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By Raquel Gilliland, SOC Education/Outreach Intern

Welcome to another Creature Feature, where we introduce you to a new and fascinating animal. Today we’re learning about red lionfish (Pterois volitans). These fish can be identified from their red, white, and black stripes that serve as a warning coloration to other animals about their venomous spines. A puncture from the spines along their dorsal and pectoral fins that can cause extreme pain to humans and even death in marine animals. Lionfish belong to the family Scorpianidae which includes hundreds of species of fish that all have sharp spines that secrete venomous mucus.

Lionfish are native to the indo-pacific region but have found their way into the Caribbean and along the east coast of the United States, becoming a problematic invasive species. An invasive species is one that is not native to a specific ecosystem and has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment or our human economy and health. How can one fish cause so many problems? First, lionfish have an extremely high fecundity rate, meaning they reproduce often and in large quantities. Lionfish reach sexual maturity after just one year, and one female lionfish can produce two egg sacks every four days with each egg sack containing up to 15,000 eggs. The result can be two million eggs per female per year. These egg sacks can also float along the surface of the water for hundreds of miles, dependent on currents, increasing the geographic reach and range of the lionfish invasion in the Atlantic. Not all eggs survive, and not all juveniles mature to adulthood. But the ones that do can grow up to 47 cm (18.5 in) in length! As adults, these fish eat any other fish that they can fit in their mouths and can eat up to 90% of their body weight every day. Lionfish have also been found in mangrove systems, which act as a nursery for the young of many coral reef fishes, including economically important species such as groupers and snappers.

Secondly, lionfish have no natural predators in the Atlantic Ocean, making them virtually indestructible. However, there is hope with humans as the predators. As lionfish took over dive sites and became more noticeable, divers discovered they could spear a lionfish quite easily, as they do not swim away from divers. Today, a small sling spear is the most popular form of harvesting lionfish at collecting derbies across the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida. Soon, the culinary world took note of the new opportunity and found that lionfish is a white, flaky, delicate fish excellent for gourmet dishes. Because it is invasive in the Atlantic, it is one of the most sustainable seafood choices for consumers.

Our coral reefs are complex systems, where each species has a specific role to play. Just as lionfish are important to a stable reef system in their native Indo-Pacific oceans, newly introduced species have the potential to wreak havoc when introduced to a new ecosystem. One of our priorities here at Sea of Change Foundation is to work on the conservation and resilience of reef ecosystems, and we encourage divers in the Atlantic to participate in their local lionfish derby and stay up-to-date with regulations and policies on how to prevent the spread of invasive species.

By Raquel Gilliland; Sea of Change Intern

It’s time for another great “Creature Feature” where we introduce you to a new animal and talk about their important conservation status. This week’s animal is arguably one of the most charismatic megafauna in the marine world. They are loved by people and the media just as much as they love catching a wave to surf. Sometimes mistaken for a shark, our featured creature is the playful dolphin! “Dolphin” is a widely used term to refer to many species of Odontoceti (toothed whales); and this week we will focus on species within the Family Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins). Some species within this family include: the long and short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus capensis, Delphinus delphis), the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates), the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), and the orca (Orcinus orca). We’ll cover fascinating orcas in a future Creature Feature.

Dolphins range in size from the 1.7 m (5.6 ft.) to 9.5 m (31 ft.) long and can weigh between 50 kg (110 lb.) to 5443 kg (12, 000 lb)! They are, generally, very social animals that travel in groups called pods ranging between approximately 20-30 dolphins. There are three main types of pods; nursery pods, juvenile pods, and bachelor pods; sometimes these pods merge into one large pod for special occasions. The nursery pods are made up of mothers and their calves which stay with their mothers for three to six years. Female dolphins will form deep bonds and travel together to help one another raise their calves and teach them how to hunt and survive. When a female is pregnant she will often return to her nursery pod to birth and raise the calves with other mothers and close females like aunts. All calves will eventually leave the nursery pods as juveniles and join a juvenile pod between the ages of 3 and 13 years old. During this time, they spend engage in socializing and matting with dolphins their own age. While in juvenile pods, pairs of males will often form a special bond that lasts a lifetime. This pair works closely together and will later join a bachelor pod and frequently travel between pods.

By traveling in groups dolphins can take care of young calves easier, help injured or sick dolphins, and communicate efficiently. They use a series of squeals and clicks to communicate with each dolphin having an individual high pitched noise that identifies them, similar to a name. They use this sound and echolocation to find one another and send messages to other pods. For example, when one pod finds a group of fish they will often signal to other dolphins in the area to come help heard the fish into a bait ball. The dolphins will then take turns swimming through the bait ball to catch and eat the fish. This way everyone gets more food and stays safer from other predators within the area such as sharks that may also be hunting the fish.

