Bengal Tiger
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That’s great, I just joined!!! Thanks for this info
Monterey Bay Aquarium Major deep sea animal exhibit coming to MBA
- Thread starter DavidBrown
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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MBA opened up a "Behind the Scenes" Channel in their discord, and a lot of it sounds like it's going to be about Into the Deep. They're teasing a lot of stuff it seems now that we're super close to the opening, hopefully we get some animal reveals soon! 
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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Pat has confirmed that there's "A lot of Research and Development" currently going on for Culturing Midwater Deep Sea Creatures He didn't say what, but we can assume things like Jellyfish, Ctenophores, Siphonophores, Maybe even Fish, Cephalopods, and Midwater Inverts! So much exciting stuff being revealed right now!
This was particularly a response into a conversation I had with someone about Giant Larvaceans since those have been confirmed to be on Display at some point, except Larvaceans have a typical life span of 4 days it sounds like. So it seems like Giant Larvaceans are something they're close to perfecting
This was particularly a response into a conversation I had with someone about Giant Larvaceans since those have been confirmed to be on Display at some point, except Larvaceans have a typical life span of 4 days it sounds like. So it seems like Giant Larvaceans are something they're close to perfecting
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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Holy. Moly.
So I just got done watching the Stream that the Seattle Aquarium did last night with 5 Biologists on the Deep Sea, including Paul Clarkson from MBA and Kakani from MBARI, AND THEY SHOWED OFF SO MUCH STUFF MY HYPE IS UNREAL RIGHT NOW! HERES THE LINK FOR THE STREAM IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH:
BUT HERES A SUMMARY:
So I just got done watching the Stream that the Seattle Aquarium did last night with 5 Biologists on the Deep Sea, including Paul Clarkson from MBA and Kakani from MBARI, AND THEY SHOWED OFF SO MUCH STUFF MY HYPE IS UNREAL RIGHT NOW! HERES THE LINK FOR THE STREAM IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH:
BUT HERES A SUMMARY:
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
All coming from Paul and Kikani:
-Most of the Animals will be coming from the 400 - 800 meter range, as animals that live past 1,000 meters don't do very well and is something they're working on figuring out.
-He showed off how they collected Bone Eating Worms
And the Most Exciting news, new Photographs he just revealed last night. This includes a Brand New Photo taken days ago of a "Muddy Plains Habitat" that will be on Display, creatures I could make out from the Photo are:
-Mushroom Soft Coral
-Predatory Tunicates (YEEEEESSSSS)
-Sea Pens
-Deep Sea Anemones, Sea Cucumbers, and Coral
Hopefully someone with a better eye can ID more species, I'm not sure what the orange ones are. But Predatory Tunicates will be on Display again! I'm so excited!
Also the Progress of Whale Falls Tank, which will house Giant Spider Crabs and Bone Eating Worms, and other scavengers.
Paul and Kikani are also the 3rd source to confirm the Aquarium is working with Giant Larvaceans, sounds like they're still going through some technical stuff, like how will the snot houses interact if they get stuck to the side of tank since they're sticky, but the Larvaceans are able to make the houses in captivity.
Also, there will be quite a few Juvenile Salmon Snailfish on display! It seems like OG (The Salmon Snailfish sent to them from Japan) actually laid eggs and they were successful in raising the babies, 49 to be exact, so we'll see a lot of those on display. IM SO EXCITED
-Most of the Animals will be coming from the 400 - 800 meter range, as animals that live past 1,000 meters don't do very well and is something they're working on figuring out.
-He showed off how they collected Bone Eating Worms
And the Most Exciting news, new Photographs he just revealed last night. This includes a Brand New Photo taken days ago of a "Muddy Plains Habitat" that will be on Display, creatures I could make out from the Photo are:
-Mushroom Soft Coral
-Predatory Tunicates (YEEEEESSSSS)
-Sea Pens
-Deep Sea Anemones, Sea Cucumbers, and Coral
Hopefully someone with a better eye can ID more species, I'm not sure what the orange ones are. But Predatory Tunicates will be on Display again! I'm so excited!
Also the Progress of Whale Falls Tank, which will house Giant Spider Crabs and Bone Eating Worms, and other scavengers.
