Sea Notes

Best of the Blog: Top 10

A lot of folks have been checking out the latest news about our two new penguin chicks. And why not? They're incredibly cute (the penguins, not the blog entries -- though the stories do feature great photos of the two tiny birds on exhibit).

The story of the first penguin will be one of our most popular blog entries for all of 2011 -- and we're barely halfway through January.

If you're a fan of great white sharks, sea otter pups, ocean-friendly seafood -- and immortal jellyfish --  you won't want to miss some older blog entries that were the most popular stories last year. (Let us know if you like them half as much as you do the penguin chicks.) Here are your Top 10 favorites from 2010:

No. 1: Can a jellyfish live forever? Researchers believe they've found an Immortal Jellyfish, and we provide the details.

No. 2: There's a "Baby Otter on Board" at the Monterey Bay Aquarium -- the first sea otter pup we've ever put on exhibit. 

No. 3: Babies are popular, including the second baby sea otter ever to go on exhibit.

No. 4: There's more to a can of tuna than meets the eye, and Seafood Watch provides the lowdown on how to guarantee yourself a sustainable tuna sandwich.

No. 5: In "Whither the White Shark?", we share the sad fate of a young great white shark we released from our Outer Bay exhibit a few months earlier.

No. 6: Some people get hot under the collar when talking about climate change, but that hasn't stopped us from encouraging "A Spirited Climate Conversation" in "Hot Pink Flamingos" -- an exhibit with plenty of very cool animals.

No. 7: We celebrate a partnership with Whole Foods Market to label wild-caught seafood in the case to help consumers make ocean-friendly choices.

No. 8: Julie Packard cheers "A Great Day for the Oceans" and talks about progress on a national ocean policy as well as federal legislation to give real protection to our living ocean.

No. 9: Yes, sea otter pups and penguin chicks are cute all right. But can anything top a little ocean sunfish?

No. 10: In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, Julie Packard issues a challenge and a call to action on World Oceans Day.

Our Second Penguin Chick!

Thanks to everyone who has been following developments with our first-ever penguin chicks. We regret to announce that the second chick died January 18. We’re still working to determine the cause. Fortunately you can still see the first chick and its parents in our Splash Zone exhibit.

On Saturday January 8, our aquarists were delighted to discover that a blackfooted penguin chick had hatched on exhibit for the first time ever. Two days later, during a feeding, staff heard chirping—“but it wasn’t coming from the right direction,” says Associate Curator of Aviculture Aimee Greenebaum.

The source of the happy sounds? A second chick, from an egg being incubated by foster parents in another part of the Splash Zone exhibit, had pecked a hole in its shell. By Tuesday afternoon, it had emerged and was “sitting in half a shell, using it as a comfy chair,” says Aimee.

Make that two baby penguins on exhibit!

Foster Parents
The “birth” parents for both chicks are Dassen and Umngane, who are now rearing the first youngster in the middle of the exhibit. To help give the second egg a better chance of hatching and the chick a better chance of survival, it was given to another pair, Tranya and Molopo.

“Giving the second egg to foster parents increases the chance of success by reducing the workload,” says Aimee. “It’s easier to raise just one.” (The foster parenting process is standard procedure among member institutions of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, especially with endangered or threatened animals that are part of a Species Survival Plan.) The adoptive parents, Tranya and Molopo, were selected in advance based on observations of their parenting instincts. In fact, the pair had already spent a week looking after a fake egg in preparation for the big event.

“They figured the fake egg was real thing, and we just switched it with the real one,” says Aimee.

What to Look For
Both pairs of parents, and their chicks, are happily ensconced in small caves on exhibit.  Tranya and Molopo are near the bubble window, and Dassen and Umngane are in the middle of the exhibit. You can tell the males (Tranya and Dassen) by their bands, which are white with black letters. The females (Molopo and Umngane) have black bands with white letters.

Aimee cautions that the chicks “will be very difficult to see—the parents sit very tightly with their offspring.” (There is a "nest cam" and viewing monitor to provide visitors with a better view of one of the nests [not a web cam].)

One behavior to look for: when the parents feed their chicks, they shake their heads, open their beaks wide, and the chicks sticks their heads inside for a delicious meal of regurgitated fish.

Future Developments
“The next few weeks will be a lot of work,” says Aimee. Staff need to feed the parents five times their normal diet to keep their energy stores up and ensure that they have enough surplus food to give their chicks. 

