MONTEREY, California (6 Dec 2005) -- Chad Widmer was out in his boat on the Monterey Bay two weeks ago when what to his wondering eyes should appear but a "beautiful white spectacle." That's the English translation of "Leucothea pulchra," the scientific name for an animal more commonly known as a spotted comb jelly, only found in the Pacific Ocean between Central California and the Sea of Cortez, and only around this time of year. Actually, Widmer saw a bunch of the jellies. He immediately recognized their translucent bodies, covered with orange spots and lined with rows of tiny fringe-like growths that diffract light into a rainbow of flashing colors -- and look like combs under a microscope. The sighting was a spectacular gift for Widmer, a senior aquarist specializing in jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After all, it had been quite a while since he'd spotted any spotted combs. Three years, to be exact. That was the last time the aquarium had put any on display. It was also the first. In fact, it was the first time that any aquarium in the world had managed to put spotted comb jellies on display. Now is the second. Seven of them, ranging up to 14 inches long, are spreading their angel-like wings -- another of their stunning features -- in the aquarium's "Jellies: Living Art" exhibit. "For a jelly aquarist, spotted combs are as big a deal as the white shark," Widmer said, referring to the great white that drew huge crowds to the aquarium from fall 2004, to last spring. There's a reason why spotted combs are so rarely found in captivity: They break. Very easily. "They're like wet toilet paper," Widmer said. "If you're in the water with them, just waving your arms... even that current can tear them apart," said George Matsumoto, education and research specialist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Matsumoto studied spotted combs for his doctoral thesis. His work required a lot of scuba diving to make observations. "At the time, we didn't have any way to keep them alive in the lab," he said. Now the aquarium does have a way. It's a matter of creating precise conditions in the tank. "You could grow jellies in a bathtub if you could get the flow right," Widmer said. Of course, you have to get the spotted combs in the tank in the first place, and there's a trick to that, too. Many tricks. First you have to collect some. That involves snorkeling right up next to them, Widmer said, and then gently, oh, so gently, trapping them in big plastic bags. One jelly per bag. Then you have to get them back to the boat, and into the boat, and off the boat again, assuming they've survived the voyage to the dock. Then there's the matter of getting them to the aquarium, and then to the right tank, and then into that tank. At each step in the process ''you're in danger of damaging it," Widmer said. He didn't have the equipment or the help he needed to even try to collect the spotted combs he saw that Saturday morning. He had to wait until the following Tuesday and Wednesday. When he went back then, he found some more. | | Comb jelly Only about half the jellies he and his helpers collected made the trek to the tank successfully. Of those seven, five are in good shape, two in poor condition. "But we're hoping they'll regenerate their damaged parts," he said. "They could do it. They have the capacity to do it." Now Widmer is hoping to collect some more. If he does, he's made out a Christmas wish list for them: He wants to use them to learn how to grow spotted combs in the lab. Nobody's ever done that. There are many species of comb jellies, and nobody's ever been able to grow any of them in the lab -- even ones much easier to keep alive than spotted combs. The problem has been with the babies. They only eat live food, but they're too small to eat any of the live food scientists like Widmer have been able to feed them. "Even baby brine shrimp are too big," he said. "... And everything I've cultured that's the right size... has been able to get away." He has moderately high hopes for the spotted combs, though, because they're big. So their babies might be big, too -- big enough to eat what he has to offer. As usual with spotted combs, nobody knows. Nobody's ever seen any of their babies. But if Widmer is able to collect some more adults, he's already planned a parenthood for them. "I'll experiment with the light-dark cycle," he said, "10 hours of light, 10 hours of dark." Or it might be 10 hours of dark, 10 hours of light. One or the other sequencing has worked to induce spawning in other species. He'll try both, if necessary, and keep his fingers crossed. Jelly research is almost always a matter of trial and error -- sometimes a good deal of each -- said Widmer, who once spent an entire year figuring out the life cycle of the cross jelly. Like other jellies, the cross has many stages in its development, each possibly requiring different food, different lighting, different conditions. At one point, Widmer got stuck. He tried and erred, and tried and erred, and tried and erred. But then, at long last, he tried and succeeded. As it turned out, the key was dropping the water temperature 5 degrees Centigrade and then holding it there for three weeks. Well, duh. |
