Join me in the cold, dark, life-sustaining NE Pacific Ocean to discover the great beauty, mystery and fragility hidden there.

Posts by The Marine Detective

Shut the Door!

[Note: Text below has been corrected / edited on January 5th. Corrections are marked in red.]

Marine snails have doors. Freshwater snails do too.

Some tubeworm species have them as well.

Yes they do.

They all make an “operculum”. That means “little lid” in Latin but, I’m sticking with referencing the structure being like a door. 🙂

See the operculum in my photo of an Oregon Triton below? It’s the structure sealing off the entrance to the shell.

Oregon Triton (Fusitriton oregonensis). That’s a Sunflower Star on the left. With that species now being in such trouble, it’s a clue that this photo was taken before the onslaught of Sea Star Wasting Disease.

 

Oregon Tritons are a big marine snail species with a shell up to 15 cm long (and with a range well beyond Oregon ie. known from northern Alaska to northern Mexico, and Japan). You can imagine how, if the snail did not have the operculum, a predator could still get access to the snail in its shell.

Lewis’ Moonsnails are another really big snail. Their shell can be up to 14 cm wide and look at the size of their bodies relative to the shell!

Lewis’ Moonsnail on the prowl (Neverita lewisii).

 

Even though they can release some water from their bodies to become smaller, they clearly need a big opening (aperture) to their shell to get back in.


It’s a space you do not want to leave wide open. Hence, the need for making an operculum to seal that opening.

Operculum from a Lewis’ Moonsnail. Shape, strength and size is perfect to seal off the entrance.

 

For snail species that may be found in the intertidal zone, closing the shell with the operculum not only protects them from potential predation, it also may offer them some protection from drying out. Greg Jensen, author of Beneath Pacific Tides, thankfully offered the following knowledge correcting my previous statement about how useful the operculum might be for this purpose: “Marine snails don’t generally use their operculum to seal the shell at low tide. They snug themselves up tight to a rock with their foot.”

He also shared that land snails, who do NOT have an operculum, avoid drying out by coming out in the cool of night or when it is otherwise damp. Another adaptation is that, when it gets too dry, they glue their shells onto a hard surface, sealed shut with dried mucous to retain moisture.

Not only does the snail make this shell-like structure, it also grows with the individual.  The operculum is attached to snail’s body so when the snail retreats, the door does its job. Not surprisingly, the shape of the operculum is a match for the size and shape of the opening, therefore varying between species. The three photos below show some differences.

Blue Topsnail with operculum (Calliostoma ligatum, shell to 3 cm across). Even really tiny marine snail species like Common Periwinkles have an operculum.

 

Leafy Hornmouth closing up with the operculum visible at the end of the snail’s foot (Ceratostoma foliatum, shell to 10 cm long). There’s a Three-Line Nudibranch on the upper right. 

 

Purple-Ringed Topsnail with opecullum visible (near a Green Urchin). Calliostoma annulatum, shell to 4 cm wide)

 

But what about hermit crab species who use the snails’ shells once they die? Since the operculum was attached to the body of the deceased snails, are the hermit crabs left with a wide open door?  Oh just look at how amazing nature is in making sure they too are protected within the shell. The photo below shows you why so many marine hermit crab species have one claw bigger than the other. The bigger claw seals off the entrance in lieu of the operculum!

Widehand Hermit in the shell of an Oregon Triton. Widehand hermit is Elassochirus tenuimanu.

 

Not all marine hermit crab species have this adaptation. Other options include choosing a smaller shell so you can “shake it off” and run like hell when threatened. It’s called the Taylor Swift strategy. I’m kidding! But let me know if you get the pop star word play.

I also mentioned that some tubeworm species make an operculum. See below. In the centre of the image there is a Red-Trumpet Calcareous Tubeworm (Serpula columbiana to 6.5 cm long).

Red-Trumpet Calcareous Tubeworm in the centre (Serpula columbiana to 6.5 cm long) with two Checkered Hairysnails (Trichotropsis cancellata to 4 cm long).

 

As a tubeworm, the species captures plankton drifting by with its crown (radioles). As the common name indicates, the operculum in this species is trumpet shaped. For the individual in the photo, the operculum is purple with white stripes.

I had initially stated that there’s a really good reason for this species to have the door and you are looking right at it. Those snails are kleptoparasites. “Klepto” as you likely know, means to steal (from ancient Greek). The Checkered Hairysnails use their long mouthparts (the proboscis) to try to suck up the food the worm captures before it gets to the worm’s mouth. HOWEVER, what I also learned from Greg Jensen is that the theft by the Checkered Hariysnails is apparently so stealth, that the tubeworm does NOT respond to their mouthparts by closing its operculum.