Sharks and orcas are the primary natural predator of dolphins but it is more challenging to attack a dolphin pod than an individual. However, the primary threat to dolphins is humans. Some anthropogenic causes that harm dolphin populations are ocean pollution, bycatch, habitat loss, and even direct dolphin hunting. Some countries still sell dolphin meat as a delicacy while other fishermen in parts of the world are killing dolphins because they are seen as a competitors for the same fish. As dolphins will often swim into bait balls to catch fish for themselves they can be caught in the fishing nets and become victim to bycatch often not surviving the ordeal. The largest threat to dolphins is ocean pollution in the form of plastics and toxins released into the water, reducing their habitats and killing them directly. Most notably, they often fall victim to ocean trash, becoming entangled in ghost nets and ingesting large amounts of plastics.

Here at Sea of Change Foundation we are doing our part to reduce ocean plastics by working with our partners at FORCE BLUE to develop new communication platforms, Savannah State University by funding a student project on microplastics, and with Aggressor Liveaboards™ to help develop their new Green The Fleet™ environmental initiatives to reduce and eliminate single-use plastics from operations.

By Raquel Gilliland; Sea of Change Intern

Welcome to our “Creature Features” where we introduce a new sea creature that is special and unique. This featured creature is a gentle giant commonly known as the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae – which means “giant wings of New England). They are mammals in the family Balaenopteridae, also known as rorquals. Rorquals such as humpback whales have long, filtering plates of baleen that vertically line the inside of their mouths.

Humpbacks feed on crustaceans and krill by opening their mouths at the surface to gulp gallons of water. They then filter the water through slits in their baleen plates and the krill sticks to these plates inside their mouths. Although small, krill is the main food source for humpback whales allowing them to grow an average of 40-60ft long and weighing about 30-40 tons!

As a migratory species, humpback whales travel great distances between their feeding grounds and their calving grounds. They usually travel in groups called “pods” of 2-5 whales. In the summer months, they travel to temperate and polar waters to feed on massive amounts of krill; in the winter months, they mate and give birth to their young in warmer, calm tropical waters.

Humpbacks are currently listed as a species of “least concern” by the IUNC Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species with populations predicted to keep increasing. However, this was not always been the case as humpback populations drastically declined at the start of the 20th century due to the whaling industry. As a response to the population declines, the United States made it illegal to hunt, harm, or disturb humpback whales in 1973. With this increased protection and the creation of marine protected areas such as the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary, along with increased public outreach/education humpback populations have made a significant comeback. There are still challenges to keeping humpback whale populations thriving, which is why it is important for international conservation efforts to continue. Follow this link to learn how the Sea of Change Foundation has supported humpback whale monitoring around the waters of New York.

By Raquel Gilliland; Sea of Change Intern

Welcome back to our regularly posted “Creature Feature” where we introduce you to a sea creature that is special and unique. This week’s “Creature Feature” is an invertebrate that for hundreds of years confused early scholars by classifying them as rocks, plants, animals and everything between. It was not until the early 18th century that William Herschel looked through a microscope and used the thin cell wall membranes to officially identify coral as an animal. Today hard corals, or stony corals, belong to the Class Anthozoa, which means “flower animal”. This “Creature Feature” is a two-for-one special; the large branching coral commonly known as elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) and the thin antler-like coral commonly known as staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis)

These elkhorn and staghorn corals were historically found throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean, stretching as far north as Florida’s Biscayne National Park. Due to their symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, a small photosynthetic organisms that live in the corals’ tissue, these corals live mainly in warm shallow waters of the equatorial zone.

These corals hold significant importance to the ocean’s ecosystem by building the structures that we call tropical coral reefs. Coral reefs serve many important ecosystem functions such as providing habitat for other invertebrates and fish, protecting our coastlines from erosion and storm surge, providing ecotourism opportunities, and helping to keep fisheries sustainable. Once thought of as a boundless resource, these coral species face near extinction as coral reefs all over the world decline due to many anthropogenic (human caused) impacts such as warming oceans and ocean acidification due to climate change, bleaching events, boat groundings, disease outbreaks, and water pollution. Staghorn and elkhorn corals are currently listed as critically endangered by the IUNC Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species. However, conservation organizations and scientists are working to restore their populations. Follow this link to how the Sea of Change Foundation is partnering supporting these conservation efforts around the world.

