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With all the amazing submissions to this year’s Underwater Parks Day Photo Contest, we couldn’t help but post a few more of our favorites to share. Thanks again to all the wonderful photographers who submitted these images.
Juvenile Rockfish in Washington Clam by Herb Gruenhagen (La Jolla Canyon)
Calamari for Two by Linda Chaipat (La Jolla Shores)
They Come Out at Night – Sarcastic Fringehead by Ed Campbell (La Jolla Shores, East Canyon Wall)
Capturing the Moment by Emily Dinnerman ( Scripps Beach)
Jail Break! by Chanel Hason (Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia)
Two Giant Black Sea Bass by Dan Harding (Channel Island National Park in the Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve)
Bay Ray Flats by Michael Zeigler (Laguna Beach SMR)
Wreck of the Lucinda Van Valkenburg by Tane Casserley (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary)
See the winning photos.
Birch Aquarium was one of five Southern California science centers to host Underwater Park Day on Saturday, celebrating California’s marine protected areas. Underwater parks, or marine protected areas, help to preserve important underwater habitats like our vibrant kelp forests, sea grass beds and deep-sea canyons in La Jolla.
The day was a huge success with a great crowd of families ready to learn about their underwater parks. Scripps Oceanography graduate student Mike Navarro thrilled the crowd with a market squid dissection and children had a great time drawing their ideal marine park on a reusable tote bag.
Many wonderful photographs were submitted for this year’s Underwater Parks Day Photo Contest. Each one of these amazing photos help bring the wonders of marine parks to the surface. Joining the existing category of “Local MPA,” this year we introduced two new categories: “Above the Reserve,” highlighting the recreational use of the reserve from above; and “Marine Protected Areas,” in which we accepted photographs from any MPA in the world.
Our panel of judges made their decisions based upon three criteria: representation of the category, aesthetic value, and technical skill. The winning photographs for each category are on display in the main galleria of the Aquarium. Thank you to everyone who submitted photographs and especially to DUI Divers and OEX La Jolla for their prize donations.
Local La Jolla MPA Category: John Huber for his photograph Blue Banded Beauty (La Jolla Shores)
Above the Reserve Category: Skip J. Cynar for Waterline (La Jolla Sea Caves)
Marine Protected Areas of the World: Lorraine Sadler for her photograph On Guard (Bonaire National Marine Park)
On January 1, new protected areas under the Marine Life Protection Act went into effect in Southern California. From the Tijuana River Mouth on the US/Mexico Border to Point Conception, Santa Barbara, over 354 square miles of state waters (approximately 15 percent of the region) are now set aside for the protection of marine life and ecosystems for all Californians. See maps and regulations for all Marine Protected Areas in California including those in San Diego at the Department of Fish and Game Website.
Tune in tomorrow, when we post the other amazing submissions we received!
 Scripps' Mike Navarro On the third Saturday of each month, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography or elsewhere in the community join our special SEA Days program to share their exciting research with aquarium visitors.
Mike Navarro is a PhD. student in Biological Oceanography at Scripps Oceanography, working in Dr. Lisa Levin’s Laboratory. He will share his research on market squid in La Jolla’s marine protected areas as SEA Day’s guest scientist this Saturday.
Q. What inspired you to become a scientist?
In high school, we went to the Catalina Island Marine Institute with science instructors and spent a week snorkeling and kayaking. The teacher, Ms. Anne Mayben, that brought our class was really an inspiration.
I had been to Hawaii and Alaska and the environments were overwhelmingly beautiful, but what was so special about Catalina was that it was only about 20 miles from my home in Long Beach. That distance was what really made science tangible as something I could do at home in Southern California.
Q. What do you study and why is that important?
I am studying climate-change effects on aggregations of market squid. Market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) are a forage species for many federally protected species including marine mammals, birds, and fish. The squid are part of many animals’ diet, so in order to keep these animals healthy, there needs to be food for them to eat. Squid are also important for the commercial fishery. Many Californians don’t know this, but we have a lot of fishers here and market squid is the number one commercial fishery in California.
I am fortunate because I get to work both in the lab and in the field. At Scripps, we are working with the newest technologies to allow for near-shore work. Squid move frequently within our area of study and we need to deploy technology and equipment quickly in order to study them. We use environmental clues to determine when the squid will be here, such as seawater temperature recorded by buoys at sea. We also rely on recreational divers that dive where the squid aggregate. In addition, we have a few successful relationships with commercial fishers who provide us with information about the squid.