Thereby, the operculum may help these tubeworms protect their crown (and other body parts) but does not protect them from kleptoparasites. 

But YOU know what to do.

Unwelcome guests? Shut the door!

All photos ©Jackie Hildering, taken near NE Vancouver Island. 

There are times however where you want the door wide open IF you are a marine snail. The additional photos below include that information.

Oregon Tritons mating. That’s a time when you want opercula out of the way. Unlike may humans, they must mate with the door wide open. 😉 

 

Two other Oregon Tritons mating, opercula to the side. Like the mood lighting? You’re welcome.

 

Another Leafy Hornmouth with operculum visible at the bottom of the snail’s foot. And yes, there’s a Scalyhead Sculpin here too.

 

Another Red-Trumpet Calcareous Tubeworm. This one is out of its tube. There’s great diversity in colour in the species. See the trumpet-like operculum on the right?

 

Oh oh. This Red Calcareous Tubeworm has 7 kleptoparasites near!

Sea Star Diversity

Diversity matters. Language matters. I suspect you agree. ☺️

In this case it’s about sea stars. I am sharing with you because you are an important audience to help increase understanding.

Just off our coast, there are 31 species of sea star in the Class “Asteroidea”. I hope my compilation below gives a sense of that diversity. The photos are all of different species photographed by yours truly off NE Vancouver Island.

Yet, even major news outlets have reported on sea stars as if they are all ONE species (includes CBS and Phys.org).

 

Thirteen species in the above compilation from left to right:
Top row: Vermillion Star (Mediaster aequalis), Morning Sun Star (Solaster dawsoni), Rose Star (Crossaster papposus). Second row: Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata), Ochre Star (Pisaster ochraceus), Orange Sun Star (Solaster sp. A = undescribed species). Middle: Sunflower Star (Pycnopodia helianthoides). Third row: Bat Star (Patiria miniata), Painted Star (Orthasterias koehleri), Drab Six-Armed Star (Leptasterias hexactis). Bottom row: Spiny Red Star (Hippasteria phrygiana), Velcro Star (Stylasterias forreri), Striped Sun Star (Solaster stimpsoni).

 

Why does this matter?

Not only do different species of sea star have different ecological niches, but communication about them as if they are one species has greatly confounded the understanding of what is happening with Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD). When a few individuals of one species are seen, this has been extrapolated to text like “But now, the species is rebounding.”

Which species? Where? Did the individuals survive?

This sort of “collective” perception is also often reflected in comments on my social media posts. When I post about any sea star species, comments like the following often result: “Good to see “THE sea stars” are coming back.”

Yes, some species appear to be doing better since the onslaught of SSWD beginning in 2013 e.g. Ochre Stars. Other species do not appear to have been impacted much at all e.g. Blood Stars. But the world’s biggest species – the Sunflower Stars who help maintain kelp forests – are now recognized as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (see further information below).

The odds are already stacked against the appropriate learning about the conditions causing SSWD because it is happening in the dark, below the surface.

Blurring this group of extraordinary starred animals into all being the same, risks an even greater loss of understanding, colour, diversity . . . and action. 💙

 

Further content about the IUCN designation from my post on social media:

 

It’s official and so important to know. The iconic, world’s largest sea star species, the Sunflower Star, has now been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list as Critically Endangered.

This is no surprise to those of us who have been monitoring their health but to many, Sea Star Wasting Disease is unknown, even though it is one of the biggest known wildlife die offs in recorded history.

It has happened largely out of sight, beneath the Ocean’s surface. Further, there are many of us who do not have enough understanding / appreciation of (1) the connection between land and sea and; (2) the different sea star species and their ecological importance. Seeing sea stars of other species does not mean that all species are okay. Sunflower Stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) definitely are not.

It is positive that they have been officially “listed”. With this recognition of how at risk they are, there is better potential for resources and action to find out what has caused the die off and what this might be indicating about changing environmental conditions. There is the hope that more people will care.

This is an international designation. The species also needs to be assessed in Canada to determine “status” and potential protection / action under the federal Species at Risk Act.

The December 10th Nature Conservancy media release includes:

“Populations . . . experienced dramatic crashes in response to a marine wildlife epidemic event – referred to as sea star wasting syndrome – that began in 2013. Using over 61,000 surveys from 31 datasets, The Nature Conservancy and expert ecologists at Oregon State University calculated a 90.6% decline in the global population of sunflower sea stars due to the outbreak and estimated that as many as 5.75 billion animals died from the disease . . . “The rapid decline of this giant sea star, and of the sea kelp forests that it helps preserve, highlights the importance of every single species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. Its entry into the IUCN Red List in the highest threatened category emphasizes the need for urgent action to understand and combat the wasting disease that is sweeping through the population. We hope that this listing leads to positive action and recovery for this species and its ecosystem,” said Caroline Pollock, Programme Officer for the IUCN Red List Unit. Sunflower sea stars are now nearly absent in the contiguous United States and Mexico. No stars have been observed in Mexico since 2016, none in California since 2018, and only a handful in the outer coasts of Oregon and Washington since 2018. They are still present in Puget Sound, British Columbia, and Alaska, but only at a fraction of their former population in most places.”

