January 9-15, 2012

NEW ANIMALS and more The Elliott Bay Window has new residents in response to the increasing size of some animals and the availability of newer, smaller animals. Larger animals such as the red Irish lords, lingcod, greenlings, larger rockfish, and some of the larger perch have been moved to WOWW and the Dome; the wolf eel remains. Replacing the larger fish are several small rockfish, a school of juvenile shiner perch, juvenile blue striped perch, and a brand new school of smelt. The smelt are especially flashy when you see them from outside in front of the window, says biologist Angie Deccio. In Puget Sound Fish, three more bay pipefish have been added to our pipefish display, and five more Pacific spiny lumpsuckers to our lumpsucker display. In the dome, three young big skates were added; two more large halibut (received as a donation from NOAA) also added bring our total to 7 halibut in the Dome. New animals in LOTE OC-B include the large decorated warbonnet at right (complete list on Volunteer table). The former mural tank in the mammal area has been renamed the North Cove. Northern fur seal Commander currently resides here. STRANGE SEA STAR This leather sea star was added to LOTE IS-D a few weeks ago. It had apparently been injured before we acquired it regeneration takes many months. Usually we see regeneration occurring when a sea star loses all or part of a regular arm. But in this case, the odd arm is actually growing out of the side of one of the normal arms. Sometimes a sea star gets injured at a site that would not normally grow a replacement arm. We do not know exactly how this unusual regeneration process happens, but it may involve a chemical signal to the cells responsible for the development of an entire arm, causing them to migrate to the injury spot. Regeneration is one of the hot areas in medical research, and marine invertebrates are an important source of ideas and materials. Check out this sea star site for good ID photos http:// www.seastarsofthepacificnorthwest.info/
Basket star

FISHTIVAL PHOTOS show how everyone at the Aquarium contributed. Some of the contributors in the public areas included biologists and interpretation staff, and teen and adult volunteers. Activities included the parachute game (seen at left), fish dissections, Wonder Cart activities, scavenger hunts, face painting, special dive shows, and several games related to the topics of each day.

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