Sea Notes

Shark Finning Trade Ban: One Step Closer

Excellent news out of Sacramento, where legislation to ban the shark fin trade in California cleared an important hurdle.

On Thursday, the state Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-2 for AB 376, which would outlaw the import, sale and possession of shark fins -- further reducing the economic incentive that drives the slaughter tens of millions of sharks each year around the world.

The bill, authored by Assemblymembers Paul Fong and Jared Huffman, now goes to the full senate for approval. If it passes, it would head to Gov. Jerry Brown to be signed into law. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is lead sponsor of the legislation, and part of a coalition of Asian Pacific Island organizations and conservation groups that are working hard to win passage this month.

While the bill passed the state Assembly by an overwhelming margin, it's been a tougher fight in the state senate -- especially after restaurateurs and shark-fin traders hired some of the top lobbyists in the state capital to make the case that the ban is an assault on Asian culture. (This, although the bill's co-author, Assemblyman Paul Fong, is himself Chinese born. He told the Los Angeles Times: “I'm proud of my Chinese roots, and our culture will live and survive without shark's fin.”)

Californians can take action for sharks by contacting their state senators to urge support for AB 376. If it becomes law, California would join Hawaii, Washington and Oregon -- which have all banned the shark fin trade in the past year.

Photo credit: Iris Ho, Humane Society International

Table for Two?

Our Seafood Watch apps (available for the iPhone and Android) help you make choices for healthy oceans. Since launching a new feature - Project FishMap - we've been encouraging users across the U.S. to share where they're finding ocean-friendly seafood meals. We've had thousands of reports so far and the database is growing, enabling seafood lovers to find great local choices.

But what about the people who don't have one of these smart phones? Enter Open Table. Perhaps you've used this great service to reserve a table at your favorite restaurant? Now if you live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, the California Central Coast or Seattle, Washington you can also find an open table at a restaurant that's pledge to serve one or more sustainable seafood dishes.

To learn which restaurants are participating, simply click on the links above! And our thanks to Open Table for helping us tag these restaurants in Project FishMap. We hope you'll support those serving choices for healthy oceans.

Salmon: Gifts from the Sea

If you ever doubted that life on Earth is all connected, in ways more mysterious than we can fathom, consider the salmon, the redwood and the grizzly bear. For good measure, toss in a bottle of wine. Their fates are intermeshed, a truth we ignore at our peril.

A growing body of research is documenting the huge impact salmon have on the health of ecosystems when they swim upstream, spawn and die. In life, they gather nutrients from the ocean as they feed and grow. In death, they release those nutrients upstream -- feeding forests and all manner of wildlife. This includes birds, insects, new generations of salmon, large mammals like grizzly bears, and redwood trees.

A new study (similar to the work our sea otter team is doing by analyzing otter whiskers) is decoding the grizzly bear diet through analysis of bits of grizzly fur. Researchers are finding that these huge bears are dependent on healthy salmon runs for their survival. Lose the salmon, and you lose the bears.

Forests, too, depend on salmon for their diversity of plants and overall health, according to research out of British Columbia's Simon Fraser University.

(Coast redwoods are also affected by fact that there's been less fog in recent years, which may be yet another effect of global climate change. Add in the impact of logging and the decline of salmon, and these ancient forests face a triple whammy that may be hard to reverse.)

If you're not a big fan of wild nature, consider this: Nitrogen and other nutrients transported upstream by salmon find their way into the soil that feeds California vineyards, according to a recent study. Vineyards closest to rivers with healthy salmon runs derive up to 25 percent of their nitrogen from salmon -- a figure significantly higher than on a comparable wine-country river with smaller salmon runs.

What to do, if you enjoy catching salmon (as my son and I did recently), or hiking in the redwoods, or sipping an occasional glass of wine, or admiring grizzly bears (from afar)?

Remember the connections, and act with them in mind. Use the free tools from Seafood Watch to make ocean-friendly seafood choices. Reduce you carbon footprint and speak up in favor of public policies that address global climate change. Join the campaign to prevent clearcutting of salmon streams in California, or mining in the headwaters of Alaska's productive salmon rivers.

And make time to get out in nature to experience the majesty for yourself. Indoors and out, your actions make a difference.

Credit redwoods photo: Richard Masoner

 

 

You Otter Give Blood

Twilight. Forks, Washington. Alluring faces that captivate hearts and win over strangers. But beware! Behind the bright eyes and captivating charm, sharp teeth are ready to strike at any moment on unsuspecting innocents. Yes, blood will be drawn for sure.

