This buoy has gooseneck barnacles which have recruited to almost all of the space available.
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!
The Scripps buoy is almost looking brand new with the help of some MLML divers. Mike Fox uses a brush to get the remaining algae off of the surface buoy.
The MLML Dive Program will be present sharing information about the program here.
Be sure to check out the SCUBA diver hanging somewhere in the MLML halls at Open House this weekend. The MLML dive program will have a booth to discuss the program and classes offered here. We will have SCUBA gear on display, and can share many stories of diving in the beautiful waters of Monterey Bay!
Visit Moss Landing Marine Labs during Open House to see how SCUBA diving gear is set up, and even take a photo as a diver or an otter at our photobooth. The otter is probably as warm as the SCUBA diver who is wearing a wetsuit because the otter has one million hairs per square inch – now that’s furry!
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months diving, tidepooling, and digging through rotting wrack on the beach in search of seaweeds. Sometimes I get skunked, driven out by the swell, weather, and even tsunamis. Sometimes I spend hours searching around, just to find that the seaweed I want isn’t even in season, and is nowhere to be found.
On the hunt for the elusive seaweed (photo: Z. Kaufman)
But we all know it’s the victories that count. When I march back up to the car, spoils of battle in hand, laden with the seaweeds to be used in the following week’s class, I’m pretty pleased with myself. And unfailingly, I run into someone on the way. “What did you catch?” they usually ask.
“Seaweed!” I proudly announce, waiting for what will hopefully be an enthusiastic response. But usually, the responses fall a little flat. Often they come in a variety of “hmm, that’s interesting” or some sort of feigned interest. I can’t say I really blame them. Seaweed isn’t quite a trophy fish that you would pose with in a picture (although most phycologists have), and most people don’t have much experience with it.
My trophy Undaria photo (photo: K. Demes)
I didn’t have much experience with seaweed either before I started graduate school at MLML. To be honest, I really didn’t know what phycology was at all, even though I was joining the Phycology Lab. Kelp forest ecology was my main interest, and more specifically I wanted to study how organisms use kelp as habitat. If that was going to make me a phycologist, that was fine by me. Read more →
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!
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!
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.
Despite its name, this kelp rockfish needn’t always associate with rocks – or kelp for that matter. It looks perfectly content cruising the sediment and algal turf area where Sarah Jeffries photographed it – maybe looking for a bite to eat.
That’s no sheephead! It’s phycology student Paul Tompkins diving in the Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp forest tank. Paul is keeping an eye on his lab-mates, who are surveying the algae in the tank for the Aquarium. Stayed tuned in for an upcoming post by Brynn Hooton that will include a video from this dive.
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.
