Thursday, May 28, 2015

China 2015 | Environmental Education and the Cube Oceanarium

Billy Spitzer, Ph.D., is Vice President for Programs, Planning, and Exhibits at the New England Aquarium and Principal Investigator for the Aquarium’s climate change education initiatives. He is traveling to China on invitation from the U.S. State Department to discuss the Aquarium's climate change education work with several aquariums and zoos. 

THURSDAY, May 28, 2015
I spent the morning today with staff at the US Consulate, learning more about China’s political, economic, social and environmental context, and talking about possibilities for future US/China collaboration on climate change communication. We also talked about the increasing concern among Chinese people about air quality, which may be an avenue to engage with the broader topic of environmental protection and to make the connection to fossil fuel burning and climate change. Public reports of air quality first came from the US consulates here, but are now also provided by the Chinese government.

Air quality in Chengdu, indicating high levels of small particulates (PM 2.5)
In the afternoon we visited the Cube Oceanarium, which just opened in February, and is located in the Seaside City shopping mall just outside downtown. It is privately owned and represents an impressive investment by the developer, who integrated the aquarium into the design of the mall, and envisions it as a unique draw for the mall. The aquarium has a great deal of space and a wide variety of exhibits. Although there is an admission fee, the large window of the big tank is part of the public space in the mall. I met two Australian consultants who were helping with life support design and start up of the exhibits and systems.

Immersive Amazon rainforest exhibit, complete with rain, lightning, and thunder
Amazon rainforest exhibit, looking up from below

Ahe “big window” at the Cube Oceanarium, apparently now the biggest acrylic window in the world
(Dubai had the previous record)

The mini-submersible we used to cruise around the big tank

The view from the window of the submersible

Talking with managers, educators, and visitor services staff at the Cube Oceanarium

I spoke with the staff about our climate change education work, and we discussed examples of how some of their exhibits with corals, sea turtles and penguins could be used as an avenue to communicate about climate change, its impacts on the oceans, and how we can work together to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

Tomorrow, I’m off to Beijing, and then back home to Boston. I am looking forward to maintaining contact with many of the people I have met, and continuing to explore opportunities for collaboration on climate change communication and environmental education in general. I think this is an opportune time US and China to work together.

Billy has been blogging throughout his trip. Click here to see the complete set of posts.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

China 2015 | Pandas!

Billy Spitzer, Ph.D., is Vice President for Programs, Planning, and Exhibits at the New England Aquarium and Principal Investigator for the Aquarium’s climate change education initiatives. He is traveling to China on invitation from the U.S. State Department to discuss the Aquarium's climate change education work with several aquariums and zoos. 

WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2015
I spent the day at the Panda Base, a center focused on research, conservation, breeding, and education about endangered Chinese pandas. It is a large and well-organized facility, with lushly landscaped grounds and numerous exhibits with giant pandas and red pandas. The pandas are most active in the cool mornings, and then tend to rest for the long, warm part of the day.

A giant panda enjoying a bamboo breakfast
Juvenile pandas at play
Naptime

Unlike the pandas, I spent most of the day leading a workshop for about 20 interpreters from the Panda Base and several zoos and wildlife conservation organizations in Sichuan province. I was impressed by their willingness to jump in and work with some of the challenging concepts of climate change science and communication, and their interest in thinking about how they would apply these ideas in their own institutions – despite the language and cultural barriers.

Zoo interpreters discussing ways to talk to the public about climate change.
Xu Ping, in the lower right, is the head of the Conservation Education Department at the Panda Base.

Reporting out from small group discussions

Their astute questions demonstrated that they were really wrestling with how environmental protection can progress in the midst of China’s continuing efforts to modernize. When we broke into small groups, they seemed to really enjoy having the time to discuss and share ideas with colleagues from other institutions, a dynamic we also see in workshops in the US. As at the science museum, there was much interest in university internships, which may be a productive avenue for collaboration and training.

Mingling with the red pandas

Billy has been blogging throughout his trip. Click here to see the complete set of posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Belize 2015 | When We're Not Diving

Staff from the New England Aquarium recently traveled to Belize as part of a long-term research program by Aquarium scientist Randi Rotjan, PhD, to monitor coral health near Carrie Bow Cay. Today's post comes from educator Sam Herman.
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Even though we aim for four dives a day, we can't be in the water all the time. On past trips they have done some hermit crab research, but that's not happening this time. So, how do we fill the dry time?

