I share these more personal posts wanting the words to land where they may be of use to others. The following words emerged yesterday, on Mother’s Day. I shared them on social media and there was a strong response, so I am posting them here too. Here goes . . .
To the children, I did not have You are here, with me
I carry you In spirit and passion Fire and purpose
Every child, the potential of you Every child, motivated by you Every child, the future of you
Grief duller now The path not taken Further behind
I could not be here Were it not for you I am here . . . because of you
There’s no comfort or reassurance needed dear Community. I am living the life I want to live. I also acknowledge that what I put into the world fits under the verb, “to mother”.
I am sharing these words so they may contribute to understanding and comfort for others. 💙
Yes, yes I do feel somehow better now that I have compiled the following for you. Thanks for asking.
Monterey Sea Lemons and Pacific Sea Lemons are commonly confused with one another (and other yellow dorid-like nudibranchs).
On a recent dive, I was able to get photos of the two species oriented the same way AND when their gills were not retracted! I hoped that by putting these photos side-by-side, it would be useful to others to identify the species.
The easiest differences to discern who is who, are the colour of the gills (yellow or white) and whether the black markings are at the tips of some of the tubercles or not.
I’ve added photos to show (1) their very different egg masses and (2) the variation of colour within the species.
You’re welcome.
The Pacific Sea Lemon is also known as the Noble Sea Lemon.
The name of the Monterey Sea Lemon (aka Monterey Dorid) does not help with clearing up confusion as it is very commonly seen far to the north of Monterey.
[Update! As a result of writing this blog, I learned that the species has been reclassified AGAIN. As of ~February 12, 2024, this is no longer Berthella chacei. It is now Boreoberthella chacei. I’ve updated the text below and will just reference the species as the “White Berthella”.]
There’s a whole lot of mating going on right now with the sea slug species, Boreoberthella chacei also known as “Chace’s Sidegill” and the “White Berthella”.
Two mating White Berthellas and an egg mass.
Not a nudibranch
The Berthella are examples of sea slugs that are NOT nudibranchs. I’ve emphasized previously that “nudibranch” is not synonymous with “sea slug”.
Dive buddy Jacqui Engel and White Berthellas laying egg masses / ribbons.
The nudibranchs are just one of the seven subgroups of sea slugs (the Heterobranchia). Thereby, all nudibranchs are sea slugs. But not all sea slugs are nudibranchs. I realize those two sentences may make your brain feel sluggish. Sorry / not sorry. 😉
Characteristics shared among nudibranchs are that they are sea slugs that all DO have naked gills on their backs (hence “nudi” and “branch”) and adults DON’T have an internal shell.
Berthellas belong in a different group of sea slugs than nudibranchs. They are sidegill sea slugs (the Pleurobranchida order). They DON’T have naked gills and DO have an internal shell. The shell ofWhite Berthellas is thin and white and is at least half the length of their bodies. Their gills, as the name “sidegill” suggests, extend from their side. Specifically, the gill is on the right side, between the mantle and the foot.
Perspectives on the White Berthella that show how the rhinophores extend out from under the mantle. Rhinophores are the structures extending from a sea slug’s head that allow them to smell their way around. Berthella can retract these when there is an annoyance around. Yep, an annoyance like me. You can also see the beautiful “oral veil”.
Mating time
It’s typically in February and March that I see mating and egg masses for White Berthellas near northeast Vancouver Island.
Mating White Berthellas with egg masses.
I find it a marvel that they find one another. Throughout the rest of the year I see them quite spread out from one another. There can be some within a few metres of one another but with other sea slugs species, they are often within centimetres of one another.
With other sea slug species, Nature has ensured they are often very close by the species having VERY specific prey e.g. Pomegranate Aeolids ONLY feed on Raspberry Hydroids. Thereby, there are often others of your kind, nearby on this prey.
White Berthellas are reported to feed on sponges (specifically plakinid sponges like Slime Sponge, Oscarella carmela). They don’t seem to aggregate near these sponges, maybe because they are more diffuse? They must find one another by smell detected by their rhinophores and then crawl to be within proximity (this species does not swim).
