Pete Thomas Outdoors

Scientists capture rare video footage of a Mola mola 200 feet beneath the surface

Mola molas are observed sporadically off Southern California as they drift with the currents and prey largely on sea jellies.

Spotting one of these bizarre-looking creatures is usually considered a bonus for boaters who might be fishing or searching for whales and other marine mammals.

But late last week scientists aboard the EV Nautilus received a super-rare treat when a Mola mola appeared in the video feed of the vessel’s ROV – at a depth of 200 feet.

How do you totally derail an ROV exploration dive? Two words: Mola mola. Spotted at 200ft in @NOAA_CINMS. pic.twitter.com/qi54NEiwEx

— E/V Nautilus (@EVNautilus) July 14, 2017

The scientists, exploring within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, were in awe of the sight of the alien-like denizen, which appears to have been attracted by the ROV’s lights.

“It’s staring right at us… wow!” one of the scientists says.

The EV Nautilus is conducting a yearlong exploration of the Eastern Pacific, from Canada to Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands.

Mola molas are the planet’s heaviest bony fish. They can reach sizes of about 14 feet vertically and 10 feet horizontally, and can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. Only sharks and rays, which are cartilaginous rather than bony, are heavier.

–Image is a video screen grab

Dazzling new Death Valley Dreamlapse time-lapse video

 

Stargazing has been taken to brilliant heights, showcased in a new video released this week by Sunchaser Pictures.

Death Valley Dreamlapse 2, above, was shot by Gavin Heffernan and his team of producers, who traveled to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park in mid-March and over the course of three days caught some stunning time-lapse shots of the night sky.

Heffernan said the new video includes "plenty of wonder and amazement, including some insane star trails, a beautiful milky way pass over the lakebed, and an incredible pink desert aurora."

He added that "no special effects used, just the natural rotation of the earth's axis."

The crew tried out some new time-lapse techniques, such as moonpainting the foreground landscapes, and also some experiments merging regular time-lapse footage with star trails. Sunchaser Pictures also offers up a cool, behind-the-scenes video on their Vimeo page.

They were also in luck and caught an amazing pink aurora (seen at 1:36 and 2:22), which was caused by a Coronal Mass Eruption solar event on March 17.

Heffernan suggests that viewers should "watch in HD with headphones on and the volume cranked, if you can."

-- Kelly Burgess

Sea lampreys freak at the scent of their dead

 

A Michigan State University researcher has discovered an interesting phenomenon: sea lampreys go into what appears to be a panic-mode when exposed to the smell of their dead.

Dr. Michael Wagner found that when a mixture which included the putrefying carcasses of sea lampreys was poured into a tank of live ones, the lampreys’ frantic efforts to escape were dramatic.

"It’s kind of like a stop light, a noxious odor that causes them to run away from its source," Wagner  said.

While it makes for some rather freaky videos, it turns out that this reaction may be key to better controlling one of the most destructive invasive parasites found in the Great Lakes.

 

Sea lampreys live off of the blood and body fluids of adult fish, including lake trout and whitefish. During its life, each sea lamprey can kill 40 or more pounds of fish.

"Sea lampreys are one of the most costly and destructive Great Lakes' invaders," said Wagner, whose results were published in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. "The effectiveness of the odor combined with the ease in which it’s obtained suggests that it will prove quite useful in controlling sea lampreys in the Great Lakes."

Currently, pheromones -- the same chemicals the lampreys rely on to attract mates and find spawning grounds -- are used to lure the creatures into large cages where they can be  destroyed or sterilized and released back into the wild.

Wagner believes that repellants could be a better alternative since even small quantities can elicit a response. The smell of death could be used to steer lampreys away from waterways or corral them into groups, making them easier to eliminate.

"By blocking certain streams with these chemical dams, sea lampreys can be steered away from environmentally sensitive areas and into waterways where pesticides could be used more effectively to eliminate a larger, more concentrated population of sea lampreys."

Great white shark jumps into research boat

A group of marine scientists researching sharks off South Africa got an up-close and personal look at their subject when a great white shark leaped out of the ocean and into their boat.

Oceans Research field specialist Dorien Schroder and six crew members were collecting data on sharks Monday off Seal Island in Mossel Bay, a coastal town located approximately 250 miles east of Cape Town. Chumming the water with sardines, the scientists had gathered data from about four sharks when the activity around the vessel ceased. That's when the 9-foot, 8-inch white shark leaped out of the water and landed in the boat.

Schroder describes the incident on Oceans Research blog, Shark Chronicles:

"Next thing I know I hear a splash, and see a white shark breach out of the water from [the] side of the boat hovering, literally, over the crewmember who was chumming on the boats portside."

Luckily Schroder didn't hesitate, and pulled the crewmember quickly away towards the stern of the boat’s platform into safety as the white shark, estimated to weigh 1,100 pounds, crashed onto the top of the fuel and bait storage containers.