Once the chicks are up and walking, they’ll be moved behind the scenes and raised by hand to ensure their safety and survival. It’s important that they don’t fall into the water or get roughed up by older penguins on exhibit. Once the chicks fledge and grow juvenile plumage, at about 80 days, they’ll be re-introduced to the exhibit. At that point their feathers will be waterproof and they’ll be able to swim and walk about with confidence.

“The introduction back on exhibit will be slow,” predicts Aimee. “We want to be sure they’re comfortable getting in and out of the water, that other penguins aren’t picking on them, and that they’re comfortable around people.

“We’re very excited—they’re very cute chicks. There’s a lot that could happen so we’re taking it day by day, but the parents so far have been great and everyone is healthy.”

 

Rockfish Mystery Solved

  

Could these be the same species? Our aquarists were overjoyed when a fisherman donated this beautiful orange colored rockfish to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (left). But they were also puzzled, because it had characteristics of two species. Taking a chapter from CSI, they sent a fin clipping for DNA analysis. The answer: it’s a black-and-yellow rockfish—the same species shown at right. To our knowledge no one has ever seen an “orange morph” of this species—a rare find, and you can view it in the Kelp Holdfast gallery in the Splash Zone!

Uncommon Murres

For visitors to the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit, our common murres are anything but common. These birds are often mistaken for penguins as they “fly” fearlessly underwater past fishes that are five times their size.

But despite their speedy ways, many of our murres are more than 20 years old. Most were deemed non-releasable after being rescued from the 1986 Apex Houston oil spill near Long Beach, California. In late December, an opportunity arose to exhibit some new murres in a unique exchange with the Montréal Biodôme in Canada.

Two of our birds were sent to the Biodôme in early December. In return, the Biodôme sent seven captive-born murres to the Aquarium. Then, on December 29, all 11—seven newcomers and four existing birds—went on exhibit, the most murres that we’ve ever displayed.

Breeding Opportunity

One reason that the Aquarium participated in the exchange was to allow its wild-born birds to have chicks. “We’re not set up to breed,” says Aimee Greenebaum, associate curator of aviculture, “but I always wanted to send them somewhere that was.” The birds sent here from the Biodôme, in contrast, are captive born, and not of interest as breeding stock.

Fortunately, they make very lively and entertaining exhibit birds. The newcomers include four females:  Kiwi, Plum, Shrimp and Ruby; and three males: Pepper, Pickles and Tomato. They’re named according to their band colors.

Aviculturist Mika Yoshida says it was “exciting to get the new birds” because of their youth and energy. She says they’re “huge eaters” and are hand-fed silversides and capelin twice per day, including special vitamins. Feeding sessions also present great opportunities for enrichments. Food might be hidden in ice, or covered with shells or rocks, as a challenge.

Mika expects they’ll get along well with other animals on exhibit. “They’re used to huge colonies, so they should integrate really well. We want them to be as unafraid as possible. Pickles is already showing a comfort level with us, and we hope to encourage this with all the birds.”

Cliff Divers

Murres can often be seen on rock outcroppings on the Central Coast and in Big Sur, where they live to be 40 years old, and return annually to the same colony. They follow their food out on the open seas, and spend a lot of time on the water. Common murres are “pursuit divers,” which means they forage for food by swimming underwater using their wings for propulsion. Dives usually last less than a minute, but they can swim underwater for distances of 160 feet (depths of 600 feet have been recorded).  When young common murres are ready to fledge, they make one hopeful jump off a cliff and into the air—a most uncommon approach.

Unfortunately, murres are heavily impacted during oil spills. “I’m hoping the more people learn about them and appreciate them, the more action they’ll take to decrease the chance of oil spills,” says Aimee.

 “These birds live right outside our back door but because they spend most of their lives out in the ocean, most people don’t get a chance to see them up close. Our exhibit provides visitors a unique opportunity to see these beautiful birds doing what they do best:  diving!”

Rockfish Under Pressure

There are more than 100 species of rockfish, and many prefer life down deep. They can be found at 300 feet or more, and some live at depths to 1,600 feet.

But just as human divers have problems when they come up from the deep, rockfish that are caught and brought to the surface can suffer pressure-related ailments, such as over-inflated air bladders or bulging eyes (exophthalmia).

Fortunately, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its partners have developed innovative ways to ensure the health of rockfish destined for our exhibits, where they can serve as ambassadors and promote awareness of the conservation issues that rockfishes face in the wild.

