Sea Notes

Our Penguin Population is Growing

Keen-eyed visitors may have noticed some new inhabitants waddling around the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Splash Zone penguin exhibit. Four female African blackfooted penguins—three juveniles and one adult—recently arrived from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

The new penguins help fill out the exhibit and provide a better social environment. “It’s always been our goal to acquire more birds,” says Aviculturist Donielle York. “We also had an uneven sex ratio—five more males than females—competing for female attention, and this helps even things out.”

The new girls are easy to spot—all have a white band with red letters on their left wings. The three juveniles have all-black heads, while the adults have white “earmuffs” on either side. The young penguins also have an all-white chest, while the adults show a distinctive black upside-down “U” pattern. (See photo below—the juvenile is on the left.)

With the new additions, there are now 21 birds total, as you can see on our live Penguin Cam. You can even watch a narrated feeding at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily.

Patiently Seeking Penguins
As much as the Aquarium wanted to add to the exhibit, it’s not possible to just go collect protected penguins. “We don’t want to take birds out of the wild,” says Donielle. “It’s not an acceptable practice with this species. The population is in decline.”

In fact, penguins are carefully managed under the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ “Species Survival Plan.” It’s a cooperative effort among institutions to ensure the survival of threatened and endangered wildlife. Every two years, the AZA asks institutions about their penguin plans—for instance, if they want to add or transfer animals, and whether those animals are males or females.

“The goal for the whole population,” says Donielle, “is to maintain genetic diversity.” This helps ensure that if something happened to wild penguins, the captive population would be healthy and viable, and could even help re-establish these charismatic animals in the wild.

Name Game
Believe it or not, all the penguins on exhibit know their names. It’s a basic part of their training, helping them to respond to simple commands such as stepping on a scale for a medical exam or getting into a crate for transport. All the penguins on exhibit were named for places in their homeland of South Africa.

Observing this tradition, the Aquarium conducted a naming contest among its volunteers, and as a result, the four new arrivals are named for place names in Africa, including Betty (for Betty’s Bay), Messina, Oshana and Sabie.

A Happy Family
The new penguins are acting right at home in their new digs. Donielle initially fed them separately so they wouldn’t have to compete for food, “but by day two, they were mixing so well with the others, it wasn’t necessary. They’re were a few pecks and jabs at first, but now they’re interacting really well.”

Given the popularity of the exhibit, will the Aquarium acquire even more penguins in the future? “We did so much planning and looking forward to this,” says Doneille. “We’ll give this a couple of months and see how it changes the dynamic, then decide where to go from here.”

 

Black (& White) Friday

I'm sure many of you enjoyed a lovely prepared meal for Thanksgiving yesterday. But what if you had been offered a freshly prepared penguin? That was the experience of Paul Nicklen, a photographer for National Geographic when he went to Antarctica to do something few had ever done; photograph leopard seals under water.

Think seal: think cute baby fur seal, or wide-eyed "Casper the friendly ghost" seal. This is not the leopard seal. This animal has a mouth that opens like a crocodile and can unzip a penguin like you and I peel a banana. Cute does not in any way apply to this fearsome predator. But in a surprising twist, when Nicklen entered the water with what was described as "the largest leopard seal ever seen" he experienced a true connection with this wild creature. Once she established he was no threat (which involved a demonstration that his head fit in her mouth), she took pity on the seemingly helpless thing, and proceeded to entice him with a series of offerings ranging from live penguins, to injured, to ready peeled. A truly fascinating and unique encounter. You can hear Nicklen in his own words below, and see some of his stunning images.

You can have your own, but somewhat safer encounter, at the Taronga Zoo in Australia where sick and injured leopard seals are returned to health. Due to restrictions about returning these animals to the Antarctic, they live out their lives in their Great Southern Oceans exhibit. The exhibit apparently includes penguins - but one assumes not sharing the water with the grinning seals!

White Peacock

The great white shark made a comeback today. No - not at the back door asking for more mackerel - but featured on the Today show, telling the important story of how tagging and tracking these sharks in the Pacific could give us the answers we need to save this magnificent creature.

"How close is this animal to endangered?" asked Environmental Correspondent, Anne Thompson. "As close as you get," was the response of Barbara Block of Stanford University - one of our valued partners in our juvenile white shark research program.

