During the Geological Oceanography field trip to Pt Reyes, students were lucky enough to see elephants seals playing in the calm surf. These seals are weaners meaning that they have weaned from their mothers and are ready to go out on their own in search of food. Point Reyes elephant seal population numbers 1,500 and 2,000 individuals since their return to this area in 1970’s. Elephant seals have a habitat range from Mexico to Alaska and Hawaii. They spend 80 percent of their life in the open sea in search of food and have bodies built for repeated diving. Elephant seals can dive to a depth of to 1000-2000 feet, remaining at depth for almost a half an hour, and repeat the dive with only 3-5minutes rest at the surface. Can you imagine diving for half an hour on one breath?
Saturday night Elkhorn Yacht Club graciously hosted MLML’s annual Halloween party! This year’s party included a great number of science themed pumpkins and costumes. Each lab is given a pumpkin the week prior to the party and asked to carve it as part of a contest. The entries also included underwater pumpkins from the dive class. I got the opportunity to tag along with the Scientific Dive class this past Friday and carve one of my own. My dive partner Kristin and I struggled to hold the very buoyant pumpkin still at 20 feet depth, while we took turns using our dive knives to carve shapes into our pumpkin. Can you guess what it is? (Hint: we are both in the invertebrate zoology lab).
Photo by: M. Marraffini
The Invertebrate Lab’s offical pumpkin, for the contest, was a carving of a cuttlefish (Photo below with one of our new students Catherine Drake). The results from the contest have not yet been tallied but in my opinion it was the best (I may be a little biased in this area). I just heard the results are in…we did win the pumpkin carving contest!
Photo by: M. Marraffini
The party also included costume contests for best costume, most scientific, best faculty costume, best group costume, funniest costume, and scariest costume. There was some stiff competition this year for most scientific including a costume of an electrophoresis gel (gel used view products from polymerase chain reaction used to amplify DNA), a whale fall costume complete with whale skeleton and invertebrates that live on or near the bones, the rocky intertidal with a limpet, barnacle and ochre seastar, a blue crab lifecycle, and a bacterial culturing experiment. Below is a picture (Photo by Diane Wyse Physical Oceanography Lab) of the invertebrate lab’s rocky intertidal group costume, while it looked pretty good and we did not win the group costume contest. There’s always next year. Happy Halloween!
With beautiful clear days, pumpkins cozying up to lab equipment, and excited exclamations about whale sightings emanating from lab and faculty offices alike, we are feeling the spirit of the season here at Moss! Ok, that last part was a bit of a joke– as a new student at MLML, who saw humpback whales in the Monterey Bay for the first time just last week, it would seem like this is the season to see them so close. Not only can we watch the marine life and check the swell from our desks during study breaks, but also, whales and a whole host of exciting marine life are spotted year round from the labs.
To welcome the season, if you dare, feast your eyes upon this critter with a ghoulish name, though rather endearing and fascinating characteristics. Did you know the vampire squid may bite off its own arm tip to evade a predator?
Vampire squid. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
With a less sinister name, though no less awesome features, meet this tiny octopod from our very own Monterey Bay!
In classic big oceans/small world style, we catch up with former MLML student and Dive Safety Officer John Heine for an alumni career interview. We connected with him from all the way across the country on Florida’s sunny east coast, with a tip from a fellow Masters student in the brand new Master of Marine Science program at Jacksonville University. Currently a research associate at JU, John has developed an exciting career during and since his time here at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Read on to explore!
As I was driving to school this morning, I caught the end of this story on oil spills, penguins and sweaters. It’s worth a listen. Apparently, the sweaters keep penguins from ingesting oil while preening after exposure to an oil spill. Read more about the recent New Zealand oil spill here.
