Friday, August 17, 2012

Bella's First Blog Post


Date: June 8, 2009

Hello there bloggers. My name is Bella Cullen and I’m the summer intern with MMR. Since I’m not a full-fledged member of the crew, I can’t give you as much information as they can, so I thought I’d share with you what I’ve learned so far this summer.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from my time with the crew at MMR, but I can tell you that when they tell you to be prepared for an adventure of your life, they aren’t kidding. 

I had only been with the team for a few days and we hadn’t even left their home base in Hawaii before I had my first adventure. I was with the head of MMR, Edward Masen when he got word that a pod of Orca had been spotted not far from where we were at the time. 

I had seen these amazing creatures of the sea up close before during my time working at Sea World, but to see these majestic creatures up close in their natural habitat was simply magnificent. The way they sliced through the water with such ease was so graceful and majestic almost like some sort of water ballet. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. 

Thanks to Edward’s awesome skills with a camera, I have the great pictures below to share with you from that day. 


Speaking of Edward and his picture taking skills, I recently saw another way the leader of this amazing team is incredibly smart and talented. Not only does he have a vast amount of knowledge about sharks and other marine life, he has an incredibly gifted, inventive mind. I watched first hand and learned it’s possible to make your own you own camera lense accessories from simple house hold items that you can find every day in your own kitchen. It was very enlightening, educational, and rewarding for me to see him turn milk and vinegar into plastic. 

However surprising learning to turn milk and vinegar into plastic was, it’s just the tip of the iceberg of the things I’ve already learned in the two weeks I’ve been with the MMR team. 

You might think that two weeks isn’t much time to have learned a whole lot, but I can assure you that I have. 

Before the team and I had even left their home base in Hawaii, I went on a trip to the Maui Ocean Center where I learned several things about 
Hammerhead sharks. I was surprised to learn that they are the only species of shark that swim in schools. There are nine different types of hammerheads, and while they aren’t considered to be aggressive, they are still considered to be dangerous because of their size. Maybe like me you have wondered about the shape of this shark’s head. It’s believed that is allows for increased sensory abilities and easier navigation. So you see, they make look entirely different from how you’d picture a shark, but there is a good reason for it.



Very different from the hammerhead, the Tiger shark is known as the garbage can of the sea. Tigers have the most diverse diet of sharks—turtles, rays, birds, squid, dolphins and even smaller sharks. But it’s the nonfood items they consume that have given them their nickname. Their stomachs have been found to hold tires, bottles, license plates and all sorts of things. This particular type of shark is born with dark spots and vertical strips which fade as the shark ages. They have a blunt nose and the agility to curve their bodies and change direction very quickly. Another interesting fact that separates tiger sharks from others is that they have identical rows of twenty-four teeth that work together to capture their prey and consume it. However most other sharks the lower jaw holds the prey while the upper cuts into it.


 
Sharks aren’t the only ocean life I’ve learned about. On our first day at sea I spotted a Wahoo which looks like a Mackerel with long scaly bodies and a pointed mouth. Wahoo are a prized sport fish in Hawaii and also in Bermuda.




I also learned about skipjacks which are part of the tuna family are preyed upon by sharks and wahoo. They live in tropical waters across the world and can live in shoals of up to 50,000 fish. Skipjacks are a silvery fish with four lateral bands that appear reflective under water. Different from typical fish, skipjacks don’t have scales except on the corselet, a dark blue band of large, thick scales running directly along the top, from their mouths to their tail fins. They feed on small fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and mollusks as well as serving an important part of the culinary culture in Hawaii and Japan.  Unfortunately the skipjack has a short life span of about seven years. The only manage to keep their numbers so vast because they begin to reproduce when they are only a year old. But their large numbers also pose a danger to them, which is the threat of commercial and game fishing.

 
It’s hard for me to comprehend all the knowledge I have already gained in my time with the MMR team and even harder to think of all I might still learn. The entire team is overflowing with a vast amount of information, particularly on sharks and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me. One thing’s for sure and that is my adventure has just begun. 

We are set to reach False Bay, which is off the coast of South Africa, in just about five days. Once there my next shark to learn about will be the Great White. So next time I post I will be able to share with you all of the details I learn about this apex predator which is at the top of the shark food chain. 

Before I go I’d like to urge any of you who are considering MMR’s intern program to really give it some serious thought. I think you could be well on your way to an amazing adventure next summer, just like I am this year. 

The last thing I’d like to share with you is a little bit of fun trivia I’ve learned so far and that is the Hawaiian names for all of the sea life I’ve learned about so far.  Check them out below and let me know if there are any others you’d like to know the names of. 

Hammerhead = Mano Kihikihi

Tiger Shark = Niuhi    

Wahoo = Ono

Skipjack = Aku

See you next time, Bella, or as I have been affectionately dubbed by the team, Guppy.


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