by Angela Szesciorka, Vertebrate Ecology Lab
Last Monday, I bussed it to Santa Barbara then hopped a train to San Diego. One night in a hotel and an overpriced taxi ride later, and I was laying eyes on the R/V Point Sur for the first time since November 29, 2012, on it’s way back from its 17,000 mile round-trip journey to Palmer Station in Antarctica.
The majestic R/V Point Sur.
A nudibranch in the hand is worth a dozen hidden under intertidal algae during an early low tide! (photo: T. Mattusch)
by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab
Sea slugs, or nudibranchs, are some of my favorite marine animals. While an undergraduate at UC Davis, I participated in the awesome summer program at Bodega Marine Laboratory and did a research project on these sponge-eating squishies. I spent many an early morning on hands and knees in the rocky intertidal zone, searching for nuidbranchs to use in my experiment (I was trying to test their movement in response to chemical cues from their sponge prey). Despite being bright yellow, these buggers can be hard to find, and I often had my boots filled with water from trying to nab them in hard-to-reach crevices.
But occasionally a nudibranch will turn up in an unexpected place, like on a fishing boat! This little guy got taken for a ride when snagged by an angler’s hook during marine protected area monitoring surveys conducted by the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program. Though I thought it was quite the catch, we were really after things like rockfishes, so we released it without a tag. The poor thing had probably experienced enough trauma for one day!
A dorid nudibranch in a more natural setting. Their sensory rhinophores (those ear-like structures) and the tuft of gills (yes, they breathe near their rear ends) makes me think of them as little sea rabbits! (photo: Steve Lonhart / SIMoN NOAA)
photo: CCFRP
The little whippersnapper was too tiny to tag, but definitely deserves some points for biting a big hook! This young lingcod was caught during a marine protected area survey at Año Nuevo as part of the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program. Lingcod do have a reputation on our surveys for biting off more than they can chew (or swallow).
photo: E. Loury
Erin Loury
by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab
Field surveys are often a collection blitz for scientists – we spend a brief, intense period of time out in nature gathering up samples to analyze back at the lab during the rest of the year (or for many years to come…). My 10 days on a trawl survey with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were a flurry of activity – each time the net came up, we recorded all kinds of information about our catch (what species we caught, how many of each kind, etc.), then bagged up requested specimens for researchers at MLML and NMFS to study.
We collected small pieces of deepsea corals (such as the sea whip I posted about earlier) for NMFS scientists to use for genetic analysis. We stored the samples in vials of ethanol to preserve them. Labeling and inventorying each vial was good practice in learning to stay organized on a messy, chaotic fishing boat!
photo: E. Loury
photo: E. Loury
This octopus out of water is a strange sight, but it sheds a little light on the common name of the Flapjack Octopus, also known as the Flapjack Devilfish. These squishy deep-dwelling creatures are the flattest species of octopuses. You might not recognize her, but a related species of Flapjack Octopus was famously portrayed by the character Pearl in Finding Nemo. One of her tentacles might look a little shorter, but you can’t really tell if she twirls ‘em…
Caught in a deepwater fish survey off of southern California. (photo: E. Loury)
photo: E. Loury
Anyone uncertain about the scope of the human footprint in the ocean just needs to do a deepsea trawl off the coast of southern California. During a government fish survey, we pulled up everything from weather instruments, army helmets and canteens, to bottles, cans and boots. The ocean is big, but it can only hide so much if we use it as a dumping ground. Who knows, though – maybe these would make good habitat for a shoe crab. They’re not a matched set, but in a pinch…
photo: E. Loury
Don’t let that unassuming lumpy appearance fool you – like a pesky little brother, this cushion star (Pteraster tesselatus) is loaded with snot and can fire at will. Any good scientist knows that mucous makes the world go round, and makes for a pretty effective defense. If you mess with this critter, expect things to get messy…
photo: E. Loury
This star was collected during a government fish trawl survey near southern California. Here’s a shot of the underside in case you need convincing that there is indeed a graceful sea star under all that slime.
photo: E. Loury
photo: E. Loury
Don’t get too excited, cowboys – cracking this sea whip would harm the fragile animal. That’s right, this is a photo of an animal – or many animals, actually. Sea whips are a type of deep-sea coral, and the “whip” structure is composed of a bunch of tiny polyps, each with its own mouth and tiny tentacles. These colonies live on the sea floor, and are sometimes collected during fish trawl surveys like this one was. Couple them with ocean tumbleweeds and you’d have yourself a sure-fire ocean Western.
photo: E. Loury
photo: E. Loury
There’s just something mouthwateringly adorable about this little butterfish, caught during a shallower NMFS trawl in Southern California. The Pacific pompano (Peprilus simillimus), is “a very-mild, good eating fish,” says the Pier Fishing in California website, “but only the largest fish have enough meat to make it worth the effort.” Still, the website goes on to call them “an attractive little fish.” I have to agree – plus, the name “pompano” is just so darn fun to say.
photo: E. Loury
These brown box crabs might easily get mistaken for rocks – but the “holes” they form in the joints of their claws makes them unmistakably distinct from other crab species. These specimens of Lopholithodes foraminatus were collected aboard a NMFS groundfish survey off southern California. They would make great adornments to an underwater rock garden if they could just hold that pose…
photo: E. Loury
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