The temperature in the water around Monterey Bay varies dramatically throughout the year. Upwelling caused by winds during the summer brings nutrient-rich water from below, but this water is very cold. This previous summer, the water was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius – thats chilly! To go explore the ocean by snorkeling or SCUBA diving you want to be warm to focus on all of the amazing marine life around you. One way to do this is to create a layer of air or nitrogen between you and the water. Neoprene wetsuits are composed of foam with nitrogen gas inside, creating an insulated wall to help slow heat transfer between you and the cold water of Monterey Bay. The other option for staying warm is to purchase a drysuit, but these suits are more expensive and require further training. Whichever you choose, get out into the water and experience Monterey at its finest.
It would be a hard life in the intertidal at night!
As you may know, the water in our streets runs to the ocean. After diving in Monterey Bay you begin to notice objects that do not belong in the water. I have found car parts, floats, cans, bottles, plastic bags, Snow White birthday balloons, fishing rods, fishing line, fishing weights, dive flashlights, dive masks and snorkels – even a SCUBA tank and a full set of gear resting on the ocean bottom in Santa Cruz. We have come a long way from the mentality that the solution to pollution is dilution. I would not want trash to end up in my backyard from visitors passing through. Please remember to pack your trash and treat the ocean with respect. She gives us so much in the way of food, from fish to algae, means of enjoyment, from surfing to boat rides, and a sunset that the East Coast has nothing on!
The arms of a Starburst Anemone grab for tiny particles in a tide pool.
Tidepooling is a great way to get outside and get some exercise while getting to know some critters in our backyard. This Starburst Anemone is one of the amazing and delicate creatures living in the intertidal zone of the ocean. Remember to be careful where you step because many creatures hide under barnacles and mussels during low tide and are just trying to wait it out until the water returns to them. It’s best to stick to rocks when exploring this world of cool critters.
I went to bed last night with plans to wake up and go snorkeling in Stillwater Cove at 8 am this morning. You might say those plans changed a bit when I got a phone call from my brother at 1:45 am. Well, actually it was five phone calls, because it took me that long to shake off the cobwebs of sleep and realize he wasn’t pocket dialing me. My thoughtful brother was up watching television, and had been alerted by the news to the disaster that had taken place in Japan. He called to let me know that a tsunami was headed toward the west coast with an arrival time of approximately 7:30 am, and he was concerned since we are residents of Monterey. Thankfully, we live high on one of the marine terraces in New Monterey, and I assured him that we would be safe from any floodwaters, and headed back to bed.
I immediately flipped on the television when I woke up this morning at 6, and started catching up on the news. The dramatic videos from Japan were chilling, and showed the ocean washing over agricultural land, pouring through city streets, and creating whirlpools that entrapped boats. The effects of the tsunami on Hawaii thankfully looked much milder, and the news didn’t report major damage from the flooding they experienced. As for our tsunami forecast, the news crews were predicting waves of a few feet high to hit around 7:45. I called my snorkeling buddy, updated her on the current events since she hadn’t seen the news, and we both decided that calling off the trip to Stillwater was a good idea.
I continued to watch the news, and when 7:45 rolled around, I was a little surprised not to see any changes on the beaches in the live-feed video. I even started to wonder if canceling the trip to collect seaweeds had been a mistake. But then I reminded myself, better safe than sorry. I don’t want to be the student with poor judgement who thought it was more important to collect materials for an exam than to heed tsunami warnings, and get swept out to sea. Besides, I reminded myself, tsunamis aren’t over in a blink of an eye; they can continue to have an impact for hours.
And it turns out that’s exactly what happened. Pretty soon on the news, boats and docks were getting ripped from their moorings in Santa Cruz harbor, and were barreling into anything in their way. MLML grad student Sara Hutto was high and dry, far from the dangers of the surge, but managed to catch these great photos:
Debris getting swept out of Santa Cruz Harbor (photo: S. Hutto)
As you can see, the current is moving quickly, and taking pieces of the harbor with it. The tsunami was really interesting to watch. It didn’t just move in once as a big surge, then drain back out, but instead it did this multiple times. It was kind of like watching a dramatic tide cycle, all happening in twenty minutes or so, and then starting all over again. Read more →
One of the best things about SCUBA diving is the places it will take you.
Learning to SCUBA dive can be a life-changing experience. The world it opens up and the rare sights you are able to see can change your life – it did for me. I remember practicing in the pool at UC Santa Cruz not knowing if I would enjoy such a strange and surreal experience. During my first dive I took a camera with me to document the adventure. I am still diving to this day, and I hope you read this and the next few blogs and consider getting certified. Here are the highlights: an otter nibbling my buddy’s fin, and my instructor, our very own Paul Tompkins, directing me down the float line.