Then it will be analyzed to determine just how healthy sea otters are in the Pacific Northwest. The effort is part of a larger “Pacific Nearshore Project” — a multinational, multi agency project investigating sea otters as health indicators of coastal waters and marine resources spanning Alaska, Canada and south to California.

The Aquarium’s own veterinarian, Dr. Mike Murray is part of the crew charged with collecting blood and other samples from the locals. The team is currently based out of La Push, where Dr. Mike would probably prefer to meet a werewolf rather than the creature he affectionately refers to as a furry buzz saw.  But with many years working with our exhibit animals, plus the hundreds of stranded sea otters he’s treated, he is well equipped to handle them at their best and worst!

It’s all in a good cause. “Sea otters are the perfect health indicators of our nearshore waters,” says James Bodkin, a USGS research biologist and the project’s chief scientist. “They’re entirely dependent on nearshore marine habitats and they are keystone species in kelp forest food webs. Some populations are abundant and stable, while others are either declining or struggling to reach healthy numbers. Can these differences be explained by ocean influences, or by human impacts to the adjacent watersheds? That’s what we’re hoping to learn.”

Mariachis Serenade Beluga

For the sheer fun of it: musicians with Mariachi Connecticut serenade Juno, a beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium. The musicians were performing at a wedding. Now -- understandably -- the video's going viral. Enjoy!

"Modern Family" Meets Monterey Bay Aquarium

When he's not playing emo-rocker Dylan on the Emmy Award-winning show Modern Family, actor Reid Ewing sometimes stars online in offbeat Reid*ing videos. Recently he paid a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here's the result:

No Ordinary Snail

There’s always something going on in the Kelp Forest Touch Pool.  Right now you can see the giant keyhole limpet (Megathura crenulata). This is no ordinary snail. The body of a keyhole limpet can grow to be almost 10 inches long (our largest is about four inches). It’s named for the large “keyhole” in the middle of the shell, for excreting waste (visible in the middle of the black area in photo). This intertidal animal is soft to the touch and adheres to surfaces with its large foot. Senior Aquarist Barbara Utter found these limpets, along with other species, while diving in local reefs. The exhibit also contains a juvenile horn shark , juvenile wolf eel, rockfish, scorpionfish, kelp bass, gumboot chitons and a warty sea cucumber.

Fish Tales, Great White Style

Two tales of great white shark research: One that the researchers will be talking about for a LONG time, one involving our white shark team that you can check out during Discovery Channel's Shark Week on July 31.

In South Africa, a group doing a population study of great whites off Seal Island, was stunned when a 10-foot, half-ton shark leapt out of the water and landed in their boat. According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, it was stuck on deck for more than an hour til researchers were able to free it and get it back into Mossel Bay. The shark apparently swam off, none the worse for the wear -- after a bit of help, as reported here (with a photo of the shark in the boat).

As one of our colleagues said, on hearing the story: "It's my dream and nightmare rolled into one!"

John O'Sullivan, who leads the Monterey Bay Aquarium white shark research project, says it's not surprising for great white sharks to do well, even after an extended time in conditions where they can't swim freely through the ocean.

John said that many of the young great whites the aquarium & its partners tag in southern California come to us from commercial fishermen who catch them accidentally in their nets. The fishermen hold the young sharks, often for several hours, in small holding tanks. Based on data from the electronic tracking tags we place on the sharks, they do very well after release.

Our field team are back in southern California this summer and in addition to tagging juveniles, will be looking for a suitable candidate to bring back to the Aquarium to our just-reopened "Open Sea" exhibit. Stay tuned for news on that front!

Our research project -- as well as research in South Africa and at Guadalupe Island off Baja California -- will be featured in "Great White Invasion," program that kicks off Shark Week 2011 on the Discovery Channel. "Great White Invasion," which explores why great whites hang out in coastal waters, airs on Sunday, July 31 at 9 Eastern/Pacific time. Check your local listings for details.

Art and the Open Sea

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s newly renovated Open Sea exhibit is best known for amazing animals, including giant green sea turtles, ocean sunfish, speedy tunas, puffins and more.

But it also has an artistic streak. That’s because in the Open Sea’s final gallery, Ocean Travelers, visitors are introduced to artists and activists Chris Jordan, Alyssa Irizarry, Alison McDonald, Bryant Austin – who have devoted their work to conserving the world’s oceans. Each live animal exhibit in Ocean Travelers is paired with an art installation to raise awareness about the threats facing those animals. Visitors learn what they can do to ensure safe passage for the unique fishes, sharks, sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals that live in the open ocean. Nearby, short video clips of the artists explain the motivation and passion behind their work.

