In public aquariums, you might had the privilege of viewing an embryo developing in its egg case watching it grow from a little alien-like body to a fully developed shark or skate.
Big skate embryos developing. Photo credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium
But, have you wondered how did the aquarists were able to exhibit this without harming the developing embryos? I'll tell you! For my thesis, I have been monitoring the development of a species of skate called the Big skate (Beringraja binoculata). In order to do that, I had to learn how to cut open the egg case, and what better way to learn this technique from than from the experts at the Monterey Bay Aquarium?
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a popular exhibit where they display embryos developing in an egg case, so I was very lucky to have one of the aquarists, Kelsey Barker teach me how to implement this.
First of all, we need fertile egg cases. Similar to birds, skates can lay unfertilized eggs in their egg cases, but dissecting an infertile egg case is not the best idea as it becomes very messy. This species, the Big skate (B. binoculata) is really interesting, because unlike other species of skates (currently 287+), it is one of TWO species of skates that have the ability to produce multipleembryos within an egg case! How cool is that? All other sharks, skates, and chimaera species produce one embryo per egg case. These Big skate egg cases range from 20 cm to 32 cm in total length (TL).
Egg case ready to be dissected.
Once we have a fertile egg, we make sure that the horns of the egg case have opened up. These horns will allow us squeeze trapped air once we enclosed the egg case back up again. This protocol only requires several minutes, we have to take the egg case out to make sure the embryos don't float away! We carefully make an incision with a scalpel on the flat side of the egg case, as it's easier to glue the viewing window. Then using scissors, we cut a square opening in the middle of the egg case.
Cutting open the egg case to reveal embryos! Photo credit: M. CruickshankEmbryos present! Cutting a square to place the viewing window. Photo credit: M. Cruickshank
Once the egg case has been successfully dissected, we dry the outer corners of the square, and use the two most highly 'scientific' items to place the viewing window; super glue and sheet protectors! We wait for the glue to dry and then immerse the egg case back into the water, squeezing any air bubbles out.
Finished product! Viewing window with embryos photo credit: J. Jang
Now the egg case is ready to be on exhibit or observed. Here is a picture of my tank setup!
These embryos will fully develop within six to eight months, this is around the time when they used up their yolk sacs, then they emerge out of their egg cases ready to show the world that being a baby skate isn't easy!
Have you ever come across a strange peculiar object that looks like a dried out husk along the beach? Believe it or not, they're not driftwood or anything plant related, but are egg cases!
Egg cases of Common (Dipturus batis) off the shore of Scotland. Photo courtesy of http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Mermaid.htm
These egg cases are also commonly known as mermaid purses and vary in shape, sizes, and texture. Species of sharks, skates, and chimeras are know to lay mermaid purses.They are all created internally by the mother, then deposited on the sand floor or wrapped around kelp.
Most of the time, they end up washed up on shore, with nothing in them. Now, you may wonder, what is actually in mermaid's purse? Instead of giving live birth, these oviparous (egg-laying) species of sharks, skates, and chimeras, have found a method of producing offspring limiting the gestation period inside the mother. The eggs are internally fertilized in the female, this is also how the egg case is formed. The egg case is made of keratin, similar to the material from our hair and fingernails, the mother lays the egg case near kelp or on the sand camouflaging the egg case.
Inside there is a tiny embryo waiting to become a shark, skate, or chimera! These embryos are left to fend for themselves as soon as the mother deposits the egg case. Once placed in the perfect environment, the embryo will stay in their egg cases from three to 18 months, even longer, depending on the water temperature. After using up their yolk sacs, these embryos wriggle out and are ready to take on the next step of their lives! Interested in learning how aquariums manage to make a viewing window in an egg case? Click here!
Horn Shark (Heterodontus francisci) hatching out of egg case. photo credit: https://boredomfiles.com/Little Skate (Leucoraja erinacea) emerging from egg case.
As an early career scientist, I am still learning about what it means to be a shark expert and the standards by which we uphold these individuals to. Before starting school at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, I used programming similar to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week or NatGeoWild’s SharkFest to help me define those terms and build my knowledge of “shark facts”. Did you make the same mistake?
Shark Week's 2014 campaign, King of Summer used a comical caricature of a shark expert.
