This festive looking Rainbow star, Orthasterias koehleri, was seen during a dive at Monastery Beach. An abalone shell is also hiding in this picture… can you find it? And be sure to take our poll to vote for your favorite holiday-themed marine creature!
Nope! It’s just a snail from the genus Calliostoma. This photo was taken by MLML undergraduate intern Sara Jeffries while on a dive at Monastery Beach. The kelp is called Pterygophora californica, and can form a dense understory about a meter tall beneath the canopy of giant kelp.
This incredible picture of an Egg Yolk, or Fried Egg Jelly was captured by MLML grad student Scott Gabara while diving for PISCO – the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans. Scott was conducting subtidal fish transects in Bluefish Cove, California when he came upon the jelly. The scientific name of this jelly is Phacellophora camtschatica.
by Brynn Hooton-Kaufman, Phycology Lab
I think it’s about time that I tell you about my adventures at Moss Landing Marine Labs. I’m deep into my third year of grad school here, and I have yet to write a blog. Well, things are about to change. I want to share with you what it’s like to SCUBA dive in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, chase down an invasive seaweed in the harbor, and hike through ink-black caves for class.
Lots of experiences got me excited about science and ecology, and helped prepare me for graduate school. You can read about the path I took to get to graduate school and all of its amazing opportunities in my student profile. There I share my experiences working for the California Department of Fish and Game, and as a lab tech in the Wetland Ecology Lab at UC Davis.
You might be wondering why I’m chasing down an invasive seaweed in the harbor. For my thesis I am investigating how native fishes and other organisms use the invasive Asian kelp Undaria pinnatifida for habitat in central California. In my profile I explain why this topic is important to me, and in future posts I will tell you all about what it’s like to dive in Monterey Harbor to collect Undaria and other critters.
That’s all for now, but check back often for new posts, and thanks for letting me share my adventures with you!
Dr. Scott Hamilton will be joining the Moss Landing Marine Labs faculty in Spring 2011 as the new Ichthyologist. Currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara, Scott has participated in a variety of exciting research projects. He gave us a chance to ask a few questions about his current work, and his future plans. Keep reading to find out what we learned. (Interview by Brynn Hooton).
Q: Scott, how did you get your start as an ichthyologist?
A: My interest in the world of ichthyology began when I was kid and tried to read every book I could find about sharks. However, my first research project started during college. Through a tropical field studies program in Panama, we examined the ability of large roving parrotfish schools (important grazers on coral reefs) to circumvent the defenses of territorial damselfish and gain access to their algal gardens.
Q: What is the one thing about MLML that you are most looking forward to?
A: At Moss Landing I am most looking forward to working closely with students to develop exciting research projects that will get us diving in the beautiful kelp forests around Monterey Bay
Q: Anything new with your research that you would like to share?
A: We just started a new research project examining differences in reproductive behaviors and mating success of California sheephead inside and outside of marine reserves at Catalina Island. Unfortunately, this summer the waters have been unseasonably cold due to strong La Nina conditions and the fish were not courting or mating at any of our sites. So, we shifted gears and instead conducted experiments to examine size-selective foraging of sheephead on sea urchins and differences in predation rates inside and outside of reserves. There was a strong lesson here that sometimes there are factors outside of your control that affect research. We also overlapped on this trip with Diana Stellar and a number of students from Moss Landing, which provided for endless good times.
Q: When do you plan to relocate?
A: My wife and I are hoping to move to Monterey sometime around December and look forward to becoming integrated in the Moss Landing community.
That’s all from Scott for now, but check back during the spring semester to find out about all of the new adventures he’s having at Moss Landing Marine Labs.
Get to bed early tonight because Sunday morning at 8:00, MLML student Amanda Kahn will be interviewed on Scuba Talk Now, Pirate’s Radio! The interview will air on KNRY AM 1240, and will feature questions about some of the things that Amanda has learned about for her research. Come find out what it’s like doing deep-sea research, what is so great about scientific diving, and learn a ton about the animals that Amanda studies: marine sponges! Check out the posts below for some background info, then listen in and be ready to ask more questions!
