under constructionUnder Construction!

R/V Yellowfin cruise off San Pedro, Los Angeles Co., CA, March 3, 2017

image
Our trip was on a very calm and warm day. We left from Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor and did mud grabs, sandy bottom trawls, rock dredges, and plankton tows.
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
Van Veen (mud) grab
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
otter trawl sampling of soft bottoms, in this case about 22m depth just inside the harbor
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
juvenile rockfish (not identified)
image
-
image
Spot prawns (Pandalus platyceros) are common from Alaska to San Diego and are an important harvested species for British Columbia, and are considered to be sustainable fishery resource there. I think this is unusual when it comes to fisheries of wild-caught shrimp because of damaging trawling methods employed more normally for worldwide shrimp harvesting. This species changes from male to female with age, and engages in nightly feeding migrations to shallower depths. - Source: Aquarium of the Pacific
image
This is probably an unusually deep (22m) example of a chiton that is common under rocks in the intertidal, Lepidozona pectinulata. Its appearance is more delicate than is usually the case for intertidal individuals, but this could be due to sand scour. It is also interesting that this was found on sandy bottom, attached to an empty 5-gallon water bottle, whereas I have never seen this species at similar depths in rock dredges. This matches my impression that the most common chiton seen snorkeling on sandy bottoms with few pieces of hard substrate is also this species.
image
-
image
That is a slipper limpet (Gastropoda: Calyptraeidae) on the left.
image
-
image
-
image
Because I am accustomed to seeing baby sea hares in the intertidal, I was confused by the bright red color of this California sea hare juvenile, but it was living at 25m (80ft) depth, where there was mostly red algae for this herbivore to eat. Apparently, you are what you eat. - Source: Sea Slug Forum -
image
Red algae do well even at these depths because the red light used by most green algae doesn't penetrate very deep, but red and brown algae have accessory pigments that capture the greenish light wavelengths that do penetrate to these depths, then transfer the energy to their chlorophyll-a molecules for photosynthesis. Some green algae can do this as well, apparently using chlorophyll-b. For example, we found Codium hubbsii, a green alga (see below), in the same dredge. Other algae can use chlorophyll-c or -d as well as carotenoids or phycobiliproteins. - Source: Wikipedia
image
-
image
shells of kelp and rock scallop juveniles (Leptopecten latiauratus and Crassadoma gigantea, respectively) (ID: Shawn Wiedrick)
image
Limaria hemphilli
image
a protobranch bivalve, Nuculana taphira (ID: Shawn Wiedrick)
image
Zaniolepis latipinnis, longspine combfish
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
white croaker (Genyonemus lineatus)
image
-
image
Xystreurys liolepis (fantail flounder, or fantail sole)
image
Symphurus atricaudus (California tonguefish)
image
queenfish (Seriphus politus)
image
-
image
California lizardfish (Synodus lucioceps)
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
California scorpionfish (Scorpaena guttata)
image
-
image
collected in a biological (rock) dredge
image
A sacoglossan, possibly Aplysiopsis enteromorpha (ID: Brenna Green)
image
A solitary tunicate, Boltenia villosa, with a red alga attached. We also saw another solitary tunicate, Styela montereyensis.
image
-
image
California cone snail (Californiconus californicus) with its shell encrusted by a bryozoan colony.
image
-
image
Maxwellia santarosana (Santa Rosana murex)
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
Tentative: Mopalia lowei (L) and Lepidozona cf. scrobiculata (R). Besides these and the L. pectinulata above, we also found these chitons: two Callistochiton palmulatus, two Dendrochiton thamnoporus, and one Leptochiton nexus.
image
-
image
posterior fragment of a flabelligerid polychaete (ID: Leslie Harris)
image
-
image
-
image
a scaleworm (Polynoidae), Thormora johnstoni (ID: Leslie Harris)
image
-
image
-
image
Psolid sea cucumbers, like this Lissothuria nutriens, are modified to attach to substrates with a sole-like underside.
image
Codium hubbsii is typically subtidal and prostrate, meaning I assume it spreads out on the substrate. It is not especially closely related to the similar appearing, but more northern and intertidal, C. setchellii. The latter is more irregular and tightly adherent to the substrate, usually in sandy areas, whereas C. hubbsii tends to be approximately circular, with loose margins (ID and details: Kathy Ann Miller).
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
-
image
A pair of reddish amphipods found together, above an isopod, both found in boring date mussel burrows in a mudstone rock split in half.
image
-
image
Ophioncus granulosus Ives, 1889 is the only species of this genus, one of about 24 genera in the family Ophiodermatidae but the only representative for this family in Hendler's (2007) brittlestar chapter in Light and Smith Manual (ID: Gordon Hendler).
image
Ophioncus granulosus seems to have been little studied since Ives first described it (see source 1) from an unknown locality among material from western North America, and a second known specimen was found by echinoderm expert, Walter K. Fisher (see source 2). However, Hendler (2007: pp. 938-939, source 3) gave a good description of it and notes that when a brittlestar of this species is suspended in midwater, it folds its arms concentrically on top of its disk, and sinks like a pebble.
Sources: 1 - 2 - 3
image
solitary tunicate, Boltenia villosa
image
-
image
-
image
-

Return to Biology 317 Fieldtrip Map or Bio 317 Field Marine Biology Home Page

Web page created on 3/6/17 using ShoresToWeb HyperCard stack by D. J. Eernisse © 2005-2009