Firstly, I've spent A LOT of time studying. There are a lot of coral species to learn and keep straight in my head. But, after a few days I think I'm finally there! It must have helped having a gorgeous place to read the coral book.

Sam's favorite study spot.

One thing that happens pretty regularly are lab tours. Visiting groups of students and tourists will stop by Carrie Bow Cay to see the lab spaces (and the world famous outhouses). Since Scott and Zach have the most experience here they tend to lead these tours, but I've been tagging along and helping out as much as I can. 

Scott showing students around the lab.

An additional task I wanted to accomplish while here was check in on some of my favorite organisms...plankton! We get a huge variety of plankton in Boston Harbor and I love sharing those with visitors. (If you like plankton, definitely check out the Aquarium this summer. We'll have some plankton set up most of the day on the third floor!) I was curious what the plankton might look like In Belize. Turns out it's pretty similar. Using a plankton tow I caught a bunch of zoea (a stage of the crustacean larval cycle), some larval fish and a worm I have so far been unable to identify. It's fairly comparable to samples I've collected in Boston, albeit at a lower density than our cold northern waters. Nice reminder that it's just one big ocean and there are similarities all over. 

The photos on the left are a zoea and a fish larva from Carrie Bow Cay,
and on the right are similar examples from Boston Harbor. 

We also help other researchers complete their tasks as needed. However, the most important things we do outside of diving are eating and sleeping, so we can get ready to do more surveys! 

Speaking of which...until next time!
-Sam-

China 2015 | Chengdu

Billy Spitzer, Ph.D., is Vice President for Programs, Planning, and Exhibits at the New England Aquarium and Principal Investigator for the Aquarium’s climate change education initiatives. He is traveling to China on invitation from the U.S. State Department to discuss the Aquarium's climate change education work with several aquariums and zoos. 

TUESDAY, May 26
After finally making it to Chengdu, and a couple of days to relax and explore the city by foot and bicycle, I’m now back to work. Today, I visited a science museum and a local middle/high school.
The Sichuan Science and Technology Museum is located next to Tian Fu Square, a great location at the geographic center of the city. Its attendance of about 1 million is comparable to that of the science museum I visited in the outskirts of Guangzhou, a much larger city. Location really does matter. The museum covers a wide range of topics, and includes many interactive exhibits, though many are suffering from design flaws and lack of maintenance. The good news is that major renovations are on the way, and all the staff I meet with are excited about the future, including an increased focused on exhibits related to the environment. They also had several classroom-type spaces that are used for a variety of hands-on programs, including paper-making and learning about both ancient and modern engineering.

Looking across Tian Fu square to the science museum, just behind the giant Mao statue

Model of an ancient Chinese seismograph. When shaken by a tremor, it dispenses
small steel balls that drop into the mouth of the frogs.

We had a good discussion about the NNOCCI program, and how it includes social science research, program design and planning, development of leaders, implementation of a training program, and evaluation. This led into questions about how we put together such a wide range of expertise, and also about the role of staff and volunteers as interpreters in the US. In China, the culture of volunteerism is less well-developed, though there is a great deal of interest in developing more internships for university students.


Samples of student projects

Roundtable discussion senior museum staff

After an impressive and spicy Sichuan banquet-style lunch with the staff, we headed out to visit Jiaxiang Foreign Language School, a top-level boarding school of about 3,000 students. I spoke to about 200 of the middle/high school level students, many of whom had excellent English language skills, and asked numerous questions about what is happening with the climate, and how they can get involved in environmental protection. It was really inspiring to interact with this group, as they represent the future of China. They were feisty, outspoken, and looking for real ways they can make a difference. In contrast to the US, there seemed to be fewer outlets for these interests. There did not seem to be opportunities like the youth development programs we offer at the Aquarium. The environmental NGO sector in China is growing, but limited.

Presenting to students at the school. The students had many good questions.

Billy will be sending periodic updates throughout his trip. Check back here for more updates.  

Friday, May 22, 2015

China 2015 | Visiting a Science Museum and Research Lab in Guangzhou

Billy Spitzer, Ph.D., is Vice President for Programs, Planning, and Exhibits at the New England Aquarium and Principal Investigator for the Aquarium’s climate change education initiatives. He is traveling to China on invitation from the U.S. State Department to discuss the Aquarium's climate change education work with several aquariums and zoos. 

TUESDAY, MAY 19
Today is a bit more relaxed, with a visit to an oceanography research institute and a science museum. The South China Sea Institute of Oceanology reminded me of marine biological labs everywhere, with researchers in shorts and sandals, lots of graduate students, a generally informal atmosphere, and a small natural history museum with an old school collection of all sorts of specimens preserved in formalin. Several of the researchers had worked with our colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US.