When they find one another, they appear to jostle for position in aggregations. Pairing up right-side-to-right side means that they can attach by their “gonopores” and mating can occur. Both partners become inseminated and both will lay eggs. Like other sea slugs, they are simultaneous hermaphrodites. It makes a lot of sense when you are a sea slug to maximize how many eggs are laid, especially if your young hatch out to be part of the planktonic soup of the ocean. I believe that more than one egg mass is laid per parent.
Each dot you see in the photo is an egg capsule that is only ~1.6 mm long and it contains 1 or 2 fertilized eggs. Imagine how many fertilized eggs are in the egg masses in the photos below!
The veliger larvae hatch out at the age of around 18 days in 11 to 14 degrees Celcius (it would take longer around northeastern Vancouver Island where temperatures are colder). These larvae have eyespots and shells and are around 153 micrometer long; that’s 0.153 mm! (Goddard, 1984).
Reclassification
The White Berthellahas only been recognized as being a distinct species since 2020 (Ghanimi et al, 2020). It was thought that it was one of two “morphotypes” of the California Sidegill. As mentioned in the update at the top of this blog, very recently the species has been reclassified AGAIN. it is now Boreoberthella chacei.
The White Berthella (Boreoberthella chacei) is up to 7 cm long. The body is white and has little white bumps (tubercles) randomly distributed all over its body and rhinophores. Known range is Alaska south to San Diego, California and the Sea of Japan (Behrens et al., 2022)
The California Sidegill (now also reclassified as Boreoberthella californica) is bigger on average at up to 12.7 cm. Body is white to tan and is smooth. The little white dots are uniformly spread and are not on the rhinophores. Known range is Ventura County, California to the Pacific Coast of Panama and the Galapagos Islands (Behrens et al., 2022)
The egg masses of each sea slug species are distinct. As you can see below in the compilation from the research paper, this is the case for these two species of Berthella.
Side note: How it made me smile to see that my photo of White Berthella egg masses was referenced in the research paper discerning the two species!
Leather Star and Leafy Hornmouths (marine snails) near mating and egg-laying White Berthellas.
The following is again a more personal post. The words I share below have resonated strongly with many on social media. Therefore, I am sharing them here too. May they land with others who gain from reading them. Here’s to love, in all its diversity and depth.
Daring to share on Valentine’s Day because The Marine Detective is as much about equality and finding one’s way as it is about marine life.
Partner-less? Chlid-less?
We are not “less”.
I am writing this for myself as much as I am for others in the same boat. (See what I did there? So clever! )
If today you can look into the eyes of a partner and from the depths of your soul say “I love you”, that is so very, very much to be celebrated.
THIS is for the widow(er)s, the estranged, the separated, the childless, the partnerless, and / or the loverless (fun word to say). We are not less.
A paradigm is pushed at us that to be coupled is to be better. That being single is something to be solved or cured.
No. Many of us are living realities where this “single” life is so much more than the mediocrity, hollowness, or even damage inflicted from past partners, and that we perceive in the relationships of others.
Here’s to what got us where we are today – the tough decisions made, the growth, the scarring, the healing, the searching, the stopping, the loving, the uncompromising, the escaping, the vulnerability, and the freedom.
Here’s to the love in our full lives, the love in our hearts, the love we put into the world, and the love in our futures – whatever we chose that to be.
To be single, is not to be alone. To be single, is not to be without love.
Hello dear Community, Here’s another more personal, daring-to-share blog.
I posted the following on social media this past week and it resounded strongly with people. So I am also sharing it with you. I am doing so on the day I will attend the watch party in England for the episode of Planet Earth III in which we were involved as Marine Education and Research Society Humpback Whale researchers.
Here goes:
On Thursday, I woke up in the Netherlands (where I am visiting family) with the vivid memory I am about to describe.
This was when I was in grade 11 or 12 circa 1981 and is about the “Top Science Student” award in our high school.
I was very fortunate to receive recognition for how hard I worked including being “Top Female Student” in my graduating class. Yes, making a distinction between Top Male and Top Female was something that no one blinked at back then.
There were dear friends who were brilliant science students and who went on to careers in STEM too. But it happened to be that I had the highest combined science grade that year. The prize was a Texas Instruments calculator. That was a really big deal back then. 🙂
I was not recognized for the Top Science Student award.
