Hey teachers! Get a 6 ft. frozen squid in the mail!

Kids get squiddy at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History (photo: A. Booth)

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

Unwrapping a jumbo-squid-sized mail delivery was but a dream for marine scientist hopefuls of yesteryear.  Now, thanks to our pals at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, your students can have that experience in your own classroom!

The Squid-4-kids program, run by graduate students out of the Monterey-based Hopkins Marine Station, can provide your students a one-of-a-kind learning experience to poke, prod, and dissect a giant of the deep.  The squid and lesson plans come free, you just pay for shipping.  All Humboldt squid are collected in conjunction with ongoing research or by sport fishermen who donate their excess catch.

For more information, check out  the Squids-4-Kids website, or click to down load the Squids4Kids Application.

And while you’re at it, check out the awesome squid research these Hopkins students are doing!  This great podcast and photo slideshow on searching for squid with the Hopkins crew was put together by Cassandra Brooks, an MLML alum working for the National Park Service.  And Hopkins student Danna Staaf is not just a squid researcher but also a squid blogger extraordinaire.  Give her a visit and get your dose of Squid-A-Day!

Steer clear of Grenadier – aka Rattail

Open wide! Dr. Jeff Drazen of the University of Hawaii at Manoa holds a giant grenadier on a Monterey Bay deepsea cruise (photo: M. Boyle)

by Erin Loury Ichthyology Lab

No, this isn’t an elaborate fish puppet you’re looking at – it’s a Giant Grenadier caught in the depths of Monterey Bay on a research cruise.   If it looks a little worse for wear (that pink color is from all its scales falling off), it’s because the fish was pulled up from a depth of around 1,000 feet.  Like most deepsea fishes, the different species of grenadier tend to grow slowly, reproduce late in life, and can live to be quite old (several decades) – all of which makes them susceptible to overfishing.

Yes, believe it or not, fishing is a real issue for these squishy critters.  Grenadier now makes an appearance on the West Coast version of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new 2010 Seafood Watch pocket guides.   And they’re in the red – that’s the “Avoid” section.  In addition to a slow-growing life history, the fishery for grenadier is virtually unregulated, and often the result of destructive deepsea trawling.  This is all good news you can use  – I recently saw grenadier on a menu for the first time.  Now I know to steer clear.

Curtailing demand for this fish probably wouldn’t be a problem if people only knew what it looked like – besides, how appetizing is something also called a “rattail”?

Thanks for the photo, Mariah!

Catch a new WAVE – our latest newsletter is here!

Read about research of the Pacific Shark Research Center in our latest Wave Newsletter! (photo: E. Loury)

Erin Loury

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

Hot off the presses!  The MLML Wave Newsletter is here!  Ever wonder what it’s like to study sharks and their relatives?  This issue takes an in-depth look at MLML’s Pacific Shark Research Center, including the description of new species.  You can also read a tribute to Ichthyology Professor Greg Cailliet’s retirement, as well as updates from all the labs.  Click to download your copy of the 2010 Wave Newsletter, or visit our Friends of MLML website. Enjoy!

Featured Photo: Drive-by Oceanography

Tanya Novak of the Physical Oceanography Lab collects data outside of Elkhorn Slough (photo: S. Buckley)

What do you do if you want to measure the properties of water in realtime?  Take out your portable Underway Data Aquisition System (UDAS), of course!  This week’s photo comes from Physical Ocenography student Tanya Novak.    Tanya drove the boat pictured above in a back-and-forth transect in Monterey Bay with her UDAS in tow,  trying to characterize the water that flows from the mouth of Elkhorn Slough.

That UDAS contains a whole suite of impressive-sounding instruments:  a thermosalinigraph, to take automated measurements of temperature and salinity, a transmissometer, which measures the fraction of light transmitted through the water (to determine water clarity), a fluorometer which measures fluorescence (the light emitted from chlorophyll in phytoplankton), and an ISUS, or In-Situ Ultraviolet Spectromter, which measures the amount of nitrate in the water.

What do you get when you put all those measurements together? Click here to see the plume Tanya traced (and the information she collected) on the MLML public data portal.  Thanks for the photo, Tanya!

Exploring Cocos Island, Costa Rica

The dome of the DeepSee Sub provides a panoramic underwater view

Kristen Green

by Kristen Green, Ichthyology Lab

September 2009: For the next three weeks, I am traveling to Cocos Island and the Las Gemelas Seamounts, which are located approximately 520 kilometers southwest of Costa Rica. Cocos Island is renowned for its marine biodiversity, and the island has been established as both a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and as a National Park in Costa Rica.

I will be working with scientists from the US National Geographic Society, University of Costa Rica, Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to explore deep water habitats via manned submersible around Cocos Island and the nearby Las Gemelas Seamounts.

Manned submersibles are like miniature submarines; they allow scientists travel to ocean depths that would otherwise be inaccessible. We will be using the DeepSee submersible, which has room for a pilot and two passengers, and can travel to a maximum depth of 1,500 feet. We will use the submersible to record video images of the seafloor habitat, fishes, and invertebrates, as well as to collect invertebrate specimens from the seafloor.

What lies beneath the waters of Cocos Island, Costa Rica?

In addition to the submersible dive operations, there will be several other research projects conducted during the research cruise. One team of scientists will be using SCUBA to identify and count fishes in shallower waters (less than 80 feet) around Cocos Island. Another team of scientists plan to catch sharks and implant them with sonic tags. These sonic tags transmit signals to receivers, which are like underwater listening devices. These receivers will be stationed all around the island. When a shark with a tag swims in the vicinity of a receiver, signals from the  transmitter will be detected by the receiver. The transmitter signals include information about the animal’s depth and location. These data will help scientists understand where and when the tagged sharks move around the island.