Announcement for my talk on the bulletin board at the research institute

Discussion in the seminar room with research faculty and students

The Guangzhou Science Center is part of an enormous university complex outside the city. The center itself is so large it is hard to describe the feeling of walking inside. It felt like a hangar for the space shuttle. They have about 1 million visitors per year, and about 800 staff. The exhibits were generally very well done, and showed the development of science and technology in China in a cultural and historical context.

Scale model of the science center complex
Senior interpreter introducing my talk

Interactive exhibit showing stages in the growth of Guangzhou

Exhibit comparing Western and Chinese medicine

Exhibit showing how different parts of the brain activate different parts of the body

Billy will be sending periodic updates throughout his trip. Check back here for more updates.  

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Belize 2015 | Artwork and fish identification

Staff from the New England Aquarium recently traveled to Belize as part of a long-term research program by Aquarium scientist Randi Rotjan, PhD, to monitor coral health near Carrie Bow Cay. Today's post comes from GOT diver Sean Marden.

It is great to discover what you do not know. 

Working as a Giant Ocean Tank diver gives me plenty of practice identifying and counting all sorts of fish from small neon gobies up to large groupers. But I still get stumped occasionally while doing surveys in Belize.

At times when I'm not sure of an ID I have to rely on my artistic abilities to capture any distinguishing characteristics so that I can later comb through guidebooks to determine the species.

Here is a sketch I made of a fish I saw near one of our transects.

While my artistic skills may be lacking I was able to record a few key characteristics that helped me identify the individual.

I noted that the fish had very distinct white patches on its dorsal side, a darker color on its belly, and it had the shape and swimming pattern of a wrasse. When I returned to Carrie Bow after the day's dives I pulled out the collection of fish ID books on the island and got to work!

The mystery fish resembled a juvenile puddingwife but lacked the full range of colors that I would have expected. We actually have a large "initial phase" puddingwife in the GOT.

Juvenile puddingwife, colorful with white bars on back | Photo: P. Asman and J. Lenoble via Wikimedia Commons

Although the mystery fish resembled a wrasse its coloration did not match any wrasse species in the ID books. I needed to broaden my search so I began looking at other groups of fish that are a similar size and shape. That is when I came across a photo of a serranid (group of fish that includes groupers and harlequin bass) and found a photo of a "tobaccofish."

Tobaccofish | Photo: D. Meadows via Wikimedia Commons

That was my guy! White splotches on the dorsal, darker belly, and size and shape of a wrasse. It is always an exciting day when you are able to identify a new species of your own. Identifying fish in the field is one of many invaluable skills that this Belize Expedition has helped me develop and improve—one that can help me with census and collecting trips for the Giant Ocean Tank.


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

China 2015 | Arrival in China

Billy Spitzer, Ph.D., is Vice President for Programs, Planning, and Exhibits at the New England Aquarium and Principal Investigator for the Aquarium’s climate change education initiatives. He is traveling to China on invitation from the U.S. State Department to discuss the Aquarium's climate change education work with several aquariums and zoos. 

I was recently invited by the US State Dept to travel to China to share our climate change education work with aquariums, zoos, and museums in China. (Learn more about the Aquarium's climate change education initiatives here and here.) The trip will take me to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, and then back to Beijing.

Along the way I will be meeting with officials from the local US consulates, and meeting and giving talks to education staff and the public. At first, I had was a little skeptical about whether a visit like this could have an impact given the language and cultural challenges, but I think this is a particularly interesting time to visit China given the recent US-China agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades. Hopefully it will result in some new collaborations.

SATURDAY, MAY 16
Beijing is very warm, smoggy and overcast. A walk around the neighborhood near the hotel reveals a mix of tall buildings, small shops, and a local rollerblading team getting some laps in around the park.

Beijing neighborhood

Local rollerblading team


MONDAY, MAY 18
Guangzhou (also known as Canton, and the source of much Chinese cuisine in the US) is a city of more than 10 million, and one of the Chinese cities most open to foreign trade and business. It has grown extremely rapidly in the last decade, with large areas of the city built only recently.

I made it through my first full day of engagements today – talks morning (Guangzhou zoo and aquarium staff), afternoon (museum staff from all around the region gathered at the Guandong Provincial Museum), and evening (public lecture at the consulate). The first two talks involved a translator, which was interesting, in terms of how to simplify language and pause for her to translate. The weather is very warm, humid, and swampy (like Washington, DC, in the summer) but there is finally a bit of sunshine today and I can see the city from the huge windows in the hotel tower.