Paul and Kikani are also the 3rd source to confirm the Aquarium is working with Giant Larvaceans, sounds like they're still going through some technical stuff, like how will the snot houses interact if they get stuck to the side of tank since they're sticky, but the Larvaceans are able to make the houses in captivity.
Also, there will be quite a few Juvenile Salmon Snailfish on display! It seems like OG (The Salmon Snailfish sent to them from Japan) actually laid eggs and they were successful in raising the babies, 49 to be exact, so we'll see a lot of those on display. IM SO EXCITED
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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So a list of animals the Aquarium has revealed that will be on display for the Grand Opening include: Bloody Belly Comb Jelly, Giant Isopod, Japanese Giant Spider Crab, Basket Starfish, Brisingid Sea Star, Salmon Snailfish. Bone Eating Worms, Predatory Tunicates, Deep Sea Mushroom Coral, Flytrap Anemone, Sea Pens, Glowing Sea Cucumber, Mauve Stinger, Lumpfish. and Sea Angels. Someone threw out the possibility that the Orange mass on the bottom of the Muddy Plains tank above could be a Deep Sea Dromalia Alexandri Siphonophore which would be super awesome since someone from MBARI said in the past when they tried to work with that species, they would literally explode even if they were picked up off the floor.
This is incredible, MBA already looks to be delivering with the likes of which has never been done before! Just thought of all of those alien deep sea creatures being on display for the general public to appreciate makes me quite happy. I'll have to get over to NoCal sometime in the next few years to witness it myself for sure! As someone who keeps track of all animal species I see, I'll be salivating over all the family, order, class, and even phylum lifers...
Bengal Tiger
Well-Known Member
How did they get the bone eating worms?
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
Funny enough, they were the first to do something like this all the way back in 1999! Only this time, their going all out and I'm here for it
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
Paul explained in the live stream that it takes a good number of months (also explained by Craig Smith from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, his talk was on Whale Falls) but what they do is they strap a number of cow bones down to a tray, and then use ROV to transport it down to the Sea Floor.
The 1st round of scavengers come to clean all the meat off the bones, and then after a few months they go back down and like magic, the bones are covered in Bone Worms which they then transport back to the Aquarium,
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
Someone who went to the Aquarium took a picture of a board they have up advertising Into the Deep, it has a Sea Pen, A Deep-sea Rock / Scorpion Fish of some sort, and a Helmet Jellyfish!
There was the Secret San Francisco article earlier that mentioned Helmet Jellyfish and Anglerfish for the Midwater Zone Displays, this could be interesting
There was the Secret San Francisco article earlier that mentioned Helmet Jellyfish and Anglerfish for the Midwater Zone Displays, this could be interesting
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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I had some free time in class and was looking around for more news, and I found an article published 4 hours ago from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to unveil new ‘Into the Deep’ exhibition that talked with Beth Redmond-Jones, the VP of Exhibits. She talks a lot about the water care system and what they've needed to do, but this is the 2nd article to mention Anglerfish being on display. This is coming from the VP herself so I think we can safely say Anglerfish will be a thing! Honestly it might just be a species of Sea Toad or other bottom dwelling Angler relative, but if they manage to get a Midwater species, that's going to be so fricking cool
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how awesome would it be if it was one of the midwater species! although I wouldn't get my hopes too high for that
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
Just a little over a month till the opening date! And I have even more news to share:
Some OFFICIAL ADS by the Aquarium were released advertising the Exhibit, and I'm pretty excited about 1 animal in particular. Animals shown in the ads include:
Snow Globe Jelly (Mooderia Rotunda)
Mauve Stinger (Pelagia noctiluca)
Atolla Jelly (Atolla Wyvillei) (Last pic is what they look like)
Sea Angel (Clione spp.)
Predatory Tunicate (Megalodicopia hians)
In particular, I'm really hoping and believing they will have an Atolla Jellyfish on display. All the animals on the ads have been confirmed to be there for the opening, and considering the Atolla is also here, im really hoping it's there on April 9th too. I'm super excited to see one on display which looks like it's going to be true.
Other news is while there will be Bioluminescent animals on display, the exhibit lighting is too bright to actually see them Bioluminesce so they'll have video screens showing how they light up. Also Pat mentioned that he and Emily got a walk through of the exhibit and his words are super exciting to hear. Still on track to get there for the Grand Opening, just a little bit more waiting to do
Some OFFICIAL ADS by the Aquarium were released advertising the Exhibit, and I'm pretty excited about 1 animal in particular. Animals shown in the ads include:
Snow Globe Jelly (Mooderia Rotunda)
Mauve Stinger (Pelagia noctiluca)
Atolla Jelly (Atolla Wyvillei) (Last pic is what they look like)
Sea Angel (Clione spp.)
