I know this isn't the point, but what incredible footage. Very useful in educating a wide array of people.

I will forever be haunted by this footage. Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity. What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives. 🌎🦑🧪

Strapped some lasers and lights on our dropcam and drifted along the Santa Monica Bay ocean floor at about 40m depth. Absolutely hacky, but it worked. Plenty of brittlestars, sanddabs, urchins, tubeworms, anemones, and more! Turns out octopuses are a lot like cats when it comes to lasers. 🦑🐟🧪🌎

Gotta say, I did NOT expect *cleaner* than normal water in terms of chemistry. Genuinely shocked. The layer of surface ash stopped showing up consistently about 2 km north of our site, but ... I'll take the good news where I can.

cc: students

recently finished this marine bio inspired knit 🧶 🌊

Two tries later: success! Increased fill to 60% and used a rectilinear infill pattern. Printed with a Bambu Lab A1 printer. Took 10:47 to print. This one liter sediment core weighs 179g, has a beveled top edge, a 1-mm screen on the bottom, and is just slightly *negatively* buoyant. It’s perfect.

Given what is happening at the federal level, I assume this is not a glitch and that buoy information is not going to come back online. I really hope I'm wrong. Buoy data is absolutely invaluable.

Hey, I know those fish! 😂

For reference, we previously used 5" sections of 4" ABS pipe, glued on a knockout plug, drill large holes in the plug, then glued 1-mm screen over the holes. Super inefficient, prone to damage, and costs more in just materials than a 3D printed core using PLA. It works, but we can do better!

As we replace old and damaged gear, why not use newer/cheaper/better technology? I designed and 3D printed a diver sediment core with 1-mm screen and a beveled edge. Not bad for a first try, screen isn’t perfect but it’ll work. Biggest issue? It floats 😳🫠🤷🏻‍♂️ Guess I need a higher infill %? 🧪🦑🌎

Happy Valentines Day, from the VRG to you ... but feel free to fill in your own names on our custom templates! (artwork, text, and original absurdity by @chesseea.bsky.social)

"In wake of Palisades fire, scientists keep an eye on how debris runoff could impact the ocean" Listen to VRG Post-Doc Zoë Kitchel (@zoejean88.bsky.social) talk about potential impacts of the Palisades Fire on rocky reefs in Malibu! laist.com/shows/airtal...

A lot goes unsaid and under-discussed in this article and video, and it'd be great if the general public didn't have to connect the dots, but also this is a really informative piece. Maybe 100 ft to the right of this photo is Palos Verdes Reef, which we built in 2020. abcnews.go.com/US/californi...

Many of our marine biology PIs and staff are getting trained on our new #microCT … hopefully not our last NSF-funded purchase (This picture is lame, but I didn’t want to interrupt. I’m sure we will spam you with TONS of images soon #ScanAllFishes)

Should be interesting (and probably disappointing) to see our upcoming water chemistry sampling results, plus see the lingering effects of runoff on the water column and ocean floor over the next year. We saw it after the Woolsey Fire, I can imagine the result is any better this time around.

Applications for our postbaccalaureate program are only open for another 10 days. If you're a recent college grad who is interested in museum careers, but didn't get the opportunity in college to gain research experience, consider applying to work with us for 12 months! Please feel free to share

I’m in the middle of family leave, but I took two days back because some students told me they wanted to test out a promising project. Lo and behold, three automatic (via thruster and pre-programming) CTDs that we made race through a profile program. The red one won! 😂

Wow! If only Apple Watch also had pH and DO sensors, we'd *really* be in business!

Whoa - lot of new followers while I was out on family leave! If you aren't familiar with us, I always recommend familiarizing yourself with one of our recent success stories: Palos Verdes Reef. Check out this short film by Shaun Wolfe called "Rebirth of a Reef"! www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGg0...

I still think about this about once a month, especially "Eel. Seal. Eel in a Seal."

Lost in the excitement of all this was that the shark barfed up a fish carcass (as in, whole fish sans fillets) with a SMALL hook in it attached to about 20 ft of light test monofilament. The way I see it, us catching her might have saved her life.