The bright Guangzhou skyline at night in the clouds

In touring the zoo, I was able to see chimpanzees, lemurs , white pandas and redtailed pandas, langurs, tigers, camels, elephants, etc. and got to feed the giraffes (which was really fun—including feeding some little ones). The zoo, built in the 1950s and being renovated, was a mix of old (a bit depressing) and some new. The aquarium was interesting, and had some nice exhibits, and even a mermaid show in one of their larger tanks (two women in swim suits with tails holding their breath and swimming around).

Feeding the giraffes at Guangzhou Zoo
The big tank at the Guangzhou Aquarium

Giving the talk was an interesting experience in learning about the hierarchy of a government run zoo in China. The key people were the zoo director (who made introductory remarks and asked some questions) and the local party secretary (who said nothing and vanished quickly afterwards, only to reappear afterwards for lunch). I managed to eke some questions out of the staff, but they were pretty quiet – probably a combination of the language barrier, hierarchy, and the nature of the subject matter.

Explaining climate change impacts to the zoo staff,
pausing frequently for the interpreter (on the right) to translate

After the talk and some gift exchanging and photos, I was invited out to lunch by the zoo folks at a nearby restaurant. We went into an elaborate private room with an enormous round table with a huge lazy susan turntable in the center. I was escorted to the seat of honor facing the door. There were all sorts of protocols about who sat where, who ate first, and so on. More and more platters of food started emerging and landing on the tray, all very beautifully presented and most of it quite good (I passed on the duck tongues and preserved duck eggs though). Then the drinking started. I pretty much declined as I had to give two more talks, and wasn’t really interested in drinking the baijiu (a Chinese grain alcohol which smells like lighter fluid, comes in the kind of metal bottle you would see for kerosene, and is served from beakers—just like you would use in chemistry lab). The zoo director and the party official started getting more talkative and sociable.

Eventually we staggered out (and I think the zoo folks went back for an afternoon nap) and left for the Guandong Provincial Museum, a huge modern building with exhibits on many topics including Chinese ceramics, natural history, history, artwork and a temporary exhibit on Cambodia (including many Buddhas and very beautiful and intricate small figurines). For my talk, staff had come from museums all around the province, some having traveled as much as 7-8 hours to get there. The audience was very interested in how museums can address social issues, and asked many insightful questions.

Answering questions at the Guandong Provincial Museum

The day wrapped up with a public lecture at the US Consulate. It was an interesting mix, with a number of young journalism students who were really interested in how China can address climate change. There was a lot of discussion about how to reconcile environmental protection and economic development, which seems like the big challenge for China and other rapidly developing countries – how can they make progress without making all the mistakes that developed countries have made?

Evening public lecture at the consulate. Booths to the right are used
during the day for visa applications, apparently this consulate
provides the most US visas in China.

Billy will be sending periodic updates throughout his trip. Check back here for more updates.  

Monday, May 18, 2015

Belize 2015 | Halfway Through

Staff from the New England Aquarium recently traveled to Belize as part of a long-term research program by Aquarium scientist Randi Rotjan, PhD, to monitor coral health near Carrie Bow Cay. Today's post comes from educator Sam Herman.
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We are about halfway through our surveys at this point. Each day we try to get in at least four dives (when the weather permits), but have split up a couple of times and done up to six sites in one day. It's a lot of diving and a lot of work. But, also a lot of fun. It's really inspiring to be a part of this reef monitoring.

As mentioned on a previous post, Sean is focusing on fish counts. This involves counting all the large fish (greater than 20 cm) as he lays out the transect and returning along the transect counting all the smaller ones. After that, he does a broad pass around the surrounding areas noting the presence of other species as well. If that weren't enough, he also needs to take note of any disease present on the fish. Sean also helps take photos of the benthic community for evaluation later.

Sean photographing the benthic community along the transect

For my part, I'm helping with the coral monitoring. Since this is my first trip down I'm doing a lot of learning. I've been assisting Scott Jones and Jay Dimond on the coral transects. There are a lot of species to learn and a lot of individuals to count, but I'm getting there. If I see individuals I can't identify I take a photo for identification back on dry land.

Sam observing monitoring techniques above Scott Jones

The corals here are beautiful, it's been hard to decide what my favorite is. For now, I think I'm going with Montastrea cavernosa. On one of our 60ft dives yesterday they were fluorescing beautiful reds and greens.

