The Serengeti of the Sea

Lately at the aquarium we've been having these little octopuses in our Tentacles exhibit. The body of these fellows is about the size of a baseball.  Their tentacles are webbed and they don't have suckers.  There are little flaps that stick out from either side of their bodies along with a siphon. We don't keep them on display for very long because these animals have only been found very recently.  They are so new that they are "undescribed". Little is known about them.  They are being studied at MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).  So, we treat them very carefully.  They were found in the deep canyon of the Monterey Bay.

Among the many animals out in the bay at this time of year it is exciting to hear that Blue Whales have made an appearance.  In the past month there have been reports of sightings of large groups of Blue Whales numbering as many as twenty.  Blue Whales are the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth...larger than any dinosaur.  Last summer PBS and BBC combined to put on a program called Big Blue Live. They wanted to show the amazing variety of animals in the Monterey Bay at any given time.  In the three weeks that they were with us only one Blue Whale made an appearance.  I'm still waiting to see my first.

I like that the Monterey Bay is considered the Serengeti of the ocean.

In bocca al lupo.  m