Although this warty sea cucumber may not look very appetizing to you, there is a commercial fishery for them in California as they are sold in Asian markets for both food and medicine. This warty sea cucumber wasn’t harvested, however, as the only thing that MLML intern Sarah Jeffries took while she was underwater was a photograph.
Back from a day in the field, grad student Brynn Hooton points out the phycology lab’s research site out in the kelp bed. Stillwater Cove has been used for decades as the location of kelp forest research. Phycology lab students are frequent visitors; making a few dives here every month to conduct experiments on kelps.
This painted greenling looks perfectly posed for a picture on the pretty pink coralline crust backdrop. Watch out Mona Lisa, here comes Oxylebius pictus!
Don’t let that unassuming lumpy appearance fool you – like a pesky little brother, this cushion star (Pteraster tesselatus) is loaded with snot and can fire at will. Any good scientist knows that mucous makes the world go round, and makes for a pretty effective defense. If you mess with this critter, expect things to get messy…
This star was collected during a government fish trawl survey near southern California. Here’s a shot of the underside in case you need convincing that there is indeed a graceful sea star under all that slime.
While marine researchers, especially graduate students, are used to living on a budget, who says they can’t eat well in the field? Students from a Chemical Oceanography class are treated to a feast aboard the R/V Point Sur during a research cruise. It’s remarkable what grad students will do for the promise of food.
Don’t get too excited, cowboys – cracking this sea whip would harm the fragile animal. That’s right, this is a photo of an animal – or many animals, actually. Sea whips are a type of deep-sea coral, and the “whip” structure is composed of a bunch of tiny polyps, each with its own mouth and tiny tentacles. These colonies live on the sea floor, and are sometimes collected during fish trawl surveys like this one was. Couple them with ocean tumbleweeds and you’d have yourself a sure-fire ocean Western.
2010 has been a great year for both rockfish and kelp bass young-of-the-year recruits, affectionately known as “YOY”s. This may be due to La Niña bringing colder, nutrient rich water to the kelp bed, helping the growing larvae and year-old recruits.
It’s a few steps up from pressing flowers in the pages of your phone books, but the concept is the same. Phycology student Sara Hutto shows an algal press from the MLML herbarium (that’s plant collection) to teachers from the Teacher Enhancement Program. Drying seaweeds is an easy, compact way to store the plants for later study – and it also produces great decorations for cards.
While fishing over the rocky reefs of San Jose del Cabo in Baja California, Ichthyology lab student Clinton Moran caught himself a 45-pound Pacific dog snapper (Lutjanus novemfasciatus). Clinton studies the mechanics of how fish feed – being the studious researcher that he is, he decided to clean and reassemble the head bones of his catch to display the fish’s wicked chompers. It’s easy to see where the common name comes from with those teeth that look positively canine. Check out some more fish bone displays from Clinton and other Ichthyology students.
Can you envision what a dog snapper looks like based on its teeth? Click here to see if you were close!
Friend or food? The predatory sea slug Navanax sits beside a small California Sea Hare. The Navanax usually eats juvenile sea slugs, but lets hope they continue going in opposite directions. It must be rough the first year or two being so small in such a giant ocean!!!