Lasting Impressions from my Visit to Cape Town, South Africa

So, this is my last 2015 report from Cape Town and its been a GREAT three weeks. I've been working on the collections at the Iziko Museum courtesy of my colleagues at the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON).

 Lots of great specimens to study and good interaction with the marine scientific community in the South African region! An extremely productive trip.

Plus, of course, first hand exposure to ecosystems and their faunas! I still marvel at the resemblance between the kelp forests & fauna here and in California!

But here are some lasting impressions that I take away from South Africa that encapsulate the lessons learned over the last few weeks...

1. One of the BEST collections of echinoderms in Africa is at the Iziko Museum! 
This is always kind of a cheat of course. I just spent 3 weeks identifying a massive collection of sea stars, so OF COURSE, I'm a little biased!

But seriously, the collections here contain historical materials from famous echinoderm workers like Hubert Lyman Clark and Ailsa Clark (unrelated). They've maintained a good record of marine biodiversity throughout the region for decades from intertidal to relatively deep-depths.

The Iziko is undergoing many efforts to share its materials with the scientific community including digitzation initiatives and of course a collections database is ongoing!

This is a great place to start your studies on the Indian Ocean or to survey the unusual temperate water habitats of South Africa!

2. Citizen Science is thriving in South Africa!
Perhaps one of the best things I've discovered about the scientific community in the Cape Town and South African is the presence of a very active diving community which LOVES to share and study the marine habitats they observe!

Groups such as iSpotnature.org, SURG (the Southern Underwater Research Group), and even websites such as Eastern Cape SCUBA diving  show a multitude of pictures. This also includes the many pictures off Flickr and other photobanks.. I'm sure there are probably more...

3. There are MANY wonderful ecological and natural history stories in South Africa but they are poorly studied.
Probably one of the great things I learned about studying the fauna is how many cool things are out there and widely known to the local community but were not actually published! 

For example, this amazing sea star, Pteraster capensis has been reported from throughout the area to brood and generate mucus! But was this an actual observation/report? Or simply an extrapolation from the scientific literature on the North Atlantic/North Pacific species?  No scientific reports on this species are available (other than those that report taxonomy).

But I finally spoke to George Branch and Charlie Griffiths at the University of Cape Town who verified that YES indeed. This has been seen!!  So, it will probably make someone a great paper some day!

4. A HUGE diversity of sea stars exists in the region! (and now there is a reference collection!)

As a follow up to the point #3 above, is the simple fact that there is a HUGE diversity of sea stars and other invertebrates on the shores of South Africa. You not only have those animals in the temperate water zones on the west and south coats BUT also the amazing Indian Ocean tropical species on the EAST coast!! Plus the deep-sea!!

I've seen this species for example, identified as "Halityle regularis" in some field guides, but its a different color and is much flatter. Possibly a new record? Or merely a color morph of Halityle? We need to see more than a picture to be sure. I've alluded to possible undiscovered species in past posts...  UPDATE: It IS Halityle regularis-but a different color morph!

BUT thanks to my work at Iziko identifying about 600-700 specimens we know have a bunch of baseline referneces for the fauna of South Africa!  But we will almost always have more pictures than specimens..

5. The staff at the Iziko is AWESOME.

I wanted to thank my hosts at the Museum who helped me with sorting specimens and managing data and other logistics. This includes Candice, Liz, Kanye and of course the curator, Wayne Florence

P.S. The FOOD in Cape Town is AMAZING!

I could NOT have predicted that OSTRICH tastes like very tender beef! Wonderful Grilled or "spicy Mongolian style"!!

Also.. South Africans love cider and meat pies. EVERYWHERE!

THANK YOU CAPE TOWN! I hope to be back!! 

What Have I been doing in South Africa??

Greetings to everyone from Cape Town where I've been for the last two weeks! One more left to go!

Sorry if I've been a bit quiet and off Twitter. What have I been up to? What have I been learning?

