Getting to stroll down Moss Landing Marine Lab’s halls is a neat experience. Be on the lookout for a sperm whale jaw bone, the pier pilings in the entrance showing the different creatures of the intertidal zone, our student posters showing current and past work on the walls, and Ralph the Steller Sea lion (he’s in the background, not Brian Hoover on the chair).
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!
The touchtank hosted by the Invertebrate Zoology Lab is an opportunity to learn about the different animals out in the ocean. From seastars and sea cucumbers to anemones and crabs, you can get up close and personal with these critters in order to learn about our ocean neighbors. Learn some amazing facts, like how seastars can break an arm off and regrow it. How neat would it be if humans could do the same!
One of the best parts about Open House is learning about what each lab does. The Phycology (Seaweed) lab will have products with algae in them (like ice cream!), the Vertebrate Ecology lab will have a giant whale mouth to walk through…Each lab is doing something fun to invite you, the public, to learn about the science we do!
MLML Open House 2011 is Saturday, April 30 & Sunday, May 1.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUGq-7LVWDs&feature=player_embedded]
No joking – the annual Open House is the biggest event of the year at Moss Landing Marine Labs. It’s such a big deal that this month the Drop-In will be devoting our photo-a-day feature to giving you a sneak peak at all the incredible aspects of the Open House experience. Mark your calendars: Open House is Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 from 9 am to 5 pm.
To pump yourself up for the big day, check out the amazing video put together by Wavelength Films! We also have a whole website just for Open House information: http://openhouse.mlml.calstate.edu/. Stay tuned to learn more about Open House, your best opportunity to “Drop-In” to MLML in person!
by Amanda Kahn, Invertebrate Zoology and Molecular Ecology Lab
In April, MLML opened its doors to the public and we spent the weekend showcasing our research and teaching people about marine science. We did this in a variety of ways: lectures, seminars, interactive exhibits, touch tanks, science as art, and even in puppet form! For those of you who missed the show, you can still learn about Dora the Sperm Whale’s exploration of the deep sea, discover different deep-sea habitats, and find out all about the many ways that animals eat! Check out the two-part video below, and be sure to catch our hit songs “Chemoautotrophy” and “Vertical Migration”!
Part 1:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pUD0C5xMgQ&hl=en_US&fs=1]
Part 2:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG689-SsD40&hl=en_US&fs=1]
Got any questions about the animals or habitats you saw in the show? Comment below or email and we’ll tell you all about them!
Credits
Puppeteering, stage design, sound setup, logistics:
Jeremiah Brower, Billy Cochran, Marilyn Cruickshank, May Deluna-Schneider, Amanda Kahn, Stephanie Kennedy, Deasy Lontoh, Erin Loury, Ben Perlman, Jasmine Ruvalcaba, Sonya Sankaran
Video editing by Wavelength Films
by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab
Anyone who has visited an MLML Open House knows that the puppet show is a longstanding tradition and major highlight for visitors of all ages. After much patience and anticipation, the 2009 puppet show is now available for your viewing pleasure!
Follow Harry Spotter the scorpion fish, Ron the rockfish, and Hermione the Hermit crab on a Darwin-inspired search for their relatives with shared adaptations. Their adventure takes them on a daring break-in to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they meet an array of colorful and musical coral reef inhabitants!
The show is divided into two parts – apologies for the poor lighting in the first 1:30 minutes of the show!
Part 1: Following in spirit of Darwin
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBc637v5N3M]
Part 2: Journey to the coral reef
Make sure you don’t miss this year’s puppet show – join Dora the Exploring Sperm Whale on her journey to the deep sea! Show times are:
Saturday, April 17th: 11 am, 1 pm, 2:30 pm, 4 pm
Sunday, April 18th: 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm
We hope to see you there!
by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab
It’s generally a good practice to get the most “bang for your buck” out of a rare opportunity – such as a giant mahi-mahi specimen. After dissecting this impressive fish in our ichthyology class to study it’s feeding musculature and internal anatomy, we put it out on display for our April Open House (butchered side down, of course!).
If you were one of the many wowed by the chance to see such a large fish up close, you may be wondering what became of the specimen after all the crowds went home.
Perhaps you also made a fish print while here at Open House – with a fish you could easily hold in your hands. We didn’t think we had done justice to our massive mahi-mahi until it too had its impression preserved in paint.
Fun fact: Mahi-mahi only live to be 4 or 5 years old, and are some of the fastest growing fish in the world!
And what next for this specimen of multiple lives? Grad student Katie Schmidt is undertaking the task preserving the entire fish for posterity by cleaning its skeleton – one shining vertebrae at a time. Stay tuned to see photos of the work in progress!
What better way to learn about marine science than straight from the scientist’s mouth? Open House is your chance to hear MLML students and faculty present talks on a number of exicitng topics, including sharks, seaturtles, kelp and ROVs. Each seminar will be about 20 minutes, with 10 minutes of Q&A, so bring those questions you’ve always wanted to ask!
Here is the current schedule:
11:00 Danielle Frechette – Where have all the salmon gone? The role of predation in Central California watersheds
11:30 Erin Loury – So You Want to be a Marine Scientist…the Inside Scoop
12:00 Nate Jones – Seabird Foraging in the Bering Sea, Alaska
1:00 Thew Suskiewicz – You Are What You Eat: Farming Abalone with Seaweed in Monterey Bay
1:30 Dr. Jim Harvey – Leatherback turtles eating jellyfish off California
2:00 Paul Tompkins – Into the Blue: Marine Science Diving at MLML
11:00 Dr. Dave Ebert – Beyond Jaws: Shark Biodiversity & Conservation
11:30 Erin Loury – So You Want to be a Marine Scientist…the Inside Scoop
12:00 Kyle Demes – Kelp: shape matters
1:00 Dr. Greg Cailliet – Extraordinary Fishes of the Abyss!
1:30 Dr. Stacy Kim – Getting SCINI in Antarctica: diving a Remotely Operated Vehicle under the sea ice
2:00 Paul Tompkins – Into the Blue: Marine Science Diving at MLML
For all you regular Drop-In readers, this is your chance to meet Nate Jones in person and hear all about his work studying seabirds in the Bering Sea. Check out his blog posts to brush up before you come!
Students at MLML pride ourselves on our ability to provide you wonderful access to our labs and activities for free during Open House. A chance for you to show your support for the efforts and research of our students is to buy tickets for our opportunity drawing! We have received dozens of wonderful donations that will be yours to win. The list includes artwork, scuba gear, kyak and surf rentals, whale watching passes, and a wide assortment of gift certificates to restaurants and hotels in the Monterey Bay area. Jewelrey, books, gift baskets – we’ll have it all! Bring your wallet to ensure you won’t leave empty-handed. One lucky person will walk away with this gorgeous photograph by Jason Bradley, fresh off disply at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History:
Ticket prices will be:
5 tickets for $5
15 tickets for $10
40 tickets for $20
You need not be present to win. Your ticket purchases are our number one source of income – please help us make Open House a successful fundraiser to support the efforts of the MLML student body!