Watch out for marine life: they sometimes come looking for you to play with.Descending down to the underwater world!
I would imagine it's a little difficult to carry over 10 friends on your back!
I would not be able to give ten of my friends a piggyback ride at once, but maybe I could if they were all very small. This Black Turban Snail has to deal with a problem plaguing many slow moving animals in the sea: hitchhikers. These Crepidula Slipper Limpets are taking easy street by attaching to this Turban Snail and feeding on the plankton floating in the water. Sounds like a good life to me!
Diving on the seafloor offers a delight for the eyes. Red seaweeds blanket rocks, and colorful invertebrates abound. But you can’t dive too deep and still enjoy a rainbow of colors! As light travels through the water, the longer wavelengths – reds, oranges, and yellows – are absorbed or scattered first, causing these colors to drop out. So when diving deeper, you’ll see the world in greens, blues, and violets. Don’t worry, you can still capture vibrant colors at depth with a camera, all you need to remember is your flash.
Going eye to eye with this Robust Clubhook Squid is one of the many experiences that await visitors who tour Moss Landing Marine Labs. Large squid are favorite snacks of sperm whales, as the artist’s rendering on the wall suggests. You’ll notice that the sperm whale doesn’t have any teeth on its upper jaw. How did MLML grad Mariah Boyle use this fact to keep the peace between villages in Fiji? Find out in The Case of the Missing Sperm Whale Teeth!
So far, this event has been the highlight of my graduate school career. I got to dive in the kelp forest tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The same tank that I stared into for hours as a kid visiting Monterey on summer vacation, thinking, “How amazing are the people who get to dive in this tank? They must have qualifications that I couldn’t even think of getting.”
Well, I guess I was wrong! I have earned those qualifications while in grad school at MLML. I’ve earned my open water diver, rescue diver, master diver, scientific diver, and Reef Check ecodiver certifications, all in the short three years that I’ve been a student. And, the Aquarium even asked me (okay, asked the MLML Phycology Lab, which I’m a part of) to help them by surveying the algae in their kelp forest tank!
Sonya and I working in the Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp forest tank
You see, some of the seaweed in the kelp forest tank is “planted” there by aquarium staff, but some of it shows up on its own. These “volunteer” seaweeds come through the aquarium’s seawater system as spores that settle and grow in the tank. The aquarium staff like to know who all of the critters inhabiting their tanks are, and that’s where the Phycology Lab comes in. Since we spend much of our graduate career studying and identifying seaweeds, we can survey the algae in the kelp forest tank pretty quickly and easily. And every few years, we get to!
I couldn’t help but chronicle this event on the GoPro underwater video camera that I got for Christmas. Why don’t you follow along with our dive, and I’ll explain what we’re doing. Jump on in:
In this first video we’re gearing up. Paul gets help putting on his dive gear from Mike- there’s no reason to risk pulling something with all of that weight before you even get in the water! Sonya takes the first steps into the tank, and Arley helps her out with her mask and passes her fins. And during the time that the camera is pointed down, I’m checking my gear, making sure my regulator and back-up works. Every good dive starts with good planning and safety checks!
Finally, it’s my turn to get in the water! Speedy Paul climbs into the tank, gears up, and eases in before me. I make my way down the steps and take a seat, where I can comfortably and securely put on my fins. Then my mask goes on, and Arley hands me the RPC – random point contact – bar and makes some final adjustments. Into the tank I go!
I submerge, and take my first look around the tank. It might be hard to believe, but diving in the aquarium was a little stressful at first. We had to stay far away from the glass because our tanks could chip or crack it, we needed to avoid making big fin strokes because we could tear out or damage the kelp, and with seven people and all of those fishes in an enclosed space, we had to keep from kicking each other!
You’ll see the white vertical line – this is our transect line that we sampled along. I waited for my partner Sonya, and she found the place along the line where we were to take our first sample. My job was to place the RPC bar on this spot, then hold the marks on the line up to the place on the rock where Sonya identified the algae growing there. That way, we sampled a random place each time.
Sampling went smoothly and I got some great video, up until the point where the camera decided to make a break for it! Here you can see that it falls off of my head, and spirals toward the kelp forest tank floor. Thankfully we were in an enclosed space, and Paul rescued the camera later on. I’ll be securing it to my buoyancy compensator next time I take it for a dive!
So, that concludes this adventure. Thanks for joining me on my dive in the Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp forest tank! I’ll be taking the GoPro with me on future dives, so stay tuned for more videos of my adventures as an MLML grad student.