By Samantha Whitcraft; Director of Conservation & Outreach, Sea of Change Foundation

On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated in the United States. Today Earth Day is celebrated in over 192 countries and is described as “the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a billion people every year” by the founder of the original event almost 50 years ago. This year’s Earth Day theme is “Protect Our Species”

Here at the Sea of Change Foundation, we recognize the values of Earth Day every day and embrace this year’s theme all year long. One of our three conservation priorities is supporting work, internationally, that addresses the issue of threatened species and their habitats to align with our mission to create positive change. We work towards positive change by funding and coordinating conservation and research initiatives that directly impact the natural world we all love to enjoy and explore. For example, with our partners at the University of Costa Rica, Ocean First Institute, and ConnectOcean, we help support research into the habitat use of sharks and rays of the Guanacaste coast in support of conservation planning. We’ve funded research and local community outreach about humpback whales in the waters of New York City with Gotham Whale, and we continue to fund coral nurseries for reef restoration.

Additionally, as recent events emphasize, plastic pollution is negatively impacting already threatened marine species and habitats. We’ve partnered with Aggressor Adventures™ in launching the Green the Fleet™ sustainability initiative to begin to address this issue. Together, we are working to further reduce single-use plastics aboard Aggressor’s liveaboard yachts around the world and at corporate headquarters. Green the Fleet initiatives to date include:

• Replacing plastic luggage tags with natural material tags
• Phasing out plastic straws, plates, cups and utensils aboard yachts
• Phasing out single-use bottled water aboard yachts
• Not using plastic K-cups for coffee aboard yachts
• Eliminating single-use plastics from corporate events

Aggressor Adventures invites divers and explorers alike to experience the natural world from exciting, new vantage points – diving underwater from aboard luxury yachts, along a river during a 5-star river cruise or on a thrilling safari. These “Adventures of a Lifetime”® not only connect their guests to the splendor and value of the natural world but also showcase how sustainable practices can be incorporated into daily life and operations. Aggressor Adventures seeks to inspire their guests to continue to explore, expand their connections to nature and increase their environmental consciousness long after they return home from their adventures.

Together, Aggressor Adventures and the Sea of Change Foundation embrace and encourage three guidelines: refuse, reduce, and reuse single-use plastics. Why not simply recycle plastic? Because the majority of plastic is made from fossil fuels, cannot be recycled, and ends up leaching chemicals in our landfills or accumulating in our oceans. The good news is that simple changes can lead to positive change. For example, instead of buying bottled water, carry a re-usable water bottle, bring your own re-usable/washable grocery bags for shopping, and order your drinks “without a straw, please”. For more suggestions, check out “100 Steps to a Plastic-Free Life”.

One step at a time, we can all work together to create positive change for our natural world today and every day. Happy Earth Day 2019!

By Raquel Gilliland; Sea of Change Intern

It’s time for a new “Creature Feature” where we introduce you to another sea creature and their conservation status. This week’s creature is a large, boney fish commonly known as the Atlantic Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara). Goliath groupers are not only legendary for their size but also their charisma; divers in Cayman often say they did not just see a goliath grouper but “met a Goliath grouper”.

Historically known as a highly prized game fish for their fight and size, they were unfortunately almost overfished to extinction by 1980’s with the largest Goliath Grouper weighting in at 800lbs! They have an interesting history, in that they are loved by divers as a tourist attraction while being viewed by many commercial, recreational, and spear fisherman as a pesky, fish-steeling monster. In an effort to reverse their population decline from over-fishing, the goliath grouper fishery has been closed in the southeast region of Florida since 1990, and the species is now listed as a species of concern by the IUNC Red List of Endangered and Threatened Species.

Goliath groupers are usually solitary animals and quite territorial, however they do congregate in numbers of 100 or more for spawning and feeding! Currently the population status is still considered to be “declining” worldwide, but some population assessments in south Florida have seen substantial increases in abundance. There is an on-going debate as to whether or not it is the appropriate time to re-open the harvesting of Goliath groupers in Florida.

During the major algal blooms of 2003 and 2005, scientists examined 100s of dead Goliath groupers to study and better understand their life history traits. Studying goliath groupers is extremely difficult due to their skeletal structure not being able to support their bodies once outside of the water. This event not only gave scientists much needed data, but also helped develop a new way to age a grouper by its spine instead of having to sacrifice the fish to be measured by its ear bones (otoliths).

Many questions remain unanswered about their populations and how to manage their habitats but through further research, we hope to learn how to keep these beautiful giants around for many generations to come.