Sea Notes

No Spring Chickens

The aquarium is breaking records with animal healthcare! Two special shorebirds that have lived at the Monterey Bay Aquarium since the mid 1980s are the oldest individuals of their species at any U.S. zoo or aquarium. 

The elderly female birds, one sanderling and one willet have been raised by aquarium staff and volunteers for over 20 years. They enjoy top-notch veterinary care, regular meals and safety from predators, all of which contributes to long, healthy lives.

The sanderling arrived in 1986, making her at least 22 years old, much older than the life expectancy in the wild of five years. Sanderlings are small shorebirds seen in flocks on California beaches, chasing receding waves. Despite cataracts in both eyes and a hump on her back, she is still an active member of the exhibit.

The other record-setting bird is a willet, a large species of sandpiper with tall graceful legs and a long straight bill. After over 21 years on exhibit, associate curator of aviculture Aimee Greenebaum says this older bird is still “one of our most curious birds.”

Both birds live in the aquarium’s aviary, on the first floor of the aqurium near the bat ray touch pool. It's a unique exhibit because, as Greenebaum says, “it gives visitors a chance to see many different species of shorebirds up close that are normally hard to see in the wild.”

Most birds in the aviary were rescued with wing injuries and live at the aquarium because they can't be released in the wild. And for one sanderling and one willet, two decades at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have provided an especially long and healthy life!

Visit the aviary web cam at www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_sandy/sandy_cam.asp for some virtual bird watching, and wave hello to the two senior citizens of the dunes.

Oregon otter home coming

Sea otters disappeared from the Oregon coast around 1906, just a few years before the North Pacific Fur Seal Treaty of 1911, which banned the hunt for seals, sea lions and sea otters for their fur.

This week, a sighting of a single sea otter has been confirmed in Depoe Bay, Oregon. The first time that an animal has ventured from the populations that are resident in Washington and California.

Historically, the range of Pacific coast sea otters stretched from Baja California, north along the entire Pacific coast to Alaska, and across the islands that stretch to Russia. Today, the populations are fragmented and struggling.

You can help be a part of the solution by donating through your California tax refund this year. Monies donated help fund vital sea otter research. Visit our website to learn more. 

The Eyes Have It

Our colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have solved the mystery of a very unusual with exceptional eyes. Called the barreleye or spookfish, it has a transparent casing over two globular, green, upward-pointing eyes --truly an alien-looking being.

Dr. Bruce Robison and his colleagues have figured out that the tiny fish can find food above (likely food trapped in the tentacles of a deep-sea siphonophore -- a jellyfish relative) and can then rotate the eyes to face the same direction as its mouth so it can grab a bite to eat.

Two odd-looking spots on its "face", which look like they should be eyes, are in fact olfactory organs -- the barreleye's nose. The fish itself isn't a new discovery, but figuring out its behavior is the result of many observations in the deep sea by scientists using robotic submersibles in Monterey Bay.

If you're a deep sea news junkie, check out MBARI's site, or our colleagues at the Deep Sea news blog.

Otter Cam

The sea otter cam on the Monterey Bay Aquarium website is one of the most visited pages each day! And who can ever get enough of these charismatic creatures? TV and film crews from around the world are constantly requesting to film our otters and to learn more about the threats they face and ways we are working here at the aquarium toward the recovery of the population.

But here's a twist. A nature photographer was recently out to capture images of sea otters, and was surprised to find that perhaps he was the subject of an otter documentary! Click on the thumbnail image to see a full size image of the otter cam!

Right now, if you're a California resident, you can help sea otters when you file your taxes. Learn more on our website.

Film Friday: Arctic unicorns

Film Friday is courtesy of the BBC's incredible Natural History Unit, who once again have managed to capture "never before seen footage" of the narwhal, sometimes known as the arctic unicorn due to its unique spiral tusk, which is actually an extended tooth! (click here to see the video)

"The Great Melt" is a new series that documents the summer melt of Arctic ice, opening up nearly three million square miles of ocean and land, provides opportunities for millions of animals, including beluga whales, families of Arctic foxes, vast colonies of seabirds, and the fabled Arctic unicorn, the narwhal.

The White Sturgeon: A “Living Fossil”

The white sturgeon, ponderous and primeval-looking,  is one of the most popular and asked-about animals in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit, according to Jim Covel, senior manager of guest experience at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And no wonder. Sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America. The biggest on record weighed an astounding 1,500 pounds, and they can reach 13 feet or more in length. Sturgeon are sometimes called “living fossils”—they were swimming the world’s waters when dinosaurs roamed the land, and they can live to be over 100 years old. Their every movement seems to imply time on a geologic scale.

The sturgeon has a wizened look that seems to match its movement and demeanor. Four long, downward-pointing whiskers, or “barbels,” are used to troll the ocean floor for clams, shrimps, crabs and mussels, which it scoops up with its  extensible mouth. (Aquarium sturgeon are fed krill, chopped fish and squid.) Covel likens the sturgeon’s low slung mouth to a “vacuum cleaner,” as it sucks up its meals. The sturgeon has no scales, but it does have long rows of spiny plates, called “scutes,” plainly visible along its sides. These can offer a surprise to any animal—or person—that happens to bump up against these majestic fish. “You don’t want to wrap your arms around one,” says Covel.