Pumped Up for the Ride Home 

While some rockfish are rare, others are abundant. The California Department of Fish and Game has established catch limits based on depth. It’s also established guidelines for returning rockfish that are accidentally caught at depth.

In order to be able to display these beautiful fish, Aquarium collecting staff has developed a series of chambers that “recompress” the captured fish and gradually allow them to acclimate to the shallower depths of our exhibits.

One type of recompressor, made of plastic pipe, uses two chambers that allow newly collected fish to be added as they are caught. “As soon as they’re brought on board, they go into a small chamber,” says Associate Curator of Collecting Joe Welsh. “We lock that down, and in 10 seconds we inflate it to 70 pounds per square inch using a small water pump.” After that, he opens a valve that allows the fish to go into a larger pressurized chamber that can hold up to a dozen fish. The “hyperbaric” device is carried straight from the boat into the Aquarium and connected to a pressurized recirculation system. The fish are gradually depressurized over a period of three to five days before being transferred to a holding tank, and then onto exhibit. The whole process is done under a special permit from the California Department of Fish and Game.

Since Joe started using the process in 2007, he estimates he’s successfully transferred more than 50 rockfish into our exhibits, and numerous others have been transferred to other institutions. 

“They all recover from the treatment quite well,” says Joe.

How Our Exhibits Benefit

The recompression system “opens up a whole list of species we couldn’t collect before,” says Joe, including fish that live as deep as 300 feet on the continental shelf that extends far offshore. “This shelf habitat is one of the largest in Monterey Bay, and now we can represent it in our exhibits.”

Rockfish species that have been acclimated and displayed include greenspot (see photos), bocaccio, canary, chilipepper, cowcod, halfbanded, rosy, starry and widow. At the Aquarium, you can see some of these rockfish in the giant Pacific octopus exhibit, the spot prawn gallery, the brittle star gallery or the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit.

The recompression process is also being experimented with as a form of therapy for fish that have swim bladder or eye infection problems. “We’re also trying other species, and are using the system to provide fish for research,” says Joe.

But the greatest benefit has been the ability to show more of these colorful and beautiful species. “We’re opening up new habitats and locales for our visitors,” says Joe. “These are fish you otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. It allows us to show a fuller community.”

Joe helped construct the complicated array of pumps, pipes and fittings, and says that “building the train set was half the fun of the whole project.

“How many institutions have the opportunity to do what we do?”

A Diver’s Dream Job

For Brianne Fitzgerald, associate curator of fish and invertebrates, diving isn’t just a diversion. Her entire career has been based on a passion for being beneath the waves.

“When I was in college at Humboldt State [University], I took every scuba class they had to offer, from open water, to advanced, to rescue, to dive master and scientific diver,” she says. “Scuba was my foundation, and all my career moves were because of it.”

And she still dives, almost every week, as part of her job at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sometimes, says Brianne, it hardly seems like work at all.

The Local Connection

Brianne, who has worked here for five years, grew up in nearby Hollister and started coming to the Aquarium in the year of its opening, 1984. “All our weekend trips were to the beach and the Aquarium,” says Brianne. “After coming here and seeing what was happening underwater, I was hooked.” After getting a degree in marine biology and zoology, she worked for eight years at a marine sciences camp for kids on Catalina Island (the Catalina Island Marine Institute). “I ran labs for kids and took them snorkeling, diving, kayaking and hiking,” she says. “It was fun and easy living on the island, and it was so great to be around the kids’ energy and see them introduced to nature. Some of them had never seen underwater life, and it was a great experience.”

After coming to the Aquarium in 2006, Brianne worked in the dive office and was put in charge of the Underwater Explorers program. Later, she moved into a management position in animal husbandry. So what’s a typical day like in her current job?

“The coolest thing is that there is no typical day,” she says. With hardly any notice, she’ll suddenly find herself donning a wetsuit and swimming alongside a giant sea bass—something she doesn’t mind a bit. “I might hop in the Kelp Forest for a little ‘gardening project,’ help out with a mola feeding or give a sea turtle its medicine,” she says. “I’m always available to jump in where coverage is needed. I plan my day, but sometimes that plan goes out the door. I never know.”

She recently helped transfer animals from the Outer Bay exhibit—which is being renovated—to the Aquarium’s holding facility in Marina. “My job was to help the dive team corral and catch the big sharks and transfer them,” she says. “It was a challenge—the sharks swim much faster than I do, especially when I’m wearing protective chainmail!”

