The gulls first caught my attention, a small flock in a tight swarm above the waves just beyond my surfboard. Others floated on the surface below. Suddenly the sea below them erupted, and the birds on the surface took flight. A frothy pink spray of water shot into the air; there was blood in the water. As the water calmed the gulls swooped and dove, feeding. A few seconds later the scene repeated itself, another violent splash of bloody water. My instincts were screaming, telling me turn and paddle in, to get out of the water.
My curiosity got the better of me, and I sat transfixed as something was being ripped to pieces only a few hundred yards away. Other gulls were making a beeline to join in the feast, and the flock grew. I watched the attack for another minute, until at last a large black fin broke the horizon and my suspicions were confirmed. This was no sea lion or orca, but a large white shark, eating lunch.
I swung towards the beach, catching my last wave on the way in. As I crested the dunes to get a better vantage, I saw the shark hit twice more. I ran to the parking lot to grab my binoculars. By the time I looked back to sea, the gulls had stopped flying, all were swimming on the surface. I peered through the lenses for a few more minutes, but the attack had ended. I walked back down to my car, relieved that I had been a witness to a raw display of nature’s brutality, rather than an unwilling participant.
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.
Scott's first fish love was all things shark, like this Blacktip reef shark at the Palmyra atoll. (photo: S. Hamilton)His first research involved studying coral reef fishes. (photo: S. Hamilton)
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
Scott is looking forward to continuing kelp forest research here in Monterey Bay. (photo: Scott Hamilton)
A colorful garibaldi in the kelp forests of Catalina Island. (photo: Scott Hamilton)
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.
California Sheephead feed on urchins during a predation experiment. (photo: Scott Hamilton)
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.
Welcome to the MLML family, Scott! We're looking forward to hainvg you join us. (photo: S. Hamilton)
Hi everyone, another post from your sustainable seafood enthusiast! If you don’t already know I work at FishWise, a non-profit sustainable seafood consultancy, in Santa Cruz CA while finishing up my thesis.
FishWise has just launched a new public enewsletter. You can go here (http://www.fishwise.org/contact-us) to sign up for the newsletter, and once a month we will email you top sustainable seafood news along with a species spotlight on a sustainable fish, recipes, and policy initiatives that you can support.
The FishWise blog now features a photo of the week!
Also our blog also just started a photo of the week! Every Wednesday we will post a fantastic underwater photo and tell you how it applies to sustainable seafood. Check out this week’s white shark. http://www.fishwise.org/blog
If you have any questions about careers in sustainable seafood or questions about what makes seafood sustainable please post it here as a comment!
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.
The tiger shark shows its stripes (photo: M. Boyle)
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.
Ready for my close up! The shark swims right by after feeding. (photo: M. Boyle)
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.
A human-induced feeding frenzy - how much should we be part of the mix? (photo: M. Boyle)
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.
Hot off the presses! The MLML Wave Newsletter is here! Ever wonder what it’s like to study sharks and their relatives? This issue takes an in-depth look at MLML’s Pacific Shark Research Center, including the description of new species. You can also read a tribute to Ichthyology Professor Greg Cailliet’s retirement, as well as updates from all the labs. Click to download your copy of the 2010 Wave Newsletter, or visit our Friends of MLML website. Enjoy!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: describe a new species unknown to science. That’s exactly the mission a few MLML students undertook last spring in a class on systematics. Systematics is the study of how all living things on earth are related to each other through evolutionary relationships. It involves figuring out how species are grouped together in these relationships, and identifying what makes species different from one another – a lot like a detective piecing clues together.
Ichthyology student Kelsey James recently cracked the case of of the Eastern Pacific black ghost shark. This fish is a new species of chimaera, which is a cartilaginous fish related to sharks and rays. Although scientists collected a specimen in Baja California in the 1970s and thought it was a new species, the fish languished in a jar for years waiting for someone to take the time to investigate it (a story all too sad and true for many new species out there). After Kelsey’s close examination, she and other scientists decided it was indeed different from other chimaeras, and gave it the scientific name Hydrolagus melanophasma in a recent publication.
According to Kelsey, the process of describing a new species is actually fairly straight forward. “First you have to look at everything closely related to it in the same genus, and then decide why it is or isn’t an already described species,” she said. Sometimes it’s easy to see that a species looks different from others, but describing why it’s different in terms of body measurements (like fin size and spacing, jaw length, etc.) can be much harder to explain. “The hardest part for me was describing a few good key characteristics that anyone could use to identify this species, which is called a diagnosis,” she said
What made the project particularly exciting for Kelsey was that MBARI (the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) had ROV footage of her species swimming around at 1500 m in the Gulf of California (video above). “It is spectacular to see this creature in action,” she said after watching their tapes. “The differences between the preserved specimen, which I had been looking at for 2 months, and the live one were astounding.”
For an instant sugar/adrenaline rush, check out these fearsome cupcakes created by Ichth Lab crafter extraordinaire, Diane Haas. Made in honor of shark expert Dr. Leonard Campagno and shark geneticist Dr. Gavin Naylor, who visited our lab last week.
Worthy of a great white-sized bite! (photo: E. Loury)
Find out what a great white's been eating! ((c) Terry Goss 2006/Marine Photobank)
Ever wondered what a great white shark has munched for lunch? The Aukland Museum of New Zealand is inviting the public to join them at 11 am on January 8th (NZ time) as they dissect a 9-foot-long female great white shark found dead in a fishing net. Partnering with their Department of Conservation, they hope to to raise awareness about threats facing white sharks, and to dispel some unfortunate, deep-seeded myths about this species.
Can’t make the next trans-Pacific flight for a dockside seat? Never fear! The whole necropsy (an animal autopsy) will be broadcast on the web at 5 pm tonight, California time! (that’s after 2 pm tomorrow, New Zealand time!)
Juan Manuel (Manny) Ezcurra has a job many would give their right pectoral fin for – he works with elasmobranchs (read: sharks!) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!
Manny acknowledges that the getting a job at an aquarium can be tough (lots of competition for few resources) – but it helps if you can find a specialized niche. For Manny, that niche is diet. He helps decide what type of food, and how much of it, to feed the sharks on display – which is important to keep them from eating their tank-mates!
Manny helps capture a young white shark in a holding pen in southern California to transport it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Manny shares: “At times you need to take opportunities that aren’t quite what you had in mind: the first job I had at the Monterey Bay Aquarium was dressing up as marine creatures for the outreach education programs. But I was able to get a commercial license to drive to the schools in our Aquarivan, and the driving lessons still help me today while I’m driving on the freeways with a tank of water weighing over 3,000 lbs. in the back of our trucks after a collection trip.” Read more of his interveiw by clicking here!