What were we being judged on if not our grades? At least one of the teachers believed “I can’t see her in a lab coat”.
So the perception of what a scientist should look like, and behave like, BACK THEN was putting limitations on what a scientist could look like, and be like, IN THE FUTURE.
Well . . . here I am.
Here I am despite so many downward forces about what I was supposed to look like, and how I was supposed to behave.
Granted I am far more of an educator than I am a scientist. But, there too I am applying stereotypes and standards that I actually don’t believe in.
I joked around a lot then, as I do now. I gained self worth through my achievements and the humour helped distract from how hard I was working. There was also some big stuff going on and I knew I had to get the grades to get the hell out of dodge and into the life I wanted. But simply, it’s also how this brain works. It needs humour to remain engaged.
And granted, I am not in a lab coat. I often wear a tutu or a lot of rain gear. But, here I am.
Here WE are. Those who did not fit stereotypes and societal standards and yet still found their way . . . so that many more can follow. ___________________
This blog contains a wee bit of self-mockery as well as a LOT of joy at what others saw during the most recent dive trip I organized toGod’s Pocket Resort.
The October 2023 gang at God’s Pocket. Yes, that’s me gracefully gliding into the image after setting the timer on my camera.
There is so much I DID see and learn from when on this dive trip about 40 km north of my home on northern Vancouver Island. But there are three sightings by others that led to an unfamiliar upwelling of emotions for me and strange contortions near my jaw line. I think I may have been pouting. Not a good look!
Why? Let’s look at this case by case.
Sighting Number 1 – Mola / Sunfish documented by Timothy Manulides I had a brilliant dive and was back on the dive boat. Timothy walked over and said, “I think I saw Sunfish.” I am sure my initial reaction. was to blank-stare him. I thought he was joking and poking a little bit of fun, knowing how much I would be happy for him, but sad for me.
Super biologist Isabelle Cote was also on this trip and said, “I saw them too!”.
It’s not that it’s impossible to see Mola (aka Sunfish) in this area. This year in particular has been remarkable for how many sightings there have been by scuba divers in the Browning Pass area (with possible repeat sightings of the same Mola).
Timothy may also have said: “I’ve never seen one before” to which there may have been the response: “Neither have I and I live here and we study them!”
I was on the same dive and very near to where Timothy and Isabelle sighted them! Thank goodness Timothy managed to get this video.
Here’s what I posted about this sighting on our Marine Education and Research Society social media:
“So thrilled that Timothy did see and document them so that we know (thanks to Dr. Marianne Nyegaard) that these are most likely juvenile Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish), not the other Mola species found in these waters Mola tecta (Hoodwinker Sunfish).
From Dr. Nyegaard about this sighting: ” . . . they look to me like very young Mola mola – the belly curve still has that angular look to them, which is the last remnant of the babyness.”
You may note that the Mola on the right has an injury on their tail. These juveniles were about 60 cm across.
The video also gives you a sense of how fast Mola are. They are often erroneously thought to be slow because, when at the surface, they are “sunning” to warm up from being in colder, deeper water. They can also be fairly stationary at the surface to present themselves for parasite removal by birds like albatross.
The other fish species in this video are Widow Rockfish and Yellowtail Rockfish.
This year it is extraordinary that we know of about 7 sightings of Mola in the Browning Pass area by scuba divers. We will be reporting on the other sightings once we have some more information. We will try to determine if they are repeat sightings of the same fish.
To report a sighting (with photo and/or video) and read about the differences between the two species, see www.mersociety.org/mola.
As the name “Hoodwinker” suggests, Mola tecta was hiding in plain sight. (“tecta” also means “hidden” in Latin).
It was only in 2017 that research was published on the very existence of the species and it was thought to only range in the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere. Only since 2019 has it been questioned whether they are found in colder waters and – they sure are! They’ve been mistaken as being Mola mola, the Ocean Sunfish.
Sighting Number 2 – Medusafish seen by Shireen Shipman. On one day of our dive trip, the wind was howling so fiercely that we could not get out in the boat. Thankfully, we could dive in the bay right in front of God’s Pocket. After one of these dives, Shireen showed me her stunning pictures and asked me if I knew the species.
My jaw may have dropped. Yes, my face got a good workout on this trip.
