Sea life... Research, Travel, SCUBA Dive

My name is Malaika, and I'm studying to become a marine biologist in Rhode Island. I'm currently working at the MBL in Woods Hole and hoping to make identifying sea life (specifically jellyfish) easier for the world :) ask me any questions, marine animal related or not. All Photos are my own unless otherwise stated. Please credit if used.

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Midnight jellyfish fertilization! When I saw how many Chrysaora chesapeakei there were tonight, I knew I had to fertilize them and their relatives, C. quinquecirrha! So I snipped some of their gonads out and put them in a dish. The sixth photo is of eggs, the seventh of sperm. Results from last week’s fertilization can be seen in slide 8 with the planulae swimming around, and my first ever grown polyp!!!! Slide 9. On my way to breeding jellies for a living! #jellyfish #fertilization #chrysaora #chrysaoraquinquecirrha #chrysaorachesapeakei #science #seanettle #marinebiology (at Marine Biological Laboratory)

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These past two weeks, jellyfish have been arriving in swarms! Here are a few of my favorites. First: the crystal jellyfish- the kind they discovered the green fluorescent protein from (Aqueora forskalea) which is eating a tiny jellyfish, Nemopsis bachei. Second: the Atlantic sea nettle (Chrysaora quinquecirrha), then two unknown species, fifth: Amphinema dinema, sixth: Mitrocoma cellularia, and lastly, Nemopsis bachei. #chrysaora #seanettle #jellyfish #aqueora #nemopsisbachei #crystaljelly #crossjelly (at Woods Hole, Massachusetts)

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In my first few days at Roger Williams, I’ve seen tons of wildlife, including a group of deer- three fawns that were triplets and their mother. It’s super rare to find deers that are triplets, so this was a pretty awesome thing to see. I’ve seen some unidentified minnows and crabs also. Looking forward to classes starting on wednesday!

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Yesterday was my last night at Woods Hole for the summer! But here’s something cool I learned! If you shine a UV flashlight at jellies and polyps that emit GFP (green fluorescent protein), they will light up pretty brightly! I tried it out here in this patch of seaweed... unfortunately couldn’t find anything too special. I think my light is purple, but not ultra-violet, sadly. Anyways, I look forward to finding all sorts of new and cool marine life at Roger Williams! 

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This guy is called the Northern Pipefish, Syngnathus fuscus. It was about 20 cm long, found swimming off the dock at night in Woods Hole Massachusetts, from August 19. I didn’t know there were any pipefish up here, so it was definitely a surprise, but it was super cool to see! The video is not the best quality but I didn’t want to catch the pipefish and potentially hurt it :)

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Last night was really stormy, so many jellies were pushed into the bay. I found these guys, who I’m pretty sure are Pelagia notiluca, because although they’re not as pink as they are in other photos online, they do have spots across their whole bell, unlike Chrysaora quinquecirrha. These are a few of my favorite pictures of three different large beauties :)

Caught in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, at about 7M, August 18, 2017

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TBT to the first jellies I found here in woods hole, on my arrival day, June 18, 2017. These guys were really robust, and they were swimming in very shallow water off of a dock. They’re called Nemopsis bachei, and next to Mnemiopsis, these were probably the most frequently collected jellies here. 

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This morning was so calm and beautiful! The water was the most clear I’ve seen it all summer, and the bright colors of organisms lit up the ocean floor. I even found a gorgeous pink chrysaora quinquecirrha (most likely, otherwise, c. lactea) floating off the jetti! Since I have a big presentation today (the MBL Undergraduate Symposium), I am taking the jellyfish as a sign of good luck.

Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 17, 2017 

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Tons of chrysaora around here these days! Still trying to figure out if they’re lactea or quinquecirrha! The two were caught yesterday in the morning and then the big guy in the bottom picture was from last night (August 9). Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

[sarahmackattack]

My Friend Diana Li works with Doryteuthis opalescens jet propulsion! Want to learn more about what she does? Check her out on Science Friday!

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-cephalo-inspired-technology-of-the-future/

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Here is a jellyfish called slabberia strangulata, found August 4th at around 10 PM off the coast of Woods Hole. A beauty with a manubrium that extends outside of its bell. The tentacles have terminal ends, which are the little knobs that are red and orange, and you can see the ocelli, which are the black dots at the tentacle bulb on the back two tentacles. These are light sensors that can be found in all cnidarians.

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This is a species of jellyfish with two tentacles. The jellyfish is reddish-orange, and in these photos, the one without the longer tentacles is only about 2mm in length. The one with tentacles is about 4 mm long from the top of its bell to the tip of a tentacle. The species is Amphinema dinema. Two were found three days apart off of a dock in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

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This is a crystal jellyfish, Aequeora forskalea, which is one of the types of jellyfish that has the green fluorescent protein that makes it glow, or bioluminesce. It’s not the best video, but was a gorgeous jellyfish. Found July 26, off the coast of Woods Hole, Massachusetts

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Today I was measuring Idiosepius paradoxus (pygmy squid) in comparison to the local squid here in Woods Hole Massachusetts, Doryteuthus pealeii. Both squid here are hatchlings that are 2 days old, and the larger one is the Doryteuthus. These guys hatch to be around 3mm long, and the idiosepius generally are somewhere between 1.25-2.25mm long in the first 24 hours after hatching. Cute baby squid!

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This jellyfish is called Chyrsaora lactea, a type of sea nettle. There are two in the container, one being on the bottom. They were found off the coast of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on July 25th.

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Doryteuthus pealeii, a species of squid hatchling, ~3.5mm long, hatched July 17. The hatchling is 4 days old. The mature squid were caught off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachussets, and laid eggs in captivity. Eggs in general take about 2 weeks to develop, depending on the temperature of the water they’re kept in

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Here we have a comb jellyfish called Mnemiopsis leidyi, which is pretty large for the species. I am feeding it brine shrimp, and you can see the rows lighting up in that spectacular way that it does. Found in a boat marina on June 29 in Woods Hole Massachusetts. It is about 6 inches long.