1. Identifying Starfish!

image by @MarineBio_SAM

So, it turns out that the South African Iziko Museum's invertebrate zoology collection is probably the largest one of all the collections of its kind in Africa. It includes a huge number of specimens from multiple places throughout the region. So, all major groups have been building up on their shelves.

BUT sometimes, groups need the attention that a specialized scientist, such as myself can offer: in this case the taxonomic skills to identify the many shallow and deep-water species which occur in the very diverse and wonderful waters of South Africa and nearby locales in TWO different habitats: a cold-temperate water setting on the west and south coast AND a tropical water setting on the east coast. Its unusal.

The last starfish/echinoderm expert to visit Cape Town was in the mid 1970s. Specimen collection has been proceeding at a semi-regularr ate for this entire time. And so, there's a LOT of them.

These represent valuable specimens with applications to everything from ecology to natural resource management.

I've identified HUNDREDS of specimens.. some rare. some new. More on this to follow.

2. Learning about South African Starfish!
So, along with what I've been learning from specimens, I've also been in contact with an extensive network of South Africa's marine biologists, citizen scientists, and other ocean-themed folks who are likely to know about echinoderms in the region.

I've been able to experience everything from pictures of living animals to general tips about local species. And yeah.. stuff that will hopefully find its way into a published paper...

3. Observing that temperate water South African marine habitats look astonishingly like those from central California!!

Thanks to some time at the Two Oceans aquarium and talking to colleagues, I have been reminded how stunningly similar (identical) the kelp forests of temperate South Africa can be!

Most folks think of Africa as a tropical locale but I can tell you (especially since I'm here during their winter) that Cape Town gives Monterey, California a run for its money for kelp, urchins, rain and food!

A kelp forest (Macrocystis) off Cape Town

versus a kelp forest (Macrocystis) in Monterey, California

These urchins are Parechinus angulosus (Parechinidae)

these are the  purple  and red California urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and Mesocentrotus franciscanus (Strongylocentrotidae) 

In the case of the sea urchins, they're ENTIRELY different species in different families but they do appear to show some ecological similarities...

4. Giving workshops & presentations on Starfish & more! 
OUTREACH! By now, its probably clear that I am not one to shy away from sharing what I know about echinoderms with everyone.  Part of the plan for my visit to Cape Town was to share what I knew with students and colleagues.

So, far I've given a workshop on the classification and taxonomy of starfish as well as a talk on deep-sea biodiversity at the Two Ocean Aquarium!  One more talk at the University of Cape Town next week!


Have been LOVING talking to local citizen scientists, students and the MANY interested natural history enthusiasts in the area!

5. Encountering familiar names & history far from home....
So, even though I'm on another continent, there are a lot familiar names and a lot of shared history with my other friends and colleagues who have worked in South Africa-especially at the Iziko Museum!

These two specimens for example show collected specimens and work by several of my colleagues. Gary Williams is curator of cnidarians at the California Academy of Sciences. Terry Gosliner, is the curator of mollusks/nudibrancs at the same institution. Angel Valdes is another colleague who works on nudibranchs...

Its interesting how much of what I encounter here is part of this greater shared legacy in Invertebrate Zoology.

Another unexpected finding was this specimen, apparently identified by Smithsonian echinoderm worker and friend, Cynthia Ahearn who passed away many years ago. She often identified specimens for colleagues. This one was from 2002, in her distinctive writing and on a Smithsonian identification tag...












More Next Week!

Echinoblog Travelog: Japan: the things I will miss.... Pt. 5 (final)

Just got back from Japan and the 15 hour flight just wiped me out... so today is pictures!
                                        
 See-through starfish! (Anseropoda petaloides)

 Densenman! 

Matching Socks!

Sweets! but not chocolate or the usual western types...

Nakano Broadway...

 and some of its unique and interesting goods... (cleared and stained fish skeletons for sale)

KAIJU! Ultrakaiju Gomora! (and other Japanese science fiction)

Starfish Kaiju (weird deep-sea starfish!, this one, Hymenaster is about a foot across)

FOOD! Ramen and gyoza!  (mm... tempura not pictured)

And special mention to KABOBS! After a long day of running around Tokyo? These are surprisingly satisfying....