I thought this may be a Medusafish (Icichthys lockingtoni to 46 cm). But I had to check with expert Andy Lamb. I have never, knowingly, seen one. Their range does include where I often dive but sightings and photos of them by divers are rare. As the reference to “Medusa” suggests, these fish often are inamongst the tentacles of large jelly species. Even in Andy Lamb and Phil Edgell’s fish ID book, the only photo of a Medusafish is of a dead individual at the surface.
Andy confirmed this was a juvenile Medusafish and I am sure he is keen to use Shireen’s photo in future to help others ID the species.
Diver in the background is Shireen’s buddy, Melissa Foo.
The known range of Medusafish is the North Pacific Ocean: Japan and Gulf of Alaska to central Baja California, Mexico.
How wonderful that Shireen noticed that this was a unique fish and took beautiful photos. You can see how shallow they were. Oh and did I mention? I was on this dive.
Sighting Number 3 – Male Rock Greenling seen by John Congden and Janice Crook I was to dive with Janice and John but I could not clear my one ear. So I dived very near the surface telling myself that a byproduct could be . . . seeing a male Rock Greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus to 61 cm)! One had repeatedly been seen at this site. They are highly territorial AND in the shallows in sites with high surge like this.
There appears to be little known about Rock Greenlings and there is even scientific debate if the Rock Greenlings seen in Russia are the same species as those along the North American side of the North Pacific Ocean. Dr. Milton Love discusses how observations of this species from eastern Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk are that they are in schools. While over on this side, they are observed to be solitary and very territorial.
Back to me diving . . . in the surge. I spend an hour at no more than 6 metres depth and looked, and looked for the male Rock Greenling. I was back on the dive boat when my beloved dive buddies, Janice and John, surfaced from their dive ecstatic because . . . the fish was where they had done their safety stop. Janice and John’s photos of the male Rock Greenling follow.
You can see how astoundingly, flamboyantly coloured mature male Rock Greenlings are and yet, also despite their territoriality, they can clearly be so difficult to spot.
I was so lucky to later see a mature female Rock Greenling on another dive, darting in and out of the Surfgrass. My photos of the female Rock Greenling are below.
There is much discussion about how territorial mature male Rock Greenlings are. But the mature females sure seem territorial too (based on my sample size of exactly ONE observation of a mature female Rock Greenling). 🙂
So why the pouty face?
Why indeed did my face do something similar to pouting upon not being part of these 3 sightings? The important things are:
Timothy’s video of the Mola was contributed to research.
Shireen’s photos of the Medusafish will help others ID the species.
Janice and John’s sighting of the male Rock Greenling was something they too had tried so hard for, dedicating many dives to being in the shallows, rocking back and forth in the surge. Between them, they have 59 years of diving, much of it in British Columbia’s marine waters and they have never before seen a Rock Greenling. Until this sighting, they had been referencing the species as the “mythic unicorn fish” of the northwest Pacific Ocean.
By being able to use their photos, I can still educate and hopefully increase care, understanding and action for the fragility the life in dark water. Thank you, dive buddies!
I actually looked up the definition of “to pout” for greater insight into what neural wiring leads to such a facial expression. I was gifted with: “to push one’s lips or one’s bottom lip forward as an expression of petulant annoyance or in order to make oneself look sexually attractive.” I assure you it was not the latter! Nor was it the former actually.
My inner 8-year-old is alive and well in this 60-year-old body. She’s the one who pouted, wanting to be filled with wonder too.
The more adult me loves the wonder of NOT seeing these fish. You can be on the same dive, at the same time, and not have the same experience. Isn’t that the truth! I love the metaphor it gives for life. I love how much more there is to marvel at, and to share.
It tests me too. Can we care and take action for species we have never seen, or may ever see? Can we do so with the understanding of how little is known about them and how that too threatens their survival? You, dear reader, know that answer to that in how YOU feel right now.
[Positive update November 12: NatGeo has taken the video down from Instagram and Facebook. But, still has it on their YouTube Channel.]
Whoa! Astoundingly and disconcertingly inaccurate!
This video is from National Geographic. The added text is mine. The first time they used the video was 5 years ago for “Alaska’s Deadliest on National Geographic TV”. NatGeo Wild posted the sensationalized and inaccurate video again on November 3, 2023 to their audiences of millions of people.
