Finding, Following, and Creating

“I wanted every chord, I wanted every subtle bit of playing to feel accurate. So when you see Miguel playing guitar, you know the frets that he’s holding, the strings that he’s plucking. All of that was researched. When you see it, it allows you to get lost in what it feels like to play a song.”

@asphyxianior 

the River witch. Miss Jenn June. James River, VA.

Tuna crabs are back—tell a friend! Once again, swarms of pelagic red crabs—aka tuna crabs, Pleuroncodes planipes—beached themselves In Monterey yesterday.

First seen in October of last year, there have been a handful of these mass strandings of juvenile crabs—a normal part of the lifecycle of this species—during our 2015-2016 El Niño. 

Pushed northward by currents and pleasant climes, tuna crabs are one of the most prominent indicators of these changed seas at the hands of El Niño. They were last seen in Monterey during the 1982-1983 ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation).

Hot on the tails of these tasty treats are hordes of blue whales—twenty individuals were spotted recently near Moss Landing! We even saw a blue whale lunge feeding on the surface from the back deck of the Aquarium, drawn in by fresh and delicious Mexican food.

As the ocean continues to warm due to climate change, these events may become more commonplace in our area, as southern seas slowly slink north. 

The return of the tuna crabs is a reminder that slight changes in temperature can drastically affect the community of animals living in the ocean—and bring a trip to Mexico to our backyard.

You can learn more about tuna crabs in our blog posts:

El Niño is feeling kinda crabby!

They’re baaaaaaack!

Top artists can survive on the charts for upward of two decades — but that staying power varies significantly by genre and time period.  

GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CEMENT COULD TOTALLY CHANGE HOW WE LIGHT CITIES

After nine years of research, Dr. José Carlos Rubio has overcome this hurdle and figured out a way of altering the micro-structure of cement itself, eliminating the opaque crystalline byproducts of the normal production process that blocked phosphorescence.

When fully charged by exposure to light, Rubio’s cement can glow for up to 12 hours, and should retain this ability for about a century.