Stories from the Seaside - the e-newsletter of the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea

December 2021

Happy Holidays From Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

Happy Holidays from the Gulf Specimen Crew! We are so grateful for everything we have accomplished during the 2021 year! We are incredibly thankful for the donations we received throughout the year and the continued support we have had to keep our mission alive.

Gulf Specimen Sends Out Pipefish From Tampa For Research at the University of Oregon

On Monday, December 6th, Gulf Specimen sent out 9 female and 16 male pipefish to the University of Oregon Cresko Lab of Ecology and Evolution. Dr. Emily Rose from Valdosta State University and Coley Tosto from the New Zealand University of Canterbury collected these gulf pipefish in Tampa Bay before traveling to our lab for us to ship some of them out. Dr. Rose and Tosto collected over 100 gulf pipefish (Sygnathus scovelli), some to ship out to the University of Oregon for several different diversity studies and other research, and some to take back to her lab at VSU to conduct her own research.

There are several different species of pipefish that can be found in the Gulf of Mexico, but they chose the gulf pipefish for their study. Dr. Rose explained that the males and females can be differentiated by shape and coloration. The females will have iridescent bars down the sides of their bodies and the males do not. Dr. Rose's lab is studying how contaminants in the wild are affecting the Sygnathus scovelli on both a morphological level as well as how the males are affected genetically. She has found that when male gulf pipefish are exposed to contaminants, such as synthetic estrogen, the males will start to develop these iridescent bars on their bodies. "We are really interested in how it affects reproduction because keeping the species really robust and populated in the gulf is an important part of maintaining the diversity of the species," Dr. Rose said. The pipefish species are directly related to seahorses, so the males are the one's getting pregnant and carrying the offspring. The male pipefish have a clear pouch, so you can see the eggs developing. This allows scientists to follow the developmental stages of the eggs in the pouch. Dr. Rose is collaborating with Clay Small at the University of Oregon and Adam Jones at the University of Idaho, along with the University of Tampa where the specimens are found. The main focus of the collaborative research is looking at male and female differences and to try and determine if there is a distinctive genetic difference between the two in this species.

Our Octopus Tank is Back!

After almost five months without an octopus, we are finally starting to see them back in the Gulf and now have several of them in our newly redecorated Mother Ocean tank! Octopus vulgaris are the species most commonly seen locally in the Gulf of Mexico and are most often found inhabiting crab traps and feasting on all of the crabs and the free bait.

We decorated the tank with multiple rock 'caves' and places for them to hide, as well as placing several pool balls and golf balls in there for them to handle and move around as they please. Although octopus are known to be great escape artists, we have not had any try to escape out of our tanks yet. We monitor them closely to avoid any escapes!

We keep them very well fed and enriched in their tanks, so they have no need to venture out looking for food or entertainment. They are huge fans of live crabs, but are very messy eaters, so we clean their tank often. This lets them interact with us and lets their curiosity go wild trying to figure out what we are and why we are stealing their crab carcasses.

"Christmas in Panacea" Festival

On Saturday, December 4th, we joined the community of Panacea in celebrating their annual 'Christmas in Panacea' Festival. We loaded our touch trays with sea stars, urchins, crabs, conchs and more! Our looking tanks held killifish, sponges, flame streaked box crabs and other critters.

We also held our own event at the aquarium where visitors could enjoy hot chocolate, hot apple cider and cookies while enjoying our aquarium. We also set up crafting tables throughout the aquarium to make your own ornaments, craft candy cane mice and do other arts and crafts!

Looking to Help Out This Holiday Season?

Here are several ways you can lend a hand: 1.) Make a donation on our website here 2.) Choose Gulf Specimen Marine Lab as your Amazon Smile program when doing holiday shopping: https://smile.amazon.com/ 3.) Volunteer your time 4.) Visit the aquarium and see all of our efforts in person 5.) Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated about events 6.) Give the gift of a year-long membership 7.) Donate an item from our Amazon Wishlist

Wonders of the Gulf: Creature Feature

North Florida is gifted with an amazing array of diverse animals where we find fascinating creatures. Our exhibits change every season.

Flame Streaked Box Crab: A large, brightly colored burrowing crab that draws water through its gills and is often seen spouting it out of its head like a fountain. It uses its scissors-like claws like a can opener to rip open hermit crabs.

Giant Sea Cucumber: Grows to be the largest of all cucumbers in the Gulf of Mexico. This, and other large species, are dried and eaten in oriental countries. Lives in mud flats in deeper water offshore.

Sea Grapes: They look like small green transparent berries and grow as widely separated zooids borne on creeping stolons. They may represent a link between solitary and colonial ascidians. Sea grapes are a rich source of vanadium.

Purple Sea Urchin: They have long formidable looking spines which rapidly moves about the aquarium. Their powerful teeth scrape away algae, and chew into sponges. Although they add action and beauty to the salt water aquarium, they have been classically used in embryology.

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