NEPTUNE 911 For Kids: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Another Otter Cuteness Alert

Meet "Otter 649"

Otter 649. MBA Photo

This 12-1/2-week-old male sea otter pup was rescued in November 2014. He was just three-weeks-old and quite ill. But Otter 649 is healthy now and lives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA.

He doesn't have a real name yet. He's called Otter 649 because he is the 649th stranded otter rescued since 1984. *

The little guy can't return to the wild because he has had too much contact with humans.

Here's the aquarium's sea otter live web cam: Sea Otter Web Cam

* Otter 649 number comes from being the 649th stranded otter to be brought into Sea Otter Research and Conservation program .

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Live Web Cams with Otters, Sharks, Penquins and More

Even if you live thousands of miles from the sea, there are live web cams that you can watch--like the entertaining sea otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Thanks to a live web cam, a young man recently viewed the first ever video capture of an elephant seal slurping a hagfish at the sea's bottom.

Sea Otter Web Cam

Otters love to play with toys, lounge in ice buckets or just snooze. We feed ours four times a day, often putting the food in toys to stimulate the otters' natural behavior of pounding and working to get food out of shells.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_otter/otter_cam.aspx

Open Sea Web Cam

You'll see giant bluefin tuna power their way through the water, while hammerhead sharks, pelagic rays and giant green sea turtles swim just inches away.

The stunning one-million-gallon exhibit is home to one of the most diverse communities of open-ocean animals to be found in any aquarium.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_opensea/open_sea_cam.aspx

Northern Elephant Seals

Watch northern elephant seals throughout the year when they haul out at the Piedras Blancas Rookery in California

http://www.elephantseal.org/Rookery/livecam.htm

Beluga Whale Cam

View the underwater world of the belugas and take an imaginary journey to the Canadian Arctic.

http://www.vanaqua.org/learn/see-and-learn/live-cams/beluga-cam

Jelly Cam

The jellies featured on this Vancouver Aquarium Jelly Cam are Japanese sea nettles. Jellies are invertebrates made up mostly of water. They have no heart, brain or bones

http://www.vanaqua.org/learn/see-and-learn/live-cams/jelly-cam

Hawaiian Monk Seal

An endangered seal rescued and now resides in this

Hawaiian aquarium

http://www.waquarium.org/webcams.html

Magellanic Penquin Cam

A temperate species, Magellanic Penguins are usually about two to two-and-a-half feet tall and weigh between six and fifteen pounds when fully grown.

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/exhibits/penguin_habitat/penguin_cam_above

Whale Shark Cam

Whale sharks can grow to 15 meters (50 feet) and weigh as much as 40 tons by some estimates.

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/explore-the-aquarium/interact/web-cams.aspx

Testing the Waters

The northern elephant seals pups born during the winter are now called "weaners." Thousands of these 300-pound weaners test the waters. In other words,they are teaching themselves how to swim.

You read that right. Northern elephant seal pups and weaners do not know how to swim. Their mothers left them behind just 4-weeks after they were born. So, now they are on their own, grouped together in "weaner pods" and the beach and nearby tidepools are their classroom.

By April most of these fat weaners will have developed muscle from playing in the water. They will swim like athletes, and dive like Olympic stars. That means it is time for them to leave the safety of their birthplace and begin a 6-month adventure in the Pacific Ocean.

The next time you and I can see them is when they return to their beach sometime around September.

About Humpback Whales

From NOAA

How did the humpback whale get its name?

The humpback whale gets its name from fact
that the dorsal fin sits on a large “hump” on
the back, which is noticeable when the whale
arches its back and dives. The scientific
name, Megaptera novaeangliae, means “big
wing of New England.” The “big wing” refers
to the humpback’s very long flippers, which
can be one-third of its body length.

What do they look like?

Humpback whales can be easily identified by
their markings. They are rorqual whales - a
set of whales that are all in the family
Balaenopteridae, have ventral (head to tail)
grooves on the throat, and a small, pointed
dorsal fin. The grooves allow the throat to
expand so they can take in huge amounts of
water when they feed. The grooves contract
and push out the water, which is filtered
through baleen.

This is an adaptation that developed to help it
efficiently eat the tons of food needed for its
survival. Baleen, made of fingernail-like material
called keratin, hangs down in a humpback’s
mouth and catches the food. Humpback whales
have between 270 and 400 pairs of baleen and
each is approximately 30 inches long. The
plates are rough enough to filter prey such as
krill.

Humpbacks have an irregularly shaped dorsal
fin located two-thirds of the way back of the
body and very long flippers.

Humpbacks have large bumps on the leading
edge (front) of the flippers as well as bump-like
knobs on the head and lower jaw. Each of the
bumps on the head and lower jaw are a called
“tubercle.” They contain stiff hairs, like a cat’s
whiskers, that may help humpbacks regulate
temperature or sense things in the water.

Many humpback whales are also home to
barnacles that stick to their skin.

Humpback whales usually dive underwater for 3-5 minutes.

NEPTUNE 911 For Kids

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Another Otter Cuteness Alert

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Live Web Cams with Otters, Sharks, Penquins and More

Monday, October 29, 2012

Halloween Fun From the Depths of the Sea

Dont Trash the Beach

New Born Northern Elephant Seal Pup

Testing the Waters

About Humpback Whales

A Shark's ABC Book To Download