Before the Aņo Nuevo Natural Marine Reserve was established in 1958, elephant seals were dangerously near extinction. Elephant seals are named for their long noses, which they can inflate and dangle in their mouths to show aggression. They can dive up to
2000 feet below the surface and stay underwater for up to two hours. At
such depths, an elephant seal's autonomic nervous system automatically
slows down various nonessential activities, such as heart rate (by
decreasing blood flow to areas other than the heart), the functioning
of the brain, and skeletal movement. This process is known as the "diving
mammal reflex."
Listen to elephant seals.
Nudibranchs are carnivorous marine gastropods which live in shallow waters or tide pools. On the head of a nudibranch is a pair of chemosensory rhinophores. They are hermaphroditic and live for about one year. Nudibranchs have a ventral nervous system wh
ich includes a ganglion, cell body, and a brain. For protection, they utilize Batesian and Mullerian mimicry.
· To learn more about Nudibranchs visit www.opisthobranch.org
· To see pictures of Nudibranchs go to www.atmnet/~mdmiller/index5an.html
Grunion are fish that spawn on the highest intertidal regions of sandy beaches in order to avoid marine perils and to improve the probability of egg survival. Spawning high on the beach allows safe fertilization and maturing. The female swims ashore at
high tide and buries herself in the sand to lay the eggs. The next high
tide carries the eggs into the ocean, breaking them open, and hatching the
grunion. This type of mating behavior is not learned, but innate.