Heal the Bay Blog

Nov. 19, 2015 — This blog was written by Taylor Spesak, Public Programs Intern, and Catherine Hoffman, Programs Coordinator, at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

Beneath your toes at the beach are thousands of sand crabs just trying to make it through the day. Most beachgoers walk right over them without a care, but Santa Monica Pier Aquarium citizen scientists are eager to find them!

Heal the Bay recently partnered with the statewide LiMPETS program to bring sand crab monitoring to the Santa Monica shoreline just outside the Aquarium’s doors. This program activates people along the entire California coast to do real science through hands-on data collection.

But…why do we care about sand crabs? For starters, they can tell scientists a lot about the sandy beach ecosystem. For example, if there is a low number of crabs during a collection, water quality may be poor or a high number of predators may be snacking on the sand crabs. The list could go on and on. By simply counting these overlooked creatures, scientists can make conclusions about the entire ecosystem’s overall health.

Citizen scientists from the Aquarium are focusing on sand crabs specifically in the area around the Santa Monica Pier. We’re examining several factors that may be affecting the number of crabs present, like how long it’s been since a heavy rain and whether the sample spot is under the Pier. We’ve already noticed that there seem to be more crabs during dry spells and more crabs directly under the Pier.

The findings are intriguing, and we look forward to analyzing more data. That’s where you come in!

Experienced or not, anyone can be a citizen scientist, and we’d love to do science with you. As long as the tides are low, the surf isn’t too aggressive, and there is no rain we will be out collecting data every Wednesday at 3:00pm. No training required! Meet us at the Aquarium and we’ll then head down to the beach to collect our sand crabs. This program can also be used as a service or linked learning opportunity for middle and high school students. An AP Environmental Studies class from Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise has already helped us collect great data.

So come get crabby with us on Wednesday, November 25, at 3pm and kick off your citizen science career under the Pier!

For more information, please email Catherine Hoffman at choffman@healthebay.org.

With a predicted El Niño “too big to fail” heading for Southern California, we proclaimed Oct. 11-17 El Niño Week to help us all understand what causes this meteorological phenomenon, offer tips to prepare, and explore the ways that expected heavy rains can be turned to our advantage. We have a number of folks and establishments to thank for their help and support in making El Niño Week a success.

Thanks to WaterLA’s Melanie Winter who led a conversation at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium about water and land use in L.A and to RainReserve for demonstrating the myriad devices available for capturing rainwater.

We’re also grateful to Bill Patzert, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology’s NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, for giving an informative and entertaining talk to a packed room at the Aquarium.  Patzert managed to have the crowd in stitches as he explained the science behind an El Niño.

And finally, a huge thank you to the five local establishments that got into the spirit of the week by creating El Niño inspired cocktails and pledging a portion of the proceeds to Heal the Bay from each clever concoction sold throughout El Niño Week. Thanks to these restaurants: The Lobster, Cassia, Hotel Casa del Mar’s Terrazza Lounge, Locanda del Lago, and Rusty’s Surf Ranch.

We love Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos at Heal the Bay, and at our Aquarium we celebrate with a weekend-long Fishy Fest. The annual event is made all the more festive thanks to the City of Santa Monica’s Resource Recovery and Recycling division’s contribution of gently used and brand new costumes. A parade of ghosts and goblins along the Pier is a favorite feature of the weekend, and the trick or treating made all the sweeter by our participating neighbors: Rusty’s Surf Ranch, The Albright, Blazing Saddles, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Pacific Park.

Savvy Seafood 

Each time we go to a supermarket or restaurant we are confronted with a choice about what food items to buy.  Health concerns and a growing desire to eat local and sustainable foods have made this decision harder than ever.  Each month, Nick Fash, education specialist and Key to the Sea manager at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, will help you make informed choices at the seafood counter as well as at your favorite local restaurant. And try one of his delectable recipes included at the end of this blog.

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Salmon? What exactly does this mean when you read it on a menu?  The truth is that it could be farmed, or wild, or any one of six different fishes from two different groups from opposite ends of the earth.  Not so simple anymore, is it?

There are two basic types of salmon: Atlantic and Pacific.  The Atlantic salmon is in the genus Salmo and originally came from the Atlantic Ocean (I say originally as they are now farmed all over the world) and Pacific salmon is in the genus Oncorhynchus, which come from the Pacific Ocean.

Salmon are born in fresh water, travel to the ocean in their adult life and return to the fresh water to lay eggs. They are a keystone species, meaning they play an important role in the nutrient-starved ecosystems where they spawn.  When the Pacific salmon die, the nutrients in their body that they obtained from their lives out in the ocean are released into the Arctic, beginning the explosion of life that occurs during the spring and summer months.  Without these nutrients the Arctic ecosystem would be unable to function properly.

Salmon are extremely sensitive to environmental changes in the ocean as well as on land.  Their populations are suffering from logging, mining, pollution and changing ocean conditions. And salmon farming is the most recent threat having a major impact. Not only are these salmon farms destroying the ecosystem with all of the waste they produce, they are spreading diseases and parasites to the wild salmon as they migrate out to the ocean.  So we are not only destroying one of nature’s finest food sources, replacing them with highly inferior farmed salmon, we are also at the risk of dismantling an entire ecosystem.

While here in Southern California we do not have open pen aquaculture – salmon farms set up off shore along the coast – we do have other problems that impact salmon populations, like pollution, coastal development and habitat destruction, which can impact our own fisheries.  Heal the Bay has spent the last 30 years cleaning up our waters, protecting our oceans by helping to establish Marine Protection Areas, and working to make our fisheries healthier. 

Looking to learn more about the plight of wild Pacific salmon?  Come to the screening of The Breach on May 20^th at Cross Campus in Santa Monica, eat tasty treats, and hear chefs, biologists and the filmmaker discuss what we can all do to help.

Heal the Bay members will get 20 percent off the ticket price by using the code BREACH20. Tickets are available here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-breach-screening-reception-santa-monica-tickets-16436392693 _______________________________________________________________________

Wild Alaskan Salmon  

(serves 4)

                          o  3lb Wild Alaskan Salmon fillet, with skin on

                    Sauce

                                      o  1 cup plain Greek yogurt

                          o  2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

                          o  1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

                          o  1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

                          o  ½ teaspoon finely grated orange zest

                         o  1 teaspoon fresh orange juice

                          o  ¾ teaspoon salt

                        o  ¼ teaspoon honey

Preheat broiler.  Line rack of broiler with foil and lightly brush with oil.

Pat filet dry and check for bones by running finger along the filet.  If you find any bones you can pull them out with a pair of clean pliers.  Season with salt and pepper.  Broil 4-5 inches from heat for 7 minutes, cover with foil and continue to cook in the broiler for another 7-10 minutes.

While the salmon is broiling whisk together all sauce ingredients.  Season with pepper to taste

Enjoy – Nick

Summer’s in full swing and the kids are voicing that all too familiar mantra: “what can I do? I’m bored!” Parents, don’t panic; we’ve got this one. Sign your kids up to enjoy some summer fun at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium’s Science Adventures Camp.

Weeklong sessions provide kindergarten through fifth graders with fun-filled days with the fishes – and eels, sea horses and jellies – plus too many other species local to the Santa Monica Bay to name. Campers enjoy exclusive time in the Aquarium, plenty of interaction with live animals, and a week’s worth of games, crafts and laboratory practices. A different marine-themed topic is explored each day.

Whether they’re in it for the science, the animals or the beach culture, this camp is a fun, educational experience for all. It’s just enough science for a summer day! Sign up early to guarantee a spot in this popular program.