You’ll never see a penguin soaring in the sky since they’re one of many groups of flightless birds (can you think of others?). With their dense torpedo-shaped bodies, penguins are adapted for speedy swimming, and do all of their flying underwater. But did you know they can also run? Enjoy this video of a penguin chase taken while MLML alum Cassandra Brooks was down in Antarctica. Two Gentoo penguin chicks are running after their mom – and they’re about as (un)coordinated as some human kids I know! Why do you think they’re in such a hurry?
Disoriented pelicans are wandering far from home (photo: Josh Pederson / SIMoN NOAA)
Soaring in “flight formations” above the ocean on its 6-foot wingspan, plunging straight down into the water in a spectacular dive, swallowing fish its large pouch of a bill – these are all very normal behaviors expected of a brown pelican. But wandering alone around inland parking lots, back alleys and farmfields, appearing skinny and sickly, or even turning up dead – most decidedly not normal behavior. Which is why record numbers of sick and dead brown pelicans since late December, which have been filling wildlife rehabilitation centers along the California coast to their capacity since late December, have many researchers puzzled and worried. The California population of these great birds are federally listed as endangered, having been nearly wiped out by DDT before the pesticide was banned in 1972. They have since made a successful recovery, but the recent spike of birds exhibiting odd behaviors and turning up dead has scientists scrambling to find a cause. Some birds tested positive for domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by photosynthetic algae, but their symptoms do not include the seizures normally triggered by domoic acid poisoning, leading scientists to believe this may only be part of larger problem.
People are reporting that affected pelicans look emaciated and disoriented, and the usually-social birds are showing up alone in unusual places far from home. If you see any sick or dead pelicans, please contact WildRescue at 866-WILD-911.
Adult (white head) and juvenille (dark head) brown pelicans (photo: Josh Pederson / SIMoN NOAA)
Find out what a great white's been eating! ((c) Terry Goss 2006/Marine Photobank)
Ever wondered what a great white shark has munched for lunch? The Aukland Museum of New Zealand is inviting the public to join them at 11 am on January 8th (NZ time) as they dissect a 9-foot-long female great white shark found dead in a fishing net. Partnering with their Department of Conservation, they hope to to raise awareness about threats facing white sharks, and to dispel some unfortunate, deep-seeded myths about this species.
Can’t make the next trans-Pacific flight for a dockside seat? Never fear! The whole necropsy (an animal autopsy) will be broadcast on the web at 5 pm tonight, California time! (that’s after 2 pm tomorrow, New Zealand time!)
As we gear up for a new year of splashy Moss Landing graduate student adventures, check out some Drop-In highlights from our first 10 months of kicking around in 2008:
Seven species of penguins can be found on the Antarctic continent and sub-Antarctic islands. King George Island has been described as a ‘cosmopolitan’ place for penguins, as three of these seven species can be found here: Adelies, Gentoos, and Chinstraps. Each species has evolved to fill different niche to coexist successfully. Adelie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap lay their eggs a few weeks apart. This means that the chick hatching and fledging (when the chicks enter the water to forage on their own) are also separated by a few weeks for each species.
Mom, I'm hungry! A Gentoo peguin chick taps its parent's beak to summon a freshly delivered meal. (photo: Lara Asato)
This may be one adaptation to lessen the competition for shared food resources, i.e. Antarctic krill, during the critical time period when chicks are being nurtured. The Chinstrap penguins are the last to lay eggs, and the first Chinstrap penguin observation on the island was actually 6-foot-tall Dave, the field leader who created a fairly elaborate Chinstrap penguin costume for Halloween from our excellent supply of trash bags, rags, and cardboard!
Meanwhile, we are still tracking and banding Adelie and Gentoo penguins to monitor reproductive success. We take daily attendance at each site where we have banded birds. This kind of makes me feel like a schoolteacher, as I check off whether the female or male is present and incubating the eggs on a particular day……except for the day when a nest with banded birds simply disappeared. I walked into the colony, and checked off all the other birds at my site, only to realize I couldn’t find the banded bird that should be at my feet. I consulted my map, looked down…..consulted my map, looked down….but couldn’t find the bird I had recorded in this spot every other day this week. Surrounded by hundreds of identical, cackling birds, I had a sinking feeling I was losing my mind.