A small colony of Montastrea cavernosa fluoresces red

Alright, time to get set for another dive!
-Sam-

Belize 2015 | Giant Ocean Tank and Giant Ocean

Staff from the New England Aquarium are traveling to Belize as part of a long-term research program by Aquarium scientist Randi Rotjan, PhD, to monitor coral health near Carrie Bow Cay. Today's post comes from diver Sean Marden.
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This is my second trip to Carrie Bow Cay in Belize. One of the things that I love about coming here is having the opportunity to observe animals that are similar to species we have in the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) but are also a little different. We have about 1500 different animals in the GOT from 130 different species. That is a lot of diversity, but in the oceans you can find even more!

We have two loggerhead turtles in the GOT and both of them are adult females. Our loggerheads came to the Aquarium through our rescue program so we do not know exactly how old they are.

Loggerhead in the Giant Ocean Tank

This ancient looking loggerhead came upon us during one of our dives. Unlike the GOT loggerheads this fellow is a male and is quite large, easily several hundred pounds. I don't know how old this guy is but he sure looks like he has seen a lot! He did not seem to mind our presence as he swam on through our group.

Loggerhead in Belize

The GOT is also home to several jackknife fish. These distinctive-looking fish really stand out in the exhibit and are one of my favorites.

Jackknife fish in the Giant Ocean Tank
Jackknife fish swoop underneath one of the loggerheads in the Giant Ocean Tank!

With a little bit of searching I found a spotted drum, a close relative to the jackknife fish. This guys really stand out with their bold white and black coloration. We have exhibited spotted drums in the past but currently we don't have any in the exhibit.

Spotted drum in Belize

Finding this species in the wild is exciting for me because it highlights how many surprises, both big and small, are still out there in the oceans. Our work in Belize will hopefully help quantify that, and shed light on the impact of establishing protected areas in our oceans.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Belize 2015 | Arrival on Carrie Bow Cay

Staff from the New England Aquarium recently traveled to Belize as part of a long-term research program by Aquarium scientist Randi Rotjan, PhD, to monitor coral health near Carrie Bow Cay. Today's post comes from educator Sam Herman.
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It's hard to believe that we were in Boston this morning.

I am sitting here on an island that could fit inside the Aquarium's property boundaries with Sean (a GOT diver). Like other Aquarium employees over the last few years we are here to help conduct surveys on fish and coral populations on sites around Carrie Bow Cay off the coast of Belize. Sean was here last fall...I'm going to be depending on his past experience!

Sean and I began our journey at 4:00am at Logan airport. Our flight to Miami left at 5, getting in around 8:30. From there we caught a flight to Belize City and then (after immigration and customs) we got on a third flight to Dangriga. This 10-seater was probably the smallest plane I've been on (even though it was bigger than on previous trips). The final leg of our trip was a 45-minute boat ride to Carrie Bow Cay. I couldn't help thinking that 45 mins is my normal commute to the Aquarium from Somerville. This was definitely a nicer trip.

The view that welcomes visiting scientists to Carrie Bow Cay

While that all sounds hectic, looking back it actually seems pretty quick. Maybe we're just tired.

I am very excited to be on this trip, but have to admit to being a little nervous. This is going to be very different from my normal week as a Senior Educator at the Aquarium. While I often talk to our visitors about the various coral projects the Aquarium is involved in, actually being here is a totally different experience.

Luckily, in addition to Sean, we also have other veteran surveyors here with us. They all bring years of experience and are already great teachers. We've talked through the process of surveying and I think I get it as much as I can from talking about it on dry land...now we just need to get to it!

We've got a full day of diving ahead tomorrow. So for now, time for bed.

The sun sets over Carrie Bow Cay

Friday, May 8, 2015

Bahamas Spring 2015 | Returning to Miami / Ship Day

We left the dock late morning, stopped at Bimini Road for one last dive, and then headed west for Miami.  4 hours later we could see the Miami skyline!




Port of Miami has a lot of traffic


One last family dinner as we steam up the Miami River

Once back in Miami and after clearing customs it's time to start planning shipping the critters to Boston!  After a briefing, time for bed... no rest for the weary: up at O-Five-Hundred to get the ball rolling because we have to get them to AA Cargo by 11 AM.

First step is preparing the bags and boxes



Fish are caught are transferred to bags with water


In each bag is clean ocean saltwater collected as we crossed the Gulf Stream


Each box must be scrupulously labeled with what fish are in them

Completed boxes are assembled and labeled inside the air-conditioned salon
Off to Miami International Airport!