Good night bae Bay
📷 by local underwater photographer JR Sosky
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Explore the wonders of the ocean in a gif-ferent way, as we tumble through the beauty and science of the sea. Our mission is to inspire conservation of the ocean.
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The gray whale migration is whale under way! We just spouted a couple of Baja-bound vagabonds off of Cannery Row, as their caravan counterparts leave the frigid waters of Alaska to breed in the shallow lagoons of Mexico.
(And yes, this is a 100% scientifically accurate, to-scale animation. Y'all should plan to attend the annual Gargantuan Gray Whale Jumping Over The Aleutians festival, it’s quite the sight to sea.)
Holiday decorations are a cinch when your eyeballs are scintillating ornaments. Dock shrimp reason that the season calls for face-stivities!
Leopardon us—but we have a special gift for you this holiday season! Our very special 12 Days of Fishmas email series is just the thing to add a little aquatic cheer to your inbox during the most punderful time of the year! Sign up here!
Hi hello 👋we have a Charlie Brown kelpmas tree in need of decorocean. Kelp us decorate by leaving a note with your favorite emoji!
A duo of flocculent feathers flicker to and fro in a foraging fandango as each filament feverishly filters food from the fluctuating sea flow.
Sand crabs (Emerita analoga) are built for a life feeding beneath the breaking waves—as the waves move with the tide, so do the crabs. Hunkering down into the sand, face towards the sea, sand crabs use their feather-like antennae to filter tiny floating plankton from the water. The next time you’re walking along the shore, keep an eye out for their burrows in the wet sand, or for their molts washed up in the driftline!
And if you need a quick sand crab anatomy primer: ⬇️
![[Opening Marine Wildlife Wonder Oven and inhaling deeply] Aaaaaaaah, our famous Star-Spangled Toasty Tunicate Didemnum Dumplings are ready for eyes to feast upon them!
Didemnum tunicates are an apartment complex of many filter-feeding individuals,...](https://66.media.tumblr.com/bcfdbbd71e2b49c7529419a0c7938bbc/tumblr_pj8m2eNBz01qm9k25o1_1280.jpg)
[Opening Marine Wildlife Wonder Oven and inhaling deeply] Aaaaaaaah, our famous Star-Spangled Toasty Tunicate Didemnum Dumplings are ready for eyes to feast upon them!
Didemnum tunicates are an apartment complex of many filter-feeding individuals, all housed in a shared orange tunic. Each small hole is a mouth to one of the tenants, while the larger opening is the communal waste disposal.
These co-ops defend themselves from would-be Didem-noms with sharp spikes, while other tunicates use chemical defenses like sulfuric acid to fend off nosy neighbors.
Brilliant tunicates like Didemnum are plastered all over the rocky reef here in Monterey Bay, from solitary morphs like the ruby sea peach getting tubed under barnacle feet above, or the bright pink modern art of a Cystodytes lobatus colony below.
These colorful critters filter the water for microscopic food—one large solitary tunicate may filter several liters of seawater in an hour! Whatever the case, these lil’ dumplings are certainly a part of a balanced kelp forest ecosystem.
🌈⛈🌊😍
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
- Emily Dickinson 🦅
Getting one last nude post in before the 17th
It’s o-fish-ial—Black Friday lines are so long, the sardines and anchovies have joined in. The good news? They’re here to kelp spruce up your desktop and mobile devices for the holidays with our new wallpaper!