To continue the baja-palooza currently being celebrated on the blog, here are some Cortez Angelfish who were swimming together in southern Bahia Concepcion, Baja. This site was particularly interesting because of a hydrothermal vent bubbling up carbon dioxide through the sediment. It did not seem to affect the fish community as there were many others such as a scorpion fish and Pacific Porgys. It was a little strange to feel like you are diving inside a giant soda bottle.
If you have seen our blog before you may have stumbled across the mention of pink tumble weeds of the sea. Rhodoliths are calcareous (like coral, or teeth) algae and form large beds of many pink, branchy, tumbleweed like individuals. Our very own Paul Tompkins defended his thesis on rhodoliths in Catalina May 19th. Check this out (thesis, seahorses, open house, Kristin or just type rhodolith in the search bar) for our previous blogs on rhodoliths.
In looking for algae in rhodolith beds in Baja, during the MLML’s Spring Ecology of the Gulf of California class, I found that the other algae in rhodolith beds actually grew on rhodoliths, who are algae themselves. This means that algae is growing on algae! Many different species were seen growing on rhodoliths such as the brown balloon like Colpomenia (pictured above) and the brown net like Hydroclathrus (pictured below). As you can see it was an algae party at some sites in Baja.
Some of the divers in MLML Baja Spring 2011’s class were fortunate enough to see a rare fish in Baja. Out of the corner of my eye this fish was spotted – a Pacific Seahorse. The females give birth and the males are the ones who take care of the babies in their brood pouch. Good thing the males in some species do some of the parenting and give the ladies a break!
A good diving platform with a lot of room makes life much easier, especially when many people, all doing different things, are on board. Moss Landing’s Baja Spring 2011 class had connections with people living in Bahia Concepcion and were able to use a panga, pronounced ponga, to get around among the islands. This boat had about 2-3 feet of draft, how deep the boat sinks into the water, and at high tide the boat could go all the way up to shore. This is much easier on the back when moving heavy SCUBA cylinders!
The environment in Bahia Concepcion, Baja California Sur, Mexico is much different than that of Monterey Bay. The swell cannot get to the islands because they are inside a large protected bay. The islands have to deal with winds and winter storms though. The bay has many islands that provide habitat for birds like gulls and osprey. The islands also provide habitat in the water for algae like the large brown Colpomenia algae seen below. They look like spiky brown footballs, but don’t worry they are as soft as pillows!
As expressed often, one of the best parts of Moss Landing Marine Lab is the variety of field experiences available to students. During this past spring the MLML Gulf of California field course took a two week long trip down to Baja California Sur to collect data. Playa Santispac, in Bahia Concepcion, was base camp and selected because it had mangroves, was central to the islands, and had two picturesque palapas (thatched roof huts) that were straight out of a Mexican cerveza commercial (you can see them in the right rear in the photo below).
Anything in the ocean gets some form of life on it. Space is limited in the ocean, and as you can see from the amount of gooseneck barnacles on the bottom of the buoy, it can get a little crowded. Divers have to periodically clean and maintain the instruments, line and buoys from getting too weighted down from all of the algae and invertebrates that grow on them. Here a California Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) buoy gets some much needed love from MLML Divers Mike Fox and Paul Tompkins, while boat operator Jasmine Ruvalcaba maintains visual contact with the divers. The CDIP buoys provide us with swell (wave) height and forecasting abilities so we know what the conditions are out on the ocean, which is very helpful when you need to do work out there!
At Moss Landing Marine Lab we take our science seriously, well most of the year, but once a year we put on a lab wide olympic type competition among students, administration and faculty. The events consist of relays with putting on rubber pants, blind SCUBA slate assembly, hula hoop sampling toss, pie eating and marine animal puzzle completion and human bowling. The blind SCUBA slate setup is meant to simulate blackout conditions while diving, it’s a good thing the competitors dont have to use thick gloves as it would be much harder! Our very own marine lab director, Kenneth Coale, was training for his next poor visibility dive in the picture above. Our Dive Safety Officer, Diana Steller, uses a hula hoop to try to get the higher point marine animals in the sampling toss event. The lab olympics are a great way to celebrate ending spring classes and get the lab together to have some competitive fun.
The “throwaway” mentality is not a sustainable method of living. The current status of our Pacific garbage patch, which is full plastic, is staggering, and it is growing. Chalres Moore gives an excellent TED talk about why plastics are harmful and what we should do to halt the rate of plastics into the environment. In Kure and Midway atolls many Albatross chicks have been dying with plastics, such as cigarette lighters and bottle caps, in their stomachs. As consumers we can help to make a transition to using less plastic by doing simple things like buying a stainless steel or glass bottle for holding water or reusing a large glass pasta jar instead of buying bottled water! It is also important to help at local beach cleanups as that trash is then stopped from floating into the ocean. It’s amazing how each of our little differences can have large effects – just look at how little by little we have filled the middle of the Pacific with floating plastic trash!
Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) Marine Diving Technology program gives tours to SCUBA groups. The ability to take a chamber ride and simulate the experience you would get if you got the bends, although with less panic, is a surreal one.
The chamber ride takes you down to what would feel like 120 feet, which is 14.7 pounds per square inch for every 33 feet you go down, so you feel over 68 pounds per square inch. As the air is pumped into the chamber the air becomes more dense inside and turns to fog, it looks just like water vapor in your shower. So you are able to make a dive in a chamber without getting wet, the downside is there are not many fish, algae or invertebrates, well hopefully.