As you'll see if you watch the segment below, the young white shark has phoned home a couple of times since her release. She is equipped with two different satellite transmitters; one is affixed to her dorsal fin in such a way that when her fin breaks the water's surface, the antennae is free to transmit her location. The other tag we hope not to hear from until the time it is programmed to self-release in another 5 months or so. This tag will give us much more detailed information about how deep she dove, the water temperature at all those depths, and where she traveled between the hits received from the other tag. Click on the image for a closer view of her latest known position - above the submarine canyon, offshore in Monterey Bay.

As NBC rightly pointed out, all sharks are in danger - from overfishing, finning and accidental entanglement. Every year, new species of sharks are added to the World Conservation Union's "red list of endangered species."

Right now, the Senate has the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 in front of them. Last week it passed through an important committee and is awaiting a floor vote. If you haven't yet taken action - please do so today on our website and ask for shark finning to come to an end in U.S. waters. The young white shark thanks you on behalf of all her kind.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sustainable Seafood: An Interview with Chef Alex Guarnaschelli

Alex Guarnaschelli is the creator of November'sSeafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Recipe: Baked Clams with Bacon. She's chef of Butter Restaurant in New York City and host of the new Food Network show "Alex’s Day Off."

  Alex Guarnaschelli, chef at New York City's Butter restaurant, is crazy about clams. "I use clams and mussels with wild abandon. I also use oysters a lot," she says. "They're farm-raised with a minimal impact to the environment, plus clams and mussels clean the water! And they taste delicious—I love that you can crack something open and it tastes like the ocean."

Clams and mussels, with their intricate hinged shells, are often overlooked by the home cook, but they'll be reoccurring guest stars on Guarnaschelli's new Food Network show "Alex's Day Off." She's eager to introduce people to their delicious flavors, as well as the fact that they're easy to cook. "They're the only seafood that comes with their own built-in timing mechanism," she enthuses. "It's like a pop-up thermometer on a turkey—they open and they're done!"

Guarnaschelli's excitement about food, and her appreciation for the importance of local, seasonal ingredients, stretches back to her childhood. Her mother was a cookbook editor and her father an avid home cook, who would buy fresh whole bluefish "practically off the boat," bringing it home to clean and cook in a sizzling hot pan. "It's very much the way I grew up," she says of eating seasonally.

As a young chef working in Paris at the renowned restaurant Guy Savoy, Guarnaschelli spent three years cooking exclusively with fish; cleaning it, butchering it, and finally, when she had mastered those tasks, cooking it. "What came out of the boats was what we cooked and sold," she says. She's carried that commitment to using the very best ingredients on to her New York restaurant, her life as a wife and mother, and her work with the Food Network. And she's eager to spread the word.

"The most important thing to me is that we rethink how we see fish as an ingredient—that we look at it the way we look at the seasonality of other things," she says. "I'm not going to buy a strawberry in January, and when the striped bass comes into season, that's when I'm going to buy the striped bass."

Guarnaschelli recognizes that shopping for seafood at the local grocery store can sometimes be a challenge. Her advice is to use the Seafood Watch recommendations, get to know the person who stocks the seafood at your store and ask questions. Start a conversation, she advises and amazing things happen. "It doesn't take but a second to ask," she says, "and it'll change your cooking, change your choices, and make your food healthier for you, your body and the environment."

Feeding the Aquarium’s New Ocean Sunfish

It’s feeding time for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new ocean sunfish, or mola mola. Senior aquarist Michael Howard walks out a 20-foot walkway extending over the middle of the million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit. He places a red-and-white striped ball on the surface, which the mola has been “target trained” to associate with a meal. Sure enough, the mola comes toward the surface with deliberate movements and bumps its nose against the ball.

Michael lies down to get closer, then reaches into a plastic dish that contains what looks like restaurant quality fare: squid, shrimp, as well as a much less appetizing but nutritious “gel” stuffed in a sausage casing. He presents each piece with a pair of tongs. It’s not quite hand-feeding, but it’s close, and it all goes down that round, gaping mouth quickly and without complaint.

A “Millstone” in the Monterey Bay
The world’s largest bony fish, molas can reach 14 feet in length and tip the scales at an SUV-like 5,000 pounds. (Monterey Bay molas reach a still-massive 1,000 pounds.) Its Latin name, fittingly, means “millstone.”