Where's that one penguin? Where's Waldo? Where's my mind??? (photo: Lara Asato)
I guiltily admitted this to the field leader. He laughed and said if a nest fails i.e. the eggs have been lost due to predation, weather etc., the penguins will abandon it. Regardless, working alone around penguins sure makes you second guess your sanity sometimes!
If you’re in the habit of being thankful or counting your blessings amid the hectic frenzy of the holidays, why not add the ocean to your list?
Thankyouocean.org is a website from the California Public Ocean Awareness Campaign that has tons of information about how you can volunteer, learn about, and speak up for the ocean. Be sure to check out their podcast, the Thank You Ocean Report, which features topics ranging from sharks and sea otters to National Marine Sanctuaries, and the Marine Life Protection Act. Like all the best gifts that don’t fit in boxes, the ocean gives us plenty of reasons to say “Thank you!”
The authors of The Drop-In are locked in the vice-grip of final tests, projects, papers, you name it, along with the rest of the MLML community. But the holiday break is approaching as quickly as our wandering attention spans. For a welcome distraction and a bit of good cheer, we invite you to vote for the best holiday-themed marine creature!
[polldaddy poll=1191250]
Of course, you want to be an informed voter, so meet the contenders:
The name says it all, really. This colorful polychaete (worm) spends its life bored into a coral, and extends its twin spiral plumes to filter-feed on passing plankton . Like Old Navy sweaters, they come in a variety of colors, from orange and yellow to blue and white. But if you pass a shadow over them, they may retract faster than your camera’s shutter (like the lower right of the photo)!
2. Firefly squid (Watasenia scintillans)
Firefly Squid (photo: gocarter.com)
Also called the the Sparkling Enope Squid, this three-inch marvel lives in the Western Pacific and packs a bioluminescent punch that rivals the light decorations of your most zealous neighbors. Their spectacular seasonal display is a tourist attraction and a natural monument in Japan!
Ok, the other contestants may cry foul for nominating an entire phylum, but there are too many cool comb jellies out there to choose just one. And a photo doesn’t do them justice either, because they are the equivalent of those “running” Christmas lights. Watch this video from the Vancouver Aquarium (if you can handle the cheesy sci-fi music…) to see the twinkly action! Comb jellies are also called ctenophores, and unlike true jellies (Phylum Cnidaria), they don’t have stinging cells, just lots of little hairs that defract light in really cool ways!
4. Bamboo coral (Isidella sp.)
A bamboo coral (photo: NOAA)
Bamboo corals may have more than 8 branches, but their candelabra shape made them a prime candidate to represent Hanukkah. (They also belong to the octocorals, because each of their little polyps has 8 tentacles!) This particularly beautiful representative was discovered by a team including Peter Etnoyer of the Deep Sea news! They found the deep-sea coral living on seamounts 700-2700 m deep in the Gulf of Alaska. Learn menorah about this cool new species at the Deep Sea News, including a video of its discovery!
Ornamented Wrasse (photo: JE Randall, fishbase.org)
It’s red, it’s green, it looks like it should be dangling from your tree, it’s sometimes called the Christmas wrasse, and it’s even found at the Christmas Islands. This little tropical darling clearly has a lot going for it, besides being the only vertebrate of the bunch!
Cast your vote today using our poll! Did we grossly omit any tinsel-worthy candidates? Post a comment to share your write-in vote!
Lunar Influence, by the Moss Landing Marine Labs Quilt Guild
If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then hurry and buy your tickets for the MLML Quilt Guild opportunity drawing!
Tickets are currently on sale for the chance to win “Lunar Influence,” a 44″ X 55″ art quilt that makes a beautiful wall hanging or lap throw! The stunning design features leopard sharks, sand dunes, and phases of the moon, inspired by an illustration by Jane Schuytema.
Tickets are only $2 each or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Friends of MLML Scholarship fund, and a one-time scholarship in memory of Signe Lundstrum. An opportunity drawing will take place on Friday, December 19th to determine the lucky winner! You do not have to be present to win. Postcards of the design are also available for $1.