The Meguro Parasitological Museum! (here)

and of course, big expensive toy robots! (shown here is Big Dai X)

Until next time Tokyo! 

P.S. These are surprisingly accurate....

 

Echinoblog Travelog! Pt. 4 Stories from Tsukuba & Japan!

Travel is about experiences. Here are some of mine.... Starfish and not....

1. Starfish Story! 

Found this cool disk from the starfish Plazaster borealis the other day.  I am somewhat obsessed with this starfish (see this blog). It goes by the common name "tako hitode" aka the "octopus starfish" and we know next to nothing about it.  Sadly, this specimen was found without arms. Probably something that happened when it was collected....

Cool thing about this and the specimen lot it was found in?? Collected in 1932.  This species of starfish was originally described in 1938. That means, this specimen was actually collected SIX years before the species was actually described by Dr. Tohru Uchida.

 Here's what the animal looks like in its natural state. Almost 40 arms! But they disarticulate pretty easily.

2. Starfish-Worm Story!

The other day, I encountered this: polynoid polychaete worms which live commensally on the starfish Solaster borealis! STILL attached and living to their "host".

The bond between worm and host can be quite strong and is possibly a "two-way" relationship as I wrote about in Dermasterias imbricata, awhile ago here. 

                                        

To give you some perspective, here is what the animal looks like in situ (from the North American side of the Pacific). 

This image from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute! 

And here is a close up of the worms living inside the mouth and tube foot grooves of the starfish...

With this Japanese Solaster borealis, we are seeing the relationship among some relatively deep-sea species but this type of relationship is also seen on several North American species of Solaster, such as this one from a shallow-water Washington species.

Where better to live/feed than on the "top dog" starfish predator like Solaster?  (or any starfish for that matter!)

3. Tunicate Food Story!
Travelling to foreign lands and new places means trying new foods and dishes that you don't normally get to try when you are at home. Sometimes, these dishes can be quite exotic.

Case in point: after a presentation at the University of Tokyo, I was treated to some hospitality including the opportunity to try hoya aka raw sea squirt or tunicate! 

I wrote a post about exotic invertebrates eaten around the world here. Here is a picture of what hoya looks like alive.

What does it taste like? Hm. An acquired taste certainly. Kind of sour and medicine-like is probably the most polite way to put it... Not one of my favorites but glad that I tried it!

4. Bathroom Story!

This one is a simple lesson in keeping track of different kinds of plumbing! Behold my bathrooom set up!

The shower is nozzle connected to the sink faucet. Very efficient. There's a shunt switch that routes water either to the faucet OR to the shower head. The shower head is used in the bathtub, where it can drain. But it is stored on the wall up there over the sink.

Sometimes you forget that the shunt switch is turned to "shower" instead of "sink" AND you have replaced the shower head on the wall.

Looking to brush your teeth and BOOM!  That was messy. 

5. EARTH Story! 

So I'm workin' one night, when "I-san" a worker in the lab, who speaks only a little english, gets up and starts saying "oscillate" ????  Odd.  

So, I get up and he's pointing to the mini-fridge shaped air vent sitting above my seat (above). Big, but held up by big metal struts. It is ROCKING back and forth. The rest of the lab, the floor seems perfectly stationary.  "Ground is shaking because of Earth moving" He says. My eyes open wide, as I grasp what he is saying and realize, "Oh crap, we're having an earthquake!"  

It was a 5.1... and I very nearly ignored it. Yow. 

Info for the quake can be found here. 

There's a HUGE Diversity  of starfishes in Japan...

Whew! I'm winding down the trip to Tsukuba/Tokyo and the National Museum of Nature and Science!  I'm finding a HUGE diversity of sea stars in the collections. When I arrived, there was an estimated 200 species in Japan. When I leave, this number will be significantly higher!  Many of them will be from deep-sea habitats.

Hopefully, this trip will only be Part One!