She’s also frequently called upon to go on collecting missions. “I just went to the Monterey commercial wharf to collect eelgrass for our pipefish and aviary fish exhibits, as well as to get encrusting invertebrates for our pier piling exhibit,” she says.

Of course, there are routine tasks as well. “My job each morning is to help the aquarists get the galleries and exhibits prepared for the arrival of our guests,” she says. “We need to siphon the exhibits, clean the windows, feed the animals and ensure the exhibits are at the high standard that people expect.”

Inquisitive Otters

Almost every day contains a surprise. For instance, during Underwater Explorers, a youth program that takes place in the Great Tide Pool, the fun would sometimes be interrupted by inquisitive otters.  “We would have an otter come into the exhibit, hang out and sun themselves. We can’t have kids that close to otters, so we’d cancel the program. But we’d have to laugh, because the ocean belongs to them.”

Once, during a collection mission, Brianne had an otter experience that was too close for comfort. “I was collecting eel grass, and at one point I looked up and saw this big furry object heading toward me. It was an otter, and he grabbed me with four paws on the sides of my head and gave me a shake.” Fortunately, no harm done—to either party.

Something’s in the Water

Sometimes, says Brianne, the myriad details of the job take over and she’ll suddenly realize “weeks have gone by since I’ve been in the water.” That’s her cue to renew the tie that brought her to the Aquarium in the first place. “What I love about scuba is that you’re always seeing something that you haven’t seen before,” she says. “My local connection is what makes my job unique—it’s been great to come back as a professional. And what makes us unique as an Aquarium is that we’re able to get water from such a clean, unpolluted source. Ocean water is the heartbeat of this place.”

Sevengill Secrets

In September we released two healthy sevengill sharks into Monterey Bay. They thrived during their stay, the largest growing five inches (to more than seven feet in length) and gaining 36 pounds. Just as important, they helped educate thousands of visitors about the power and beauty of large sharks—and the dangers they face in the wild.

Within weeks, they were replaced by two more sevengills, collected near San Francisco—one measuring almost eight feet.

This rotation of sevengills through our Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit is great for shark fans—and shark conservation. By displaying, tagging and releasing these beautiful animals, we’re learning more about shark behavior, movement and population size, providing critical clues about what can be done to save sharks worldwide.

It All Started with Emma

Among the Aquarium’s sevengills, one shark looms largest: Emma. Displayed for four years in the early 1990s, she was close to 300 pounds and almost 10 feet. She was also one of the first sevengills to be tagged upon release in Monterey Bay, and traveled to Humboldt Bay before being caught more than two years later.

“We usually don’t name sharks,” says Manny Ezcurra, associate curator of elasmobranchs. “But Emma was such a presence.”

She also set the stage for the next 15 years of sevengill tagging. Since then, the Aquarium has tagged and released 24 exhibit sevengills; 62 others have been tagged and released at sea.

Tagging Shows How Far They Travel

So-called “floy tags”—attached near the dorsal fin—provide information about the shark in the event it’s caught by a fisherman. Over time, this information can help paint a picture of where sharks go, and for how long. More than 17 percent of sharks tagged by the Aquarium have been recaptured, “which is very high,” says Manny.

The most surprising finding so far is the sheer distance these sharks travel. “We’ve had some recaptured as far away as La Jolla, California; and Baja, California,” says Manny. “Some travel north, while others travel south. It appears that sevengill sharks are wide ranging in their movements along the coast, but tend to return to the same estuaries to pup, feed and mate.”

DNA Helps Connect the Dots

In addition the Aquarium—working with partners—has been collecting tissue samples for DNA analysis. This enables researchers to tie together different populations of sevengills, giving further clues about migration patterns and breeding.

“Initial data indicates that sevengills from California are very different from those of the western Pacific,” says Manny. “With time and more samples we may be able to get a clearer picture of the global populations of sevengills and how closely they’re related.”

While sevengills are not threatened, worldwide populations of large sharks are dropping precipitously. Meanwhile, surprisingly little is known about the habits of these sharks.

“If we can supply more information, that will make it easier to protect and regulate sharks,” says Manny. “Right now there isn’t a lot of information.”

Must Love Sharks

Why are people so fascinated with sharks, and sevengills in particular? “Visitors see large sharks and are really drawn to them,” says Manny. “And the sevengill is one of our largest coastal sharks.”

“A lot of people don’t know that the San Francisco bay is home to these large sharks—it’s a very important nursery. They’re right around us, but they’re a mystery to us.”

You can watch sevengill sharks being fed by divers Sundays and Wednesdays at noon in our Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit.

