How To Be A Mermaid/Marine Biologist
Looking throughout old sketchbooks of rockfish and found these from my NOAA/NMFS days as a Research Fisheries Biologist. Fun, fun, fun…. contemplating Quillback Stock Assessment. oh the memories of analyzing all the West Coast spatially enabled trawl data for groundfishes, making conclusions about Rockfish Conservation Areas and other such mer-things.
Quillback Stock Assessment
Flag Rockfish
Stingers aka Nematocysts
Detail from N is for Nudibranch – because nudibranchs use their sea slug slime to eat nematocysts.
Hammerhead shark heads.
Embellishments for the text pages in Mermaid Scientist Alphabet Book
The Palawan Monitor lizard – Varanus palawanensis
Endemic to the waters, beaches, mangroves and jungles of Palawan.
One of the fish sketches for the borders of the Mermaid Scientist Alphabet Book
Coral Doodles
Original watercolors are for sale at Mama Ganache Chocolate Shop in downtown San Luis Obispo, California
Thank you to everyone for coming out to enjoy some art and wine and chocolate!
I feel grateful to have such classy fantastic friends and family!
All the Mermaid Scientist art, prints and cards will be on display & for sale June and July at Mama Ganache Artisan Chocolate.
Schedule for June and July Art After Dark
Artist Interview for Art After Dark by Highlight Media (from the last show)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEi_w3MPdJc
Pyllacanthus imperialis – Imperial Pencil Urchin
Echinometra mathaei – Matha’s Sea Urchin
Mesplia globula – Jewel Case Sea Urchin
Tagalog/Tagbanua: Tayong
There is a lovely variety of colorful sea urchins with all lengths and sizes of spines in the Coral Triangle. The Imperial Pencil Urchin is a dramatic orange maroon, Matha’s Sea Urchin has brown white tipped spines like a hedgehog and the Jewel case urchin has a vibrant royal blue that shines within the sea grass beds.
Q is for Quinque
Scientific Name: Quinquelineatus
Common Name: Five-lined snapper
Tagalog: Maya maya
A lot can be found in a name.
This is a school of Five Lined Snapper aka Lutjanus quinqueliniatus
We enjoy swimming and eating together over the coral reef.
Quinque means five.
Qunique is an important part of our scientific name.
It describes who we are and what we look like.
We have five of something, can you figure out what?
Hint: it’s long and blue.
Parrotfish, known as Mol Mol in Palawan, are the creators of the beautiful tropical white sand beaches. They are particularly fond of eating the algae film that grows on coral. They chomp into the coral with their beak (actually fused teeth) to get a mouthful of both coral and algae. The crushed coral helps the fish digest the algae and is then pooped out in the form of particularly perfect, soft, white sand. Next time you are relaxing on your tropical vacation, please thank the parrotfish.
These particularly pretty purple parrotfish look most like the male Swarthy Parrotfish – Scarus niger. The ones observed here have slightly different spot patterns behind the eyes but it could be a local variation or due to a shift between initial and terminal phases.
Mermaid Scientist 