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There's a glimmer of good news for South African blackfooted penguins this week. These popular birds -- the same species visitors can see in our Splash Zone exhibit or via our Penguin Cam-- have declined dramatically in the wild, probably because overfishing has reduced their supply and oil spills that have fouled the waters where they swim. A population of three million birds in the 1930s is down to around 120,000 penguins today.
Now park rangers on one of the penguins' favorite nesting beaches are installing nesting boxes so penguin pairs will have a safe place to lay their eggs and rear their young. They've placed 200 boxes thus far, thanks in part to a donation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its blackfooted penguin Species Survival Plan-- a program in which the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a partner.
An Associated Press report (complete with a great slide show) tells the tale of the rangers' effort at the popular Boulders Beach, where tourists vastly outnumber penguins and the two groups seem to be coexisting well.
Still, the penguins haven't had enough safe places to nest, which means that gulls and other predatory birds can make off with the chicks, or that the eggs are abandoned unprotected on the sand when the parent birds take to the water to cool off from soaring temperatures on land.
It's one piece of the puzzle, with more to come. There's still the issue of overfishing of the sardines and pilchards that penguins need to survive and people catch for food or fish meal. (The threat was spelled out neatly in the animated film Happy Feet.) And oil spills, by tankers or illegal dumping, remains a danger. Conservation organizations in South Africa are addressing those issues, and you can all do your part to combat overfishing by using our Seafood Watch pocket guides.
For the moment, thought, let's celebrate the good work that's giving the penguins a place to nest and rear their chicks. There's hope for a new generation of penguins, and that's a start.
Recently, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's giant octopus exhibit has been looking a little like a preschool play session. Several days a week, aquarist Adam Frantz has been challenging the two, 11-pound octopuses with balls, jars with hidden treats inside, and plastic mazes. It’s all part of the Aquarium’s “enrichment program” for these inquisitive and intelligent animals.
In the same way we might challenge ourselves with a game of Scrabble or a crossword puzzle, aquarists routinely present exhibit animals with new surroundings and social situations. It helps keep everyone—animals and aquarists alike—healthy, happy, and stimulated.
“I’ve been having fun creating these puzzles,” says Frantz. Behind the scenes, he has a basket of balls, jars, plastic toys and relics of past experiments that imply just one thing: fun. “Enrichments have to be approved by the Aquarium. But other than that, it’s up to your own creativity.”
Having a Ball
Frantz starts by presenting the octopuses with an orange ball at feeding time. Called “target training,” this helps create a simple association with something positive. Next, he places food inside the ball, which the octopus easily retrieves with one of its long arms. Once this is mastered, Frantz offers a screw-top plastic jar containing a tasty shrimp. Within a few minutes, the lid is unscrewed and the shrimp is consumed.
Games are not the only things that constitute an enrichment for the octopuses. The main objective is a change in environment, and this can include moving rocks or plants, or even adding other animals. Recently, Frantz placed several small rockfish in the exhibit for just this reason.
The octopuses seem to welcome all these changes enthusiastically. As of late, when Frantz does something as simple as clean the windows, an octopus will come right over and wrap itself around the cleaning pad or even crawl up his arm. Octopuses have been known to get quite “attached” to their aquarists, and it’s not uncommon for Frantz to end up with an octopus “hickey” or two after a day’s work.
The Prey Maze
Now the Aquarium’s octopuses are trying to crack the biggest puzzle of all: a “prey maze,” which Frantz constructed from an old water filter housing. To solve this challenge, the octopus must extend an arm through serpentine passages to retrieve a shrimp or live crab at the far corner of the maze. (Recently, an octopus at the New England Aquarium found itself a little “boxed in” by a similar enrichment.)
One octopus has already mastered a simplified version of the maze. Given these remarkable animals’ intelligence, it seems likely they’ll solve the more complex version as well. But if it takes a while, that’s just fine with Frantz. The octopuses may not master all of his puzzles—but that’s the whole idea.
“It’s good for the animal,” says Frantz of his enrichment games, “and it’s fun for me.”
So you work for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and you're walking across the street in front of the main entrance. Suddenly, out of the blue, you're whacked on the head -- hard. You reach up to touch the tender spot and your hair is wet, but not with blood.
You look around. There's no one nearby. What gives?
Turns out that Nanci Hubby, whose company CAD Carmel assists us with exhibit design projects, was starstruck. Literally.
In her case, the star was an ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) that fell from the sky, dropped by a passing seagull that bit off more than it could swallow.
The good news? Nanci's head broke the sea star's fall and it survived. (Both the star, and Nanci's skull.) Neither she nor the sea star seem any worse for the experience.
Nanci and co-worker Debbie Raquenio, who was with her at the time, hustled the star into the care of our Husbandry staff, who returned it to the ocean off the back deck of the aquarium, in our Great Tide Pool. At last report, it was still there, safe from seagulls -- for the moment.
One lucky star.
It's a simple, dramatic statement you can make about global climate change, one that's growing in awareness and popularity.
"It" is Earth Hour, when cities, businesses and individuals are asked to turn of their lights or cut their use of electricity for 60 minutes. It was popular in 2008 when we blogged about it and the Monterey Bay Aquarium first participated. Earth Hour 2009 has blown past its goals. Nearly 2,400 cities in 83 countries are taking part, with more signing on every day.