Shark Teeth

Photographer Chris Jordan’s piece, Shark Teeth, represents the thousands of sharks killed each year for their fins. Viewed from afar, you see a yin-yang image of two species of sharks encircling a mercury symbol. Move closer and you see the image comprises thousands of fossilized shark teeth.

Sea Turtle Murals

In 1996 a group of artists set out to create a series of sea turtle murals along the 1,000 mile-long Baja Peninsula. Most of the artists were self-taught and in collaboration with the conservation group, El Grupo Tortuguero, agreed to create beautiful sea turtle murals if given paints, brushes and food. Alyssa Irizarry, a Tufts University student, was curious if the murals could help turn the tide in local communities away from consuming sea turtles to protecting them. Her findings showed the murals did indeed help change attitudes and behaviors about endangered sea turtles. Her admonition: “Keep on painting!”

Message in a Bottle

Australian Alison McDonald created Message in a Bottle, a dozen sculptures that examine the relationship humans have with plastic. McDonald’s installation features meticulous cutwork using recycled plastic to create delicate algae. The piece invites viewers to re-shape their thinking about plastic and its often disastrous effect in the open sea and on land.

Giant Whale Photo

Bryant Austin of Santa Cruz, California, creates life-size photographs of whales. In the Open Sea, you’ll be eye-to-eye with a black-and-white composite photograph of the face of an endangered humpback whale calf. Austin captured the photograph on a Hasselblad portrait camera while free-diving in the Kingdom of Tonga. After composing a series of photographs, he digitally stitches them together and produces a profound, life-size representation. Through his creations, Austin and the group Marine Mammal Conservation through the Arts hope to inspire change within countries that continue to hunt or harm whales.

Each artist featured in the Ocean Travelers gallery uses different materials to create their pieces, but the common thread is an awareness of environmental issues affecting the oceans and a clear message of how visitors can help conserve the oceans and ensure safe passage for transoceanic animals.

-Angela Hains

Pup Pup Hooray

Pup-date: What happened to pup 540? The young pup stayed on exhibit for 5 months, until she was old enough to be weaned from her surrogate. We then found her a permanent home at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, WA where she was welcomed into their Rocky Shores exhibit, and now answers to the name of Libby!

540: That’s the staggering number of animals that have entered the Aquarium’s live-stranding program since our Sea Otter Research and Conservation (SORAC) program started in 1984.

540: The number (and temporary name) of the newest pup to grace our sea otter exhibit. At just over two months of age, and weighing 11.4 pounds, she’s the youngest and smallest pup to meet the public in our two-story sea otter exhibit.

For reasons unknown, the little pup washed up on a Cayucos beach in California on April 28. Volunteers from the Marine Mammal Center in Morro Bay responded to a stranding call, along with a sea otter biologist from the California Department of Fish and Game. The pup was clearly in need of urgent care and the Aquarium was alerted that she would be transported to Monterey.

ICU

On arrival, the pup, a female, was assessed by SORAC staff, who looking at her size, weight and other indicators, concluded that she was about a day old. At just a little over two pounds (1kg) she was around half the weight of a typical newborn pup. Over the following weeks, pup 540 responded well to care in our intensive care unit and surprised our staff with her resilience.

Though still considered small for her age, she is otherwise healthy and passing all the developmental milestones right on schedule. The Aquarium determined it would be best to raise her for placement in a zoo or aquarium, rather than release her to the wild. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed, and declared that 540 was a non-releasable animal. This afforded us the special opportunity to place her with Joy on our sea otter exhibit during public hours.

Meet the family

Our five resident female sea otters all play an active role in the SORAC program, as companions or surrogates to stranded animals. Joy, who herself stranded as a two-week old pup in 1998, has been our most successful surrogate to-date, and 540 will be her 15th young charge.

Joy also has experience of caring for a pup in our exhibit; in the summer of 2010, she mentored pup 502, before she transferred to her permanent home at Georgia Aquarium.

Joy and pup 540 met behind-the-scenes the morning of June 22. Our staff ensured that 540 was eating well and bonded with Joy before transferring her to exhibit on the evening of June 28. The pair will be closely monitored to ensure that all goes smoothly.

We can’t guarantee how long 540 will be on exhibit with Joy, so if you can’t come and visit in person, check them out on our Otter Cam. We’ll post updates on our Facebook page, so be sure to check that 540 is still on exhibit if you want to see her!