New 'Camouflage' exhibit hard to see

BY RYAN FAUGHNDER
DAILY SOUND CORRESPONDENT

“Ooh”s and “Ah”s escaped from many visitors’ mouths at Friday’s unveiling of the Ty Warner Sea Center’s newest exhibit: “Camouflage.” The exhibit features specimens of unique ocean-dwellers, all of which are native to Santa Barbara waters.
Tour-takers walked into the room to view tanks filled with animals doing what they do best: hiding from sight. All of the creatures in the collection survive buy either hiding from predators or prey or both.

Tour guide Jenny Theodoreau said that the goal of the exhibit is to illustrate the extraordinary things these animals do, and maybe galvanize more local effort to save the environment.
“We like to change our exhibit so we have a new fresh feel all the time,” she said. “We decided to do ‘Camouflage’ because a lot of people don’t realize the extent of adaptations that animals out in the Santa Barbara channel have, and we thought if, maybe, we could show people some of the thing’s they’re missing, they’ll take better care of the ocean.”
Several workers named one particular animal the star of the show: the California two-spotted octopus. This cephalopod can change shape, size, color and texture to avoid detection. In the time it takes to flip a light switch, it can change from paper-white to the exact hue and texture of an algae-covered rock.
Sea center employee Monica Cavazos said there no one knew how the octopus came to be a part of the exhibit. Either the animal swam from the ocean, through the center’s pipelines and into one of the tanks, or it arrived trapped in a mass of kelp.
The sea center’s funding comes mostly from the community, particularly in the for of donations from its members. Last evening’s premier was held exclusively for members as a way of thanking them for their generosity.
The center also relies on the many locals who volunteer there, including Dos Pasos 11th grader Kathy Jeppsen, who started volunteering in order to fulfill a school requirement. However, she enjoyed the experience so much she didn’t want to quit.
“After my 60 hours of volunteer work, I continued to volunteer just because it was so much fun,” she said. “I like the touch tank the best, because you get to interact with the animals.”
The showcase also features, among other things, a tank-full of pipefish – a ribbon-sized species in which it is the male who carries the offspring and gives birth – and scorpionfish – sinister-looking creatures that hide among rocks until they suck up their unsuspecting prey.
The children present appeared enthralled.
For the kids, there is a touch tank teeming with starfish and sea urchins, as well as a magnetic board with movable pictures of underwater species.
Easter Moorman, a spokesperson for Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History said that the children love the sea center because it allows them to not only see the wildlife, but also learn about it firsthand.