Yesterday we drove from Pinnacles to Monterey to check out the bustling coastal community of Monterey Bay. The plan was to check out Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and check out the frigid Pacific first hand. Monterey Bay is known for its spectacular scuba diving. The coast is dominated by rocky shorelines and massive underwater kelp forests. These rocks and kep forests are important habitat for sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, star fish and more. The ocean habitat here is unique in that kept forests don't exist in other parts of the country. Rocky shorelines are also fairly limited to Northwest states. Those under water forests attract a particular community of organisms that rely on the kelp and rocky shoreline for food, protection from predators and breeding habitat. You wouldn't find many of the animals that are in the California coast in Florida for example, because Florida doesn't have kelp or rocky shorelines. In fact there are few ocean mammals at all in the tropical Atlantic coast. The point being that climate and topography highly dictate the populations of plants and animals you would find in any given ecosystem.
The original plan was to snorkel today. When we got to the dive shop to rent however, the owner suggested we shouldn't. The skorkeling isn't popular here because the top several feet of the water is murky making it difficult to see anything. Instead we mixed things up a bit, went to the aquarium today and will go to a freshwater water hole a little inland to swim and collect data on freshwater ecology tomorrow.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best in the country, and going there today we could see why. They pride themselves on their great white shark populations. We went to a seminar at the aquarium on great white sharks specifically, and the important role they play in the Monterey Bay ecosystem. The speaker was one of the co-founders of the aquarium. His presenation focused on the unfair reputation of the great white shark. Movies like "Jaws" have perpetuated the idea that great white sharks are man-eaters, when in fact you are more likely to get struck by lightening 5 times in your life than ever have a negative encounter with a great white. Other programs like Shark Week on the Discovery Channel attract viewers by creating the misconception that shark attacks are very common. Most of their segments focus on the shark attacks that have happened. Because of this negative perception that media has created, the great white shark population worldwide is at risk of extinction. This would of course throw the ecosystem off balance because we would be losing one of the top ocean predators. Their job is to keep the populations of secondary and tertiary consumers in check. If we were to lose our top predators, the seal populations would explode. So what? The seals are cute! Unfortunately those seals would need to eat. They would exhaust the fish population in the bay. Not only would that create many problems ecologically, but would have an economic impact as well. The commerical fishing industry would suffer because they would be in competition with the seals, sea lions and sea otters. This is a perfect example of how easily ecosystems can be thrown off balance, having serious repercussions for both the ecological and human communities whom rely on a healthy coastal community to thrive. This was an important lesson for my students. One simple notion that shark populations are at risk, taught my students about the food web, niche, carraying capacity and the interdependance of life.
At the end of the day since the kids were desperate to swim in the ocean, they did a polar plunge. The ocean water on the California coast is not warm. It is just warm enough to take one quick jump in, accept the shock, and get out. It's very refreshing (so I hear)!
The original plan was to snorkel today. When we got to the dive shop to rent however, the owner suggested we shouldn't. The skorkeling isn't popular here because the top several feet of the water is murky making it difficult to see anything. Instead we mixed things up a bit, went to the aquarium today and will go to a freshwater water hole a little inland to swim and collect data on freshwater ecology tomorrow.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best in the country, and going there today we could see why. They pride themselves on their great white shark populations. We went to a seminar at the aquarium on great white sharks specifically, and the important role they play in the Monterey Bay ecosystem. The speaker was one of the co-founders of the aquarium. His presenation focused on the unfair reputation of the great white shark. Movies like "Jaws" have perpetuated the idea that great white sharks are man-eaters, when in fact you are more likely to get struck by lightening 5 times in your life than ever have a negative encounter with a great white. Other programs like Shark Week on the Discovery Channel attract viewers by creating the misconception that shark attacks are very common. Most of their segments focus on the shark attacks that have happened. Because of this negative perception that media has created, the great white shark population worldwide is at risk of extinction. This would of course throw the ecosystem off balance because we would be losing one of the top ocean predators. Their job is to keep the populations of secondary and tertiary consumers in check. If we were to lose our top predators, the seal populations would explode. So what? The seals are cute! Unfortunately those seals would need to eat. They would exhaust the fish population in the bay. Not only would that create many problems ecologically, but would have an economic impact as well. The commerical fishing industry would suffer because they would be in competition with the seals, sea lions and sea otters. This is a perfect example of how easily ecosystems can be thrown off balance, having serious repercussions for both the ecological and human communities whom rely on a healthy coastal community to thrive. This was an important lesson for my students. One simple notion that shark populations are at risk, taught my students about the food web, niche, carraying capacity and the interdependance of life.
At the end of the day since the kids were desperate to swim in the ocean, they did a polar plunge. The ocean water on the California coast is not warm. It is just warm enough to take one quick jump in, accept the shock, and get out. It's very refreshing (so I hear)!