Monterey Bay Aquarium  Part 2

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What an amazing assortment of aniamls and colors are found in the undersea world!  Sea Anemones, from the order Actiniaria, come in a wondrous array of colors.  Their gently waving tentacles, so elegant in the ocean currents, deceivingly wait to inject a venomous sting in an effort to paralyze prey.  Once paralyzed, the tentacles are used to move it along into their mouth.  Their typical diet is small fish and crustaceans.  The mouth is clearly visible in the second photo of the yellow sea anemone.

The Sea Anemomes include quite a variety of colors and size.

Tube Anemone use their tube-like base to withdraw into when threatened by predators

Two contrasting colonies of the delicate Jewel Anemone

Coral is equally as colorful and comes in a myriad of shapes and sizes as well.  The best display of the assorted coral and tropical fish always has people lined up with cameras waiting their turn to take a shot. 

Starfish are Echinoderms, most of which appear star-shaped with radiating body parts.  Typically starfish have five arms, however there are some that develop six or more.

Bat Star arms are much less pronounced.  They are found at depths that don't receive as much wave action.  The more extended arms on other starfish help them anchor onto the rocks.

The bottom of a starfish

This starfish had several arms damaged. The arms do grow back,but at very slow rate. 

A myriad of fish that inhabit the oceans are on display in the Aquarium.  The Leopard Shark can be seen in several of the exhibits. Like most sharks they move around a lot due to the fact they are slightly less buoyant than the water around them and tend to sink whenever they’re not swimming.

The bottom dwelling White Sturgeon (below) is a formidable looking fish.  Rather than scales, the White Sturgeon has five rows of bony plates (scutes) which reach from its gills to its tail. Its skin is like sandpaper.

It seems as though there was no limit to the rainbow of colors that were represented in the various exhibits.

Check out these eyelashes! ~ Mussels

By far, one of the most interesting things on exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium was this Skate egg case, commonly referred to as a Mermaid's Purse. Nestled in the sand among a group of Orange Sea Pens, a window had been cut out of this 9" egg case with a transparent cover glued back down so the developing embryo could be viewed. Hatching can take anywhere from two to five months. The features that are visible on this embryo are what the bottom side of fish from the Rajiformes order such as Rays actually look like. Typically all that is visible from the top are eyes.

Skate embryo in Mermaid's Purse

Sea Pens

Young Skate

Larger Skate in the touch pools of the Splash Zone

Bottom skide of a Rajiformes

Stingray in the touch pools of the Splash Zone

There were several other interesting  fish in the touching pool.  Flounder are flat bottom fish.  One eye migrates to the other side of the body as they mature into juveniles.  As adults, they camouflage themselves on the ocean floor awaiting prey. 

Eels are elongated fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes.  They range in size from 2" to over 10 feet long.  Most live in shallow waters and burrow into the sand, mud or rocks.  I have to admit, in spite of their interesting shapes and colorations, they were very ominous looking--perhaps the slithering appearance coupled with their tendency to poke in and out of the rocks.

As we neared the end of our visit to the Aquarium, we viewed the African Blackfooted Penguins.  There was also an aviary with a number of common shore birds which I will be sharing in the last part of this series.

Ever wonder what it looks like as a wave breaks?  Maddie was able to experience this awesome event in the glass paneled exhibit. 

I will be following up with the last part of this series on Monterey Bay and Aquarium with photos in and around the bay and the 17 Mile Drive.  Hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Me, Mom and Maddie

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