Narrative Index

To begin George Matsumoto's talk, you can go to the lecture or read this brief overview, below, that provides links to specific topics within the talk.

George I. Matsumoto, Education Research Specialist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute presents an overview of some of the gelatinous zooplankton that can be found in Monterey Bay and in other areas around the world. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has a mission statement that was clearly stated by David Packard shortly before his death in 1996. MBARI does have an education person and focuses on education for grades 13 and up, working with grades K-12 through our collaborative relationship with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This talk will start by going over some of the pelagic phyla such as larvaceans, salps, siphonophores, medusae, ctenophores (which are my personal favorite), and some of the more unusual organisms (like isopod 'spiders', 'pumpkin' ostracods, and some worms).  I will finish by going over some other issues that face marine researchers right now.  Ballast water imports have been and continue to be an understudied area of research and the cubozoan eye is a highly complex organ seemingly without a brain to process the visual information.  I will also answer some questions here prior to the panel discussion.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to the CalAcademy staff for inviting me to present at this Forum and thanks to all of you who braved the foul weather to attend the Forum.   Bruce Robison has done an excellent job as moderator and support for much of this work comes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.