Predatory Tunicate (Megalodicopia hians)
In particular, I'm really hoping and believing they will have an Atolla Jellyfish on display. All the animals on the ads have been confirmed to be there for the opening, and considering the Atolla is also here, im really hoping it's there on April 9th too. I'm super excited to see one on display which looks like it's going to be true.
Other news is while there will be Bioluminescent animals on display, the exhibit lighting is too bright to actually see them Bioluminesce so they'll have video screens showing how they light up. Also Pat mentioned that he and Emily got a walk through of the exhibit and his words are super exciting to hear. Still on track to get there for the Grand Opening, just a little bit more waiting to do
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
Super interesting video that popped up in my recommendations that I think should be noted:
Her name is Ariel Waldman, and she spent a week with MBARI on a collecting trip for the Into the Deep. Animals she showed that were collected are:
-Loads of Bloody Belly Comb Jellies
-Abyssal Comb Jelly (Beroe Abyssicola)
-Warty Jelly (Halicreas Minimum)
-Giant Larvacean
-Armhook Squid (Gonatus sp.)
I'm not sure if any of those besides the Bloody Bellies will be on Display for the opening, but it so cool to see the Behind the Scenes of MBARI.
Her name is Ariel Waldman, and she spent a week with MBARI on a collecting trip for the Into the Deep. Animals she showed that were collected are:
-Loads of Bloody Belly Comb Jellies
-Abyssal Comb Jelly (Beroe Abyssicola)
-Warty Jelly (Halicreas Minimum)
-Giant Larvacean
-Armhook Squid (Gonatus sp.)
I'm not sure if any of those besides the Bloody Bellies will be on Display for the opening, but it so cool to see the Behind the Scenes of MBARI.
splendens
Well-Known Member
Things inside the stream:
New species that will probably be on display mentioned. Balloon worms, Gersemia juliepackardee, one unspecified fish who is growing, one unspecified jelly.
- They tried to not give too many spoilers.
- Light levels and pressure information.
- Smallest animal on exhibit is the balloon worm and largest is giant spider crab (one reached to top of 6.5 foot tank when not fully stretched.)
- Will have more streams in future.
- Many animals only have scientific name.
- They had to get creative by blending different food to make marine snow.
- Bone worm fishing using robots. Hagfish info.
- Said people who were sleuthing heard not all animals mentioned would be on display for duration of exhibit (5;6;7 years) they will be rotating animals and said you will probably see new species (for the exhibit) every few months they recommended becoming a member and going on social media to see alerts.
- Over time will be able to see ___ fish get older and a mystery jellyfish. (Not specified)
- Extra time in pandemic did not help production as it stopped access to deep sea on vessels and air planes to transport species from other countries.
- Donations helped aquarium.
- Will be deep sea corals and deep sea coral communities
- Giant isopod will be on display but they said they wont "tell exactly what is going on."
- Spider crabs caught in tsuruga bay from fishery likely to cause impact to environment.
- Will talk in future about more impacts on deep sea environment.
- Pictures of basket star and mention that Gersemia juliepackardae coral is in the aquarium.
- Shown pictures of jellies including Moodeira rotunda and one other I could not identify saying they worked with them years ago and probably wont have them on exhibit.
- Paul enjoyed passion of team.
- Paul Clarkson mentioned some species he wants one day.
- Mentioned sea urchin with scientific name I cant spell which is like a pyramind but is hard to find and did not adjust to surface.
- Northwest_fish_keeping was mentioned sleauthing discord.
- Possible new color of bioluminesence caught on camera today and balloon worm will be revealed in a later stream.
- Talked about jobs in the aquarium.
New species that will probably be on display mentioned. Balloon worms, Gersemia juliepackardee, one unspecified fish who is growing, one unspecified jelly.
Great for locals who have the time to visit that often, sucks for everyone else, especially anyone outside the state who wants to see the neat animals
It was a very interesting stream overall, wish I had the ability to visit more regularly to see stuff as it comes in!