Baby Penguins!

Baby blue penguin season has passed with great fanfare.

Now we're on to the African penguins, woo hoo!



Stay tuned for more adorable pictures as they are made available ...

Tracking Tuna

My favorite website of the day is Tracking of Pacific Predators. Why? It provides this bluefin tuna tracking widget:

Get This Widget!TOPP.org

Check out the numbers on this Tirion fella! He's traveled more than 40,000 miles since being tagged in 2002. That's nearly 2 times around the earth, and, as this tuna's little blog points out, way farther than most humans travel. (Especially those of us locked in a web dungeon).

It's incredible to see this amazing tracking technology at work! The longevity of this technology allows for some fantastic data ... and storytelling ... for individual animals. Tirion is tagged with an Archival Tag, which allows for up to 10 years of tracking. They are very light weight, and TOPP's fact page says they are surgically implanted in the tuna. Apparently, these tagging programs rely on enthusiastic fishermen to catch the fish for tagging and then catch them again to retrieve the tags.

That's not something that can be done with every ocean predator... just check out Oomo, the white shark:

Get This Widget!TOPP.org

His blog is pretty funny too, and I can't wait to have a portable web device so I can stand in the ocean and double check this guy's location. TOPP tracks the white sharks using pop-up archival tags. These pop-up tags have much shorter (2 week) battery life and they have to be retrieved physically to get all the data.

Just fascinating! If you like interactive ocean data, do yourself a favor and spend hours on TOPP. It's awesome.

Fur Seal Festival!

The NEAQ trainers posting some great behind-the-scenes material from the Northern Fur Seal exhibit.

Among my favs, this video of how Chainsaw got her name:



And the outrageous size difference between males and females:

This links to this post.

Note to Science: Please be careful with the Oregon Coast.

There are few places I love as much as the Oregon coast. It's where I first saw the ocean. It's where I spent countless hours surfing with my father and brothers. It's where we had my grandmother's memorial service and my high school graduation party. So, like many places on this beautiful planet, it evokes a very strong emotional response for me.


So this post from Plenty Magazine's cutting edge blog scared me:

An underwater volcanic ridge off the coast of Washington and Oregon represents a potentially optimal site for ditching carbon dioxide, a group of Columbia University earth scientists has concluded. For one, the underwater basalt – or dried lava spewed by a subsea volcano – has the unique property that it could help convert injected CO₂ into calcium carbonate, which is basically chalk. Storing it as a solid adds assurance that the carbon dioxide won’t escape and leak into the atmosphere.

Now, I will fully accept that I don't know as much as I should about carbon storage, deep sea geology, how gravity keeps a gas under water etc... I just want to post something expressing my concern over the idea of turning such an amazing place into the nation's CO2 Yucca Mountain.

And I would welcome comments from readers who know more than me and may inform my thoughts on this.

Shark Thieves?

Shocking news this morning. It's shocking in three parts:

1. A 68-year-old British gentleman was keeping two live sharks in a chained tank behind his shop.

2. One of them was stolen by shark bandits.

3. The other one was not stolen.

This raises far more questions than answers.

The Shark Says YUM

This is Telegraph UK, a photo series from Seal Island, False Bay, South Africa.

I saw it on DSN. I followed the link. Mind blowing.

Note To Self: Walk Around the Aquarium

I just discovered that you can walk AROUND the Aquarium. Check out this walking path from a google maps screen cap:



I had no idea. It looks so closed off from the front.



However, I've just heard some exciting news about what the Aquarium is going to do in the future to improve the walking experience along that red line... stay tuned.

Sunset at the Touch Tank

It may be the perfect end to a perfect day.
Brushing up against cownose rays at the touch tank!



The program is still going strong... and yes, sharks is pronounced differently in Boston.

The Next Level of Summer Camp

Where can a tween get experience tracking marine animals?
NEAQ camp programs. That's where.



The program gives students experience plotting, tracking and cataloging animals alongside NEAQ GIS expert Kerry Lageaux. You can check out his work on marinegis.org.

The Whale Connection

Do you think this young man will grow up committed to whale conservation?



Photo from the New England Aquarium Whale Watch that heads out to Stellwagen Bank twice daily.

The Urban Plover Continued!

A little while ago I wrote a little post about the urban piping plovers on Revere beach in Boston.
Well I had the pleasure to see more plovers today at Indian Wells beach in Amagansett, Long Island. Much like the familiar behavior Susan Carona described to me in the Revere Beach birds, this particular plover approached me!