How would you define a shark expert?
There was a time when I thought the title of shark expert was akin to a person's scholarly credentials. Discovery, NatGeoWild and similar networks have all taught me otherwise. I used to mean that as a compliment. At first, it was intriguing to learn how people from different walks of life could end up becoming shark experts in their own rights. In my opinion however, the term “Shark Expert” quickly de-evolved leaving the accolade vacant of respect, saturated in melodrama, and a burning question
… how do these programs define a shark expert?
The Modern Day Shark Expert.
The modern day shark experts have gotten their starts from a myriad of different paths. Yet whether their credentials are rooted in science, diving, surfing, fishing, or just knowing waaay to much about shark attacks, those individuals lack a different kind of diversity. In the scientific community at least, I know there are plenty of women and people of color who study sharks. I just wouldn’t know that from watching TV.
The Gills Club is Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's signature action project dedicated to connecting girls with female scientists, sharing knowledge, and empowering them to take leadership positions and inspire shark and ocean conservation.
With regards to women scientists, take a look at the group the Gills Club. Their sole focus is to connect girls and young women with female shark scientists. That’s it. Through their quest, they have encountered so many well qualified female shark scientists that they have been able to develop a newsletter featuring two new female shark scientists every month. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Gills Club webpage featuring their long list of female shark scientists collaborators.
There are plenty of well qualified female shark experts!
Comedian and host of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, weighs in on misleading shark programming.
Last year’s problems made this year’s changes.
The biggest fish to get fried last year were mockumentaries! These confusing pieces of… fiction are now completely absent in this year’s programming! Fans were also vocal about the shows they felt Shark Week did right and as a result, Alien Sharks is back in 2015 with a third installment.
Last year's promo for Alien Sharks. The 2015 episode airs on Monday, July 6th at 10pm.
I couldn’t find a single female shark expert for the 2015 shark programming.
Though the programming is already underway for 2015 there is still work to do. For instance, the descriptions for this year’s shows are absent of any female names. It may be too late for 2015, but 2016 could be the year for a more diverse representation of shark experts!
So here is what I propose!
Watch Shark Week. Watch Shark Fest.
In doing so, support the shows that push shark programming in the right direction by featuring a diverse representation of shark experts and of course, lots of super sweet sharky science facts! (Say that five times fast. Because it’s fun.)
#WhatToWatch for #SharkWeek2015 Image created by Shelley Davis of the Ocean Research Foundation.
Not sure which shows you want to support?
Wildlife biologist, Shelley Davis and the Ocean Research Foundation have you covered with these great #WhatToWatch infographics. Inspired by previous guides designed by the now defunct, Upwell organization.
#WhatToWatch for #SharkFest2015 Image created by Shelley Davis of the Ocean Research Foundation.
Demand a more diverse representation of shark experts!
I’m happy to see a return this year to shark experts with science backgrounds. Even better is that many of these experts were speaking on the true diversity of sharks and sensationalizing real facts rather than hyped-up fears.
Shark + Expert = Sharxpert!
#sharxperts and #diversifyURsharxperts
(I will make this a thing! Just waiting for it to catch on…)
Group photo of shark scientists from around the world at the second ever, Sharks International Conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2014.
In hopes of a change in 2016, give a shout out to your favorite #FemaleSharxpert!
If Shark Week and Shark Fest are having a hard time finding qualified female shark experts, then let’s make it easy for them!
But why stop there?
Shark experts come in many shapes and forms with a variety of specializations. In fact, did you know most “shark experts” don’t even refer to themselves or their colleagues as such? That’s because most “shark experts” see themselves first as geneticists, ecologists, divers or fisherman; in other words, as experts in their true fortes. As a result, the field of “shark experts” is huge …like Megalodon huge, or even better it’s whatever ATE Megalodon huge!
Consequently, shark fans deserve more from television networks and a chance to see the real diversity that lies within the field we’ve all come to know and love as, the Shark Expert.
To get you started, here are just a few Sharxperts and labs whose specialties and/or backgrounds are a great introduction to the diversity in shark science!
Andrew Nosal studies shark movements in Southern California.
Gibbs Kuguru uses genetics to study Smooth Hammerhead sharks in South Africa.
