Open House is not only a great educational opportunity, it’s the biggest fundraiser for the MLML student body. The event is free to attend, but you can support us by buying tickets for the opportunity drawing. We will have a bunch of amazing prizes you won’t want to miss!
Have you ever looked a rockfish square in the eyes and felt its slippery scales? Open House is a chance to discover interesting creatures and explore exciting careers – maybe Katie from the ichthyology lab is helping nurture a future fisherman or fish biologist!
If you come to Open House, be sure not to miss our puppet show, where we give popular songs a science twist! Last year’s smash hits were “Chemoautotrophy” (sung to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”) and “Vertical Migration (sung to Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”). You can watch last year’s puppet show on-line to get pumped up for the next one!
Have you ever tried fish printing? It’s easy: choose your favorite fish, apply the paint, press and BOOM you have an amazing fish print. Label your artistic masterpiece and let it dry while you explore the rest of the Open House. Making fish prints is a great way to learn about the fish located here in Monterey Bay and have some fun!
Make sure to stop by the Ichthyology Lab during Open House and see the different kinds of fishes we have in Monterey Bay. They have many skeletons of fish – be sure to examine the teeth of the fishes and see how their shape is adapted to eating different kinds of food. The wolf eel above can eat abalone and use its large mouth to swallow them!
You can get up close to birds and whales at Open House without scaring them or getting wet! The Vertebrate Ecology Lab has many cool birds on display – its amazing how many different birds we have in and around Monterey Bay. And you can even take a peek at a tiny baby whale!
Getting to stroll down Moss Landing Marine Lab’s halls is a neat experience. Be on the lookout for a sperm whale jaw bone, the pier pilings in the entrance showing the different creatures of the intertidal zone, our student posters showing current and past work on the walls, and Ralph the Steller Sea lion (he’s in the background, not Brian Hoover on the chair).
It’s amazing how many people are scared of sharks. I have over 500 dives over four years on the west coast and have only seen one large shark. It was such a neat experience to see a ten foot shark in the water – most likely a sixgill shark, which are not dangerous. During Open House the sharks will all treat you with respect (as you should them!). All the sharks we have are preserved, not living specimens, but it is neat to see them and appreciate them up close. This year we’ll have a salmon shark on display – be sure to come check it out!
Visit Moss Landing Marine Labs during Open House to see how SCUBA diving gear is set up, and even take a photo as a diver or an otter at our photobooth. The otter is probably as warm as the SCUBA diver who is wearing a wetsuit because the otter has one million hairs per square inch – now that’s furry!
The touchtank hosted by the Invertebrate Zoology Lab is an opportunity to learn about the different animals out in the ocean. From seastars and sea cucumbers to anemones and crabs, you can get up close and personal with these critters in order to learn about our ocean neighbors. Learn some amazing facts, like how seastars can break an arm off and regrow it. How neat would it be if humans could do the same!