 

 

Secret Lives of (Shortsnout) Seahorses

For the first time ever, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is displaying shortsnout seahorses (Hippocampus breviceps). Seventeen of these tiny seahorses (up to three inches) were added to the Secret Lives of Seahorses special exhibition in late August. You can find them in the “Giving Birth” section of the exhibit in the free-standing, round display.

The Aquarium acquired shortsnouts when the exhibit opened in early 2009, but they are only now being shown, according to Jonelle Verdugo, associate curator of fish and invertebrates. Those on display include those original shortsnouts, plus some that were born behind the scenes. And there may be more to come: three dozen additional shortsnouts were born behind the scenes in mid-September.

A Shout Out to Shortsnouts

The Aquarium kept and reared shortsnouts behind the scenes from 2004 until 2007 to learn more about the species in preparation for the Secret Lives of Seahorses, but these animals were never shown to the public.  “If I had to pick a favorite seahorse, it would be this one,” says Jonelle. “I always looked forward to having them on display.”

Shortsnouts are dark colored with purplish browns, reds and yellows. They often grow “cirri”—small, hornlike appendages that serve as camouflage—around the eyes, neck and abdomen areas. Mature males fill a prominent “brood pouch” when trying to attract females, and this can often be seen on exhibit. When in motion, a fanlike dorsal fin moves in a blur, propelling the seahorse forward, and other fins near the ears provide steering.

Native to the waters of Australia, shortsnouts are found in large groups, in sea grass beds and among algae-covered rocky reefs. Unfortunately, these nearshore habitats face a range of threats, from development to pollution. (Learn more about seahorse conservation.)

“I’m really excited to get to display these seahorses after so many years,” says Jonelle. “They’re so small, at first they can be hard to find. But the more you look, the more you see.”

Magellanic Magic

“Tango gets a fish!”

Mika Yoshida, aviculturist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, calls out each time a Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) takes a small fish from her hand. Tango—who came from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—tips his head back and the slippery, three-inch capelin slides down his gullet. Mika’s assistant, Don, puts a check next to that penguin’s name on a chart. It’s their way of ensuring that each bird is getting enough to eat, and their daily vitamins.

Mika and her staff repeat these hand-feeding sessions four times per day in the Aquarium’s special exhibition, Hot Pink Flamingos: Stories of Hope in a Changing Sea. The  exhibit is home to 10 Magellanic penguins: six are rescued birds from the Niteroi Zoo in Rio, and four others are on loan from the San Francisco Zoo. 

“Pingo gets a fish!”

Tango, Dulce and Giselda were among the 700 birds brought to the Niteroi Zoo to be nursed back to health in 2008. Scientists believe that climate variations altered ocean currents and where penguins could find food, requiring them to travel  farther from shore. There, younger and inexperienced birds were taken by strong currents and ended up in Brazil, thousands of miles away from their home. In addition to being exhausted, about 200 penguins were coated with oil. Other exhibit birds—Pingo, Cristiano and Rio—were stranded in 2009.

While the Hot Pink Flamingos exhibit was still in its planning stages, Guest Experience Opportunities Supervisor Simone Jones heard about the stranded birds. Fluent in Portuguese (the native language of Brazil), she helped the husbandry staff conduct exhaustive long-distance negotiations to bring the six penguins stateside.

Interestingly, the Rio birds are more accustomed to being handled than the four captive-born birds from the San Francisco Zoo, who are named Noodles, Patsy, Shim and Whatever. (No, we’re not playing “Who’s on First?” She really is named Whatever.) Mika attributes this to the fact that they had almost constant human interaction during their rehabilitation.

“Noodles gets a fish!”

The catchy penguin names aren’t just for the benefit of our Aquarists. Magellanic penguins, like the blackfooted penguins in our Splash Zone exhibit, are capable of learning their names and responding to simple instructions. This can be handy at feeding time and during health checks or moves.

Like many animals at the Aquarium, Magellanic penguins can also be “target trained.” Mika places a stick with a small colored buoy on the end in the water as a signal for a penguin to come over for a tasty snack. With time, the penguins may even learn to “porpoise” on cue, bobbing up and down in the water when a target is placed in the water. All these “educational enrichments” provide variety and help keep the birds stimulated and happy.

“Patsy gets a fish!”

There’s another reason for logging how much each penguin eats: a particularly ravenous bird might be getting ready to “molt”: the annual process of losing feathers and then growing a new coat. During this time they can gain 50 percent of their body weight. Then, once they’ve molted, they stop eating, and live off the added fat stores until their new coat grows back (two to four weeks).

