SPRING 2020 Volume XL Issue 1
Photo Credit:
A Q U AT I C NURSERY
tidelines A Publication for Friends of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
e What’s Insid
REPRODUCTION
....... 3 Creature Feature old .... 4 Science Centerf by dr. Andres Carrillo, CMA aquatic nursery Curator re Discovery Lectu ...... 5 For many marine animals, spring is the medusa in 4 to 6 months, where the Series............... season for babies. Understanding the moon jelly lifecycle begins again. All ....... 8 Save the Date! ... reproduction strategies of marine life is these life stages are maintained and
A facility of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks with support from Friends of CMA
essential for conservation of our local species. Learning how to culture moon jellies (Aurelia aurita) is how the Aquatic Nursery got its start. Adult moon jellies exist as male or female within a smack (term used to describe a group of jellies). During reproduction, male jellies release sperm strands into the water, which are caught by females to fertilize their eggs. Females transfer the embryos onto their oral arms where they are stored and develop into larvae called planulae. Nursery staff can extract planulae, which settle into tanks and metamorphose to scyphistoma, an anemone-like stage of life that is only a couple millimeters in size. As scyphistoma, jellies reproduce asexually by cloning themselves - yes, cloning! Another environmental cue causes individual scyphistoma to transform into a strobila, a life stage where segments of the body become Moon jelly freeephyra swimming ephyrae – larval jellies that resemble purple flowers in body shape. Ephyrae grow to adult
cared for in the Jelly Lab at CMA and shared with researchers and other aquariums.
The critically endangered white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) live in the Nursery as part of a restoration collaborative effort led by researchers at UC Davis. Typically, cues from seasonal changes cause abalone to broadcast their eggs and sperm all at once. Successful Abalone larva fertilization is greatly dependent on precise timing and close-proximity of males and females. Sadly, overfishing and introduced diseases has reduced the white abalone population, which is now considered reproductively extinct in nature. This is where UC Davis and the research team come in. Using a research formulated solution of hydrogen peroxide, abalone can be induced to spawn. UC Davis coordinates this effort across many institutions so white