We also work with Dr. Andrew Dickson’s ocean acidification facility and can conduct lab experiments controlling pH and oxygen in an aquarium setting. This allows us to test what types of seawater qualities might affect market squid. This information will help us understand the impacts of climate change on the chemistry of the ocean.
Q. What do you enjoy most about being a student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography?
You get to work with the best here, and when you work with the best you start to, hopefully, pick up some of their traits. I am fortunate to work with Dr. Lisa Levin and a few other mentors. We also get to work with some of the best equipment here, which allows us to reveal new and exciting aspects of science.
 Navarro and his team study squid. Q. What would you like to pursue next in oceanography?
I am interested in things that people haven’t studied. I like to attempt to fill in the gaps of information. That is why I was attracted to the squid studies because people didn’t know much about them compared to other taxa. I would like to continue attempting to fill in the gaps of knowledge in places like Antarctica, Chile or Argentina. The unknowns drive my scientific curiosity.
Q. What are the most important things for a future scientist to learn?
Listen to your teachers, especially your math, science and English teachers, and really try to excel at those subjects. Also, take some art classes. They are important so that you can cultivate and understand your creativity. As you get older, you will need to put all that knowledge together to become a really great scientist.
Q. Saturday is Underwater Parks Day, what is so special about Marine Protected Areas (MPA)?
Underwater Parks are inspirational places. In my mind, MPAs are the marine versions of state and national parks. When you go to a national park, there are hikes that are really great and amazing. I would say that diving with market squid in the Matlahuayl or the Scripps MPA is one of those great hikes underwater.
Q. What will you be bringing with you to SEA Days?
I will be doing presentations about the natural history of the market squid and some of the conservation issues that are relevant today. I am lucky enough to belong to one of the best groups that works on conservation here at Scripps as a member of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. This is an especially exciting time as they will be having their 10th anniversary next week! I will have a slide or two about that. In addition, I will also have some maps about the MPA boundaries with the squid embryo beds. They lay fertilized eggs mostly around the edges of the canyon areas and near the kelp forest, on the sandy plain habitats.
UPDATE: FEBRUARY 3, 2012; 9:45 a.m.
PLEASE NOTE: This lecture has sold out. We apologize for any inconvenience. Stay up-to-date on aquarium happenings by signing up for our enewsletter.
Some of the public programs we look forward to most are the ones where we join forces with other amazing organizations. On February 6, we are excited to host a joint lecture with our friends at The New Children’s Museum.
The lecture is organized in conjunction with NCM’s current exhibition, TRASH, and features a panel discussion, wine and hors d’oeuvres, and a chance to explore the aquarium. The panel will explore how the scientific and artistic communities can join forces to educate the public about trash and empower change. The event is free and open to the public, although an RSVP is required.
TRASH features the work of 12 artists from around the globe focused on the timely topic of trash. The exhibit empowers kids to take the lead in their families on talking about environmental and social issues, such as landfills, waste disposal, and ocean pollution.
Birch Aquarium and Scripps Institution of Oceanography also focus public outreach on the issue of trash, specifically its effect on ocean ecosystems. In 2009, a group of Scripps doctoral students embarked on an expedition to explore the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre, popularly known as “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Evidence of plastic waste was found in more than nine percent of the stomachs of collected fish. Scripps scientists now estimate that fish in this region ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons per year.
The panel will feature Miriam Goldstein, who served as chief scientist on the Scripps expedition, known as the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX). Joining her is Margaret Wertheim, co-founder of The Institute For Figuring (IFF), which develops exhibits for art galleries and science museums inspired by the imact of plastic trash on the world’s oceans. IFF’s exhibit Midden is current on view in TRASH.
Please join us!
Trash: Art + Science Intersect
Monday, February 6: 6-8 p.m.
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla
RSVP Required: online
 Onboard the Marietta. Courtesy: San Diego Shooter, via Flickr By Bekah Logan, naturalist
This year’s whale-watching season aboard the Marietta is off to a great start! Great weather and, for the most part, calm seas have been prevalent, and so have the whales.
This time of month is perfect for spotting gray whales along their southbound migration to Baja California. The majority of our twice-daily tours have encountered about five whales. Most common sightings are solitary gray whales, but we’ve seen a few pairs and groups of three – even a few mother-and-calf sightings! Pregnant females typically give birth in the warmer waters of Mexico, but every once in a while deliveries happen along the way. These pairs will continue on to Baja so the calf can nurse more easily in the calm, serene lagoons.