Mika says that Magellanics also have some endearing traits. “Toward the end of the day, if they get sleepy, they’ll swim in their sleep in the water or on land,” she says. “It’s fun to watch—like a dog running in its sleep.

“They’re also super curious and will come to the window to check out visitors or look at toys that children are holding.”

Overall, says Mika, “They’re happy animals. They seem very calm and content.”

Learn more about Magellanic penguin conservation at Penguin Sentinels.

Not Your Average 9-to-5: An Inside Look at the Life of an Aquarist

 

Imagine if the first task of your day was to feed shrimp to an octopus, unload a truckload of live sardines, or don a wetsuit and swim with sharks. Welcome to the workaday world of our aquarists, whose lives are as varied as the bay itself.

Kevin Lewand, whose title is simply “collector,” has been at the Monterey Bay Aquarium since 2002. As with many of our husbandry staff, salt water seems to run in Kevin’s veins. “I’m a California boy,” he says. “I’ve always loved surfing and diving.”

His career goal, however, never involved working at an aquarium. Instead, he wanted to be a doctor. But along the way he got a degree in marine sciences and took a temporary job as a guide and a diver at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. While there, he took a trip to the Farallon Islands, where he had the opportunity to dive with sharks. It opened his eyes to a whole new world. “I had never dove with sharks before,” he says. Suddenly, becoming a doctor didn’t seem so important.

“Once I started to get into aquariums, it hit me. I just loved it. I’d always been around the ocean, and the idea of working and getting paid to be near the water was a perfect fit.”

An Accurate Picture of the Bay

What really motivates Kevin is the idea of displaying animals that have never been shown before. “We’re always looking at what species are not represented,” he says. “Then we ask ourselves: ‘Why aren’t they there?’ We try to take on those challenges.”

One such example, of course, is our White Shark Project. The Aquarium is unique among institutions worldwide in being able to successfully display great white sharks and, along the way, convey important messages about the threats they face in the wild. “I’ve always felt passionate about sharks,” says Kevin,

But for Kevin and the rest of the husbandry staff, it’s not just about the challenge of displaying unique species—they’re also trying to educate people about their preservation. “We’re always looking at animals that are hard to display, and that are important to conservation issues,” says Kevin. “If people can see these animals, maybe they’ll understand how important it is to preserve them.”

Daily Surprises

When you work in husbandry at the Aquarium,  every day holds a surprise. While out doing research in the bay, Kevin’s had whales breach so close to the boat he thought they were coming aboard. Once, an enormous steller sea lion stared him down on a dive, eyeball to eyeball. 

But one incident stands out above the rest. While on a night dive with Joe Welsh, associate curator of collecting, a sea otter decided to engage in a tug of war over a flashlight. Having won the battle, the otter swam away, then turned and shined the light back, as if to give the two divers a dose of their own medicine. But the otter wasn’t done yet.  “All of a sudden,” says Kevin, “he returned and gave the flashlight back to us.”

As with any job, some tasks are less than glamorous. Gear must be assembled and inspected, boats and trucks made ready, and the necessary permits and paperwork completed prior to every trip. A plan may need to be filed with the Aquarium’s dive safety officer, and other staff may need to be scheduled for heavy work and transport tasks. Often, says Kevin, preparation takes more time than the actual collection. And afterward, there’s a lot of cleanup. “It’s like when you’re a kid,” says Kevin. “You need to clean up your toys. We have to rinse our gear and make sure everything is in order for next time. The salt water environment is incredibly corrosive. Cleaning is a necessary evil. It’s part of the profession.”

 “A Wealth of Knowledge”

Kevin is continually amazed at the professionalism he encounters every day on the job. “I don’t think people realize how good the staff is here at the Aquarium,” he says. I have so much reverence for the people here and what they’re able to accomplish—not just husbandry, but also our exhibits staff, public relations, marketing, our craftsmen and every other department. The displays, the exhibit labels, and every step in the process—people really strive to present things in the best way possible.

“I also believe in what [Executive Director] Julie Packard and her father did in creating the Aquarium. David was an engineer, and his philosophy was that anything can be done. And Julie is about our mission. So we’re always trying to do things no one else has done before, while striving to inspire conservation of the oceans.

“We don’t fake it—we really act on it.”

(Watch a video of Kevin feeding sharks underwater in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit.)