Above video by the Hakai Institute.

See the full December 10th media release at: “Iconic Sea Star Listed Critically Endangered After Study Finds Marine Epidemic Event Nearly Wiped Out Global Population”

I’ve maintained a record of the research related to Sea Star Wasting Disease at this link.

Another related blog showing the diversity in just one species is “Rose Star – No Two Alike”.

An excellent resource to ID local sea stars is Neil McDaniel’s website at this link. 

Beware of taxi-crabs and “Cling like hell to your rock”

Oh how did I get to be today-years-old without knowing of this Robert Service poem that is so timely and speaks for a limpet?

His poem “Security” includes:

So if of the limpet breed ye be,
Beware life’s brutal shock;
Don’t take the chance of the changing sea,
But – cling like hell to your rock.

Yes!

Full poem is below which includes life lessons about taxi-crabs 🦀

Keyhole Limpet which I photographed near Port Hardy. Diodora aspera builds a shell up to 7.6 cm across.

 

Security
Robert Service

There once was a limpet puffed with pride
Who said to the ribald sea:
“It isn’t I who cling to the rock,
It’s the rock that clings to me;
It’s the silly old rock who hugs me tight,
Because he loves me so;
And though I struggle with all my might,
He will not let me go.”

Then said the sea, who hates the rock
That defies him night and day:
“You want to be free – well, leave it to me,
I’ll help you get away.
I know such a beautiful silver beach,
Where blissfully you may bide;
Shove off to-night when the moon is bright,
And I’ll swig you thee on my tide.”

“I’d like to go,” said the limpet low,
“But what’s a silver beach?”
“It’s sand,” said the sea, “bright baby rock,
And you shall be lord of each.”
“Righto!” said the limpet; “Life allures,
And a rover I would be.”
So greatly bold she slacked her hold
And launched on the laughing sea.

But when she got to the gelid deep
Where the waters swish and swing,
She began to know with a sense of woe
That a limpet’s lot is to cling.
but she couldn’t cling to a jelly fish,
Or clutch at a wastrel weed,
So she raised a cry as the waves went by,
but the waves refused to heed.

Then when she came to the glaucous deep
Where the congers coil and leer,
The flesh in her shell began to creep,
And she shrank in utter fear.
It was good to reach that silver beach,
That gleamed in the morning light,
Where a shining band of the silver sand
Looked up with with a welcome bright.

Looked up with a smile that was full of guile,
Called up through the crystal blue:
“Each one of us is a baby rock,
And we want to cling to you.”
Then the heart of the limpet leaped with joy,
For she hated the waters wide;
So down she sank to the sandy bank
That clung to her under-side.

That clung so close she couldn’t breath,
So fierce she fought to be free;
But the silver sand couldn’t understand,
While above her laughed the sea.
Then to each wave that wimpled past
She cried in her woe and pain:
“Oh take me back, let me rivet fast
To my steadfast rock again.”

She cried till she roused a taxi-crab
Who gladly gave her a ride;
But I grieve to say in his crabby way
He insisted she sit inside. . . .
So if of the limpet breed ye be,
Beware life’s brutal shock;
Don’t take the chance of the changing sea,
But – cling like hell to your rock.

 

I ensured this is indeed Robert Service in all his glory by ensuring it was in the “The Complete Works of Robert Service” (1945) but could not find further detail on when he wrote it.

My additional posts featuring limpets:

 

Who You Calling “Unstable”?

Don’t you hate when people use a provocative “hook” to get you to read their material? Yes, that’s what I’ve done but I promise you, it is worth it.

While I think all of us are a little unstable right now, this blog is not about me. It’s about the astounding adaptations of a little limpet assigned the name of “Unstable Limpet” (Lottia instabilis). 

Unstable? This species just limpetted along on its own evolutionary path!

Most other limpet species are shaped so they can suck down securely on a FLAT surface for protection This works well because these most often graze on algae encrusted rocks. But the Unstable Limpet can secure to a ROUNDED surface.

Which rounded surface? Oh I will never forget the first time I noticed this species and realized the marvel of the adaptation. Unstable Limpets are shaped to be able to hunker down on the cylindrical stipes (stem-like structures) and holdfasts of the kelp species upon which they also feed!

