Sea Notes

In Very Hot Water

There was news about climate change and the Antarctic ice sheet last week, and it doesn't bode well if you love penguins or own oceanfront property. (Or believe that climate change isn't happening at a rapid clip.)

Oceanographer Doug Martinson of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told an American Geophysical Union audience that ocean waters in western Antarctica -- which he's studied for nearly two decades -- have experienced "the highest increase in temperatures of anywhere on Earth."

Glaciers are in retreat, Adelie penguin colonies have vanished and there's growing concern that the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet could break free and begin melting in decades, not a century from now.

(Larry O'Hanlon of Discovery News online has an excellent report -- well worth your time to read in full.)

The key point is that the heat of global warming has largely been absorbed by the oceans over two centuries of industrialization. Now that warm water is coming to the surface in, as O'Hanlon eloquently puts it, "one of the worst possible places."

How rapidly the ice sheet and continental glaciers melt is dependent on the vagaries of winds that cause an upwelling of deep ocean water along the coast of western Antarctica -- the same upwelling phenomenon that's responsible for abundant nutrients, and marine life, along the coast near Monterey.

Joe Romm of Climate Progress notes that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is "fundamentally far less stable" than the Greenland ice sheet, increasing the potential for a catastrophic collapse of the ice sheet.

Regardless of what people do to limit greenhouse gases in the future, Martinson said, we're stuck dealing with the heat already in the ocean. That means the ice sheets will continue to melt, and sea level continue to rise -- with no end in sight.

 

Photos: Adelie penguin courtesy NOAA/Michael Van Woert; Antartica courtesy NASA

 

Cosmic Jellyfish

One of my favorite quotes comes from John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts in The Log from the Sea of Cortez:

"And it is a strange thing that most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying which is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding and the attempt to say that man is related to the whole thing, related inextricably to all reality, known and unknowable....that all things are one thing and that one thing is all things -- plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time.

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."

So what a delight this morning to find an article from Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory linking new discoveries in deep space if not to tide pools, then to the deep sea. And to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The JPL released new images of an interstellar object called NGC 1514 that, it says "shows what looks like a glowing jellyfish floating at the bottom of a dark, speckled sea. In reality, this critter belongs to the cosmos -- it's a dying star surrounded by fluorescing gas and two very unusual rings."

"I am reminded of the jellyfish exhibition at the Monterey Bay Aquarium -- beautiful things floating in water, except this one is in space," said Edward (Ned) Wright, the principal investigator of the WISE mission at UCLA, and a co-author of a paper on the findings, reported in the Astronomical Journal.

(One of the co-authors is Martin Cohen of the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, located just down the road from the aquarium -- in close proximity to jellyfish.)

The image has inspired a lot of conversation, and comparisons not just to jellyfish (to our eyes, a comb jelly) but to the space station in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The WISE satellite telescope has been surveying the sky in infrared light since January 2010. The jellyfish-like rings on NGC 1514 are visible only in the infrared spectrum.

Scientists expect more serendipitous findings as its mission continues. Maybe a few more analogies to marine life on Earth? Definitely more reminders that it's advisable to "look from the tide pools to the stars and back again."

Steinbeck and Ricketts would approve.

Credit NGC 1514 photos to NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; spotted comb jelly is copyright Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation

 

 

SPF for Sunburned Whales

They're hunted for meat by Japan, Norway and Iceland. The recovering population of California gray whales may need to go back on the endangered species list.

And now, sunburn? 

A research team observing blue, sperm and fin whales in the Gulf of California reports evidence of sunburn on the skin of whales observed in the Gulf over the past three years. Tell-tale signs include blisters and evidence of the cetacean equivalent of tanning: higher levels of melanin in skin samples collected by scientists. Whales are at greater risk, the researchers said, because they spend so much time at the surface: to breathe and to socialize.

The likely culprit? Thinning of the ozone layer as a result of human use of now-banned CFCs as aerosol propellants, in refrigeration and in industrial solvents. While these compounds have been outlawed, the residual effects on the ozone layer are expected to last for decades.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Pass the sunscreen.

Photo copyright Diane Gendron, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, La Paz, Baja California, Mexico.