During the MS 141 Geologic Oceanography field trip on monday October the 10th, I learned something new about a place I have been visiting for years. Panther Beach is about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz and a diverse, dynamic beach to visit. With a huge sandstone arch and places to boulder and rock climb it has much to offer and changes with the seasons as the sand is removed during winter and deposited back during summer. Little did I know, but a rock outcrop I had walked by for years was composed of mud and many, many diatoms, tiny algae phytoplankton which are made of silica and leave behind their skeleton when they pass away. If you were to lick a fresh portion of this rock it seems like the rock is sticky, this is because of the many tubes of the diatom skeletons creating suction on your tongue!!! The study of rocks definitely rocks!
If you were to continuously monitor the pH of water in the open ocean over the course of a day, the graph of your data would be a straight line. Not so for a coral reef system, where the biodiversity and presence of microenvironments found in crevices of the reef make for pH measurements that will vary over a spatial and temporal scale. Dr. Nichole Price, a post doctoral researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, seeks to explain the causes and consequences of the carbonate chemistry variability found in a reef system. Dr. Price was the guest lecturer this past Thursday during the MLML weekly seminar series. Besides bringing a plethora of stunning images from her field research off the coast of the Palmyra Line Islands, Dr. Price spoke on the topic of “Natural variability in seawater pH on a coral reef: causes and consequences for reef accretion and community structure”.
“What was THAT?!” I expressively gestured to my snorkel buddy, Alex. A streak of bright green and pink that seemed to move too quickly for its blob-like shape darted through the beam of my dive light. As we kicked through the warm moonlit water off the Lee Stocking Island dock, we came across many cool creatures that lay hidden during the daylight hours. Driven partly by curiosity for exploration, and partly by my wild imagination for what could be lurking in the dark, I took a breath and dove down to take a closer look. With a little patience and persistence, we spotted it again, this time stationary on a dock post, posed as though it was ready for a chase. That beautiful animal that had caught my eye, much to my delight, was a spunky little octopus. It was a brief but exciting first encounter with one in the wild. To this day I am still in awe of that cryptic critter’s grace and agility.
Caribbean reef octopus on Lee Stocking Island dock post (photo: Alexander Paradise, 2011)
Cephalopods (octopuses, squids, nautiluses, and cuttlefish) are predatory invertebrates found in oceans throughout the world. They are fascinating and charismatic, with cool chromatophores that they use for camouflage and communication.
As a recent transplant from the east coast, I cannot yet speak of encounters with cephalopods while diving in the cool Pacific waters, though I am keeping an eye out for them! A recent graduate, Erin Jensen, studied octopods during her time at Moss Landing, and you can find a post related to her research here.
Check out this neat post about cephalopods by invertebrate zoologist and echinoderm expert Dr. Chris Mah in recognition of Cephalopod Awareness Days.
The MS 141 Geological Oceanography class traveled to the Marin headlands to visit many rocky outcrops. The folded rock near rodeo beach San Francisco was most impressive. This rock was around 300 million years old. Composed of layer upon layer of radiolarian skeletons, tiny creatures with mineral bodies that get left behind, the outcrop has layers that span millions of years that have since been down-lifted, compressed and uplifted. This is some rock that rocks!
Professor Ivano Aiello speaking about the radiolarian chert and how the outcrop was formed around 300 million years ago.
On Tuesday, Oct 4, MLML hosted the first Monterey Area Research Institution’s Network for Education (MARINE) event of the academic year. Following a dinner and social reception catered by Moss Landing’s own Haute Enchilada, around 80 students, faculty, and researchers from seven area institutions enjoyed a seminar presented by Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, Dr. Pam Matson. Dr. Matson’s talk kicked off the MARINE Land-Sea Interaction seminar series with a discussion of an interdisciplinary case study focused on sustainability in Mexico’s Yaqui Valley through community involvement and an assessment of agricultural runoff into the Sea of Cortez.
MARINE is a collaborative effort of Monterey Bay area institutions, headed by the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University. The MARINE program encourages student leadership, provides networking opportunities and professional development, and promotes collaboration in addressing marine science research and policy concerns. For a comprehensive list of upcoming seminars and events, please visit the Center for Ocean Solution’s MARINEpage. Remember, you can always find Moss Landing Marine Labs news, events, and seminar information at our homepage.
