On April 23, 2009, the NWFSC and Seattle Aquarium hosted over 250 guests for the opening reception of “Sea Unseen,” a new photographic exhibit featuring fisheries biologist Carla Stehr’s images of Pacific marine life as viewed through a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).
The “Sea Unseen” exhibit features highly-magnified images of fish scales and sensory cells, diatoms and dinoflagellates, marine worms and octopus suckers, among other intricate structures and sea creatures that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
The SEM is a state of the art technology that uses electrons to provide information about the surface structure of a sample, and can magnify images up to 300,000 times. The images have a three-dimensional appearance that is both artistic as well as informative.
Carla Stehr and other scientists have operated the SEM for over 30 years, and her photographs have helped the NWFSC advance scientific knowledge of fish development, harmful algal blooms, and the effects of contaminants on marine organisms. For example, SEM images of salmon olfactory cells helped scientists understand of how pollutants such as copper and other metals can disrupt salmon homing behavior, or the ability to smell their way home.
The NWFSC-Seattle Aquarium’s exhibit will be on display from late April to the end of July.