They are evidently not “encumbered” by the lack of logic and truth, despite the feedback of many. They knew how incorrect it was 5 years ago, chose to use it again, and are not heeding any of the concerns. I have provided feedback on their social media posts and am providing it here too in the hopes of countering the misinformation and holding NatGeo accountable for accuracy. They have the responsibility not to create, and perpetuate, sensationalized nonsense.
Is this worth the effort especially with so much else going on in the world? For me, it’s clearly yes. Putting this kind of illogical, inaccurate information into the world especially when perceived as an educational giant is NOT okay. It feeds the atrophying of truth, science and facts.
Deep, deep sigh.
The feedback I provided NatGeo Wild about the video:
“This content is astoundingly inaccurate. Reflect on the reality that salmon eggs are laid in freshwater, on the bottom. These jelly species do not feed on the bottom and are almost always in the ocean, not freshwater.
The eggs you say are salmon eggs being eaten by the Moon Jelly are her own fertilized eggs! 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 oral arms and are brooded there.
My photo below shows a female Moon Jelly with fertilized eggs under their oral arms. The eggs she are brooding are brighter white. See them?
Female Moon Jelly brooding fertilized eggs.
Moon jellies are Aurelia labiata, maximum size is 40 cm across.
The tide was high, the boat ramp was flat, and we all need the fun.
I shared this video on my social media feeds and it appears there was significant appreciation of the intended humour and levity. I wouldn’t want to deprive you of that. So, here you go.
Backstory: This was taken on the October dive trip I organized to God’s Pocket Resort, north of Port Hardy.
We were soon to depart on our next dive when I noticed how high the tide was and that the boat ramp. well, in my mind it had become a catwalk and a ripe opportunity for humour.
My scuba sisters only needed to hear “catwalk now” and this was the result with Shireen Shipman, Melissa Foo, Kim Cardenas, Isabelle Cote, and upfront – you know who.
If you think you’ve got the stuff, I have three open spots on my April 2024 trip to God’s Pocket and am taking names of those interested in joining my October 2024 trip. See this link for specifics about the trips, including skills needed. Sense of humour and ability to strut are considered assets. ______________________________________
Otherworldly. One-worldly! While on a recent trip to God’s Pocket Resort north of Port Hardy, it happened to be that there was a huge aggregation of jellies. It was truly awe-inspiring to be diving amid this galaxy of jellies.
Black Rockfish, Bull Kelp and a smack of jellies. Aggregating Anemones and jellies.
The collective noun for jellies actually is a “smack”, not a galaxy.
A smack of this magnitude is the result of the jellies’ lifecycle and big tidal exchanges concentrating them. We were certainly gob-smacked by the number and diversity as we watched them cascade past in the current as the plankton they are, pulsing to feed on smaller plankton.
The astounding photo above was taken by dive buddy Melissa Foo. It’s me in the smack, appearing to be in a globe of jellies.
And this photo of me was taken by dive buddy Janice Crook. I am including it anticipating that there will be questions about if we were stung by the jellies. We were not. Only the stinging cells of the large jelly species off our coast lead to human discomfort. Later in this blog, I show photos of those big jelly species.
The majority of the jellies in the smack were Water Jellies and Cross Jellies.
Cross Jellies, as the name suggests, have a cross on their bell. They are Mitrocoma cellularia to 10.5 cm across.
Cross Jellies reflected against the surface, trees above the surface.
Water Jellies are a group of jellies that have little lines all around the outside of the bell that look like the spokes of a wheel. The little white part hanging down from the bell is the mouth (manubrium). Aequorea species are up to 17.5 cm across.
Cross Jelly with manubrium.
There were also Moon Jellies. Moon Jellies are easy to discern because they have a clover shape on their bell which is their 4 gonads / sex organs. Aurelia labiata are up to 40 cm across.
The following photo shows a Moon Jelly female with fertilized eggs. The eggs are the less translucent white structures.
The biggest jelly species I saw were Lion’s Mane Jellies and Egg Yolk Jellies.