Screen grab from “Invertebrates of the Salish Sea”. Caption: “The uneven edges of the shell of Lottia instabilis can easily be seen in this end and side view. The shell is shaped to fit snugly around a round stipe instead of a flat surface.”

I suspect that, like their flat-shelled brethren, Unstable Limpets have a specific spot to which they “home” and where their shell fits perfectly.

As is supported by others’ observations, I have found Unstable Limpets living / feeding on Old Growth Kelp (Pterygophora californica) and Split Kelp (Laminaria species).

Underside of an Unstable Limpet on the stipe of kelp.
An individual with a lot of coralline algae growing on its shell.

I hope that this little limpet leads to you reflect anew on the wonder of the natural world around us and . . . about how being “unstable” just might mean being better adapted to the conditions you are in. It may even be of benefit in having a unique place and perspective in the world. 🙂

Below are further details about the species and an explosion of my photos documenting them.

Unstable Limpets and a Brooding Anemone on the stipe of Old Growth Kelp.

Size: To 3.5 cm across

Known range: Northern Alaska (Kodiak) to Southern California (San Diego) from the intertidal to 73 metres depth.

Variation: Greg Jensen reports that: “Some members of this species settle on rocks, where they develop a more conventional limpet sharp and are difficult to distinguish from other limpets. This rock form was previously known as Lottia ochracea.” (Source: Jensen)

Behaviour: If touched by predatory sea star species, the Unstable Limpet “vigorously” runs away. Predatory sea star species referenced in the study are Six-Rayed Stars( Leptasterias hexactis), Sunflower Stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), and Ochre Stars (Pisaster ochraceus ). It was unclear to me from reading a summary of the research (and being unable to find the original paper) if this response behaviour is different if the Unstable Limpet is on its “feeding scar” (a bit of an indentation in the surface of the kelp). It may be that it responds then like the Seaweed Limpet (Discurria insessa) which “usually responds to contact by elevating its shell (“mushrooming”) and rocking from side-to-side, but rarely moving away from the scar.” (Source: Snail’s Odyssey).

Little limpet. Long stipe of kelp.
This individual may have had another limpet species feeding on the algae on its shell.
I believe you can see the scars here of where the limpet has been feeding on the kelp.

The following photos offer additional perspectives on two of the individuals shown in photos above.

I believe you can see where this individual has been feeding and yes, thats a lovely hat of algae that is growing on the shell.

Sources:

  • Jensen, Gregory C, Daniel W. Gotshall, and Miller R. E. Flores. Beneath Pacific Tides: Subtidal Invertebrates of the West Coast. , 2018. Print.
  • Lamb, Andrew, Sheila C. Byers, Bernard P. Hanby, Bernard P. Hanby, and Michael W. Hawkes. Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds and Selected Fishes. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publ, 2009. Print.
  • Homna, L. 1995. DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE, AND REPRODUCTION OF THE ALGAL SPECIFIC LIMPET, LOTTIA INSTABILIS, Master’s Thesis. Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Francisco State University. 77pp.
  • Snail’s Odyssey; Limpets & relatives – Predators & Defenses: Escape-crawling from Seastars
  • Walla Walla University. Invetebrates of the Salish Sea – Lottia instabillis

Crabs Making Bad Choices

How do crabs make bad choices?

Let me show you via my photos and a “conversation” with the crab in the next three photos.

Oh hello mature male Sharpnose Crab. I almost didn’t see you there!

Please may I take a photo of how you have fabulously decorated yourself to camouflage against predators, using bits of algae, sponges, tunicates and hydroids?

It’s fascinating how your species, and others who decorate themselves, have little hooks (setae) on your exoskeleton to which attach life from around you AND that you change outfits when your change backgrounds. Do you sometimes also use the camouflage as easy-to-reach snacks?

Oh, oh! Wait!

You don’t know you are walking onto the head of a Red Irish Lord, an ambush hunter who is extraordinarily camouflaged too.

Careful! You are on the menu for this fish species.

The Red Irish Lord will try to grab you, ideally from the back of your shell. That’s what happened to the crab in the next two photos.

Indeed, that’s the same species of fish. Red Irish Lords have incredible diversity in colour to blend in so that you, and I, have great difficulty detecting them.

When the fish does not have the advantage of a sneak attack, you can defend yourself by spreading out your claws really wide. Like what you see below.

Then, it’s difficult for the Red Irish Lord to fit you into his / her mouth.

Yes, I too imagine the crab in the above two photos saying, “You want a piece of me?!”

It’s said of your species that you “put little effort into decoration”. Such judgement!

