Year old Steelhead (smolts) were seen during Moss Landing’s Scientific Diving class, in August, at Big Creek Reserve. These fish are anadromous, meaning they are born in freshwater and then spend most of their lives at sea before returning to the freshwater to breed. They get to experience both fresh and saltwater worlds!
This eel has been eating.
Checking in with Mr./Mrs. Eel, it appears the eel has been eating some delicious crab. This broken up crab carapace sits in front of the eel den, with some bat stars getting whatever is left over from the meal. The crab carapace is made of chitin, similar to keratin which makes up our nails and hair!
These year old fish are mostly black rockfish, but a senorita fish is trying to sneak in with them too.
It appears to be a good year for rockfish as the young of the year (called YOYs) are swimming around. These fishes have survived the hardest part of their lives having been floating around as icthyo(fishy)-plankton and then recruiting to the kelp forest, however have much more to go. Some species are seen in the kelp canopy, you can barley make them out in the second photo.
These are called KBGs (Kelp, Gopher, Black&Yellow rockfish complex)
A resident of stillwater cove, a wolf eel.
Without a doubt this eel is always present. I think I can rely on this more than most things in my life. They will choose a den and will only move if displaced by a larger eel or octopus. Wolf eels, Anarrhichthys ocellatus, eat hard-shelled invertebrates and fishes. Be careful, my shelled friends, these jaws can get cracking!
The John Martin took us out to Stillwater Cove.
Stillwater Cove is one of the best studied kelp beds in the world. Moss Landing Marine Lab’s very own Mike Fox is studying giant kelp growth in Stillwater. The R/V John Martin took a group out to tag giant kelp in order to more easily locate them when they go reproductive. Large blades called sporophylls cover the holdfast and make it difficult to see the tags, so we attached white lines to a nearby winged kelp algae.
Tag and line connecting this winged algae to giant kelp.
Mike Fox tagging kelp to be able to locate them after they get more reproductive.
Fish seen swimming around the hydrothermal vent site.
To continue the baja-palooza currently being celebrated on the blog, here are some Cortez Angelfish who were swimming together in southern Bahia Concepcion, Baja. This site was particularly interesting because of a hydrothermal vent bubbling up carbon dioxide through the sediment. It did not seem to affect the fish community as there were many others such as a scorpion fish and Pacific Porgys. It was a little strange to feel like you are diving inside a giant soda bottle.
CO2 Bubbles rise through the sediment and into the water from below.
If you have seen our blog before you may have stumbled across the mention of pink tumble weeds of the sea. Rhodoliths are calcareous (like coral, or teeth) algae and form large beds of many pink, branchy, tumbleweed like individuals. Our very own Paul Tompkins defended his thesis on rhodoliths in Catalina May 19th. Check this out (thesis, seahorses, open house, Kristin or just type rhodolith in the search bar) for our previous blogs on rhodoliths.
In looking for algae in rhodolith beds in Baja, during the MLML’s Spring Ecology of the Gulf of California class, I found that the other algae in rhodolith beds actually grew on rhodoliths, who are algae themselves. This means that algae is growing on algae! Many different species were seen growing on rhodoliths such as the brown balloon like Colpomenia (pictured above) and the brown net like Hydroclathrus (pictured below). As you can see it was an algae party at some sites in Baja.
i flipped these algae over and found they were attached to rhodoliths, who are algae themselves.
A Pacific Seahorse, Hippocampus ingens, in an El Requeson rhodolith bed.
Some of the divers in MLML Baja Spring 2011′s class were fortunate enough to see a rare fish in Baja. Out of the corner of my eye this fish was spotted – a Pacific Seahorse. The females give birth and the males are the ones who take care of the babies in their brood pouch. Good thing the males in some species do some of the parenting and give the ladies a break!
The best way to travel around baja.
A good diving platform with a lot of room makes life much easier, especially when many people, all doing different things, are on board. Moss Landing’s Baja Spring 2011 class had connections with people living in Bahia Concepcion and were able to use a panga, pronounced ponga, to get around among the islands. This boat had about 2-3 feet of draft, how deep the boat sinks into the water, and at high tide the boat could go all the way up to shore. This is much easier on the back when moving heavy SCUBA cylinders!
Being close to islands expanded the options for student projects.
The environment in Bahia Concepcion, Baja California Sur, Mexico is much different than that of Monterey Bay. The swell cannot get to the islands because they are inside a large protected bay. The islands have to deal with winds and winter storms though. The bay has many islands that provide habitat for birds like gulls and osprey. The islands also provide habitat in the water for algae like the large brown Colpomenia algae seen below. They look like spiky brown footballs, but don’t worry they are as soft as pillows!
Brown algae covering the bottom around the islands.
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