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Sea otters take a swim in the seal pool

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Exploring a chamber of secrets

Do you know what a baby nautilus looks like? Do you want to see what a baby nautilus looks like? 

Squee! Chambered nautilus are hatching at the Aquarium!!

As a second grader, seven-year-old Ellen Umeda charted her hopes and dreams in a journal, including this entry:

“When I grow up, I want to work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.”

Today, Aquarist Ellen Umeda is doing just that – and breaking new ground as she raises one of the most challenging species housed at any aquarium: the chambered nautilus.The Sunnyvale native and UC San Diego graduate is taking the lead in caring for our first-ever chambered nautilus hatchlings, and trying new approaches that could someday lead to a breakthrough in raising and breeding these beautiful, shelled cephalopods. “I’m lucky to be working with an animal that’s still quite a mystery,” Ellen said. “There are so many unknowns.”

Nautilus eggs! You’re looking at em! WHOA! Did that one move?

No one, for example, has seen a nautilus egg in the wild – perhaps because they’re laid at depths beyond where recreational scuba divers can safely go. They can range below 100 meters (330 feet deep) – but do the young develop in warmer waters, closer to the surface, or in cooler, deeper waters? These are some of the unknowns Ellen has to contend with as she tries to take the rearing of chambered nautilus beyond the point her colleagues have achieved.

Wheee! After developing for over a year, a fully-formed nautilus emerges—with a little yolk left over.

As a member of the team that cares for the animals in our Tentacles special exhibition, Ellen raises many of the species we exhibit, including cuttlefishes and squids. She and her teammates have built a successful track record with species that no other aquarium had raised before.

Chambered nautilus present an entirely new set of challenges. She’s been wrestling with those challenges since the first nautilus egg hatched in late July. Several others have hatched since then. Starting in the 1980s, colleagues at Waikiki Aquarium, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and Birch Aquarium in La Jolla began hatching and raising chambered nautilus they kept on exhibit. None of the hatchlings survived much more than a year. Toba Aquarium in Japan has also had success hatching nautiluses, with a few individuals surviving three years or longer – including one individual that lived four and a half years.

Time for noms!

Ellen is drawing on the experience of colleagues at other aquariums, and the resources here in Monterey, to seek a breakthrough in chambered nautilus care. She’s now caring for more than 150 nautilus eggs, and fewer than a half-dozen hatchlings. They’re housed under low-light conditions, some in cooler water and some in warmer, in behind-the-scenes holding areas. She’s experimenting with the water temperature at which she’s keeping the eggs laid on exhibit by the adult nautiluses. And she’s working with Curator of Collections Joe Welsh, who’s pioneered the use of pressurized holding tanks for deep-water species.

Yeah, I’m adorable and my adaptations are awesome. 

Ellen believes raising chambered nautilus under pressure – perhaps even putting eggs in a pressurized aquarium before they hatch – could be the key to solving the problem of the young nautiluses becoming buoyant in the water column, rather than neutrally buoyant and able to maintain their position in the water. She thinks that the fluid-filled chambers that develop, section by section, in a growing chambered nautilus, may not function properly unless they form under pressure.

“Some of my colleagues thought that might be a solution, but they didn’t have the resources to pursue the idea,” she says. Here, she noted, we have a track record of success with deep-water rockfishes that may point the way forward with chambered nautilus.

Bless you!

“We need to experiment and try different things that mimic their environment in the wild, things that other people haven’t done,” Ellen says. “I hope our animals will live longer, and that a greater percentage of them will hatch and survive. The ultimate goal would be to raise them to adulthood, have them lay eggs, and then raise the next generation.” That, she admits, is probably a long ways off. Just as she’s benefited from the experiences of her predecessors, she hopes to contribute the next increment of progress.

“It’s all steps,” Ellen says. “Right now, it’s live one more month, and then one more.”

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Sam is clearly over-compensating.

anon

are

you

f*cking

kidding

ME

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Dean, I can explain what was going on –No, no, no. No. Don’t “Night Moves” me. Shh. Just let it wash over you. Look… Just take it in.