We’ve witnessed gray whales blowing, snorkeling, and sounding. Sounding refers to a whale’s behavior when it prepares for a deeper dive, which lasts 3-5 minutes. Sounding whales take a few breaths at the surface, lift their backs and flukes out of the water, then disappear, leaving a slick area of water behind them called the whale’s footprint. We always love seeing the flukes, which vary significantly from whale to whale.
While gray whales are most commonly seen in San Diego waters around this time, that doesn’t mean they’re the only large whales to be found nearby. One cruise happened upon a darker-colored whale with a small dorsal fin, eventually identified as a young humpback. This whale followed the Marietta for a bit, but turned back while we were observing two grays.
 Humpback Whale sighting! Some other notable animals we’ve seen include common and Pacific white-sided dolphins. They love to speed about in our wake and ride the bow for short periods.
Hopefully we’ll continue to see plenty more whales as the season continues. We never really know what we’ll come across, but we’ll take whatever Mother Nature gives us!
Join us and Flagship–San Diego Harbor Excursion for twice-daily whale watching excursions, now through April 15. Download a coupon and save up to $30!
 - Sounding Diagram
Starting Dec. 12, we’ll be blogging the “12 Days of Fishmas.” Each day we’ll feature a different species that you can see during your visit to Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Love this species? Consider our Adopt-A-Fish program and help us keep these animals thriving!
The reddish-brown body of the Giant Pacific Octopus consists of eight arms and a “mantle,” which extends from the head like a bag and has two sets of gills. Each arm has two rows of suckers numbering about 240, for a grand total of about 1,920. Some of the suckers have taste sensors on them, which is useful for finding food in small caves or crevices. The suckers also help octopus arms grip the surface when crawling about the sea floor.
Three Hearts and a Beak
All of the octopus’ internal organs are contained in its mantle, including a brain and three hearts. Their brain is about the size of a walnut, which is on the large side for an invertebrate. Each set of gills has one heart dedicated to pumping blood to it, and the third heart pumps blood to the rest of the body. Due to its high copper content, octopus blood is blue.
The gills allow an octopus to breathe in oxygen and then exhale through a tube called a siphon. If an octopus breathes fast and exhales hard, it can swim backward by jet propulsion.
Clouds of Ink and Camouflage
At the base of the siphon is an ink sac from which an octopus can squirt a cloud of ink to confuse predators while they make a quick escape. The ink not only obscures vision but also smell, and its main ingredient is something they have in common with humans – melanin, the substance that gives color to human hair and skin.
Octopuses can also add a toxin to the ink that paralyzes and/or puts animals to sleep, making it easier to pull snails off rocks or carry crabs back to their den. Their mouths contains a very sharp beak made out of keratin – the same substance that forms the human fingernail – and a tongue covered with sharp teeth called the radula.
Octopuses have special organs in their skin called chromatophores that contain pigments and are controlled by the nervous system. By arranging them in certain color patterns and skin textures, they can camouflage or send messages like warning signals to other animals.
What’s for Dinner?
Octopuses are shy and like to hide under or among rocks during the day. They forage for food at night and usually take the meal back to their dens to eat. The inside of an octopus den is pretty tidy because they throw empty shells, spines, and bones an arms length out their front door. Divers sometimes find their hiding places by this pile of debris, often referred to as an “octopus’s garden.” (And yes, that was the inspiration for the Beatles song!)
An octopus’ diet includes shrimps, crabs, scallops, clams, abalone, moon snails, small octopuses, and fish. Between their suction-cup covered arms, sharp beak, and radula, octopuses have several ways of getting their prey that involve prying, biting, and/or drilling holes in shells. Predators include large and aggressive animals like the moray eel and various sharks.
Life in the Aquarium
Visitors have expressed concern that the Giant Pacific Octopus doesn’t have enough room to move about its tank, but remember that they prefer crevices and caves – corners actually suit them quite well! Octopuses are intelligent creature; they can solve mazes, unscrew jar lids to get to food inside, and even mirror the actions of another octopus in a separate tank. Our aquarists ensure that the octopus has plenty to do.
What IS the plural of “octopus”?
“Octopuses” is the current accepted form in the United States. The Oxford English Dictionary also lists “octopodes” (rare) and “octopi “(disputed). The former is more technically correct since “octopus” is derived from the Greek “oktopous”.
Fishy Facts
- Because they are generally shy, an octopus is not considered a dangerous animal. In fact, it takes a lot to get them riled up. However, their beak is sharp enough to crush snail shells and the toxin in their saliva can be very painful, so it’s never a good idea to provoke an octopus.