I wonder if the Hamptonites are feeding the birds?

Brave Brave Harbor Seals

Check out the size of this needle! Amelia doesn't even flinch!



You can read more on the marine mammal trainer blog.

Searching for Ruffian

In a matter of days, the search begins.

As they have done for more than 20 years, New England Aquarium right whale researchers will head to their seasonal station in Lubec, Maine to catalog North Atlantic right whales. Once they get there, they set up their equipment and immediately start scouring the waters of the Bay of Fundy for right whales to photo ID. This is done during 14 hour days on the water working sighting shifts and meticulously inputting dozens of sightings into data tables.

Some of the more experienced researchers can recognize individuals by callosity patterns on sight. Among the best whale watchers on the NEAQ team is Phillip Hamilton. (Learn his secrets in this instructional photo ID game.)

I just spoke with one of the newer researchers, Jon Cunha. He and his colleagues will be live blogging the season this year starting on August 1. He's keeping a special eye out for a particular whale named Ruffian.

This is Ruffian (Catalog #3530) in September of '07:












And this is Ruffian this February '08:












photos from the New England Aquarium North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog

Somehow, the three-year-old Ruffian suffered massive injuries. The February picture shows huge scarring, to the point of exposed muscle tissue. While the top causes of right whale mortality are ship strikes and entanglements, this particular injury may have been caused by trawling lines.

The good news is that those injuries are healing. Ruffian was seen again this spring on his normal migration route in Cape Cod by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. His wounds were considerably better, and his skin is still black instead of gray, indicating good health.

If the NEAQ researchers see Ruffian in the Bay of Fundy, it will confirm that he is healing, and that it is possible for this individual (much like the species) to come back from the brink.

Rise of the Sustainable Corporations?

Could it be that corporations are the new vanguard in saving sea life? Jeff Wells over at Refresh, a consumer health blog, covers the corporate sustainable seafood movement ... and seems to say yes.

The New England Aquarium's conservation efforts have long been focused on partnering with seafood companies in sustainability efforts.

Recent decisions by those partners, such as Ahold, Gorton's, Darden and Orion have been encouraging. This approach is looking more and more like an essential piece of a successful conservation strategy.

Random Rockhopper Picture

Oh yeah!

Areas To Be Avoided and Saving Whales

CNN is reporting that another Area To Be Avoided is being designated for the Roseway Basin off Nova Scotia, acrucial right whale habitat. NEAQ right whale researcher Dr. Moira Brown gets in a hopeful quote:

"It [the Bay of Fundy effort] has been a success story. It has reduced the risk by about 90 percent," said Dr. Moira Brown, senior scientist at the Canadian Whale Institute and the New England Aquarium's Edgerton Research Laboratory.
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She said the re-routed shipping lanes are considered one of the most important marine mammal protection measures in Canada.

"And there's been an unanticipated benefit," Brown said. "Mariner awareness about this whale species is huge."

Here's hoping this change has the same effect as the International Maritime Organization's decision to move ships around the Bay of Fundy. That move was a researched adjustment promoted by Dr. Brown and the NEAQ Right Whale Research Program. Considering the amazing effects it has had, it's easy to forget what a minimal change it was:


From the NEAQ marinegis.org site.

How many other small adjustments could be made like this? Researchers are already identifying high-traffic areas in the Mid-Atlantic and southeast U.S. that pass through right whale migration routes.

In the southeast, with so many heavily trafficked ports, the only way to protect right whales from ship strikes is to physically spot whales and warn ships to avoid them. It's a huge effort, and one that is frustratingly difficult execute successfully. (However it did result in the first ever right whale birth observation.)

One way to make the situation more tolerable would be to lower speed limits for large ships in right whale habitats. Unfortunately the current administration can't bring itself to do that.

The New Sharks in the Tank

The touch tank is getting even more exciting. It was already swarming with cownose rays and skates, but the aquarists are now including the coral catsharks and bamboo sharks in the touch experience as well!

Aren't they cute?

Basking Shark!

This amazing picture of a basking shark stealthily approaching the New England Aquarium Whale Watch vessel, Voyager III, was taken by naturalist Melissa Rocha. This incredible encounter happened on June 25.

In the future, Melissa's images will be posted in a more timely fashion on the newly created Whale Watch Log. I've been learning a lot about the NEAQ whale watch in the last few days. Before now, my only experience came from editing the animal safety guidlines. It really is a fascinating Aquarium feature, and I can't wait to learn more!