In another species, the Moss Crab, a correlation has been found between size and how much decoration there is. Once big, especially with claws spread wide, mature male Moss Crabs cannot easily be gulped up whereby there is less need for camouflage. But mature male Moss Crabs are huge! Up to 12.3 cm just across their carapace. Your species, the Sharpnose Crab (Scyra acutifrons) is only up to 4.5 cm across the carapace. Mature males of your kind have a far greater reach with their claws than mature females.

By the way what’s with the posturing with mature males of your kind when they do what is shown in the photo below?

Yours is NOT the only crab species that can be gulped up. I think it might be a Graceful Kelp Crab who has been engulfed by the Red Irish Lord below.

Below is another crab in danger of making a fatal choice as it advances down the face of the Red Irish Lord. See how precarious this is? The fish will remain motionless, waiting, waiting till you are in the ideal position to ambushed from behind. Then your claws are of little use to you.

There you go dear human readers.

I do not know the fate of either of the crabs on the heads of the Red Irish Lords. I had to return to the world where we humans can also make really bad choices.

Why no, my referencing human bad choices on November 4th 2020 is purely coincidental. Insert innocent eye batting here. What choices could I POSSIBLY be referencing? ☺️

Be kind. Be colourful. Be careful. Be truthful. Be safe.  💙

Regarding the photo above, see the Red Irish Lord and the two crabs with outstretched claws?

Related TMD Blogs:

Sources: 

Drake, Catherine Anne, “Decorating Behavior and Decoration Preference in the Masking Crab, Loxorhynchus Crispatus” (2016). Capstone Projects and Master’s Theses. 74.

Jensen, Gregory. (2014). Crabs and Shrimps of the Pacific Coast: A guide to shallow-water decapods from southeastern Alaska to the Mexican border.

Wicksten, M. (1978). Attachment of Decorating Materials in Loxorhynchus crispatus (Brachyura: Majidae). Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 97(2), 217-220. doi:10.2307/3225595

Who Goes There? Scrape marks on rocks.

Update: 4 pm PDF October 26
Looks very likely that these tracks have been made by a limpet species. Further information under UPDATES below.

Here’s an unsolved mystery, that led to another unsolved mystery, and I suspect there will be more related mysteries to come. 🙂

It began with the photo shown below with an ID request by Marcie Callewart John and Stephen Lindsay. Stephen had taken the photo of the underside of this rock in Stewardson Inlet in Clayoquot Sound, SW Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

They wrote: “We were wondering about your thoughts on these markings. . . . Limpet or chiton feeding marks? Or egg attachment marks?”


I knew that the markings were from the radula of a grazing marine mollusc but not WHICH mollusc.

Marine and terrestrial snails and slugs (including nudibranchs), limpets and chitons all have incredibly strong “rasping tongues” covered with teeth-like structures called radula. In moon snails and some species of whelk, the radula are strong enough to drill holes into shells so that they can feed on whatever mollusc relative lives inside the shell.

In the grazing molluscs, it is the tongue studded with radula that enables them to scrape algae off rocks.

ICT scan of limpet radula from The Scientist Magazine.

I thought the radular scraping were more likely from a marine snail than a limpet or chiton BUT needed expertise bigger than my own to solve this “who done it”. Thankfully, I could reach out to Rick Harbo, author of Whelks to Whales.

Rick confirmed these were radular markings but did not recognize which marine snail made them. He had a mystery of his own. See below.

 

 

This led to input from Dr. Douglas Eernisse, professor of Biology at the University fo California, Santa Cruz.  He did not recognize the specific tracks in Stephen’s or Rick’s photos. He shared the image below showing OTHER radular tracks but with a big difference. His photo showed the marine snail species making the tracks. See the Black Turban snails having dinner? To give you an idea of scale, maximum size of Black Turbans is 4.5 cm.

 

So out into the world this blog goes in the hopes of engagement and interest and maybe even that someone has documented similar tracks as those in Stephen’s and Rick’s photos with the grazers caught in the act.

I hope it makes you smile too to reflect on how we humans still have so many mysteries to solve. Just peering under a rock or any algae covered surface could lead to another mystery, leaving you wondering “Who goes there?!”

Schematic to give a sense of how the radula are positioned in gastropods (represented by the black zigzag line). I am emphasizing here that both marine and terrestrial snail and slug-like animals have radula. Source of image: Wikipedia. 

UPDATES

Information shared by Jason Knight points solidly  toward a limpet species being who made these tracks.

  1. The screen grabs below are from Dale Fort’s blog with the same image also being found on the website of the Field Studies Council in the United Kingdom for the Common Limpet (Patella vulgata). We do not have this species in British Columbia but the similarity in the pattern certainly supports that a species of limpet made the tracks in Stephens’ image.