- Giant Pacific Octopuses can live to the ripe old age of four or five years but not much longer. In fact, they die shortly after mating. Females actually don’t eat while taking care of their eggs and die soon after the eggs hatch.
- The biggest Giant Pacific Octopus recorded weighed in at 300 pounds and its arms measured 32 feet from tip to tip – the height of a three-story building. However, most of them don’t grow to more than 100 pounds with an arm span of 16 feet. Of course, if you consider that the average Labrador retriever weighs about 70 pounds, that’s still not small either!
Come see our Giant Pacific Octopus this holiday season
Adopt  a Giant Pacific Octopus for the Holidays
The Giant Pacific Octopus is just one of the 3,000 fish and invertebrates that thrive at Birch Aquarium at Scripps. By adopting one today , you can be part of the team that provides essential care to these special ocean inhabitants. Find out more about the Aquarium’s Adopt-a-Fish program.
Starting Dec. 12, we’ll be blogging the “12 Days of Fishmas.” Each day we’ll feature a different species that you can see during your visit to Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Love this species? Consider our Adopt-A-Fish program and help us keep these animals thriving!
You can find blue tangs, a gorgeous tropical fish, in our Western Pacific coral tank. They are electric blue with a flat, broom-shaped, bright yellow tail bordered in black. A large black band along this fish’s body inspired the nickname “palette surgeonfish” – the marking is shaped like an elongated painter’s palette stretching from the base of the tail to the eyes.
Where They Live
Coral reefs provide blue tangs with good places to hide when threatened. Being a tropical fish, blue tangs keep to waters of 75-78 degrees Fahrenheit and can be found in a number of areas of the Indo-Pacific region, including the coast of East Africa, the Mascarene Islands to Kiribati, Japan, south to the southern Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, and Samoa.
Curious Little Fish
Blue tangs travel more or less alone or in loose association with other adults; younger blue tangs like to hang around antler coral (Pocillopora eydouxi) in tight groups. They have a curious nature but have been known to “play dead” when newly introduced to a tank.
What’s for Dinner?
Blue tangs eat a widely varied diet. They mainly catch zooplankton such as mysids, brine shrimp, and other microorganisms. They also eat seaweed and algae.
Fishy Facts
- Blue tangs are not an aggressive fish but they do come armed. At the base of its tail are venomous spines that extend outward when alarmed or provoked. These scalpel-shaped weapons are the reason this fish is often called a surgeonfish. With a quick, sideways thrash of the tail, a blue tang can produce gashes that will swell, discolor, possibly become infected, and can hurt for hours.
- “Hi, I’m Dory!” The Disney character from “Finding Nemo” had no short-term memory. Imagine if she tried to remember all the other names for her species: Palette surgeonfish, Flagtail surgeonfish, Blue surgeonfish, Pacific blue tang, Indo-Pacific blue tang, Regal tang, Hippo tang, and Yellowtail tang.
Come see three Blue Tangs in our Western Pacific tank this holiday season.
 Adopt a Blue Tang for the Holidays
Blue Tangs are just a few of the 3,000 fish and invertebrates that thrive at Birch Aquarium at Scripps. By adopting one today, you can be part of the team that provides essential care to these special ocean inhabitants. Find out more about the Aquarium’s Adopt-a-Fish program.
 Amanda Cummings is a staff researcher at Scripps Oceanography. On the third Saturday of each month, a scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography or elsewhere in the community joins our special SEA Days program to share their exciting research with aquarium visitors.
Amanda Cummins is a staff research associate in the Marine Physical Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in biology from Western Kentucky University and completed her master’s degree in marine biodiversity and conservation at Scripps, focusing her capstone/thesis work on cetaceans in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Q. What inspired you to become a scientist?
Wanting to do marine science was always something innate. As a child, my family always went to summer vacations in Florida and rented a condo on the beach. I was always in the ocean. When the rest of the family wanted to be up by the pool, I would be the one floating in the ocean with my little mask and snorkel. It was just a strong curiosity of what was out there. When I was in high school I went to Seacamp in the Florida Keys for a week. We learned coral reef ecology and some invertebrate identification. This experience made an ocean science career more tangible. It linked my curiosity with the science and got me to see how I could make a career out of marine science, instead of it just being a passion.