Lion Is Unleashed

The unstoppable force that is Lion, the little blue penguin of hand-feeding fame, has been unleashed on the NEAQ penguin exhibit. He's named Lion after a little blue penguin breeding island. Last week he emerged to much fanfare from the proverbial cat carrier into his new home. Check out MSNBC's coverage of the release. (Note there is a brief commercial before the video begins.)


Caitlin Hume opens the door on a new world for Lion.
Still from this full MSNBC report.



Caitlin goes on to suffer a grilling from reporters who demand to know if she still has the best job ever. The answer? Yes. Yes she does.

In addition to Lion's time in the spotlight, one of the aquarists who hand fed him, Caitlin Hume, continues her media exposure with this release. In addition to the current breeding workload, she is hoping to go on her first research expedition to rockhopper penguin breeding islands off the coast of Chile this November.

Turtle Stranding Season

Find an stranded, injured or (mercy) dead sea turtle on the beach? Know what to do.
From the SouthCoastToday.com:

Dead turtles should be reported to the New England Aquarium at (617) 973-5200. If you spot a turtle that is sick or injured or entangled in rope, litter or fishing gear, call the Provincetown Center at 1-800-900-3622.

The Aquarium's turtle doctor, Charlie Innis, and his team of turtle experts are busy this time of year. This is the time for the marine animal rescue program to go to work saving as many turtles as possible. So far it seems that this season has been a tad more busy than usual. It gets heaviest in the fall and already three leatherback turtles have washed up on shore. All three were dead, and the most recent one had propeller injuries. However, it's hard to say whether the propeller hit the turtle before or after it died.

Teen Interns Get Super Powers

That's right! Working at the NEAQ for the summer as a teen intern is a trial by fire. By the end of it, these teens have a solid knowledge of marine animals and powerful interpersonal skills.

Not only that, but these Boston and Cambridge students are getting recognition in the local press, and they definitely deserve it. The Aquarium relies on its dedicated army of volunteers to maintain the quality of visitor education and exhibit maintenance.



Shani Baker, 17, and Alex Mendez, 17

These interns are the vanguard for fielding visitor questions and conveying the Aquarium's conservation message to kids and parents alike. And they do a fantastic job!

Exhibit Profile: Shorebirds

It's one of the least understood, but most important exhibits at the Aquarium: The New England shorebirds exhibit on the second floor. It's easy for visitors to pass it by on their way to visit George the giant pacific octopus or Judith the massive sand tiger shark.

Sure, piping plovers, sanderlings, terns and other New England shorebirds may be small, but they're an integral part of New Englanders' lives.



I was talking to Susannah Corona and Kate Banks, who do amazing work maintaining this exhibit and are out there protecting nesting piping plovers on Boston's urban beaches, and they gave me some insight into what goes on in this exhibit.

First of all, this exhibit is 10 years old and several years in the making. It was initially expected to be funded by a grant, but the grant ran out during construction and the Aquarium had to raise money to pay for its completion. Those efforts were worth it, especially if you take the time to appreciate the details of the shorebird enclosure.

In addition to several extremely territorial shorebirds, the exhibit includes fishes, anemones and several other small animals coexisting with each other. The back of the exhibit is exposed to open air allowing for natural climate while at the same time protecting the birds from the harsher elements.

The exhibit didn't come together without other complications as well. One of the rare birds was brought in by airplane but somehow managed to escape in the Minneapolis airport! The terminal had to be closed off while wildlife officials chased the animal down.

Combine all of this with the fact that the Aquarium was one of the first institutions to successfully display captive piping plovers. The extremely rare piping plover is famous in New England for closing beaches during nesting season. Ever since the first piping plover was put on display at the Aquarium (his name was Petey), New Englanders have gotten a closer look at these endangered animals that they know only from the warning signs telling them to stay off the beach.

So if you're visiting the NEAQ exhibit space, don't let this enclosure fade into the background. Take some time standing still and watch the birds interact with each other ... and you.

Rise of the Robot Animals

And here I thought the craziest robot animal I'd ever see would be the Festo Air Jelly as reported on by Deep Sea News. However, along comes this headless robotic goat from Boston Dynamics. Like any good robot, it will carry things and you can kick it really hard and it won't go down:


Still capture from BostonDynamics.com. Full video here.

Looks like a Canadian attacking a puppet doesn't it? But it's not. It's some kind of robot. On the upside, it makes an incessantly pleasant grinding sound as it moves. On the downside, it runs on gas.