Limpet radula marks on the rock

2) The following screen grab is from Smithsonian Ocean, photo by Helen Scales. The species of limpet is not specified.

 

Extra:  A fascinating study from 2015 found that limpets (generally) are the “bulldozers of the seashore”. The study found that their “teeth” (radula) are made of the strongest biological material ever tested (and these teeth are less than a millimetre long)! The strength is the equivalent of one string of spaghetti holding up 1,500 kgs. From Professor Steven Hawkins, of the University of Southampton. “The reason limpet teeth are so hard is that when they’re feeding, they actually excavate rock. In fact, if you look at their faecal pellets they actually look like little concrete blocks – because by the time it’s gone through their gut it’s hardened.” (Barber et al).

Related TMD blog:

Sources:

More tracks made by gastropods

Terrestrial: 

Tracks made by a species of garden slug, Richmond British Columbia. Photo: George Holm.

 

Tracks made by a Banded Garden Snail, Cepaea nemoralis in Queensborough, New Westminster, British Columbia Photo: George Holm.

To Think Before We Click

Dear Readers,
You are likely already aligned with the ethics and considerations I address in this blog.  I am posting these words and photos to provoke even greater thinking about the ethics of wildlife photography. I do NOT wish to vilify. I wish for this to be a resource.

 

It is needed because we live in a time when almost all of us:
  • Have a camera at the ready; and
  • Are influenced, and/or are influencing a world fuelled by “likes” and number of followers. The impact of this is so potent, right to the level of our brain wiring and biochemistry.

There is disconnect from Nature for many people that amplifies the taking from, disconnect, and disrespect of the life we share the planet with. Further (deep sigh), often media outlets reward bad photographer behaviour by using close encounters as “click bait” to get more hits on their pages whereby more advertising dollars might be gained.

See background on this photo below. On the left is the 5 m pectoral fin of a Humpback Whale. 

In this relatively new human reality, it is so important to consider the “story” behind the photo. What was the cost to wildlife in terms of disturbance, habituation, perpetuating that others too want to get too close for a photo and, thereby, furthering the vortex?
This is what should be considered before the click . . be it clicking a camera button or a like or share on social media.
For consideration is what it being encouraged and perpetuated; the impact; the cumulative effects of others doing the same; the cost of wild animals being habituated to humans. It never ends well. It has led to the death of wildlife. It has led to the death of photographers. Of course it has.

And yes, I do very much try to hold myself to these standards and am absolutely not without impact and mistakes. I flash big lights at life below the surface. My fins sometimes touch the Ocean bottom, disturbing life. There is almost always fossil fuel use and/or Ocean noise invested in my being able to take photographs. Is there a net gain in terms of education / conservation . . . it’s the question we should all be asking.

To think before we click.

Stories behind the photos (I have chosen to blur out faces):

 

The two photos above are by Kipp White.  Backstory from Kipp: “The herd was resting in the woods behind the Visitors Center in Cherokee [North Carolina]. One of the cows got up and moved to the river. She started calling for the rest of them. Slowly the rest of the herd got up and started moving towards the water. I told everyone they should move back. They were between the herd and the water. No one listened. Then the bull started moving closer to the people and everyone was trying to get a good picture of him. Once again I warned the people saying “He has already charged at two people this morning, y’all might want to back up”. Then I said it one more time. Nobody listened. Next as you can see, he charged this lady. I talked to her afterwards and she said she was OK”

Conservation photographer and journalist Jared Lloyd Photography provided the following comment about these photos: “I’ve seen so many near misses. And have even had to intervene and charge a bull elk once to save someone’s life. This is why we learn behavior. This is why we need to understand what animals are trying to say to us. This is why we use long lenses . . .”

Mature male Steller Sea Lion photo by Jan de Bree. Location was Cowichan Bay. This violation of Marine Mammal Regulations has been reported to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Yes, the angle from which the photo was taken could influence how distance is perceived. But, by no stretch of any imagination, is this is 100 m.
The two photos above of boaters taking photos with cell phones near an acrobatic Humpback Whale were taken near Campbell River. The photographer wishes to remain anonymous. These are older images where the previous photos are all from October, 2020. Here too the camera angle could influence how close this looks but again, this is NOT 100 m and it IS boater responsibility to know the Marine Mammal Regulations. It is of great value to report violations to increase education, enforcement and legal action. In British Columbia, the DFO Incident Reporting Line is 1-800-465-4336. Video is of even greater value than photographs as evidence of intent, who was driving, etc.
Video below showing a mature male California Sea Lion habituated to being fed who grabbed a girl and pulled her into the water in May 2017 in Steveston, British Columbia. Those striving to sell fish at the dock encouraged feeding the sea lions in order to attract people for fish sales. You’ll note that the sea lion gives warning signs. Feeding marine wildlife is solidly against Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations.Video ©Michael Fujiwara.

