Sea Notes

A Vampire in Danger?

Scientists at our sister institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), spend their lives discovering and studying extraordinary -- and largely unknown -- creatures of the deep ocean. These animals live far below the surface, and as Senior Scientist Bruce Robison says, "Most of them have never been seen or described by any human."

There are probably millions of these species, most as fantastic as the vampire squid featured in this new video & very cool video on MBARI's YouTube channel.

But as Robison also notes, and has told the world in a paper published late last year, out of sight does not mean out of danger.

These animals, he says, "are threatened by ocean warming, decreasing oxygen, pollution, overfishing, industrialization and dozens of other changes taking place in the deep."

If we don't act to limit our impacts on this unexplored world, Robison says, we put this world at risk -- without even knowing what we're losing. More and better scientific exploration of the deep is imperative, as is extending the safeguards of marine protected areas to the deep ocean as well as to familiar coastal waters.

Photos and video © MBARI

Right on, Target!

Great news this week! Target Corp. announced it will no longer carry farmed Atlantic salmon at any of its 1,700-plus stores across the United States. It's a huge and very public step in support of sustainable seafood -- one that Target took in consultation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program.

Though Seafood Watch is best know for its consumer pocket guides(more than 33 million distributed since 1999, plus another 200,000 downloads of the Seafood Watch iPhone app), the science-based program is also deeply involved in partnerships with major seafood buyers. Those buyers -- including ARAMARK and Compass Group (the two largest food service companies in North America) and Santa Monica Seafood (the largest seafood distributor in southern California and the Southwest -- are using their buying power to demand sustainable seafood from their suppliers.

By putting their dollars behind sustainability, they're helping Seafood Watch change the way fish are caught and farmed around the world. And that  puts us on the path to a future with healthy oceans.

Added note: Safeway stores also announced plans this week to develop sustainable seafood purchasing criteria for its 1,700-plus stores. And Walmart has long been a leader in the field. The tide is indeed turning. And as Casson Trenor notes, that's reason to cheer.

Which way, gray?

It's the height of the gray whale migration here in Monterey Bay, with an estimated 20-30 whales passing by each hour! The southern migration is the best time to see large groups of grays, as the animals usually are closer together. The northern migration is much more spaced out, with animals heading north at different times. Mothers with calves leaving last.

A report in this weekend's Seattle Pi records sightings of gray whales heading north "early." This truly would be early, with absolutely no time to make the 10,000 mile round trip. Most likely what is being sighted here is animals that have elected (if I may use that word) not to go on the migration. Reports of "resident" gray whales are becoming more and more common up and down the coast. While not truly resident, some whales are spending time in Oregon and Washington waters, and then heading north again to the feeding grounds. What is also surprising is the confirmed reports of feeding taking place in these regions. We previously thought gray whales only fed on amphipods (mud-dwelling shrimp) in the cold arctic waters. Turns out they are very opportunistic and will feed on a variety of different invertebrates.

With arctic ice receding each year, the gray whales are able to go further north each summer. Traditional feeding grounds are no longer visited. It's too soon to know if this is a good or bad thing for these animals. What we do know is that their population seems to have decreased since it hit a peak of around 28,000 in the late 90's. The government's 2009 assessment lists this population between 17,000 and 18,000. This has scientists speculating that climate change is impacting their prey species and ultimately their population numbers.

The DNA Brotherhood of Dolphins & Bats

Dolphins can't fly, and bat don't swim. But, scientists say, they both rely on the same genetic and molecular changes for their ability to use a natural sonar to find their prey. More remarkably, through evolution, these unrelated groups of animals independently acquired their similar talent at echolocation.

"That was shocking," said University of Michigan scientist Jianzhi (George) Zhang, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and co-author of the paper in Current Biology about the phenomenon.

The CBC reports that researchers in China, the United States and the United Kingdom focused on the DNA code for the protein prestin, which occurs in a number of species -- including 10 species of echolocating bats and the bottlenose dolphin.

The dolphin, at the DNA level, clustered more closely with the bats than with its rightful evolutionary cousins.

In the future, the scientists hope to sequence the DNA code for prestin and learn what changes at the amino acid level are critical for the development of echolocation.

Strawberry Fields Forever

When there's a great design in the natural world, look for it to be recycled and reused over and over again.

I was struck again this week by the way that principle applies when I read about discovery of a new species: a strawberry crab found by researchers in Taiwan.

The color and pattern are oddly similar to the mushroom soft corals found here in Monterey Bay. Our colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institutehave collected many specimens over the years. Maybe you saw these animals when we included them in our special exhibition, "Mysteries of the Deep." At times, they're also on exhibit in the Sandy Seafloor gallery at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The same design jumped out at me when I was hiking with my son at Point Lobos State Reserve over New Year's weekend. This time, it wasn't in the sea, but in the forest, where mushrooms popped out of the earth bearing the spotted markings found in Taiwan and the Monterey Canyon.

