at different depths. A GPS signal transmitted from the glider sends its location to a computer at Caltech every 24 hours. We got to its approximate location around 11:30pm. This was the position the glider had last pinged at midnight the night before and had no doubt drifted since that time. We had to wait until midnight again to get a new position. I said I would help look for it with everyone but felt dubious at actually spotting it. The only portion of the glider protruding from the water was an orange stick with a small swath of reflective tape wrapped around it. The whole thing we were trying to spot was about the size of a flare.
The glider being carried inside.
Chances seemed slim. Nonetheless, the 3rd mate, Rob, spotted the glider just as it was getting light, around 7:30am. Someone kept an eye on the location and the zodiacs were manned to retrieve the instrument. Conditions seemed ideal—sunshine, flat water, not a cloud in sight. It felt like we had found a needle in a silver haystack. Half an hour later the zodiacs were still not in the water and everyone had dispersed. Turns out the glider had been lost sight of. Everyone was on the bridge searching anxiously, eyes plastered to binoculars. An hour and a half later, and still no sign of the glider. The GPS said we were basically on top of it but no one could see it. In the meantime the swell had picked up, and sunshine turned to rain. Someone spotted it. Rain turned to sideways sleet. Three people stood outside, pelted by sleet, and pointed at the glider location while the zodiac was (quickly) loaded and deployed. The zodiac came in and out of view as it bobbed over three meter swells. The glider was eventually recovered with only a minor mishap. Guiliana, my friend, and scientist at Caltech was climbing out of the zodiac onto the ladder, a trough came by and she was left hanging on the bottom rung of the ladder, as she pulled herself up another wave came and soaked her to her armpits. The crew hauled her up and threw her on deck. After peeling off her soaked clothes, she led the way in glider inspection and cleaning. All was well, and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
This was a pod of whales we encountered, there were about 35 of them and about 1500 birds. They were most likely feeding on krill.
As an early career scientist, I am still learning about what it means to be a shark expert and the standards by which we uphold these individuals to. Before starting school at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, I used programming similar to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week or NatGeoWild’s SharkFest to help me define those terms and build my knowledge of “shark facts”. Did you make the same mistake?
Shark Week's 2014 campaign, King of Summer used a comical caricature of a shark expert.
How would you define a shark expert?
There was a time when I thought the title of shark expert was akin to a person's scholarly credentials. Discovery, NatGeoWild and similar networks have all taught me otherwise. I used to mean that as a compliment. At first, it was intriguing to learn how people from different walks of life could end up becoming shark experts in their own rights. In my opinion however, the term “Shark Expert” quickly de-evolved leaving the accolade vacant of respect, saturated in melodrama, and a burning question
… how do these programs define a shark expert?
The Modern Day Shark Expert.
The modern day shark experts have gotten their starts from a myriad of different paths. Yet whether their credentials are rooted in science, diving, surfing, fishing, or just knowing waaay to much about shark attacks, those individuals lack a different kind of diversity. In the scientific community at least, I know there are plenty of women and people of color who study sharks. I just wouldn’t know that from watching TV.
The Gills Club is Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's signature action project dedicated to connecting girls with female scientists, sharing knowledge, and empowering them to take leadership positions and inspire shark and ocean conservation.
With regards to women scientists, take a look at the group the Gills Club. Their sole focus is to connect girls and young women with female shark scientists. That’s it. Through their quest, they have encountered so many well qualified female shark scientists that they have been able to develop a newsletter featuring two new female shark scientists every month. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Gills Club webpage featuring their long list of female shark scientists collaborators.
There are plenty of well qualified female shark experts!
Comedian and host of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, weighs in on misleading shark programming.
Last year’s problems made this year’s changes.
The biggest fish to get fried last year were mockumentaries! These confusing pieces of… fiction are now completely absent in this year’s programming! Fans were also vocal about the shows they felt Shark Week did right and as a result, Alien Sharks is back in 2015 with a third installment.
Last year's promo for Alien Sharks. The 2015 episode airs on Monday, July 6th at 10pm.
I couldn’t find a single female shark expert for the 2015 shark programming.
Though the programming is already underway for 2015 there is still work to do. For instance, the descriptions for this year’s shows are absent of any female names. It may be too late for 2015, but 2016 could be the year for a more diverse representation of shark experts!
So here is what I propose!
Watch Shark Week. Watch Shark Fest.
In doing so, support the shows that push shark programming in the right direction by featuring a diverse representation of shark experts and of course, lots of super sweet sharky science facts! (Say that five times fast. Because it’s fun.)
#WhatToWatch for #SharkWeek2015 Image created by Shelley Davis of the Ocean Research Foundation.
Not sure which shows you want to support?
Wildlife biologist, Shelley Davis and the Ocean Research Foundation have you covered with these great #WhatToWatch infographics. Inspired by previous guides designed by the now defunct, Upwell organization.
#WhatToWatch for #SharkFest2015 Image created by Shelley Davis of the Ocean Research Foundation.
Demand a more diverse representation of shark experts!
I’m happy to see a return this year to shark experts with science backgrounds. Even better is that many of these experts were speaking on the true diversity of sharks and sensationalizing real facts rather than hyped-up fears.
Shark + Expert = Sharxpert!
#sharxperts and #diversifyURsharxperts
(I will make this a thing! Just waiting for it to catch on…)
Group photo of shark scientists from around the world at the second ever, Sharks International Conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2014.
In hopes of a change in 2016, give a shout out to your favorite #FemaleSharxpert!
If Shark Week and Shark Fest are having a hard time finding qualified female shark experts, then let’s make it easy for them!
But why stop there?
Shark experts come in many shapes and forms with a variety of specializations. In fact, did you know most “shark experts” don’t even refer to themselves or their colleagues as such? That’s because most “shark experts” see themselves first as geneticists, ecologists, divers or fisherman; in other words, as experts in their true fortes. As a result, the field of “shark experts” is huge …like Megalodon huge, or even better it’s whatever ATE Megalodon huge!
Consequently, shark fans deserve more from television networks and a chance to see the real diversity that lies within the field we’ve all come to know and love as, the Shark Expert.
To get you started, here are just a few Sharxperts and labs whose specialties and/or backgrounds are a great introduction to the diversity in shark science!
Andrew Nosal studies shark movements in Southern California.
Gibbs Kuguru uses genetics to study Smooth Hammerhead sharks in South Africa.
The Pacific Shark Research Center consists of a diverse group of graduate students lead by their professor, Dr. Dave Ebert in the study of lesser known chondrichthyan species dubbed, the Lost Sharks.
Kara Yopak, is an expert on shark brains and how they evolved.
Andrea Marshall aka the Queen of Mantas proved that the Giant Manta represents two different species.
Lisa B. Nathanson collaborates with shark fisherman to collect valuable data on shark biology.
Coastal & Marine Laboratory at FSU focus on exploited and poorly studied estuarine fishes such as the critically endangered, Smalltooth Sawfish.
Michelle Heupel is one of the world's leading experts in shark ecology and how they utilize certain spaces such as marine protected areas.
By Vicky Vásquez