Do the Locomotion (Jellyfish-Style)

For the past several months, we've been showing visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium how engineers and designers have taken inspiration from nature to design everything from energy-efficient cars to more efficient wind turbine blades. "Whales to Windmills" is hugely popular, and drawing attention beyond our walls.

Now comes new evidence that the natural world has a lot to teach us.

The Los Angeles Times just published an interview with Caltech professor, and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient, John Dabiri, who thinks jellyfish have a lot to teach us about engineering -- with potential applications for designers who want to improve the efficiency of wind and wave technology.

As simple as jellies appear to be, he says, they're actually sophisticated masters of fluid dynamics. And the way they produce a vortex when moving could help engineers figure out ways to pack turbines more closely together on wind farms, with no loss of energy production.

Something to ponder on your next visit, when you're watching jellies pulse and glide in our Drifters gallery.

A Tale of Two Fisheries

Two excellent reports have just come out, both with important messages for everyone who's interested in a future with healthy populations of wild fish in our oceans. The first addresses the tragedy of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the face of relentless fishing pressure. The second is a hopeful report from the Gulf of Mexico about how fish populations can rebound dramatically once people stop catching them as if there were no tomorrow.

First, the very bad news.

For decades, Atlantic bluefin tuna have been spiraling toward commercial extinction under the insatiable demand of an international fishery that seems unable to stop hammering the population at levels that cannot be sustained.

This classic tragedy of the commons, played out on the high seas, is detailed in a new investigative report by an international team of journalists. (Many thanks to Andy Revkin of the dot.Earth blog at the New York Times for highlighting it.)

This tour de force of reporting underscores everything that Barbara Block, Julie Packard and the team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Tuna Research and Conservation Center have been saying for years: Short-term greed is quickly killing off the golden goose. (OK, golden tuna.) Will this new report be enough to turn the tide? That remains to be seen. But I'm not getting my hopes up -- especially in light of another report that found at least a 20 percent drop in juvenile Atlantic bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico this year. (The BP blowout hit right on their spawning grounds, at the peak of spawning season.)

Meanwhile, despite recent reports of a die-off of deep-water corals, likely the result of the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, and new information that contaminants from the oil are making their way into the ocean food web (and presumably onto our plates at some point), there's very encouraging news from the Gulf as well:

The closure of commercial fishing in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon diaster sparked an almost immediated threefold INCREASE in many populations of marine life, from sharks to shrimp to snapper, in Mobile Bay. Ben Raines of the Press Register in Mobile, Alabama reports on the findings of a research team from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, which has been surveying coastal marine life in Alabama and Mississippi for years.

This kind of rebound is exactly what scientists worldwide have found when you create marine protected areas that are closed to most commercial and sport fishing. Marine life in those waters increases dramatically, and their numbers spill over into adjacent waters, where fishermen are free to catch them. The overall result is more productive ocean ecosystems -- and healthier fisheries for people whose livelihoods depend on them.

California continues to expand its network of marine protected areas, a process that will be completed from the Oregon border to Mexico in 2011. It's encouraging to find evidence from the Gulf of Mexico disaster that the creating protected areas should pay big dividends -- without the added challenge of overcoming the impacts of a major oil spill.

Photo credit: Bluefin tuna school, © NOAA; kelp forest, © Douglas K. Klug

 

Unbelievable Mimic Octopus!

This is just too cool!

Check out this video of the mimic octopus, an animal that can morph its body shape and color -- and change its behavior -- to transform itself into everything from a poisonous lionfish or sea snake, to more than a dozen other species. It all seems to be a strategy to protect itself from predators.

The mimic octopus was first discovered by Australian and British researchers in 1998 off the coast of Indonesia, and it's been blowing scientists' minds ever since. "This," says one of the lead researchers, "is a rather dramatic animal."

See for yourself. 

Fabulous Fiji Findings

Once again, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and New England Aquarium have launched a joint research expedition to Fiji, along with scientists from Conservation International. Our own Dr. Steve Webster, one of the founders of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is back aboard as part of the expedition team.

In addition to having amazing fun diving in the bountiful, beautiful waters of this South Pacific archipelago, they're doing some serious science -- and sharing what they've seen and learned on the Global Explorers Blog.