The predator had landed with only half of its body onto the boat, and Schroder and her team hoped that as it thrashed about it would make its way back into the water. But instead the shark worked itself into the vessel, where its twisting and turning on deck destroyed equipment and cut the fuel lines.

Only 219 large white sharks off California, study claims

For anyone who has wondered how many large great white sharks lurk off California, researchers for the first time have produced a science-based estimate: 219.

That's the number of adult and sub-adult white sharks -- those about nine feet or longer -- believed to be utilizing California waters after an innovative photo-identification study conducted at seasonal shark haunts off Central California.

The number is surprisingly and perhaps alarmingly low given the key role white sharks, as apex predators, play in maintaining a healthy marine environment.

The study's lead author, UC Davis doctoral student Taylor Chapple, stated in a news release: "It's lower than we expected, and also substantially smaller than populations of other large marine predators, such as killer whales and polar bears. However, this estimate only represents a single point in time; further research will tell us if this number represents a healthy, viable population, or one critically in danger of collapse, or something in-between."

One prominent scientist has disputed the number, calling it a significant underestimation, based largely on his theory that not all large white sharks in California utilize those Central California haunts. Chapple said his group was not accounting for every shark in the northeastern Pacific, but acknowledged that the 219 figure was an estimate for California waters.

The collaborative study, published today in the journal Biology Letters, involved some of the world's foremost white shark experts. They collected 321 photographs of dorsal fins from what, based on distinctive markings, turned out to be 130 individual sharks. Data from this study -- and previous studies that determined the same sharks were visiting the same areas year after year -- were extrapolated to determine a population estimate.

Involved in the study were 69 male white sharks, 19 females and 42 sharks of undetermined sex.

White sharks, once they reach 8-9 feet, begin to shift from fishes and rays as food items to seals and sea lions. In California this also marks the point at which they travel from Southern California to rookeries off Central California. (The study area included the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco and Tomales Point to the north on the mainland.)

Late summer and fall are feeding periods at the rookeries. During the winter, these large sharks migrate to a vast offshore area between the mainland and Hawaii, where they spend about five months of each year.

The population study did not take into account juvenile or young-of-the-year white sharks. Also, the 219 figure does not include white sharks that utilize waters around Guadalupe Island, a seal rookery 150 miles west of Ensenada in Baja California.

That's because there's no evidence of Guadalupe white sharks visiting Central or Southern California coastal waters; those sharks, therefore, are believed to belong to a separate sub-population.

Dominica's 'Whale Whisperer' shares remarkable story

Andrew Armour, who runs Kubuli Watersports on the Caribbean island of Dominica, has been called the "Whale Whisperer" because of his ability to communicate with sperm whales, particularly a young male named "Scar."

"Once I'm in the water I try to reach them acoustically by making this noise in the water, and it's the same noise all the time so they know it's me," he says. "So I'm talking to them all the time in the water, and they start coming."

To be sure, had Herman Melville been to Dominica and swum with its whales, he might have had trouble finding the inspiration to write the classic novel, "Moby Dick."

Perhaps 200 of the fabled cetaceans utilize the surrealistically blue realm beyond the island. None has expressed ferocity toward humans or bitten the leg from a tyrannical (and fictional) captain.

On the contrary, as people such as Armour have learned, these great leviathans, once hunted mercilessly around the world, are docile and at times even seem friendly toward people.

"The whales come to us, make friends with us, and interact with us," says Peter G. Allinson, a Baltimore doctor who has made several trips to Dominica, which is between the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

"The best encounter is when the whales are socializing among themselves and they'll come over and play with us," Allinson adds. "A couple of them will rub up against you and try to get you to rub them, and some of them roll over on their backs and let you rub their bellies. It's quite interesting."

Allinson's images have appeared in National Geographic magazine and won photo contests. He does not distribute his photos but, as a supporter of the Save the Whales organization, the doctor allowed their use for this story hoping it'll raise awareness that all whales "are very intelligent and very friendly animals, and they should not be hunted."

Images captured recently by professional photographers also have surfaced, on various websites, and suddenly the whales of Dominica are no longer a secret.

"The secret is now coming out," Armour says. "And it's coming out in a sense that this is the best place to see sperm whales, this close to North America."

This is disconcerting to scientists, however. They say a budding and largely unregulated "swim-with" program might be harmful to the whales. "These interactions alter the normal daily behavior pattern of not only the animal which is interacted with but also all of its family members as a result," says Shane Gero, a researcher from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Armour, who closely works with researchers but also runs a whale-watching business, acknowledges that regulations are needed but adds: "My strategy with them has always been to let them want to be with me. The thing is to not let youngsters get too far away from the family group. In this way we have noticed a minimal change in the behavior of the group as a unit."