Monterey Bay III: One more step up the evolutionary ladder

Starfish.
I'm not sure how the evolutionary tree goes, but I'll start where I think is the bottom---that has to be starfish. They have this amazing property that if you cut them up, you just get more starfish. I wonder, though, what is the smallest piece of starfish you can have, and grow a new starfish?


Monterey Bay is home to a great many starfish of different colors, it seems. The one above looks pretty happy...I guess.

This starfish was in the octopus tank. In the background, you can see a "Bat Star"---all the other pictures I have of those guys are hopelessly blurry. Check Bryanne's blog, though: she has some non-blurry specimens.

These last ones are brittle stars, which are also a bit blurry. So it goes, I guess.

Crabs.

The crabs were much different to the ones that I am familiar with. I don't know how it works,but I guess the crabs in the Pacific Ocean and the ones that live in the Atlantic Ocean split from each other a pretty long time ago on the evolutionary tree. This probably explains why they looks so different. You can kind of see the "Prince William Sound King Crab" in the background:


This guy looks pretty armored---it's called a California King Crab.



This next one is a "decorator crab". The live mostly in the kelp beds, and harvest bits of seaweed and other invertebrates to decorate their shells with. This helps them camouflage themselves more efficiently. This crab only has some algae growing on it's shell.


Shrimp.

This is a local guy, called a spot prawn. Apparently they're pretty tasty.


This cleaner shrimp is not an indigenous species, however---it was in one of the few tropical tanks in the aquarium. You can see a bit of a moray eel in the background---I have a much more impressive picture of him for later.


Sea Dragons.

This was one of my favorite displays, next to the Jellyfish and the "Outer Bay" tank of pelagic species. None of these sea horses are native to Monterey Bay, either---I think they are native to the South Pacific. Of course, their beauty made up for this fact.

This is a "leafy sea dragon":


It was rather uncooperative, and I think Bryanne may have some better pictures. The animals are incredibly intricate, and were beautiful to watch.


This last one is a bit out of focus, but I'll post it anyway:


Finally, we have the "weedy sea dragon". The colors are pretty remarkable.


Next up: Actual Fish!

Monterey Bay Aquarium II: Jellyfish.

First, an awesome picture (not taken by me):

And now, without further ado...

Monterey Bay Aquarium II: Jellyfish!

Another extremely interesting and unique exhibit that the Monterey Bay Aquarium was hosting included some of the jellyfish species that inhabit the bay. This exhibit was excellent for a few reasons. First, and foremost, I have NEVER seen, nor have I expected to see, anything like this.

Secondly, the tanks that the jellyfish were living in must have had some fine tuned currents flowing through them, in various directions. So, for example, in the picture above you can see the jellyfish (sea nettles) swimming top to bottom. Further, they must have tuned the currents to match the average jellyfish swimming (or whatever they do) speed---this caused the jellyfish to more or less pulse right in front of us.

Also, the colors that were chosen were very fitting. The deep blue backdrop of the jellyfish really served to illustrate some of their intricate features. Of course, I am familiar with the intricate features of jellyfish, having found them wrapped (on more than one occasion) around my legs.

Finally, the care that was taken with such fragile creatures was impressive. These "egg yolk jellies" were in tremendous condition, and it is incredible to think how these animals must be handled. Of course, they were raised from polyps (or wherever they come from), but it's still interesting to think about how they feed these things, and how they ensure that tentacles and such are not lost in day-to-day jellyfish life.

The next two are moon jellies, in different life stages. The first picture is a baby jellyfish, and I think Bryanne will have some better pictures of these.



I'll close with the sea nettles, which were the most impressive and (I think) Bryanne's favorite. Their fire orange bells stood out in stark contrast to the cold azure background, and there must have been a hundred specimens in what was the largest tank in the room.


This last picture is rotated by pi radians and is a pretty damned good picture, if I do say so myself.


Coming soon: Starfish, Crabs and the Last of the Invertebrates!

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!