Through September 2, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary will host Big Blue Live – an unprecedented series of live natural history broadcasts from PBS and the BBC. Big Blue Live highlights the remarkable marine life that gathers in Monterey Bay each summer, and celebrates an ocean conservation success story of global significance. We’re publishing guest commentaries about conservation efforts that contribute to the health of the bay and our ocean planet. This is from Sanctuary Superintendent Paul Michel.
Recent NASA pictures of Earth remind us that we indeed inhabit a blue planet – that most of our planet is covered by the ocean. In fact, it is the “big blue” that makes ours a habitable place to live, regulating temperature and weather, and providing more than half of the world’s oxygen. So it’s fitting that Big Blue Live comes here to showcase one of the most spectacular ocean environments on Earth.
The ocean is home to amazing creatures, from microscopic to gigantic – seemingly endless varieties of the shelled, scaled, skinned, feathered and furred. But, when you consider all the marine ecosystems, all the coastlines around the continents, even all the aggregations and migrations of sea life, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary stands out as one of the most spectacular: beautiful, rich, and diverse. As a result, this Sanctuary offers some of the best marine wildlife watching in the world, and is often described as the “Serengeti of the Sea”.
What makes this place so special is what happens out of sight and behind the curtain of waves. Seasonal winds drive cold water to the surface from great depths. These waters are rich in nutrients, which fuel the growth of phytoplankton – the basis for the Sanctuary’s rich marine food web. This productivity invites animals from all corners of the Pacific to come and dine (and live year-round) at the “Monterey Bay Café”!
And what’s on the menu? There are some tasty entrees: krill, squid, sardines, anchovies and even jellyfish (if you’re a leatherback sea turtle!). All told, 34 species of marine mammals and more than 180 species of seabirds and shorebirds come to the table. Monterey Bay and Greater Farallones sanctuaries together contain the largest concentration of white sharks on the west coast.
We humans feed here as well. Since 1992, the sanctuary’s productive ecosystem has supported the harvest of more than a billion pounds of sardines, anchovies and squid. Last year was the greatest landing (by weight) of any of these prey species in the past 15 years, with 90 million pounds of squid alone landed at local ports.
Along with krill (which are not fished) these are the most significant prey in the ecosystem, upon which many species from whales to salmon to seabirds to halibut rely.
Monterey Bay and surrounding waters are also special because of the protection they’ve received. Designated in 1992, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a federally protected marine area, an underwater equivalent to the grandest of America’s national parks. Stretching from Marin County to Cambria, the Sanctuary encompasses a shoreline length of 276 miles (more than one-quarter of the California coast) and 4,602 square nautical miles of ocean. The Sanctuary plays an important role in protecting marine life and ecosystems of the Bay, as well as conducting scientific study and raising awareness about what a special place it is.
Overall, the marine habitats and living resources in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary are in excellent condition, according to our latest evaluation of current trends and pressures. Populations of humpback whales, blue whales, gray whales, elephant seals, sea otters and numerous fish species are stable or slightly increasing.
As one example, elephant seal births in the Sanctuary have more than tripled since 1992. In fact, there were no births at Piedras Blancas, near the south end of the Sanctuary, in 1992. Today, a large well-established colony exists, producing thousands of births. For another, best estimates put the Eastern Pacific population of gray whales at a healthy 20,990 individuals at the end of 2014. Gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal: they travel about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) round trip!
Over the last two years, humpback whales (about 1,875 individuals in the West Coast stock) have been seen close to shore and very accessible to the whale-watching public as the whales feed on anchovies and krill. Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary led the way in protecting krill as a critical component of the ocean food web. This is now a regulation for the entire west coast of the U.S.
To see animals like these in the wild is truly the experience of a lifetime. Because they’re ocean dwellers, and often below the surface, most of us rarely get the chance. Big Blue Live will deliver these experiences to people across the planet in a very engaging and special way.
You don’t want to miss it!
Conservation & Science 
Reblogged this on Her Headache and commented:
This is awesome!!!
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Three years ago, I took my nine year old grandson out of school, and we spent a long time observing the elephant seal population at San Simeon. It was an adventure he will never forget. I spent a few hours shooting photographs of the seals’ behavior, distinctions, mating process, bulls fighting each other in and out of the water, and mothers with babies. I shot sequentially, which helped tell the story of each animal, in relation to the others. I have several amazing shots of the oldest male. His neck had scarification on top of scarification. He was so protective, and powerful. In CA, it is difficult to take a kid out of school for a week, even if they are in third grade. Fortunately Brady had an awesome teacher who excused his absences because of all the science we were doing together. If you have never been to San Simeon Elephant Seals beaches, it is worth however long it takes you to get there. The best viewing is at the end of February. The females are giving birth, and the bulls are fascinating to watch. You are not allowed contact with the seals (as it should be) but if you have binoculars or a long lens (mine was a 300mm) you will see all the action close up and personal.
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