The Aquarium’s new mola, which went on exhibit November 16, is tiny in comparison—it’s just 31 inches long by 40.5 inches from fin (top or dorsal) to fin (bottom or anal), and weighs about 63 pounds.

In nature, you might think that such a large fish would consume other large prey. While the mola does consume a lot of food, its primary meal is the ethereal and airy moon jelly. As you might guess, this is a little like humans eating popcorn—it takes a lot to make a meal.

The mola gets fed two to three times per day, which means that staff have to be careful not to bestow “too much love,” says Michael. Food intake is closely monitored, with total daily offerings targeting 1-2 percent of body weight. Without careful monitoring, a big fish like the mola can become even bigger. In 1998, a mola at the Aquarium grew from 57 to 880 pounds before it was successfully lifted out of the Aquarium by helicopter. The last mola reached its size limit for the exhibit and was successfully released into the bay in March 2009.

Conservation
Michael is spearheading growth studies to learn more about the diet and caloric needs of this iconic fish. Aquarium staff are also involved in a tagging program to learn more about mola habitat preferences and migratory patterns. Nine molas have been tagged to date, supplying information that could be crucial to the health of the species. In California, nearly 30 percent of the catch in a swordfish boat can be molas caught by mistake—rivaling or exceeding the number of swordfish caught. They are also threatened by floating trash.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was one of the first to successfully exhibit the species, and Michael's work is all part of the Aquarium’s efforts to unwrap the mysteries of the mola. “There’s no written recipe for this,” says Michael. “It’s one reason I really like caring for the mola—we’re always learning.”

Carnival of the Blue 30

The monthly best of ocean blogging comes our way again in Carnival of the Blue 30, this time from Allie Wilkinson at Oh for the Love of Science. Includes a bit about the Aquarium's 25th anniversary, among other fascinating topics -- from shorebirds to sharks with cancer. Check it out!

Not So Pelican Brief

Great news to report today. The brown pelican has been officially declared recovered and removed from the Endangered Species list! If you live along the California Coast, you will know this to be true. Large squadrons of the amazing, yet somewhat prehistoric-looking pterodactyl can be seen skimming the waves today. Even just 10 years ago, this was not true.

Brown pelicans, along with other iconic birds such as the Peregrine falcon fell victim to the effects of DDT in the environment. The clarion call was sounded in Rachel Carson's famous 1962 book, "Silent Spring" warning of the impacts of pesticides on the nation's songbird populations. But it was over 10 years before DDT was finally banned in the U.S.

DDT's impact on pelicans (and others) was to alter the way they metabolized calcium, the essential ingredient for a healthy egg shell. As a result, pelicans laid eggs with fragile shells that easily broke during the incubation period. As a result, very few chicks were born and the populations started to plummet (pun not intended).

Despite the U.S. ban, DDT persisted in the environment for many years, and its impacts are still felt today in some wildlife populations. However, for birds like the pelican, whose future looked very uncertain, this particular bullet has been dodged.

Always good to have a reason to celebrate, and recognize that when our species steps up to the plate and does the right thing, our wildlife can recover.

Behind the Scenes at the Seahorse Exhibit

Since opening on April 6, The Secret Lives of Seahorses special exhibition has become one of the most popular in the history of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s also been a labor of love for the Aquarium’s  
husbandry staff.

“It’s been hugely rewarding to see how well it’s been received,” says Jonelle Verdugo, associate curator of fish and invertebrates. “Years ago, when we thought of doing a seahorse exhibit, we knew it would be popular, but we didn’t expect it to be one of our highest-rated temporary exhibits.”

Along the way, Jonelle and her staff have learned a few of their own seahorse secrets.

A Seahorse Laboratory
Behind the scenes, there are rows of tanks, large and small, full of seahorses of every size. A thicket of pipes and tubes run down the aisles, keeping the water clean and aerated. Charts and white boards indicate recent work performed. Staff and volunteers scurry about with siphons and cleaning equipment. It’s a daunting task to keep 19 species healthy and cared for (including seahorses, sea dragons, pipefish, and pipehorses), but at the same time, it all looks orderly and efficient. 

Seahorses may be small, but they can be quite demanding. It takes three full-time staff to run the exhibit, plus five part-time workers and 12 volunteers. “It’s a lot of work,” says Jonelle. “It has to do with the size of the exhibit, the number of animals, and the fact that each exhibit tank can be tough to access.”