🧪🌎🦑🐟 Me, instructor, making wild claims: "I bet we catch a big leopard shark on this replicate." Class, having caught only bait thus far: 🙄 Me, beaming/gloating/measuring (149 cm TL) leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) that we seined onto the beach from < 1m of water in Marina del Rey, CA:

I spent all morning imploring students to do the "stingray shuffle" as we were beach seining near a local round ray hotspot AND I could see them on the bottom. Guess how many people got stabbed by a barb? One. Me. Of course. 🐟🦑🫠

Huh. *growth.gif*

Before diving at the King Harbor Breakwall this morning, I said to our team, "We're going to have a surprise on this dive." Sure enough! 🐟🧪🦑🌎 Adult Cortez Angelfish (Pomacanthus zonipectus) in about 25 ft of water. Matches the northernmost record for this fish. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Well. I'm in Seattle for @posit.co #posit::conf, but boy did I and some of my workshop-mates get a startle when the #earthquake alert went off on my watch and phone. Epicenter? 777 ft from my house. In Los Angeles. 🧪

Happy Marine Protected Area (MPA) Day! There is overwhelming scientific consensus that: -Well designed and well managed MPAs are key to ocean conservation -Far too many MPAs are not well designed or well managed. 🦑🧪🌎

Just found this photo on my computer again after many years. From an armrest on a chair near the Gulf of California at Camp Archelon, Bahia de Los Angeles, BC, Mexico, circa 2004. 🧪🌎🦑 I've always found it comforting and always wanted it to be how everyone felt about young scientists and their work.

Any time this comes up, I think: huh, maybe I *should* write that paper with those co-authors

Happy Earth Day! 🌎🐟🧪🦑 About to submit our Year 3 Report for Palos Verdes Reef. I'll give you a sneak peak at how the restoration reef is doing. In short: Incredibly well. Figures show biotic benthic cover and fish biomass on the new reef modules, by year. Construction was in 2020.

And when I wake up, energized by dreams of colorful fish, I roll out of bed to see my father’s eyes looking back at me in the bathroom mirror. I promise him, just as he promised his father, “Let’s go make some good.” www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/marian...

After #OSM24, we stuck around New Orleans for a bit. Did a tour of the Honey Island Swamp and West Pearl River. Why did nobody tell me that the swamp is kinda gorgeous? And littered with raccoons?? 🌎

Just realized #OSM24 talks are scheduled for 10 mins instead of 15. Doesn't say much for my reading comprehension. But if you'd like to see me talk really fast about how EMF from submarine power cables affects crab behavior, I present at 8:50a in Room 217-219 OT41B: Offshore Renewable Energy 🧪🦑🦀

“But sharks and rays are separated by about 300 million years of evolution - about as much as time when the ancestors from humans diverged from the ancestors of snakes, which means a shark knocking up a stingray is about as likely as a human knocking up a snake." - Dr. Noah Bressman 👨‍🍳

In early May, I will be attending a conference (GeoHab 2024) in Arendal, Norway. Also stopping in Bergen for a few days. Looking for suggestions on must see/do things, including breweries/distilleries, family friendly activities, adventure, etc. …also golf. I want to golf there. At weird hours.

It's been raining for 46 straight hours here in Los Angeles. What does that volume of fresh water do to fish populations in estuaries? 🌎🧪🦑🐟

Wild Green Memes has been cracking me up all week with movie poster parodies I wrote about WGM for American scientist magazine www.americanscientist.org/blog/macrosc...

Seems better than having to send a $35,000 instrument in for repair every few months. I've long planned to just have a flotilla of OpenCTDs at my disposal ... some friends in the robotics lab at Santa Clara are helping us with our vision. Stay tuned!

🦑🌎

"Why is the water so brown and why is there so much sediment on top of the reef?" Here's a good illustration of why, and why we built Palos Verdes Reef modules up to 4 m tall: to withstand the constant flow of terrestrial sediment from landslides that will never stop.

Well well well, look who finally decided to take up residence in my owl box, 6 years after I put it up 🦉🌎

Interested in #GIS in #rstats? I've recently heavily modified the @thecarpentries GIS in R curriculum to focus on #seagrass beds in Casco Bay for COBALT cobalt-casco.github.io/r-raster-vec... - this is all sf and terra, using tidyterra (w/ ggplot2) and leaflet for plotting. 🌍 #geo

Looking for a postdoc to work on microplastics in our museum specimens! We are extending the application window for this position for two more weeks and are flexible on starting date. If you know anyone interested, please forward. workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

Been a hot minute since we felt and earthquake here

With storms coming in next week, we are officially calling it a field season! Hard to describe how much effort it takes to survey 361 dive sites in six months, but maybe the maps will help. Zoomed in views of Palos Verdes and Malibu to show the absurd coverage we have in Santa Monica Bay! 🌎🦑🧪