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Finding a home for Pup 719!

Remember sea otter pup 719, who was rescued by our Sea Otter Program last month? We’re happy to announce that she’s found a permanent home at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago! Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at her journey from rescued pup to new member of the Shedd family.

On January 6, a four-week-old sea otter pup stranded off Carmel Beach during a storm. She was reported rolling in the surf alone and crying. Our Sea Otter Program staff responded, and after rescuing the shivering pup, tried to locate her mother. 

Unfortunately, after an extensive search of the area, we were unable to find mom, and our team brought the little orphan back to the Aquarium for care. Dubbed “719” as the 719th otter we’ve taken in since 1984, she received near round-the-clock care from staff and volunteers to nurse her back to health.

Tender loving care—and more care

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has the only program in the world that focuses on rescuing and caring for stranded southern sea otter pups. We raise pups for release back into the wild, and try to place non-releasable pups in long-term homes at accredited U.S. aquariums and zoos.

Prepping a pup for release to the wild is an intensive, long-term project. After initial guidance through early developmental stages from our Sea Otter Program staff, pups must complete a survival skills class with one of our five resident female sea otters during a months-long surrogacy—a lot of work for everyone involved!

When 719 stranded, all of our available surrogates were already paired with other rescued pups—so our next option was finding a forever home for the pup at an AZA accredited institution. Luckily, our friends and close colleagues at Shedd Aquarium had room available in their sea otter exhibit!

When we heard the good news, we started preparing the pup for her big move to Chicago. Our Sea Otter Program staff got the pup acclimated to face-to-face human care during swimming and grooming sessions, bottle feeding and the transition from formula to solid food.

On a steady diet of tender loving care (and a sea lion’s share of clams), the lively youngster quickly grew stronger. She shed her pup coat and her otter skills developed day by day.

Karl Mayer, whose Sea Otter Program team spent many hours caring for 719, reported: “She’s a very robust and feisty pup. Developmentally she’s slightly ahead of the curve, especially compared to animals that stranded as newborns. This reflects that she came in as a healthy four-week-old-pup. She’s diving consistently down to the bottom of her pool, she’s retrieving food and rocks and shells, and she’s very dexterous with her paws.”

After almost two weeks of caring for 719, on January 21 our staff welcomed Shedd animal trainer Michael Pratt to work with our team in Monterey and meet the now-not-so-little pup. 

After a week of close collaboration, we said farewell to Pup 719 and Michael and Shedd veterinarian Dr. Caryn Poll accompanied her to her new home!

A lucky girl indeed

We’re grateful that Shedd Aquarium was able to provide a caring home for Pup 719. During El Niño years like this one, storms can result in more strandings than usual, making it all the more challenging to manage the care of, or find homes for, sea otter pups that strand along the California coast. In rare cases, we’re able to reunite the pups with their mothers in the wild. When one of our surrogate sea otter moms is available, we rear pups for release. If we can’t raise them for release, and none of our colleagues can offer a permanent home, as a very last option, some pups have to be humanely euthanized.

Southern sea otters play a critical role in shaping and restoring many coastal habitats—and they’re also a threatened species. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Program has been studying the threatened southern sea otter since 1984 with the aim of understanding threats to the population and promoting its recovery.

In otter news…

Another sea otter currently in our care is also gearing up for his next adventure—in the wild! Stay tuned for news about the release of Pup 696, one of several rescued pups currently being raised at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for wild release.

For now, we wish Pup 719 an otter-ly wonderful life at her new home! You can follow the rest of her journey at Shedd here!

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Pup 719, an orphaned sea otter pup found off California's coast, has a new home at the Shedd

http://trib.in/1onhrLC?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

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日本語訳はこちら

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Mother and Baby Sea Otters by Tim Melling on Flicker

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Guess who we spotted yesterday in the kelp beds off our back deck? We’re happy to report that mom and pup are both doing well! Watching this adorable pair is special to us because, with your support, we’ve been working to protect wild sea otters for over 30 years. 

Learn more about what we do and how you can help.