In any event, it's a total trip. Hat tip to my dad for sending this to me and causing an internal blind panic, complete with visions of a post-apocalyptic Terminator world.

Welcoming Newbies to Beantown!

BU put out a great story about how they acclimate their first years to their new home. There's a video too, but I can't embed so you'll have to actually follow the link ... sorry!

These kids got GPS devices on the scavenger hunt (that included the Aquarium). How posh! When I went to Emerson we explored Boston the old fashion way, by wandering blindly around to one of the 75 buildings near the Common where I might have a class.

NEAQ Around Town

Seen around Boston ... sharks, penguins and giant push pins.

the NEAQ Sharks and Rays program has taken over the Park St. T station. Deep Sea News covered it already, but the ads in place are pretty snappy. It's intense.


Giant mouths full of razor sharp teeth. Always inviting.



One for the kiddies.

I already put up a shot of the pin on the Aquarium Plaza, but here's the view looking out from the Aquarium:


I guarantee every kid on those busses thought it was a lollipop.

And Polar put the animals front and center on the soda machines on the Aquarium's Plaza.


"Have a soda ... it's made from turtles."

GOT Zen

Stop what you're doing.

Take a deep breath. Push play. Zone out.



Now you know what I do every day at lunch.

The GOT Webcam-o-Rama

Sometimes I just sit and stare at the GOT webcam. Today I discovered that you can pause it for screen grabs by clicking the image.

Here are some shots I grabbed:

Penguin Papparazzi

Bright lights big penguin exhibit!



Today was a big day for the little blue penguins at the Aquarium. The number of individuals in the exhibit went up by four, as the fully grown juveniles entered the exhibit. Among the four newbies is Lion, the little blue penguin chick that was hand raised after being rejected by its parents. Here's the AP photo story. about Lion and the Aquarists Heather Urquart and Caitlin Hume. Caitlin recently won a grant to study rockhopper penguins in Chile. Once she gets the details of that finalized she'll have her own blog about penguins ... so stay tuned!

Shark Conservation Vs. Jaws

Can we escape the legacy of Jaws?
Friend of the Aquarium and Jaws author Peter Benchley struggled with the legacy of his novel.
In that link from his site he says he could never write Jaws today. Science knows too much about shark behavior to allow the perception of marauding aggressive sharks. But Jaws was written. It and millenia of sea monster stories have put a giant obstacle in the way of shark conservation. I mean, it's hard to conserve whales ... and they don't have a ridiculously bloodthirsty reputation.



It may be next to impossible for the main stream media to ever fully contextualize a story as perfectly circular as "Jaws " returning to Martha's Vinyard. However this story, and this news video about a white shark washing up on Nantucket does take a step toward contextualizing the relationships sharks have with humans. In the WBZ video you can see the public's mixed reaction to the shark sighting. The former cultural "fact" that sharks kill people is getting muddled with other ideas. The question is, can this be pushed even further?

The next step is to push the conservation message while contextualizing the liklihood of an actual shark attack. Based on my experience writing news stories and my journalism training, I can see the wheels turning:

1. Baseline story: A shark is sighted, people are afraid of sharks, how are they reacting, is it actually dangerous ...
2. Story with researcher input: A shark is sighted, this is the kind of shark and some facts about it, people should not fear sharks, the likelihood of a shark attack is very low.
3. Story with researcher input and conservation message: A shark is sighted, this is the kind of shark and some facts about it, people should not fear sharks, it's important to do the following things

I'd say most shark stories are between #1 and #2 right now. Can we get them to #3 every single time? Maybe. And if we can, the public opinion will take even longer to follow.

How Bob Got His Name

This is the true story of Bob.

Bob is a green moray eel. In the early 90s, he wasn't named Bob yet. He lived in a bar in Vermont. His owner fed him all the time. He got really really big. One winter, the bar owner gave up trying to keep him. He called the New England Aquarium and asked if they needed a new addition to their Giant Ocean Tank. The Aquarium said "of course!"

Sherrie Floyd and another aquarist hopped in a van and drove up to Vermont to pick up the gigantic moray. They loaded it into a special barrel and set out for the Aquarium. In an unprecedented turn of bad luck, the van broke down and a massive blizzard ensued. Sherrie and her comrade found a kindly Vermonter to leave their barrel o' moray with while they tracked down a mechanic.



Not unlike the lovable shlubs in the Bob Newhart Show, the only mechanics in town were two guys named Bob. They were cordial mechanics, but they couldn't get the van fixed, so the aquarists had to find a rental company. Continuing their stream of good luck, the only car they could rent was a Lexus. So they loaded the Moray into the Lexus and drove it in style to the Aquarium.

When it came time to name the Moray, there was only one name that came to mind--Bob.

This great story came to light recently thanks to a new book about odd Aquarium and Zoo happenings that I saw reviewed on Afarensis. It's called The Rhino With The Glue-On Shoes And Other Surprising True Stories Of Zoo Vets And Their Patients. Bob has a whole chapter in the book written by former Aquarium veterinarian Chittick Nolan. Her account focuses on the (fairly normal) fact that Bob didn't eat for a long time when he first came from the Aquarium and was living in the holding area. However, Bob did eat when his former owner, the bartender, came to visit and fed him.

Visit the Pin

The New England Aquarium has been a huge Boston destination since 1969.

Now, the Visit the Pin program has put it on the map, literally.



I can't wait for the giant sticky note!

Happy Dancing Harbor Seals!

Most behaviors the harbor seals learn are designed to make it easier to transport or examine them. This one is just for fun:



I love these animals!

Covering the Sharks and Rays

The Patriot Ledger put out a great article about the new Sharks and Rays Program at the Aquarium. But who wants to read newspapers?

Thanks goodness they made a video too :)
You can see visitors touching the animals and reacting!




I love the ending! "Everything here is safe to touch."
Great work NEAQ educators!

Shark Hoax!

Feel like shutting down all the beaches on Martha's Vinyard?

Why not make up a fake name, fake residence and say you were out on a fishing boat that doesn't exist when you saw two 3,000 pound sharks. That's what Michael Lopenzo did. And it was hiiiiilarrrious!



yes this is a sand tiger shark... but we don't have any great whites for me to photograph.

Back Scratching for Myrtle

I was trolling the youtubes and I found this fun video of a comfy back scratching for Myrtle the green sea turtle:



She's also continuing her sound target training. It's a behavior experiment testing green sea turtle hearing. Trainers use a tube to give a quick auditory signal and Myrtle recognizes what it means and rises to get food at a given location:

Piping Plover Comeback

Piping plovers are returning to their old hangouts on Revere Beach.


(from the Mass. Audubon)

The endangered bird was down to less than 200 individuals in 1986. Today they're pushing 600 individuals and repopulating the flat New England beaches where they once thrived (before people started driving trucks through their nests). Today swarms of desperate beach goers are voluntary avoiding plover nests thanks to conservation efforts by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Mass. Audubon and our very own New England Aquarium volunteers (the best in the business).

Not only is this great news for coastal biodiversity, but it has Mass. Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles declaring Revere Beach a haven for nature:

"For two years in a row, one of America's most popular urban beaches has played host to a species ranked as threatened on both the Massachusetts and the federal Endangered Species Lists ... This is positive news for renewal of our historic coasts."

So yeah... there's something else down there than heart-stopping roast beef from Kelly's. Who would have thought a critically endangered shorebird would thrive in such an urban environment?

Super Suckers Vs. Algae

Gross algae is killing corals, tourism and fisheries.

(from the Nature Conservancy)

But hope is not lost! Just give aquatic managers 10 years with a giant vacuum and they'll take care of it. In any event, this whole issue raises the question: Are Marine Protected Areas really protected? This farmed species of algae is able to get a foothold in "protected" areas and now more money and effort is required to manage those protected areas. It's an indication that protecting ocean habitats is a long term effort that involves more than legislation and enforcement.

Aquarium Changes: Fact Vs. Fiction

It's always pleasant to find out the institution you work at is moving ... from the cover of the Boston Herald. I nearly spit my juice box all over the commuter train when I saw the Aquarium logo on a story about putting Boston City Hall in the Aquarium building and moving the Aquarium to Southie.

I know... take the most popular tourist attraction in downtown Boston and hide it away from the tourists. It's as insane as it sounds. And there are NO PLANS TO DO THAT. As far as I can tell it's just political posturing that has more to do with mayoral politics than actual development plans.

However, the good news is that there's a ton of improvements in the works, including a new Marine Mammal center attached to the back of the Aquarium. That'll give the trainers enough room to work with the really big pinnipeds.

Word on the plaza is that ground will break this September and the new marine mammal wonderland will be fully functional in around a year. I can't wait! I'm seriously falling in love with these amazing animals:



How can I not, right? Anyway. The long and short is, the Aquarium is getting better and better ... and it's staying where it is!