Q. What do you study and why is that important?
My current job is studying whale acoustics. I analyze the sounds in the ocean. Specifically that means we put underwater microphones called hydrophones into the ocean where they sit on the ocean floor for a long period of time. The next step is to recover those microphones and listen to what was recorded. I record what animals made sounds and when they made them. I also record man-made noise from ships, and Navy sonar or explosions. Scientists want to know more about the sound of the ocean because it is a good indicator of the overall health of our oceans.
Q. What is your favorite noise that you have heard?
There are some pretty bizarre sounds out there in the ocean! I study minke whales, which make a sound called the boing. For the longest time people thought this noise was man-made (that it came from a machine or ship) because it sounds very mechanical. Finally about a decade ago scientists were able to pare it with an actual minke whale.
Each type of whale makes different sounds, and that is one of the ways we can identify what type of whales are out there. We use a lot of hydrophones here in southern California, but we also have hydrophones around the Hawaiian Islands, in the Mariana Islands, Alaska, Washington state and in several areas of the Gulf of Mexico, monitoring how the area is recovering since the oil spill.
Q. What do you enjoy most about working here at Scripps Institution of Oceanography?
I love that I get to do a variety of things. Sometimes I’m conducting data analysis with my computer at my desk; other times I’m out in small boats doing dolphin and whale surveys along our coast. I even get to go out to sea for 3-4 weeks at a time on our larger research vessels.
Q. What is the best part about being out at sea on a research vessel?
I like being up close and personal with the animals I study. Hearing them in recordings is one thing; but seeing them up close is different – especially experiencing how big whales truly are! I love the amazing sunrises and sunsets you see out far into the ocean. One time we saw a fin whale breach, which was just amazing because they are such huge animals and it was like watching a giant missile come up out of the water.
Q. What are the most important things for a future scientist to learn?
It is important to learn a variety of things like biology, physics, math and computers because everything is connected in science. Study hard and learn everything you can!
Q. What is your favorite whale species?
The fin whale is my favorite whale because they are huge! They are the second largest animal on earth and have a beautiful lower jaw that is two different colors – the right side is white and the left half is black.
Below are some photographs from Amanda’s research on dolphins. Can you see the difference between the individual dorsal fins?
  
Starting Dec. 12, we’ll be blogging the “12 Days of Fishmas.” Each day we’ll feature a different species that you can see during your visit to Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Love this species? Consider our Adopt-A-Fish program and help us keep these animals thriving!
The moray eel is long and snake-like with brown, smooth skin, eyes that have a milky-blue outline, and a mouth featuring large, pointed white teeth. People tend to think they look sinister because they usually have their mouths open, but the eels actually do this to pass water over their gills – this is how they breathe. In fact, while a moray eel will not hesitate to defend itself or follow prey, they generally don’t attack unless provoked.
 Hello gorgeous!
Cracks and Crevices
The moray is the only eel species in California without pectoral fins and have anywhere from 146 to 154 vertebrae. This accounts for an eel’s ability to slither through the water and in and out of reef cracks and crevices. They have been known to grow up to five feet in length and live for more than 30 years.
What’s for Dinner?
When it comes to hunting prey, a moray is very aggressive. Since they feed mostly at night, their well-developed sense of smell is very useful. They can find a hiding octopus deep in its den and root it out. Their diet also consists of crustaceans, small fishes like Garibaldi, sea urchins, and green abalone.
Eel Land
Moray eels can be found at marine depths of one to 40 meters (~131 feet) between Point Conception, Calif. and Bahia Magdalena in Baja California, Mexico. Morays particularly like to congregate on Catalina Island off the California coast, and one spot in particular has become popularly known as “Eel Land.” Scientists believe that the waters off the coast of southern California are too cold for eel reproduction and that ocean currents bring young eels up from Baja California.
Fishy Facts
- A moray’s best friend is the red rock shrimp who often shares its cave. The shrimp helps the eel by eating dead skin and parasites that plague it, and even cleans out old food stuck in the eel’s teeth. In return, the eel protects the shrimp from predators. It’s a perfect relationship!
- Moral eels actually have two sets of jaws. After they grasp prey with an outer set of teeth, a second jaw equipped with full set of long, curved teeth emerges from the throat to grab the food and pull it down into its esophagus. The whole thing resembles something out of a science fiction movie and takes only milliseconds. No other fish seems to have this feature.
Come see four moral eels slithering in our tanks this holiday season.
Adopt a Moray Eel for the Holidays
Moray eels are just a few of the 3,000 fish and invertebrates that thrive at Birch Aquarium at Scripps. By adopting one today, you can be part of the team that provides essential care to these special ocean inhabitants. Find out more about the aquarium’s Adopt-a-Fish program.
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