Sea Notes

10 New Year Eco-Resolutions

The Daily Green has seven useful and humorous suggestions for a new environmentally-friendly you in 2008. We'd like to add three more:

1. Know where your seafood comes from; download a Seafood Watch pocket guide to make ocean-friendly choices. Don't forget, if you found a new Internet-ready mobile device in your Christmas stocking, you can access our mobile pages by typing in www.seafoodwatch.org.

2. Take Action for the oceans; join our Ocean Action Team. With over 10,000 members and growing-- you too can have a voice for ocean wildlife.

3. If you pay 2007 income taxes in California, you can help save our threatened sea otters! Thanks to legislation inspired by a visit to the aquarium, taxpayers now have the option to contribute a small portion of their tax refund to sea otter research. You’ll find the check-off box on Line 63—the California Sea Otter Fund—of Form 540.

Remember, each and every small action we take adds up to make a difference. Thanks to Shifting Baselines for the video below which sums this up perfectly...

Happy Tails of 2007

As we bring this year to a close, we are happy to look back on a number of successes in ocean conservation during 2007. California continues to lead the way with strong environmental protection measures, both for our oceans, and efforts to slow and prevent further climate change.

Perhaps the most important event for us locally was the CA Fish & Game Commission's final approval for a strong network of marine protected areas along the Central Coast; with 29 such areas now in place, covering over 200 miles. Critical waters such as Soquel Canyon, Point Sur, and Piedras Blancas are now safe havens for fish and other marine life to thrive. By 2011, it is anticipated that a network of protected areas will be in place along the entire coastline of California. A landmark, or should I say watermark process, which we hope to see repeated in other states.

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we are indebted to our visitors, volunteers, donors, members and ocean advocates, without whom we could not continue in our mission "to inspire conservation of the oceans". We look forward to your continued support in 2008.

Climate Change Impacts Oceans Top Predators

Earlier this month, over 150 scientists gathered in Mexico for the First Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators (CLIOTOP) Symposium. Not surprisingly, the subsequent press release indicates that they anticipate global climate change will disrupt the marine food chain, impacting top predators such as sharks, tuna, marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles.

Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators (CLIOTOP) is a ten-year program devoted to the study of oceanic top predators within their ecosystems. Its aim is to identify the impact of both climate variability and fishing on the structure and function of open ocean ecosystems and its top predators.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), our sister organization, is also currently engaged in a number of different research projects to gain a better understanding of the impacts changing climate has on our oceans. Check out their website to learn more www.mbari.org

Friday's Film: All you can eat...

If you think you ate too much this holiday season, consider that a humpback whale eats up to two thousand pounds of food a day in its feeding season. Now that's a meal!

Check out this short video courtesy of National Geographic.

Freshly Farmed

When did "fresh" become a euphemism for "wild" with respect to fish? This interesting article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer looks at some of the often misleading labeling in the world of seafood --in this instance, a farmed king salmon is being displayed as "fresh king", which to many unsuspecting shoppers will lead to an assumption that it was wild-caught just hours ago!

Clever marketing will often result in sales of otherwise unmarketable species. Slimehead was not a popular menu item until it became known as orange roughy. Similarly, the Patagonian toothfish sounds much tastier when renamed the Chilean seabass. Spiny dogfish, a small shark species, finds its way into fish and chips when it is re-sold as rock cod or rock salmon.

As of April 4, 2005 Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requires that all U.S. seafood is labeled to show both country of origin and method of production (farmed or wild-caught).  Unfortunately, processed seafood is exempt from these labeling requirements and consequently only about half of the seafood in our grocery stores has a COOL label.

Remember, seafood lovers on the go can also use a cell phone or other device with Internet access to check seafood recommendations on our specialized mobile pages at www.seafoodwatch.com

Beating the bluefin blues

There is a story of hope for Atlantic bluefin tuna in this week's Washington Post. Scientists who have studied this incredible warm-blooded fish for many years are certain that the science and data they present is enough to convince fisheries managers and their governments to make the changes necessary to halt the severe decline of the species and prevent extinction.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is the only institution in North America to display both yellowfin and Pacific bluefin tuna. This is due to a unique collaboration between the Aquarium and the directly adjacent Hopkins Marine Station, part of Stanford University. This partnership created the "Tuna Research and Conservation Center", which is based in the marine lab. Students collect juvenile tuna from the wild and bring them to the lab where they help scientists understand more about the biology and physiology of these epic migrators. The tuna are then later transported to the Aquarium, where they will roam the warm waters of the 1.2 million gallon Outer Bay exhibit.

The marine station has also pioneered new techniques in fitting satellite tags and tracking devices, greatly assisted by being able to work with the tuna in a captive setting, before heading out to the always unpredictable combination of wild animals in their natural underwater world. To date, over 700 giant bluefin tuna have been tagged in the wild. You can learn more about the Tag-A-Giant program and even sponsor a tag! You can also track tuna and other wildlife at the Tagging of Pacific Predator website.

Once you've been eyeball to eyeball with bluefin tuna, marvelled at their size--as big as a dolphin, and learnt that they too are warm-blooded, it’s hard not to root for them and their battle for survival against the planet's top predator. Let science and common sense prevail, for the good of us all.

I'm Dreaming of a White Shark Christmas Record

And the winner is.... Kerri, a white shark tagged off the coast of New Zealand who was tracked all the way to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia --a trip of over 1,800 miles! A new record for this population, and a journey which has the region's scientists concluding that perhaps the populations off the Antipodean coasts are one, and not two as previously thought.

Scientists tracking sharks off the coast of California have also been astonished to see white sharks journeying to Hawaii and back. White sharks, historically, were thought to be very regional, if not local. Satellite tags and new technology tell us otherwise; indicating the urgency we face in understanding their habits and habitats if we are to protect them for the future.

Follow the track of the white shark released in January 2007 from the Aquarium all the way to Baja. Also at the Tagging of Pacific Predators website, you can follow Omoo --the white shark, who's currently off the coast of Honolulu and writing his own blog! (We don't make this stuff up, we just report it!)

Monday's Photo - Happy Feet Holidays

No holiday season would be complete without a photograph of animals wearing silly hats! Thanks to Cool Antarctica for this one of adélie penguins!

Aquarium executive director, Julie Packard, offers a special thank-you to all of you—for your interest in the Aquarium, and your help to create a world with healthy oceans.

Happy Holidays from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Notes blog team.

Wind and Waves = Watts

There are two green energy stories making news this week, as utility companies and governments consider ways to generate power from renewable resources.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco based utility company Pacific Gas & Electric Co. committed to buying power generated by waves. Quite a commitment, considering that the infrastructure is not built, nor is the technology currently deployed! You can see an animation of the "wave park" on this video clip by the inventors of the aquabuoy technology.

In the UK, there are plans to build an offshore wind farm, which has the potential to power all homes in the country by 2020, in conjunction with current projects being tested to harness wave and tidal energy.

Commitments to clean green energy, and energy saving techniques such as LED, give us hope that we can find new ways to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and increase our intention to reduce CO2 emissions as soon as practicable.

You otter have a name

We have a new freshwater otter pup on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium this week and we're hoping you will help us find a name! Check out the great video of her, with mom Kamili, on our website and decide which name you think most suits the pup, and cast your vote.

Our Wild About Otters exhibit opened in May 2007, and features two families of African spotted-neck otters (like our new pup) and their Asian cousins, the small-clawed otters. See their daily antics live on our webcam.

You can watch this exhibit walk-through too!