You can follow their adventures. Here's a small taste of what they're seeing.

 

Great White Comeback

This is video well worth sharing -- and with a likely connection to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's great white shark research project:

Adventure sportsman Chuck Patterson was stand-up paddle surfing off San Onofre in southern California recently when he and his buddies encountered two sharks in the water.

The next day he headed back out, with a pole-video camera in hand, to see if they'd come back. As he explains on his Vimeo video entry, two young great whites swam over to check him out. He caught one on camera during a brief encounter; the second stayed around for 15 minutes.

Around the 1:16 to 1:30 mark on the video, you'll notice something yellow-green on the shark's left side. According to John O'Sullivan, with our white shark research team, it's very likely the leader left behind when one of electronic data tags we put on young sharks pops free and transmits its data via satellite to our researchers in the lab. (John's pictured above, with our veterinarian, Dr. Mike Murray, releasing a tagged shark.)

We won't know for certain if this was was one of ours -- unless Chuck or another surfer is willing to wipe the algae off and record the identifying number on the leader next time he spots the shark.

We do know that we -- and many others -- see lots of young great whites in southern California. Outdoor writer Peter Thomas just wrote about the apparent population boom among great whitesin state waters. We and our colleagues have tagged 38 young white sharks off Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties since our project began in 2002

For now, enjoy Chuck's memorable video clip!

Me my Shark and I from Chuck Patterson on Vimeo.

How Many Fish in the Sea?

We're frequently asked at the Aquarium, "How many fish are there in the ocean?"

That's pretty easy to answer if you're talking about who lives in one of our exhibits, but if you're asking about a fish you'd find on one of Seafood Watch pocket guides, then it's not so simple.

And if you don't know how many fish there are in the sea (and equally important, how many there should be in a well-functioning ecosystem), then how can you properly manage fisheries in a sustainable way?

That's one of the reasons for the Census of Marine Life. An extremly ambitious 10-year project, its aim was to -- quite literally -- account for every fish in the sea. The project also wanted to set the census in context of what used to be in the ocean, as well as project ahead to what will be there in the future.

At the beginning of August, the Census released a number of papers summarizing findings to date. (It als put together a music video, which you can watch below.)

The Monterey Bay Aquarium's colloboration with Stanford University and the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program contributed to the findings. Tagging and tracking apex predators like great white sharks and bluefin tuna is helping scientists understand how animals use the ocean, but also identifies whether populations are mixing with animals found in different ocean basins, or are otherwise distinct or unique in some way.

There's so much more to learn about our ocean planet, and despite all of this great effort, we're still only scratching the surface.

Save Us, Sea Creatures!

Given the almost endless stream of insults we're hurling at the oceans and marine life, isn't it time we recognize how much we have to gain from these marvelous creatures? For concrete, bottom-line thinkers, that's the selfish, anthropocentric "we" -- forget appreciating the intrinsic majesty of marine life. I'm talking saving our lives, and saving our planet.

Take humpback whales. Cruise ships may run them over and kill them, but scientist Frank Fish found inspiration for more-efficient wind turbines from the shape of humpback flippers. As a result, clean wind energy could be more profitable to bring to market from Whalepower, a company using the humpback-inspired design.

How about seahorses? Researchers in Australia are studying the development of the seahorse eye for clues that may help reverse macular degeneration -- a disease that causes progressive blindness as people age.

Living corals, so vulnerable to climate change as oceans warm and turn more acidic, may also hold a solution to the threat. The Moss Landing Cement Co., just up the road from Monterey Bay Aquarium, believes it can produce an eco-friendly cement by mimicking the way corals build their skeletons -- in this case, by combining seawater with carbon dioxide from a neighboring power plant.

And what about kelp, the humble seaweed? Like the humpback-inspired turbine, a new bioWave turbine design is based on the way that marine plants sway back and forth with the pulsing of the waves.

There are so many more innovations just like these, and likely others to come as we learn more about how animals and plants have adapted to life in the ocean. The aquarium's sharing a number of stories in a daily auditorium program, Whales to Windmills: Inventions Inspired by the Sea.

The trick now is to preserve them -- and their homes -- so we can reap the benefits.