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.

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.

 

Carnival of the Blue 28

The monthly compendium of the best of ocean blogging, this month hosted by The Saipan Blog. Check it out here.

What's the Sound of One Prawn Eating?

More to the point, why should anyone care what noises a prawn makes while chowing down?

Well, research scientists in Australia think capturing audio and video of feasting crustaceans could make prawn farming more sustainable. And since shrimp farming is one of the major aquaculture activities around the world today, that's a big deal indeed.

The researchers with CSIRO -- the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization -- in Australia want to learn three things: How much prawns are eating, how quickly they consume the food available to them, and how efficiently they convert food into more prawn.

That information could help prawn farmers adjust how much they feed prawns -- potentially reducing waste, which translates into less localized pollution and a smaller amount of wild fish caught and turned into prawn-feed. In the process, they'd also cut labor costs associated with shrimp farming.

Waste and food sources big issues -- key factors considered by our Seafood Watch fisheries researchers in assessing the sustainability of any aquaculture operation.

The Australian institute hopes to improve the sustainability of the nation's prawn aquaculture -- and of shrimp farming around the world -- by applying the results of its research. It's just one of several initiatives aimed at improving aquaculture practices, under CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans program.

Check it out, and listen to the sound of one prawn eating, on the Discovery News blog.

Carnival of the Blue 27

The monthly roundup of the best of ocean blogging is now live at Oh for the Love of Science! Check out Carnival of the Blue 27.

Carnival of the Blue 26

Carnival of the Blue 26 (Sashimi Edition), the monthly roundup of the best in ocean blogging is now live at Southern Fried Science. It's a pretty tasty collection, including some culinary musings from the Sea Notes gang about the ethical responsibilities of seafood lovers. Dive on in!

Carnival of the Blue 25: World Oceans Day Edition

Happy World Oceans Day! Here's a great way to celebrate: Read the best that ocean bloggers have to offer in the 25th edition of Carnival of the Blue, hosted this month by Mark Powell of Blogfish. You'll find some great stories, including our own inspirational post, "A Song of Love: Blue Boat Home."

Thanks for Our Oceans

There's still time to join Executive Director Julie Packard and Good Eats creator/host Alton Brown for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's World Ocean Day webcast on Friday, June 5 at noon Pacific time.

If you can't make it, the webcast will be archived on the aquarium website. You can also read Julie's World Ocean Day commentary on HuffingtonPost.com -- including new findings about public attitudes toward the ocean from the largest environmental opinion survey ever conducted.

And if you're in Monterey over the weekend, join us for World Ocean Day festivities June 6 & 7!

Sustainable Soils, Sustainable Seas

Each year as part of the Cooking for Solutions celebration at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we host a two-day Sustainable Foods Institute for members of the media, food industry leaders and key figures with nonprofit organizations involved in promoting sustainable seafood and organic agriculture.

This year, the Institute events were extraordinary -- and it's not just us patting ourselves on the back. Those attending tell us the speakers and panelists were compelling, and the conversations they ignited will be echoing for quite a while.

Topics aren't restricted to seafood issues, because there's a direct connection between how we farm on land and the health of aquatic wildlife in lakes and in the ocean.

We had great media in attendance and on panels -- from publications including TIME Magazine, the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, the Washington Post, National Public Radio as well as leading online food writers. We had great folks to honor, from our Chef of the Year Thomas Keller and Educator of the Year Alton Brown, to sustainable foodservice leaders like Bon Appétit Management Co. and Compass Group North America.

A lot of folks are already writing about their experiences online, or were tweeting throughout the events.

The Washington Post's All We Can Eat blog highlighted our Seafood Watch Take Action cards as a great way to engage restaurants around sustainable seafood issues. Writer Jane Black also did a Q&A with Charles Clover, whose book about overfishing, The End of the Line, debuts as a documentary film on World Ocean Day, June 8. (Terra Wellington blogged it too, and includes a YouTube video with Ted Danson, who's the narrator for the film.)

For Gourmet's Barry Estabrook, news about a pending boom in humane treatment of farm animals was the top headline, and deftly headlined ("Humane Beings"). The potential that more than a third of farm animals will receive humane care within five years was startling -- and encouraging.

Chef Aaron French of Civil Eats offers examples of how writers are telling stories of sustainability to an audience that reaches well beyond the choir. Sam Fromartz shared with Chews Wise readers a range of topics, from seafood to ethical animal care, while alerting MIT's Sloan Management Review subscribers to the growth in consumer demand -- and business acceptance -- of seafood from sustainable sources.

Bonnie Powell shared the wisdom of Wes Jackson on The Ethicurean, including his contention that sustainability is a "value term, like justice and health." The post also explores a Bruegel painting used by Jackson to illustrate what a truly sustainable agricultural community looked like in another era. Food Gal Carolyn Jung offers up a photo tour of the people, purveyors in attendance -- as well as calling out the top news tidbits generated by the Institute.

From Julie Packard's opening remarks, reported by the Examiner, to Mark Anderson's tour of the events in words and photos; from Cheryl Sternman Rule's take on sustainable seafood on 5 second rule, to Fiona Robinson's observations about an aquaculture panel that didn't just bash the aquaculture industry -- there's a lot of good writing and reflecting out there.

With much, much more to come.

Photos of Alton Brown and Alexandra Guarnaschelli (c) Monterey Bay Aquarium/Randy Wilder.

Stand Up, Seahorse!

If you've wondered why seahorses look the way they do -- with an upright posture they share with humans but few other animals -- wonder no longer.

Researchers in Australia say it all happened 20 to 25 million years ago, when habitat lush with sea grass beds developed in waters between Australia and Indonesia -- habitat perfect for vertical fishes to grasp with curling tails.

 Dr. Peter Teske, a postdoctoral fellow at the Macquarie University Molecular Ecology Lab in Sydney, told Discovery News that going upright would have been ideal for a weak-swimming animal living in this new environment. It also would have help seahorses camouflage themselves from predators -- and from potential prey.

He and co-author Luciano Beheregaray were able to pinpoint the timing by building a family tree for members of the Hippocampus genus (true seahorses) and the related genus Idiotropiscis, which includes the southern little pipehorse that is very similar in appearance.

They published their findings in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters.

The two lines diverged about 20 to 25 million years ago, the researchers concluded, isolating ancestral seahorses in a shallow, warm seas and a grassy sea bed -- new habitat to which they adapted well.

As you can tell from a visit to The Secret Lives of Seahorses, these fishes still prefer sheltered habitats like sea grass beds, mangroves and coral reefs.

Jennifer Viegas, who wrote the Discovery News article, includes some of her favorite seahorse photos in her "Born Animal" blog, as well as a piano solo called Seahorse by composer/pianist Margie Adam.