Call (831) 771-4400 to buy your tickets by December 19th!
Signe Lundstrum
Signe Lundstrum was a much-loved member of the Moss Landing Marine Labs community who worked as an SEM and histology technician from 1972 to 1989. She battled cancer from August 2000, and lost in 2005. Signe found that the lab produced a special desire to give back more than one receives, a practice continued by the graduate student scholarship created in her memory.
by Amanda Kahn, Invertebrate Zoology and Molecular Ecology Lab
I went out to sea yesterday and it was INCREDIBLE! We saw animals we’d never seen before, explored an underwater canyon that is deeper than the Grand Canyon, and spent a beautiful day out on calm seas aboard the R/V Point Lobos. As I was miles away from solid ground, I pondered the irony of my choice of career – you see, I get seasick. Horribly seasick. I was the only person running out to the side of the boat every half hour to, uh, fertilize the ocean. I’ve tried taking Dramamine, eating saltine crackers and drinking ginger ale, pressure point bands, even wearing a paper bag against my stomach (which kind of works, actually…), but nothing fully gets rid of that queasy feeling. So how can I tolerate going out and being sick all day? Basically, I am really excited about learning about things that live under the ocean. So interested, in fact, that I don’t mind the seasickness so much! I wanted to write about this because people who get seasick should know that it is still possible to have a successful, happy career in marine science.
First of all, some tips to help eliminate or reduce seasickness:
Pressure point bands can help alleviate seasickness in some people.
Medications such as Dramamine, Bonine, and Marezine are helpful. They are most effective if you take one pill the night before going out on a boat, then another about one hour before the boat is underway.
Pressure point bands work for some people. These look like bracelets with a little knob that presses on a pressure point on the inside of your wrist. If you start feeling sick, you can press the knobs into the pressure point.
Ginger, whether in the form of fresh, dried, candied, or ginger ale, helps ease upset stomachs (although I personally think candied ginger tastes terrible!).
Carbonated beverages (especially ginger ale) are also helpful for upset stomachs.
Surprisingly, keeping some food in your stomach can be really helpful. I don’t start feeling really sick until my stomach is completely empty.
Scopalamine is a prescription drug that you can ask for. It comes in a little patch that you wear behind your ear. It releases medication into your body slowly over time. Some people get a little loopy on this, but it is supposed to be one of the best medications.
A brown paper bag (huh?). A friend of mine just told me about this one, and basically, you just put a paper bag under your clothes, in contact with your stomach.
These solutions would not all be necessary if so many people didn’t end up with the same problem that I have. Seasickness is common! Everyone figures out the best way to deal with it (for example, my favorite is to take Bonine, wear pressure point bands, drink ginger ale, and keep some food in my stomach). The other scientist on yesterday’s cruise wore a Scopalamine patch. If you tend to get seasick, you’re not alone! And you can still pursue marine science. In my next post, I’ll tell you about some of the amazing things we saw on our cruise, and you’ll see why seasickness is minor compared to the amazing coolness that is marine science and oceanography. *Sigh*
You can already check out some of the cool things people do at sea with this video! Also, share your favorite seasickness remedies by leaving a comment!
Since graduating from MLML last spring, former ichthyology student Cassandra Brooks has gone on to explore science through the written word at the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. In addition to writing many feature stories for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Cassandra recently had her work published in ScienceNOW, the online compliment of the esteemed Science magazine.
While this is great news for Cassandra, the story itself is a grim prognosis for her subject, the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua).
Cassandra writes:
“Atlantic cod is a symbol of boom-and-bust commercial fishing. After 50 years of heavy harvesting in the late 20th century, the Canadian cod fishery collapsed in the early 1990s. Total bans ensued, and fisheries managers expected to see a recovery. However, after 15 years of little to no fishing, local populations show no sign of rebounding. In fact, some will continue to spiral downward, according to projections reported in this month’s issue of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.” Read the rest of her story here.
Another testament to the challneges (and the importance) of fisheries science needed to inform management…
Atlantic cod, the "waiting for the comeback" kids (photo by K. Nilsson, fishbase.org)