The Fish that Lays the Golden Eggs
Sturgeon are “anadromous,” meaning that they live in salt water, but breed in fresh water. This versatile physiology means that sturgeon are sometimes found in some very unlikely inland habitats. While studying at the University of California, Davis, Covel remembers being summoned to save a sturgeon from the middle of a farmer’s field. The fish ended up there during a flood, and was surprised to find itself “outstanding in its field” once the waters receded. In California, sturgeon are found from the Pacific to the Sacramento Delta.

Sturgeon have traditionally been valued for their roe, popularly known as caviar—a sought-after gourmet delicacy and an occasional status symbol. (Caviar can fetch up to $100 per ounce.) As the fish that lays the golden eggs, sturgeon have come under increasing pressure worldwide. The sturgeon of the Caspian Sea, a traditional source of caviar, are nearing extinction. By 1997, all but two sturgeon species were classified as globally threatened. There are very few commercial fisheries left in the U.S. for sturgeon because of overfishing. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program recommends U.S. farmed sturgeon as a Best Choice; imported, wild-caught sturgeon are on the Avoid list.

The largest white sturgeon in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit comes with its own rich history. It was a mere 24 inches long when first acquired by San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium in 1990. It was donated to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2006 when the Steinhart underwent renovations. This giant fish is now estimated to be 26 years old, more than six feet long and over 70 pounds!

Blue Hope, Fish Crystals & Hot Algae

There are many places to find hope in a time when the dangers of rapid climate change are becoming all too evident.

One comes from marine explorer and advocate Sylvia Earle, a TED Prize-winner who issued a call for "ocean hope spots". She spoke eloquently about the ocean as "the blue heart of the planet" at the launch Monday of Google Ocean, and continues to advocate passionately to protect marine life.

Two others come in the form of new scientific insights that offer hope for the future of marine life -- and our own survival.

In the first case, researchers have documented that fish are pooping a LOT of calcium carbonate -- enough that they're a big player in maintaining a healthy chemical balance in the ocean. (The material, in the form of "gut rocks," is produced when fish absorb calcium as they ingest seawater,. The calcium is converted into calcium carbonate crystals in their gut. When the alkaline crystals are excreted, they buffer against ocean acidification and its ill effects.) Since the ocean is growing more acidic as it absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the new finding -- published in the journal Science -- charts a course for addressing two threats at once. if we can keep fish populations abundant, the fish will help maintain a chemical balance that supports ocean life. And since we depend on the ocean for our oxygen and for food -- well, it's enlightened self-interest do all we can to keep that "blue heart" beating!

In the second case, a University of Miami researcher is looking for heat-resistant algae that might keep coral reefs from experiencing the deadly bleaching events that occur when corals expel their symbiotic algae when the seawater around them grows too warm. Warming seawater and coral bleaching events are linked to global warming.

It may not be a panacea, but some scientists think it could be a step in the right direction.

The Mysterious Case of the Swell Shark

Take a close look at the shark case on exhibit in the Enchanted Kelp Forest Touch Pool, and you’ll see a wriggling swell shark inside its leathery case.

 

While most sharks bear live young, the swell shark packages its offspring in tough cases and abandons them at sea. (Other egg-laying sharks include the horn shark and cat shark.) Nourished by a yolk, also contained in the egg case, the embryo may take up to a year to hatch, depending on water temperature. (Warm temperatures shorten this period.) In the Aquarium’s exhibit, the yolk and tiny shark are plainly visible in the backlit display. Over the coming weeks and months, “the embryo will consume the yolk,” says Jim Covel, Senior Manager of Guest Experience Training and Interpretation at the Aquarium. “The embryo gets larger, and the yolk gets smaller—you’ll see the big embryo doubled up inside.”

 

In time, the shark secretes an enzyme that begins to break down the case. Next, a wriggling tail might poke through. Covel calls this the “teaser period.” Within a few days or a week, the entire animal will emerge from its protective childhood home. “It seems to happen at odd hours,” says Covel.  “We’ll come in one morning, and there will be a new swell shark and an empty egg case.”

 

In nature, egg cases occasionally wash up on beaches before the sharks inside can hatch. Beachcombers may know the pillow—shaped cases as "mermaid's purses." Swell shark egg cases come with strings attached—long, wiry tendrils at the corners that attach to rocks and seaweed. These tendrils anchor the egg cases to the bottom and help prevent them from washing up on shore.

 

The Aquarium has had this particular egg case since September 1, and it was put on display in late January. It’s quite possible that the tiny shark will grow up to join its bigger brethren in the Kelp Forest or another Aquarium exhibit.

Top Chef - Cetacean Style

You might think an animal like a dolphin would chase down its prey item and simply chow down. But researchers in Australia have witnessed a much more thoughtful food preparation process.

A group of Indo-Pacific bottlenose have been observed carefully "preparing" cuttlefish, by first squeezing out the ink, and then removing the cuttlefish bone.

Back in 2005, another population of dolphins was seen breaking off pieces of sea sponge to use as protection against sharp objects while searching the sea floor for food. Perhaps the sponge users and the food preparers can get together and create the first dolphin diner?

Carnival of the Blue 21

The 21st edition of the Carnival of the Blue, the best of ocean blogging from the past month, is now live, courtesy of Mirian Goldstein and The Oyster's Garter (subtitled, Science served wet and salty with a side of geekery). Best of all, it's done in verse -- and done well, I have to say. Check it out & let her know if you like what you read.