Resources:
  • Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations and best practices re. marine mammal viewing – www.SeeABlowGoSlow.org
  • Associated blog re. considerations in choosing ethical marine wildlife viewing companies, please see “Not Up Close and Personal” at this link 
  • Video of a presentation done by yours truly regarding boaters and marine mammals, addresses Canadian laws. Done in my role with the Marine Education & Research Society. Please request access to “Boaters and Marine Mammals” at this link. We are using a system of having people fill in a form to request access so we have a better idea of how the resource might be of us.

Video below is from January 1st, 2021 in Grant Teton National Park, Wyoming.

For detail and a longer video of this incident, see the article: “Idiots Taking Photos of Fighting Moose Attempt to Win First Darwin Award of the Year”

It’s Their Ocean

It’s their Ocean.

Photo below was taken during a chance encounter with a mature male Steller Sea Lion as he glided by Bull Kelp.

I can’t share this photo without providing the following information because sea lions and seals are caught at the interface of human love / hate in British Columbia. It’s volatile.

Photo: October 4th near Telegraph Cove.

Please know we don’t target seal or sea lion haul outs. We do not want to force an interaction and contribute to habituation.

But, sometimes, they find us. And that is a great gift.

It is in fact against federal law to conduct “swim with” operations where divers and/or swimmers are put in the water with the purpose of having interactions at haul outs. This has been the case since July 2018 when the amended Marine Mammal Regulations went into effect. They explicitly state: “No person shall approach a marine mammal to, or to attempt to .  . . swim with it or interact with it.” 

Habituated wild animals lose their wariness which will not work well for them, or us. Wild animals do not allow you to touch them nor to put your hand in their mouths. Human injury has resulted as a result of seals and sea lions becoming habituated to humans / divers. Of course it has.

Habituation is especially a concern in this time where seals and sea lions are being vilified for interactions with fisheries. Horrific hate language and imagery are being perpetuated on social media. It’s one thing to have an opinion. It’s another to perpetuate hate. 

In my work as a marine educator, I’ve asked for clarity regarding the Marine Mammal Regulations and their enforcement. It’s part of my job with the Marine Education and Research Society to educate about laws involving marine mammals. There is also a personal layer of concern because dear friends are involved with swim-with operations whereby there are implications for their businesses and welfare.

My understanding is that the lag in enforcement regarding “do not swim with” has been due to having to prioritize resources (e.g. enforcement of infractions around endangered whales) and wanting to provide an opportunity for education before enforcement.

This is also the case regarding it being against the law to feed seals and sea lions. This used to be a common practice at some fish processing plants and tourism facilities. Education was provided first. Enforcement of the law will now follow.

I am sharing this information in an effort to educate on the law and what best serves wild animals.

Pacific Harbour Sea emerging from the kelp forest. It’s something I will never forget. We were ending our dive and entering in the shallows for our safety stop. I noticed something moving in the Bull Kelp. Then I realized it was seal playing there, corkscrewing her/himself around the stipe of kelp and then spinning out of it and . . . repeat. I put down my camera. I tried to drink it in, to learn, and to realize I had formed a bias to perceive seals as I saw them on the surface. I had unconsciously undervalued their intelligence and playfulness. I did lift my camera as the seal moved out of the forest. Yep, a gift.

*Canada’s amended Marine Mammal Regulations include:
No person shall approach a marine mammal to, or to attempt to:
(a) feed it;
(b) swim with it or interact with it;
(c) move it or entice or cause it to move from the immediate vicinity in which it is found;
(d) separate it from members of its group or go between it and a calf;
(e) trap it or its group between a vessel and the shore or between a vessel and one or more other vessels; or
(f) tag or mark it.

Regarding the vilification of seals and sea lions, please see our Marine Education and Research Society backgrounder “To Kill Seals and Sea Lions?” at this link.

A Smack of Jellies

The last little while there have been hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of Moon Jellies = a “smack” of them. That truly is the collective noun for jellyfish.

It should also be the collective noun for the number of jellyfish photos I am delivering in this blog.

May these photos from my last dives north of Port Hardy offer you a bit of escape. I tried to capture trees in photos of jellies and the reflection of the jellies against the surface of the water. I hope the images communicate interconnectedness of land, sea and sky. May  they also contribute to understanding and connection to our neighbours in the sea.