Feeding is a never-ending task. “Seahorses have no true stomach,” says Jonelle. “That means they need to eat a lot. Food passes through them quickly.” Adult seahorses are fed two times a day, sub-adults are fed three times daily, “and babies are fed constantly,” says Jonelle. The type of food depends on the size of the seahorse, and includes everything from plankton (for babies) to mysid shrimp and krill (for large, fully grown animals).

And, not surprisingly, all that food needs to go somewhere after it’s eaten. “We don’t want poop or leftover food to sit in the exhibit or holding tanks. So it’s a matter of constantly feeding, cleaning, feeding, cleaning….”

The staff does a “gravel wash”—using a vacuum-like device—twice each day. Several exhibits are large enough for aquarists to stand in while cleaning. The sea dragon displays are actually big enough that staff can don dive gear and get completely underwater to do their work—though it’s a bit of a contortion act. About once a month, staff stays after hours for a “deep cleaning,” spending a few hours scrubbing everything and bleaching the plastic algae.

And it’s not just seahorses and their kin that need to be cared for—there are also 10-15 non-seahorse species in the exhibit, including fish, urchins, crabs and the like.

Babies Behind the Scenes
Part of the fascination with seahorses is their reproductive process—the males become pregnant and give birth. “We’ve seen babies from all nine seahorses species that we have here,” says Jonelle. “There have been some weeks where we’ve had babies every morning.” Species producing young on exhibit include the longsnout, zebrasnout, potbelly, yellow and White’s seahorses. Those producing behind the scenes include the Pacific, lined, dwarf and shortsnout seahorses.

They typically go into labor in the wee hours of the morning. When the aquarists arrive, the first step is to remove and isolate the juveniles to ensure they get enough food. The tool of choice for this? A turkey baster. “We need to suck them up and not expose them to the air,” says Jonelle. “And a net would damage them.”

Next, the miniature seahorses are placed in a fish bowl, which is suspended in a larger tank to ensure a uniform water temperature. For some species, like the Pacific and yellow seahorses, a current is provided to ensure they don’t become stuck at the surface, where they might ingest air and become buoyant. Other species, like the White’s and potbelly seahorses, use their tales to grab onto objects and remain in mid-water. Some even grab onto each other, forming a “daisy chain” that can be 5-10 seahorses long.

“We’ve been making big steps forward in learning how to raise many of the species that we have. Our hope is to become self sufficient and keep our exhibit stocked as well as being able to send surplus animals to other aquariums.”

When it comes to seahorses, it’s all part of a developing science. “We’re always learning how to make things better,” says Jonelle.

Oceans Sans Frontier

In the U.S., President Obama's Ocean Policy Task Force is charged with recommending a way forward to create a National Ocean Agenda and Policy for U.S. oceans. Much needed and long awaited. You can support this process on our website and send an e-letter today.

Ultimately, however, if we are to restore our oceans to health, we are going to need international collaboration and cooperation across borders.

That's why it's heartening to read of a new entente cordiale between the U.S. and Cuba when it comes to management of the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, the aim is to create a management plan that the two countries and Mexico can commit to, with an understanding that fish don't have passports or know when they are crossing into sovereign territory!

While there is much to be overcome, it is a positive step in the right direction, and the intent is admirable. There are multiple goals, such as to learn more about populations of sharks and sea turtles - all in decline - and to find ways to improve fisheries management practices in the Gulf.

This model could inspire other similar cooperations around the world. Here's hoping that the politics can be put aside for the good of the whole.

Saving Seahorses, Conserving Corals

Good news today for ocean wildlife, here at home in the United States and overseas in Cambodia.

In the U.S., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new pilot program -- backed up with money -- to protect coral reefs in Puerto Rico from the impacts of sediment and nutrient runoff. Similar pilot projects are planned to protect reefs in Florida, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands and in Pacific Islands under U.S. jurisdiction.

The announcement came at a meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A world away, Marine Conservation Cambodia is celebrating success in establishing the largest community managed marine area in the country to help restore habitat essential for Cambodia's rich marine life -- including seahorses.

As is true everywhere, community involvement is essential. So too is government action, and part of the success story is action by the Cambodian government to prohibit fishing for or trading of seahorses.

You don't have to go to Cambodia to help seahorses. If you're a California resident, go to our Take Action page and urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to support creation of marine protected areas in southern California that will protect essential habitat for many species, including Pacific seahorses.