Reef fish in Costa Rica

MLML Goes Blue!

MLML celebrates Wear Blue for the Oceans Day! (photo M. DeLuna)

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

Moss Landing Marine Labs students, faculty and staff turned out in every hue of true blue on January 13th!  Wear Blue for the Oceans Day is part of an effort to create a national ocean policy for the ocean, coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems.  Find out more at http://wearblueforoceans.org/ with the characters from Sherman’s Lagoon, and share how you wear blue for the oceans! (Can you find our MLML photo?)

Launching into the New Year 2010

Testing the water

Life as a graduate student can seem overwhelming.

by Nate Jones, Vertebrate Ecology Lab

We must constantly extend our gaze out from the familiar, into a void of unknowns – where to start? – which courses? – what research is relevant, yet approachable? – how will we find funding? – is our study design robust? – are the data sound? – which condiments in the student fridge have gone bad over winter break?

Seemingly heavy questions.

But we must remember that all endeavors start with an, idea, a hunch, a dream (or, an ultimatum?).  The best we can do is take stock of our knowledge, double-check our equipment, and jump into things.  We wouldn’t have made it this far in school if we weren’t fully capable… and more than a little crazy!

Here’s to a productive 2010 !!

Best of the Drop-In 2009

Enjoy a sampler of our 2009 stories - and a medley of deepsea fishes! (photo: M. Boyle)

Erin Loury

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

With only a few hours left in 2009, it’s time for a whirlwind year in review!   Click through to take in some of the great Moss Landing Marine Lab adventures we posted this year at the Drop-In:

It was a year of new discoveries, with Kyle uncovering a deep sea snail with a pregnant foot, and Kelsey describing a new species of black ghost shark.   MLML students explored both polar ends of the earth:  Nate described rough Bering Sea surveys and dizzying seabird symphonies in Alaska, while Amanda observed life aboard a ship in Antarctica.  Kristen also dispatched updates of her own Antarctic adventure, with tales of rounding up penguin chicks and avoiding vomit from other seabirds during surveys.

In warmer climates, Mariah wrote about the case of missing sperm whale teeth in Fiji, while Shelby witnessed coral spawning in Panama. Shaara described the delicate process of ageing a skate, and Erin wrote about trawling for plankton soup, the shifty eyes of flatfish, and the danger of plastic shovels.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to bringing you even more stories in 2010!

Closing Camp and the Long Ride Home

Great big ships are the Antarctic ticket home (photo: K. Green)

by Kristen Green, Ichthyology Lab

March 2009:  Yesterday’s dawn revealed the greasy, orange Russian research vessel looming on the horizon. A few short hours later, the small green field station with white shutters where I’ve lived in for the past 5 months grew smaller as we sped across the bay in zodiacs towards our floating ride home.

The events of the past three weeks are a blur of inventorying, packing, and cleaning. Everything was counted down to the last pencil, and then placed in bags to inhibit moisture and mold over the winter. The satellite antennas, wind generators, everything that connected us to the outside world and generated our power supply was disassembled.

I felt ready to go, but wanted to climb to the top of Jardine, the 700 ft peak above Escurra Inlet. The weather had been unimpressive all week, but the morning of the extra day was miraculously clear and sunlit. We made the three hour trip from Copacabana, exploring some new routes over the glacier. Jardine is an eroding basalt monument, the remnants of a 25 million year old volcanic plug. From the top, all of Admiralty Bay was visible in stunning panorama. The scenery was crystalline, the light was just right. From this perspective, I could see a good portion of the area we worked in over the past 5 months. I tried hard to imprint this last, perfect view of the island.

photo (K. Green)

Now, sitting on the Russian ship, I feel drained. I just took the first consistently hot shower I’ve had in 5 months. Watching the rust-tinged water drain away, I felt like I was being wasteful. I’m too clean, the ship is too hot. I’ve spent months of my life on boats, but now I feel claustrophobic. The dull roar of the engine never ceases, the fluorescent lights flicker in tunnels of blue hallways.

Already I miss my life on King George Island. I wish I could sum up my experiences in the last five months with the perfect conclusion, like that last day on Jardine. Maybe the filter of time and distance will provide the necessary perspective, but for now, nothing I could write would be eloquent enough.

Kristen and her fellow team members signing off from Antarctica

Cool Creatures: Flashy firefly squid rival any holiday light display

Firefly Squid (photo: gocarter.com)

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab

Happy Holidays from The Drop-In!  Our gift to you is a Creature Feature of one our most popular celebrities.   “Firefly squid” and “bioluminescent squid” are some of the most frequent search terms that lead people to drop in on us.  And seeing how these decorated dazzlers are the winners of our “Vote for Your Favorite Holiday Marine Creature” poll, we figured their victory justifies some more attention.

Known to the science world as Watasenia scintillans and to the Japanese as “hotaru-ika,” these sparkling cephalopods grow to a mere three inches long. Their tiny bodies are packed with photophores, which they can flash in a variety of alternating patterns.  These squid are believed to be the only cephalopods that have color vision, possessing three visual pigments instead of one like other squid.

Toursits and fishermen alike soak up some squid light in Toyama Bay, Japan (photo: pinktentacle.com)

Firefly squid live throughout the Western Pacific Ocean at depths from 600 to 1,200 feet.  They gather to spawn from March to May, and can be found by the millions (or even billions!) in Toyama Bay, Japan.   The adults die soon after releasing their eggs and sperm, completing a brief, one-year life cycle.  That is, if they are not first scooped up by fishermen to be served as a Japanese delicacy.

Learn more about firefly squid at Sea and Sky and The Pink Tentacle!