Monterey Bay Aquarium I: Anemones.

This will be a long post, in six parts. The rough outline is as follows: anemones, jellyfish, starfish/crabs/seahorses, real fish, birds etc., otter madness---the astute reader will recognize that I'm moving up the evolutionary tree.

Anemones and Other Invertebrates.

Ok, I have to warn you: some of these anemone pictures would make Georgia O'Keefe proud...

The thing that's great about the Monterey Bay Aquarium is that the flora and fauna are all local. This is appealing to me because I can go to the Aquarium Adventure in Columbus, Ohio and see Clownfish. I mean, the reef exhibits are nice, but I'd much rather see the types of things that one normally doesn't see in Aquariums.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is dedicated to the sea life that actually lives in Monterey Bay---from the tidal zones on the rocky coast, to the blue waters off the Continental Shelf. There are no whales, but that's ok---they do have a wonderful tank full of the pelagic species, including bluefin tuna, Pacific Barracuda (much different from their Atlantic/Carribean cousins), and even Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola). There will be more on these guys later.

I think these are called "Strawberry Anemones".


All of the embedded pictures today are of the various anemones that live in Monterey Bay, I think. I tried to find some of these guys in the tidal pools, but I think it's a difficult task if you don't know what you're looking for---at low tide (when you're looking for them) they bunch up like a fist, and only open again when they're covered with water.

In the background, you can see a crab---I can't remember what species this is, but I think it's called a Puget Sound King Crab, but I could be mistaken.

I think these are my favorite. There were some fish in this tank, more on that later!

I think the variety in these anemones amazes me the most---some have long, hydra-esqu tentacles, while some look almost fuzzy:

Finally, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the other invertebrates (that aren't crabs) which we encountered. These are Gooseneck Barnacles. I've seen them before on things that wash up in Galveston on things that have been adrift for a while. I think that the resolution is good enough so that you can see the actual barnacle, as opposed to only its shell.

This is a scallop of some sort.

The row of black dots around the rim of the animal are its eyes---they're very primitive, and can only sense light and dark.

Finally, these are pictures for my mom. This is what Sand Dollars look like, alive---they're pink and fuzzy.

So, stay tuned for equally beautiful pictures of fish and other wonderful things!