The Pacific Shark Research Center consists of a diverse group of graduate students lead by their professor, Dr. Dave Ebert in the study of lesser known chondrichthyan species dubbed, the Lost Sharks.
Kara Yopak, is an expert on shark brains and how they evolved.
Andrea Marshall aka the Queen of Mantas proved that the Giant Manta represents two different species.
Lisa B. Nathanson collaborates with shark fisherman to collect valuable data on shark biology.
Coastal & Marine Laboratory at FSU focus on exploited and poorly studied estuarine fishes such as the critically endangered, Smalltooth Sawfish.
Michelle Heupel is one of the world's leading experts in shark ecology and how they utilize certain spaces such as marine protected areas.
A lemon shark swims by the ARMS deployed in Tetiaroa, Society Islands, French Polynesia. Photo: Christopher Meyer, Smithsonian
Every June 8th, marine and citizen scientists around the globe spread the word about celebrating our oceans and taking action to protect the diversity of life within. We are celebrating World Oceans Day on the island of Tetiaroa in French Polynesia!
A diver readies the ARMS to bring to the surface and begin processing. Photo: Christopher Meyer, Smithsonian
The day started off with a 6am dive on the reef to retrieve some ARMS, or Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures. You can read more about ARMS here, but they are essentially a way for scientists to measure marine diversity in a standard, replicable manner all over the world.
The great thing about World Oceans Day is that you can celebrate every single day, not just once a year. Maybe you can sign up for your local beach cleanup (here's a calendar for Monterey/Santa Cruz locals), or look up the best way to recycle harmful materials in your area (things like plastic bags, bottles, etc.), or you can even become a local Sanctuary Steward.
So tell us, how did you celebrate World Oceans Day? Do you celebrate everyday or once a year? What role does a healthy ocean play in your life? Leave a comment and let us know!
Fellow grad student Catarina Pien and I were lucky enough to visit to the California Academy of Science in San Francisco to check out their extensive museum collection, home to nearly 1.2 million specimens! We were on a mission to observe a variety of sharks, rays and chimaeras and to bring back specimens on loan from the South African Museum. We were greeted on a foggy San Francisco Friday by Dave Catania, the senior collections manager for the Department of Ichthyology.
The California Academy of Science (CAS) Department of Ichthyology houses one of the largest and most important research collections of fish in the world. There are nearly 200,000 jars of preserved fish in the collection, representing nearly 11,000 different species. That is more than a third of fish known to science!
By looking up the unique identification number assigned by CAS, our guide Dave was able to bring us a whole cart of jars filled with old and unique animals. Catarina is working on a project to describe the sharks and rays from Oman, a country to the south east of Saudi Arabia. She photographed several specimens, including this Gulper Shark, to compare to other specimens from the region.
This species of Gulper Shark (Centrophorus granulosus sp.) is found worldwide, living at depths of over 3,000 feet.
Just like a library, scientists can check out specimens from the museum like a book on loan. I was lucky enough to do just that with a new species of chimaera from the South African Museum. Chimaeras, or ghost sharks, are deep water fish with a skeleton made of cartilage, making them close relatives of sharks and rays.
When a new species is discovered a single animal is chosen, called the holotype, to represent the entire species. From this one animal I will record dozens of body measurements, take photographs and make observations in order to identify this chimaera to other scientists. After the specimen is described it will be added to a museum collection like the one at CAS for other scientists to observe in the future, a process called accession.
Proper identification and detailed observations are very important when describing a species. Take for example these two species of small catsharks from the Indo-Pacific Ocean. They are very similar in size, color and shape, but because they are available for scientists to look at, subtle differences start to emerge. Without detailed records and a holotype, identifying sharks (or any animal for that matter) can be difficult.
With jars in hand and our camera memory cards full, we make our way back to Moss Landing Marine Labs for more photos, notes and measurements.
You can help the PSRC collect information to save the Basking Shark! Photo by Greg Skomal
Contrary to Hollywood’s portrayal of gigantic man-eating sharks, the three largest species of shark spend their time peacefully roaming the ocean's surface munching on the ocean’s smallest creatures. Basking Sharks, the second largest species of shark, cruise the seas in search of plankton, filtering up to 2,000 tons of water across its gills per hour. Reaching lengths of thirty five feet, this shark exists worldwide, yet very little is known about how they live or where they go.