Truly, there's nothing new under the sun -- or under the sea!

(Strawberry crab photo courtesy Ho Ping-Ho of National Taiwan Ocean University)

Sea Turtles ♥ Royal Thai Navy

This story makes me want to stand up and salute:

The Royal Thai Navy is a major force for sea turtle conservation in Thailand. For more than half a century, the navy has limited its training exercises around sea turtle nesting beaches at Sattahip on its Khram Island base. And for nearly two decades, it has supported a sea turtle conservation center (open for visits!) that annually releases 20,000 baby green and hawksbill turtles to the wild. It's getting well deserved attention for its work, too.

You can do your part for sea turtles by making turtle- and ocean-friendly seafood choices using our Seafood Watch pocket guides. And if a trip to Thailand's not in your plans, you can see juvenile sea turtles at the Monterey Bay Aquarium when we open our next special exhibition, "Hot Pink Flamingos," on March 29.

New, Green Seafood Choices

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program updates its recommendations twice a year, with new scientific research reports behind any changes in sustainable seafood rankings.

The latest updates are out, including three new Best Choices (green) recommendations for species raised in the U.S. in closed systems: shrimp, freshwater prawns and freshwater coho salmon.

The salmon-farming recommendation is a first for Seafood Watch. Right now, the particular method is used by a single farm, and its production is largely spoken for, taken by a few major seafood buyers. But there's hope that other aquaculture operators will adopt the same closed-system approach.

You can download the Seafood Watch iPhone app, print out a Seafood Watch pocket guide for your region, or use your mobile device to access Seafood Watch recommendations wherever you go.

Regardless of method, you can use Seafood Watch to vote with your dollars for healthy oceans. It's abundantly clear that chefs and major seafood buyers are listening. 

Wear Blue for the Oceans!

Something that we strongly support at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a comprehensive national ocean policy. In fact, Julie Packard, our executive director was on the team that produced the Pew Ocean Report back in 2003 that suggested this was a priority for the government.

Last year, the current administration announced an Ocean Policy Task force that would seek out all the facts and prepare an agenda for the President. You can support the task force today on our website at www.oceanaction.org

Tomorrow, January 13, you can also show your support by wearing blue for the oceans! Find our more at http://www.wearblueforoceans.org/If you live in one of 10 major cities, you can also attend an event or rally.

At SeaNotes, we try to bring you uplifting stories about the oceans. But this is the one time we will allow you to be blue for the oceans! Let us know if you do the blue!

Carbon-Slurping Sea Stars

Turns out sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and other echinoderms are unsung heroes in the war against global climate change.

A new study published in Nature credits these abundant invertebrates with sequestering 100 million tons of carbon in their tissues each year. Quite a bit, though humans are pumping 30 BILLION tons a year of carbon into the atmosphere. There's a lot more to be done.

Since we're talking climate change, here's a great article from YES! Magazine by psychologist George Marshall examining why it's so difficult for people to take responsibility for our role in climate change, and to alter our behavior in order to avert a climate crisis.

It's a fascinating analysis of how, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence and an international scientific consensus, we find it so hard to get off a destructive course.

It's critical information, because -- no matter how hard they try -- all the stars in the sea can't save us from ourselves.

Protecting Leatherback Turtles

There's good news for the world's largest -- and most endangered -- sea turtle.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wants to designate 70,000 square miles off the West Coast as critical habitat for leatherback sea turtles. It's a way to give them more protection from some of the threats they face in the wild, whether from polluted runoff, oil spills or offshore development along the coast.

Your voice can help decide the issue, as NOAA is seeking public comment on the proposed designation.

Notably the plan does NOT affect commercial fishing, although fisheries management authorities recently rejected a proposal to open additional West Coast waters to longline fishing that could have threatened leatherbacks.

Monterey Bay would be at the heart of one of the two critical habitat areas, which covers much of the California coast. The second area proposed for designation covers about half the Oregon coast and stretches north to the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

It's high time for action. Leatherback ancestors predate the dinosaurs. Their modern cousins are the largest of the planet's sea turtles, and undertake long annual migrations -- from nesting beaches in Indonesia, to West Coast waters where they feast on sea nettle jellies.

Sadly, their numbers have collapsed just in the last three decades, falling by 95 percent to the point where they now face biological extinction unless we step in with more protection. Protecting the waters where they swim and feed is part of the solution. The other critical step is safeguarding their nesting beaches.

Our colleagues at the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) project have been documenting their migrations. There's also a well-publicized Great Turtle Race each year that draws attention to their 6,000-plus-mile migrations. (Stephen Colbert even participated in one of the races and had a leatherback named after him!)

Leatherbacks aren't out of danger -- not by a long shot. But NOAA's announcement is a great way to start the new year.

Photos courtesy NOAA and TOPP