Moon Jellies are easy to discern from other jelly species by having the clover shape which is 4 gonads / sex organs (Aurelia labiata to 40 cm across). 

Most jellies in the class to which Moon Jellies belong (the Scyphozoan) release eggs and sperm into the water column. But in Moon Jellies, when the male releases sperm, the pulsing action of the female Moon Jelly brings the sperm in contact with the eggs under her arms and the are brooded there. The following three photos show females with eggs. The eggs are the less translucent white structures. 

And as if this was not all amazing enough there was also a ” blizzard* of babies . . . just LOOK at how many juvenile Widow Rockfish there are!

It was so extraordinary to see them nipping at the bells of the Moon Jellies, darting about everywhere. There was another phenomenal explosion of young like this in 2016 and, with site fidelity being so strong, those fish may well be the bigger ones we saw at these sites too.

The following facts about Widow Rockfish are from Dr. Milton Love’s brilliant “The Rockfish of the NE Pacific”: The mothers produce one brood of about 95,000 to 1,113,000 eggs/year which hatch as larva from their mothers (rockfish are viviparous). They stay in the plankton for about 5 months feeding on copepods and krill and can grow up to 0.61 mm/day. Then they settle out to be in nearshore areas like you see here and feed on salps and jellies, small fishes, crabs, amphipods and krill.

Why are they named “Widow” Rockfish ? “. From Dr. Love’s book too: Julius Phillips, a great observer of the rockfish fisheries of California during the mid-twentieth century, believed the term widow can about because the “black peritoneum an small effeminate mouth give the impression of lonesomeness to occasional specimens that appear amount the more common bocaccios, chilipepper and yellowtail rock cods” (Phillips, 1939).

Maximum  life expectancy for Widow Rockfish (Sebastes entomelas) is 69 years. Maximum length 60 cm. Females typically bigger than males.

The bounty of babies has been reported by myself and others to those monitoring rockfish health. To my knowledge, nobody knows why there have been these two explosions of young of this species (2016 and 2020).

And to conclude, I had hoped that I might also photograph a Lions Mane Jelly with land in the background. On the last dive of nine, the light and life lined up to allow me to take this photograph.

The Lion’s Many Jelly is one of two of the biggest jelly species commonly found off our coast = Cyanea ferruginea (the other is the Egg Yolk Jelly). Maximum size of Lion’s Mane Jellies is to 2.5 m across with 8 clusters of 70 to 150 tentacles which can be . . . 36 m long! This is the largest jelly species in the world. Know that the larger ones tend to be further offshore and that they can retract their tentacles. These two species are also the only two common jelly species in our waters that can create a sting that irritates human skin, even when the jellies are dead or you get a severed tentacle drifting by your face.

A Lion’s Mane Jelly is the murderer in a Sherlock Holmes short story entitled “Adventure of the Lion’s Mane” (I kid you not), BUT the “victim” had a preexisting heart condition. The solution to the irritation is vinegar (acid), meat tenderizer (enzyme) and I know that many fishers swear by Pacific canned milk. Research at this link puts forward that vinegar is the only real solution. Clearly I’ve never been stung badly enough to deter trying to photograph them.

Photo below is of planktonic me after a full dive trying to capture jellies and trees in the same image. Photo by dive buddy Janice Crook.

Holdfast

Have you wondered about what holds down an underwater forest?

It’s the holdfast.

I spent the majority of a recent dive in a sun-soaked Bull Kelp forest. My hope was that the photos I took would communicate the role of the holdfast AND the stunning beauty of being in such forests.

Kelp does not have roots. Rather the algae / kelps get their nutrients through the fronds (leave-like structures) and it is the holdfast that anchors kelp onto rocks.

It’s  a tangle of woody structures that you may have seen washed up on the beach.

Holdfast found on the beach.

You can imagine how strong the hold has to be to withstand the buoyancy of the waves, current and the kelp’s floatation (the air-filled pneumatocysts).

If rocks are too light to counter the floatation of the pneumatocyst or the force waves and current, the kelp will change the ocean bottom by carrying away smaller rocks. These holdfasts may end up washed up on the shore where you might see them.

Friend in the forest – Janice Crook. Second buddy on this dive was John Congdon

Green Urchins climbing up the stipe of Bull Kelp where they will feed. Not a problem when there are enough of predators like Sunflower Stars and Sea Otters. It’s a big problem is there are not enough predators as then too much kelp is grazed away leading to “urchin barrens”.

There you go – a daily dose of depth for you. 

It may be too that “holdfast” is a concept of great value in these stormy times.

Holdfast dear readers. Holdfast.

The canopy of the Bull Kelp forest.

Added January 2024, research into the age of holdfasts.

My additional blog items on kelp include: