Dates: Tuesday, Oct 7 OR Thursday, Oct 9

Location: See your e-mail for Zoom Link

Website: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

Updated! 

Originally, we planned to chat with the rangers at Joshua Tree National Park. Due to the ongoing government shut down, staff is not available for any educational outreach. We are pivoting a little quickly for a virtual tour of the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

This week, we are pivoting to a new location. We planned to be visiting Joshua Tree National Park, but that is currently closed, due to the shutdown of the federal government. (Call your Congress people to voice your concerns). Instead, we are traveling back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Some of you may remember we actually ‘traveled’ there in 2020 when we first went online. We’re back, with updates! While we won’t get to talk to aquarium staff, we will check out some videos and do a fun overview/walk through!

Earth is known as the ‘blue planet’ for good reason: just over 70% of the Earth’s  surface is covered by oceans. Here in San Diego, we live next door to the biggest  ocean on earth. The Pacific Ocean covers 30% of the Earth’s surface! Originally  meaning ‘peaceful sea’, the Pacific Ocean is home to a lot of life, both below and above the waves. There are approximately 25,000 different islands in the Pacific and it is surrounded by the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, a ring of active underwater volcanoes, which create their own unique underwater ecosystem.  

As you might imagine, such a large part of the Earth’s surface, the ocean, is crucial to the functioning of our entire planet. To understand why the ocean and its health are so important, let’s check out some fast ocean facts. The ocean: 

• …holds about 321 million cubic miles of water – roughly 97% of our water supply  - absorbs the heat of the sun and transfers it around the world – it drives global weather and regulates temperatures on land.  

• …is home to millions of plant and animal species – it is estimated that 50-80% of  all life on earth is found in the oceans. 

• …is about 80% UNexplored! That means there are possibly many more life forms that we have yet to discover.  

• …is home to the oldest species on earth – Jellyfish have been around more than half a billion years and horseshoe crabs almost that long.  

• …depends on phytoplankton that float at the surface and produce roughly 50% of the earth’s oxygen. It is estimated that one species, Prochlorococcus, is responsible for 1 in every 5 breaks a human will take.

• …holds as much heat as the entire atmosphere in the top 10 feet of water.

• …holds the lowest known point on Earth, the Challenger Deep, which is 11,034 meters down. I cannot recommend enough clicking here: https://neal.fun/deep-sea/ - that will let you scroll down to the depths of the ocean and show you what life lives at each depth. It’s really neat to see and it shows the first craft to reach the bottom of our ocean!

• …is home to “Immortal” Jellyfish – Turritopsis nutricula can, in theory, live forever as it can  transform itself back into a polyp, its  earliest stage of life, and age naturally  again and again

It is often said that we know more about Mars than we do our own oceans, since we have  explored so little of our underwater world. In fact, we have sent 12 people to the  moon since 1969, and only 3 people have descended to the bottom of the Marianna  Trench, which includes film director James Cameron, who financed the trip with  much of his own money. Of course, the entire ocean floor has been mapped, but only  to a 3-mile resolution (meaning that we can see things bigger than 3 miles). All of  that mapping has been done with sonar, giving us an idea of peaks and valleys. But  when we count what humans have actually seen/explored, we have only truly seen  and mapped .05% of the ocean floor!  

Though it may seem as though we don’t explore the oceans the same way we do our  solar system, the thirst for human knowledge is truly remarkable. Despite the  difficulties and danger lurking in the briny deep, humans have been trying to see and  explore the oceans as much as possible. Let’s explore some of the great ocean  explorations and what we’ve learned so far!  

HMS Challenger – 1870 

Considered one of the first true scientific explorations of the ocean, the 1,000-day voyage essentially launched oceanography. The intrepid scientists of the Royal  Society of London convinced the British government to lend one of its ships for a  research cruise. The British government gave one of its warships, removing 15 of its  17 guns to replace them with laboratories, workrooms, and storage for the extended  voyage. Though the ship has a steam engine with over 1,200 horsepower, the crew relied mostly on the 3 masts of sails in order to make frequent stops to collect data. Dr. C. Wyvill Thomson led the expedition of six scientists, 21 naval officers, and starting crew of 216 (they ended with a crew of 144, due to death, desertion, or illness that left them in hospitals along the route).  

After covering 68,000 nautical miles, the scientists, along with specialists in a  number of related fields, spent 23 years compiling the data they collected. The result  was a 50-volume, 29,500 page report, describing in rich detail, and even including  photographs of the flora and fauna they had encountered, as well as the various  cultures in the lands they stopped to visit as well. Since the voyage of the HMS 

Challenger scientists have continued to explore and study the oceans of the world,  finding new species, new features, and new links to humanity all of the time. 

Since that remarkable voyage in 1870, we have continually sought to discover and  learn more about the vast worlds beneath the waves. Let’s see some of the highlights  over the last few centuries:  

- A river runs through it – literally! Underwater rivers and even waterfalls have been discovered. Occurring where water of different densities meet, these rivers look much like rivers on land, complete with sandy beaches, grown along their shores, and a ‘flow’ of water. The most famous is off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, known as Cenote Angelita. The river is actually composed of hydrogen sulphide that divides the salt water from the freshwater below. 

 Ice Finger of Death – The water under the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic is extremely cold, but as the ice freezes, it releases a salty brine into the water. Denser and colder than the sea water surrounding it, this brine flows down to the sea floor, freezing everything in its path. It has rarely been observed and the crew of the film Frozen Planet managed to battle harsh conditions to capture the phenomenon on time lapse video.

Flying Jaws – Leaping Great Whites – off the coast of South Africa, giant Great  Whites hunt unlike any other place in the world. To capture their elusive and  quick seal prey, they breach out of the water as they lunge to surprise and  capture their prey. 

Since that filming was done, many of the ‘flying jaws’ have actually moved further south, thanks in large part to hunting orcas (see below). Now they can be seen in the waters near New Zealand. 

Killer Whales – the ultimate predator. While Great Whites are generally  considered to be the apex predator of the ocean, they can be bested in the  water, and are sometimes hunted with a skilled precision that has shocked marine biologists. A boat off California observed orcas attacking a Great White  shark in 1997, but when Great Whites began washing ashore the coast of  South Africa in 2017, marine biologists were stunned. Each shark, some as long as 17 feet, were all missing their livers. They had been removed with remarkable, almost surgical precision. The ‘flying jaws’ of the area were being  systematically hunted by two orcas, who observers named ‘Port’ and  ‘Starboard’, as their dorsal fins each flopped over in opposite directions. Two orcas took on one of the most fearsome predators of the ocean and came out  on top.

Earth Facts: Fun Ocean Facts”. Science Kids.  

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/earth/oceans.html 

Christina Nunez. “Climate 101: Oceans”. National Geographic.  

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/ocean/ 

Dan Nosowitz. “6 Animals Older Than The World’s Oldest Woman”. Popular Science.  February 28, 2013. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/6-animals older-worlds-oldest-woman/ 

Kate Kershner. “Do We Really Know More About Space Than The Deep Ocean?”. How  Stuff Works.  

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/deep ocean-exploration.htm

My Modern Met Team. “Along Mexico’s Ocean Floor”. My Modern Met. July 5, 2017.  https://mymodernmet.com/anatoly-beloshchin-mexico-yucatan-cenote-angelita/ 

“Incredible Never-Before-Seen Ice Finger of Death Caught on Film For the First Time”.  Message to Eagle. http://www.messagetoeagle.com/icyfingerofdeathantarctica.php 

Emma Rigney. “Orcas eat great white sharks – new insights into rare behavior  revealed”. National Geographic. July 16, 2019.  

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/07/killer-whales-orcas-eat great-white-sharks/#preparingEmail