Do sponges have the nerve to eat?
by Mariah Boyle, Ichthyology Lab
After an interval of time at the surface during my Fijian shark dive, suddenly, it’s time for the real thing – visitng the spot where the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) shows up. We drop down and lie on the seafloor this time, though we aren’t as deep. I get a spot on the end next to a divemaster and begin to watch another feeding. Bull sharks are coming in again, and then all of a sudden the water feels electric. We can all see something in the shadows, and we are all hoping and yet nervous that it is the tiger shark. The divemaster next to me nudges me and points.
Here goes nothing.
I clear my mask and its size comes into view, 4 or 5 meters in length. It is almost too big to seem real. Then it makes its appearance, swooping over our heads and checking us out. Apparently it likes our bubbles the divemasters have determined. The shark, a female named Scarface we learn later, cruises around and opens her giant mouth for fish, a mouth I’m sure I could have fit into very easily, scuba gear and all. The shark was never aggressive, although you could tell she owned the place, even the bulls waited for her.
On one of her last rounds she took a fish and came really close to the wall, coming within a meter of me, mouth first. On this dive I had my camera with me, and I snapped photos later that would scare me because they were so close, but at the time I felt nothing but calm and at peace with these animals. Like we knew our visit was just temporary and the sharks were happy with the small price of some fish.
We surfaced, cheering out loud from the adrenaline and then hop up into the boat fast since the tiger is still beneath us somewhere, and we know we are still in her realm. On the way back the Divemaster tells us a story that went something like this: “One day the tiger shark, Scarface, showed up and she was agitated, angry, I could tell. She circled and circled above me and finally showed me the problem. There was a large metal hook in her mouth, right through the skin. She kept circling and so I knew what I needed to do. Scarface knows me, I’ve dove with her so many times, so I swam to her and put my hand on her mouth and stopped her, and I pulled out the hook.” The Divemaster goes to the front of the boat and pulls out a huge fishing hook, he keeps it in a box onboard as proof.
When deciding to go shark diving I had a lot of reservations, not only about the safety but about the fact that if I participated I was making a conscious decision to feed the sharks, to disrupt their natural patterns. In the end I’m glad I did the dive. I understand now more the power and beauty of these sharks. The divemasters say the sharks don’t come around every day, the tigers go missing for weeks at times, so they are still in their natural behavior, they still leave to mate and feed.
This opportunity has also provided the divemasters, all Fijians who believe they are protected from the sharks, the chance to intimately get to know these sharks and give us insight into their patterns. These divers can tell when a shark is pregnant; they know each shark by name. They have also started a tagging program for the bull sharks, to gain insight into their movement. While I didn’t feel the need to repeat the dive in Fiji, I think going once is a great experience. I don’t have a list of sharks to see and won’t be chasing them on a bunch of shark dives, but as our desire to see the world first hand and preserve the animals in it increases, we all need to decide where we stand on feeding or tracking or swimming with all animals. For me, seeing these animals once was enough to appreciate them more, I’ll never forget that dive – but from now on I will leave them to cruise the oceans on their own.
by Kyle Reynolds, Benthic Ecology Lab
Under the ice of Antarctica, there is a virtually untapped, pristine world just waiting to be explored. For the past several years, Dr. Stacy Kim has made it her goal to explore this world by diving under the ice to document the benthic communities and their changes through time. Her biggest limitation in this research endeavor (up until last year) has been the depth she is restricted to as a human diver. Since divers are limited to depths of about 100ft or less, there is a vast territory that remains inaccessible. Not to mention the hardships involved with drilling holes in the ice for divers, and keeping them from refreezing for any amount of time.
When Stacy’s husband Bob Zook, a self-proclaimed “Gizmologist”, set his mind to helping Stacy overcome the limitations of her research, SCINI was born. SCINI is the name of the diving robot Bob, Stacy, and a small team of hand-picked engineers designed themselves (from scratch!). The name stands for ‘Submersible Capable of under-Ice Navigation and Imaging’. (Click here to read more about SCINI and see daily logs from the team in Antarctica)
Now in their second year with SCINI, they are reaching new heights (or should I say, depths). Just this Monday they shattered their previous depth record and were able to get SCINI all the way to the seafloor 206 meters (680 ft) below, where they viewed communities of sponges and seastars no one has ever laid eyes on before! Needless to say, this new technology promises to be invaluable for a myriad of uses, and its significance has not gone unnoticed. Just yesterday, our very own Dr. Stacy Kim was interviewed by the Today Show (click to watch) to speak about the impacts of global warming in Antarctica and about the merits of SCINI!