Dive Into Your Imagination

Have you ever dreamt of living underwater?  Sarah Fangman is one of the few people to ever live out this dream when she spent ten days doing research in an underwater laboratory!  She is now the Program Coordinator for the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico Region of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries where she continues to live out her dream of protecting the oceans.

What is the Aquarious Habitat, and what was it like to be a part of a saturation mission?
Aquarius is the world’s only underwater research laboratory (often called the “habitat”) and it is located off of Key Largo, Florida.  The habitat is in 60 feet of water, and scientists can live in it for up to ten days at a time.  “Aquanauts” as they are called, can spend hours outside of the habitat (on SCUBA) conducting research on the reefs surrounding Aquarius.  If the aquanauts were using traditional scuba methods it would require considerable more time to accomplish the same work.  I participated in two saturation missions, where we were conducting fish tagging and tracking (similar to the work I’m now doing in Georgia).  Living underwater was an amazing experience, as you are able to “be with the fishes” morning, noon and night.  Living on the reef allows you to observe the rhythm of the reef in a way not possible when you are just visiting for a few minutes at a time.  It was magical to have the opportunity to fall asleep below the waves and wake up there too.  One of my favorite memories was observing a lightning storm from underwater one evening.  The habitat has several large view ports, and we watched as each flash of lightning would light up the reef outside showing fish cruising about the reef, that the moment before we were unable to see in the dark.  Very cool.

Imagine a job that requires spending all day in the sun swimming with the world’s largest fish!  Well, as cofounder of the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program, Adam Harman gets to do just that! He spends five months a year in the Maldives, an archipelago of islands off of the Western coast of India, studying and protecting these beautiful sharks!

What is the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program, and what does it aim to accomplish?
The Maldives Whale Shark Research Program exists to conduct whale shark research and to foster community focused conservation initiatives throughout the Maldives. The research organization has quickly grown into a conservation charity dealing with the issues facing the ecosystem and the Maldivian communities. The charity is also developing the largest Marine Protected Area in the Maldives, alongside the Maldivian government, and contributes findings to scientific literature and to education, conservation, and management authorities to promote science-based conservation of ocean life, helping to ensure the protection and conservation of a species ‘vulnerable to extinction’ – the whale shark.


 

Miriam Goldstein is a PhD student at Scripps and was the principle investigator on the SEAPLEX cruise!  Through many manta tows, Miriam received over a hundred samples of plastic to analyze.  She is particularly interested how plastic affects the biology in the ocean, so she studies zooplankton and fouling communities.  Find out what these are and how they are impacted by the plastic floating in the North Pacific Gyre! See a Flickr album about Miriam's studies here.

What do you feel is the most important thing for people to know about plastic waste?
Plastic does not rot or rust. This is great when using plastic items for their intended purpose - for example; I love my SCUBA gear, which is mostly made of plastic or nylon. But when plastic makes it into the environment, it can be unsightly and harmful for many, many years.

What are plankton and fouling communities, and why do you specifically study them?
I'm interested in the impact of plastic on marine invertebrates, so that's why I study zooplankton, which are tiny floating animals, and fouling communities, the animals that live directly on the plastic, like barnacles. I think one of the most interesting implications of having all that plastic in the middle of the ocean is the addition of hard surfaces that wouldn't otherwise be there. This could be changing the way that zooplankton and fish move through the ocean, or transporting potentially invasive species to new habitats.

Paul Valentich Scott is living the scientist’s dream!  In his job not only does he travel the world, but he discovers new species of animals while doing it!  As the curator of malacology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Paul researches bivalve mollusks.  He also manages the Museum’s shell collection and teaches both adults and children about these special creatures.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your career so far?
I love every day at work. Field work is perhaps the most exciting. I have sampled in the tropics in Asia, and also through the ice on the Arctic Ocean. But I also love looking through the microscope and discovering new species of animals. It is pretty amazing to look at a new species that no one has ever seen before.

Pete Davison is our most recent SEAPLEX Scientist to update us on the research he did in the North Pacific Gyre!  Pete is currently getting his PhD in biological oceanography, and spent the cruise studying weather a special group of fishes called myctophids ingests the plastic in the gyre. 