To discover more information about this vulnerable species, scientists from the Pacific Shark Research Center (PSRC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have begun a new type of shark hunt. Unlike the crazed and frantic scenes from the JAWS movie, this shark hunt only requires a boat, camera and telephone! The Spot a Basking SharkProject enlists the help of local sea-farers to uncover the demographics and distribution of the California Basking Shark.
Once common along the California coast, these gentle giants are now a rare sight. In the past, these social creatures were seen in schools of hundreds or thousands; however since 1993 no more than three basking sharks have been spotted together. Fishing and eradication efforts by fishermen who believed them to be ‘man-eaters’ contributed heavily to their population decline. Despite the fishery closure in the late 1950s, Basking Shark numbers have remained low, mostly due to human impacts like vessel strikes, fisheries bycatch and illegal shark fining. Based on the decline of Basking Shark numbers and lack of species information, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed this species as endangered.
If you see a Basking Shark, the PSRC and NMFS want to know! These sharks can be identified by their large size, pointed snouts, and large gill slits that encircle the head. Basking sharks have dorsal fins up to three feet tall that are visible as they slowly swim along the surface with mouths wide open catching plankton. If you see a Basking Shark, call or email the PSRC with your location, date and time of the sighting and any photos or videos. Your information helps the PSRC document and understand these majestic and peaceful creatures.
On the weekend of the 26th and 27th of January 2013 WhaleFest was held at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. Organizations ranged from local non-profit marine research and public outreach organizations and program here in the Monterey county, as well as fun activities such as painting a squid!
Camp Sea Lab in WhaleFest
Our own very Pacific Shark Research Center participated in this event to share their knowledge of sharks to the public. It was a very windy, cloudy, and cold on Saturday as we set up the station. The strong wind made it a challenge to keep fliers and posters on the table. Braving the weather, our efforts were recognized as visitors intrigued by the mako shark Isurus oxyrinchus head and of a shark fin we had on display, began to ask questions. We were able to teach visitors more about sharks and also talk about the research that's going around in Moss Landing Marine Laboratories! Many of them are very interested in attending the Open House event that will be held at MLML April 20th and 21st.
Visitors intrigued by the shark head.
There were many attempts to inflate a humpback whale in the Festival on Saturday, but because of the strong wind, the whale was never completed.
Inflating the humpback whale
But luckily, the weather cleared up and the sun came out and made WhaleFest far more enjoyable!
Celebrate the return of the Grey Whales to the Monterey Bay at the Whalefest Monterey 2013 event this weekend Saturday, January 26th and Sunday, January 27th !
This event aims to bring public awareness to the marine non-profits that influence the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary by offering a variety of fun activities, events, and exhibits from over thirty organizations.
Our very own Pacific Shark Research Center will have a booth set up this weekend! Find us at the Causeway at Old Fisherman’s Wharf from 9am to 5pm.
The grey whale makes one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling nearly 5,000 miles from its northern feeding grounds to warmer winter calving grounds. Photo: Julian Pye
The high-pitched whine of the winch jolts me awake. I come groggily to my senses, noticing the cigarette smoke from some of the crewmembers wafting through the door of the bunkroom and the dim morning light. It’s somewhere around 5:45 am.
It is my third morning out at sea. I am on the F/V Noah’s Ark, volunteering for a leg of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Fisheries Research Analysis and Monitoring (FRAM) survey. The mission of the survey is to assess the health of groundfish populations off the west coast of the United States. The survey makes two passes of the coast from Washington to Southern California every summer, fishing and taking samples and data. I am part of a team of three scientists, and we are with a crew of four fishermen on the 80-foot vessel. Right now we are somewhere west of Monterey, CA.
Snail fish. Photo: K. Andrews (2012)
The first tow of the day begins around 5:30 am, so we can begin processing the catch by 6:30. The winches deploy and reel in the net from depths over 1,000 feet. As I go out on deck to get ready to sort fish, I notice that the weather has picked up. The first two days were flat calm, and I had no idea the ocean could be glassy 50 miles from shore. But today the winds and swell are picking up, and it feels as though we are headed for rougher weather.