The Lion’s Main Jelly is the biggest jelly species in the world. Cyanea ferruginea can be 2.5 m across with 8 clusters of 70 to 150 tentacles which can be up to 36 m long! Know that the larger individuals of this species tend to be further offshore and that they can retract their tentacles.
Lion’s Mane Jelly reflected against the surface. Lion’s Mane Jelly with dive buddies’ bubbles in the background.
The Egg Yolk or Fried Egg Jelly is Phacellophora camtschatica and can be 60 cm across. They have 16 large lobes that alternate with small lobes giving the bell of the jelly as scalloped edge. Each of the 16 lobes has clusters of up to 25 tentacles which can be 6 metres long.
The individuals I saw on these dives happened to be white with light yellow. They part that looks like the yolk of an egg is often darker yellow.
Egg Yolk Jelly – see it’s prey in these two photos? It has caught other jelly species in its tentacles.
Lion’s Mane Jellies and Egg Yolk Jellies. are the only two common jelly species in our waters that can create a sting that irritates human skin, even when the jellies are dead. The stinging cells (nematocysts) work even when the jelly is dead or you get a severed tentacle drifting by your face. The sting from a Lion’s Mane Jelly is reported to be worst than that of an Egg Yolk Jelly.
I’ve been stung by both and clearly it’s not been enough to deter me from striving to get photos of them. But if you have far more skin exposed or are a fisher grabbing nets with many of the tentacles wrapped in them, it is reported to be very uncomfortable.
The solution to the irritation is vinegar (acid), meat tenderizer (enzyme) and I know that many fishers swear by Pacific canned milk as well. Research puts forward that vinegar is the only real solution and that urine does not work at all.
Egg Yolk Jelly and trees.
There were also various species of sea gooseberry / comb jellies in the smack. These elongate jellies open up at one end and engulf their prey. Comb jellies move by cilia which are arranged like teeth on a comb. These cilia cause light to scatter whereby you can see rainbow-like flashes over the animals. This is not bioluminescence as the light is not created by the jellies.
Comb Jellies belong to the Ctenophora phylum while the other species referenced on this blog are in the Cnidarian phylum.
Comb Jelly on the bottom right (Beroe species to 10 cm long). Orange-tipped Sea Gooseberry (Leucothea pulchra) – Comb jelly species to 25 cm long.
I found distraction from the darkness by making compiling these photos of one of the most diversely colourful sea star species off our coast – the gobsmackingly beautiful Striped Sea Star.
Note how Nature supports diversity. 💙
Striped Sun Stars (Solaster stimpsoni) can be up to 58 cm across. They most often have 10 arms with a blue line down the centre of each arm. Some individuals are entirely blue.
Underside of a Striped Sun Star.
Whenever I post photos of this species, they create a bit of a sensation. That’s likely because they are astoundingly colourful and usually live in really colourful neighbourhoods too.
But also, I think there is reduced awareness about the species because Striped Sun Stars are not often in the intertidal zone.
Oh, and then there’s that misunderstanding / underestimation of the colour and diversity of life in this cold ocean.
But LOOK! Look at the diversity in colour of this sea star species and look at the density and colour of the life around them. This is the life off our coast in high current areas.
A completely blue individual. You can still see the blue stripe down each arm. Blue Turban Snail atop a Striped Sun Star.
The diet of Striped Sun Stars includes various species of sea cucumber.
There are 6 species of sea star off our coast that have more than 10 arms. The other 5 many-armed sea star species do not have the blue stripes down the arms. They are Sunflower Stars, Rose Stars, Morning Sun Stars, Northern Sun Stars, Orange Sun Stars. There’s really good information about the diversity of sea stars off our coast on Neil McDaniel’s page at this link.
An individual succumbing to Sea Star Wasting Disease. This species is believed to be heavily impacted.This individual is regrowing one arm which most likely got nipped off by a crab. Echinoderms are astounding in how they can regenerate body parts. In sea stars, as long as part of the central disc is intact, and the individual can avoid predation while handicapped, all arms will grow back even if they have just one left. Reportedly though, regrowth is slow and can take up to a year leaving the handicapped sea star more vulnerable.Juvenile amidst Green Sea Urchins.
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Look at the diversity in colour of this sea star species and look at the density and colour of the life around them. This is the life off our coast in high current areas.
The Marine Detective 