You can take part during Earth Hour this Saturday, March 28, beginning at 8:30 p.m. local time. The Earth Hour site has all the information you need to take action -- and to recruit others.
The Aquarium will again participate with a "load-shed", in which we cut non-essential electricity uses for an hour. We can't turn off the pumps or life support systems, but our usage will definitely drop.
Last year at my house, we unplugged everything but the refrigerator, went outside for a little stargazing and then read stories by candlelight before turning in for the night. (Maybe the sky didn't quite look like this, but it was beautiful.)
Hope to see you -- in the dark!
Great, great profile in today's New York Times of Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the marine biologist and former trustee of the Monterey Bay Aquarium who now heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
She's long worked to encourage fellow scientists to engage the public and policymakers on critical issues facing society. She's definitely walking the talk in her new role at NOAA.
That's great news for everyone who cares about the ocean, and the future of our planet.
Several seahorse items to share today. First, we're getting excited about the April 6 opening of "The Secret Lives of Seahorses" at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The exhibit's really taking shape and guaranteed it's going to be fun to visit.
As part of the pre-opening activity, we launched a contest today in which a lucky winner and nine friends will enjoy a "Seahorse Soiree" in the exhibit. Details and a preview of "The Secret Lives of Seahorses" are available on our website. The contest ends April 30.
You can get deeper insights into lives of seahorses as a Facebook friend of Herbie Hippocampus, who's helping us share stories of seahorses -- from the inside.
The exhibit will feature amazing animals, including leafy sea dragons, dragon pipefish, ribbon pipehorses and potbelly seahorses, to name just a few.
It's also a place to learn what each of us can do to protect seahorses in the wild -- from choosing sustainable seafood (because seahorse habitat can be destroyed by thoughtless aquaculture developments and indiscriminate fishing practices) to supporting creation of marine protected areas that safeguard the coral reefs, mangrove forests and eelgrass beds where seahorses and their kin make their homes. California's only native seahorse, the Pacific seahorse, could benefit from this kind of protection.
We've also posted a new seahorse video on YouTube; check it out:
For years, scientists working to uncover the secrets of the deep sea and open ocean wildlife have been hampered by something that has hindered us all at some point - battery failure! So the Monterey Accelerated Research System, or MARS, hopes to bring some of those frustrations to an end.
According to MBARI,the system consists of a 32-mile undersea cable that carries data and power to a "science node" 2,923 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay. More than eight different science experiments can be attached.
This week, scientists from UC Berkeley and the University of Washington announced they have each plugged new sensors into the world's longest power strip. One to monitor seismic activity and the other to eavesdrop on the activities of the smallest and largest bay users - plankton and whales, respectively.
Exploring the deep sea by Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is still a very important component of the work done by our sister institute. So this week's Film Friday is a dive to the Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain off the California coast. Recently added to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, this underwater treasure can now be preserved.
Big news on several fronts today, and it's good news for harp seals, polar bears and the future of the oceans.
First came the announcement by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that his nation is banning the hunting of baby harp seals. While Russia's environmental record is anything but stellar, Putin denounced the "bloody hunt" for the white-furred seals and his government touted the decision as a way to conserve biodiversity in the Arctic. The hunt continues in Canada, which is under pressure from activists to end the practice.
The Russian announcement came on the same day that five Arctic nations met in Norway to promote an action plan to save polar bears. The central pillar of the plan is a push for urgent international action to address climate change.
Finally, one last bit of excellent news:
Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a top marine scientist, strong ocean advocate, and former trustee of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was unanimously confirmed today by the U.S. Senate to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Omega-3 fish oils have long been touted as a ticket to coronary health. Now comes new research out of Canada questioning whether they are in fact beneficial -- and warning that, regardless, the oceans can't sustain our growing demand for fish oil.
The study, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, cautions that the push to get people in First World countries to consume more fish oil is aggravating overfishing worldwide and push more seafood into export markets, costing folks in developing nations a valuable source of protein.
"The public view is that fish is good for you. There is plenty of it and let's go for it," David Jenkins, a nutrition professor at the University of Toronto and lead author of the journal article told the Toronto Globe and Mail. "I don't think either of those views should be as strongly held as they are."
Canadian nature writer Farley Mowat signed on as a co-author because, as he told the Toronto paper, "I'm just desperately worried about what's happening to the life in the ocean, as everybody should be who thinks about it at all."
The authors want public health officials to back off on calls for more people to eat omega-3s until there's a renewable source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids — derived from plant, algae, yeast or other unicellular organisms — and until there's more firm evidence that eating omega-3s really does deliver the promised health benefits.
"Even if the evidence were more compelling, the development of dietary guidelines that may have large-scale environmental consequences does not seem wise," the authors write. "The environmental threat posed by an increase in fish consumption has now become obvious. Aquaculture does not appear to be a viable answer, and further endangering the food supply in developing countries clearly has harmful implications."
(Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch pocket guides can steer you to more sustainable sources of the seafood you do eat. We include information from our partners at Environmental Defense Fund about seafood species with high levels of contaminants like mercury and PCBs.)
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