What is a myctophid, and why do you study them?
A myctophid is a member of the lanternfish family—the most common vertebrate on earth (by weight) and they are very important ecologically because they are important prey for larger animals such as squids, birds, bigger fish, and whales.   Also, most of them vertically migrate, which is important for my thesis topic.  There are 2-10 grams of mesopelagic (or “midwater”) fish for every square meter of ocean surface, and it adds up to more than a billion tons of fish worldwide!  I am studying the ecological impact of vertical migration on the global carbon cycle.  To do this, I need to measure the population density of these fish and what percentage of them vertically migrate.

Linda Cole has been known to dance at the sight of tunicates—one the most fascinating animals in the entire ocean!  She is a specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. and is currently working on what will be the largest listing of tunicates ever from the Tobago area!

What is a tunicate and what makes it special?
Tunicates are marine invertebrate animals.  Invertebrate animals do not have a backbone. But one of the things that make these animals special is the fact that they are considered vertebrates in their larval or developmental stage.  This is because they have a notochord (similar to our backbone) that they use for swimming to find a good habitat where they will develop into adults. The notochord shrinks down to a tiny bump when they become adults.  The fact that they have a backbone in their development makes them the highest of the invertebrates.  They are a part of the same phylum as you and me, the Phylum Chordata – animals with backbones. The name “tunicate” comes from their outer covering called the tunic, which comes in various beautiful colors.  Some individuals share the tunic, and are called colonial tunicates.  Others have their own tunic and are solitary tunicates.

Everyone has seen pictures of volcanoes erupting on land, but David Clague is one of the only people to ever see a volcano erupt underneath the ocean!  David is an underwater geologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who specializes in submarine volcanoes.

Can you tell us about your favorite research experience?
I was on a cruise this past May to the Lau Basin where we witnessed an undersea eruption. I have spent much of my career trying to decipher how undersea eruptions vary and differ from those on land, so to actually witness one eruption at 1200 m depth was a dream come true. It was particularly gratifying because much of what we observed was almost exactly the type of activity I had inferred occurred at depth from the fragments of lava I have been studying for the last ten years.

Wayne Trivelpiece has been working with his favorite animal, the penguin, for the past 30 years! As the director of the seabird predator research program, he designs and implements many different studies involving both penguins and krill (one of their favorite foods) all the way in Antarctica! Wayne believes that “a healthy ocean is crucial to the survival of the planet”, so we all have to work together to protect it!

What research are you currently working on, and what do you hope to find?
One of the key findings arising from our studies of penguins is that it is the non-breeding, winter period when most of the losses of both adult and juvenile penguins occur. We are currently exploring the winter period using new techniques that allow us to determine what penguins are eating in the winter, where they are going and how these factors vary from year-to-year.

Jenny Kearns has a lot of responsibilities as the Director of the Ty Warner Sea Center, an aquarium in Santa Barbara, CA. Her love of the ocean grew from her passion for the Hawaiian monk seal and flourished as she gained experience working with many different aspects of the ocean.

Keeping an aquarium running seems like hard work! What is involved in running an aquarium?
My job changes from day to day depending on the circumstances and I love that. We have a wonderful staff that works very close together to instill a passion for the marine environment in our visitors. Since we work with live animals, we are constantly monitoring their health and ensuring that they are ambassadors for their kind. We are continually developing new exhibits to showcase the marine life found within our ocean habitat of Santa Barbara Channel. We also work to bring awareness to our community about issues related to the ocean.


 

Fray Crease says that “nature, water systems in particular, are places of renewal for the human condition.” This means that these water bodies are important for us to protect, and we all have a responsibility to save them. As the education and public outreach coordinator for Santa Barbara Project Clean Water, she works to educate the community about our impacts on water bodies and what we can do to help.

What is a watershed and why is it important? What effect does unclean watersheds and oceans have on people?
A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that drains off of it or under it (groundwater) flows into a common water body (lake, reservoir, bay, wetland, ocean, etc.). We all live in a watershed even if you don’t live near the ocean. Watersheds are necessary to provide habitat for plants and animals, recreation and enjoyment, and for industry and irrigation.The effects of water pollution are serious problems because it causes changes in the biological, physical and chemical characteristics of our watersheds and ocean. Water pollution can harm aquatic life and may cause disease in humans that come into contact with the water.