By Kate Callen

Two of the ocean's most mystical creatures, seahorses and jellyfish, are thriving in captivity thanks to a UC marine scientist with an engineering brain and a nurturing heart.

Leslee Matsushige, assistant aquarium curator at UC San Diego's Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has devoted much of her career to the breeding of the two popular species. Fueled by a passion for the sea that began in her childhood in Hawaii, Matsushige has pioneered techniques for propagating the fragile animals, and she is part of a global network of aquarists who collaborate on advances in conservation.

"Birch Aquarium shares the animals we breed with other aquariums and zoos in a kind of 'free trade' agreement - all they have to do is pay for shipping - and we also share the husbandry techniques we've developed," said Matsushige.

"Over the past 10 years, we've bred over 3,000 seahorses, and we've sent them to 70 different institutions worldwide," she said. "Seahorses are now considered threatened and endangered. If we can provide captive-bred animals to other facilities, they won't have to take animals out of the wild."

The beloved seahorse is seldom seen in the wild because it is shy, it is a master at camouflage, and it prefers habitats that are not popular with divers.

"We have local species of seahorses right here in San Diego," said Matsushige. "But they're found in areas of San Diego Bay and the harbor where most people won't go."

With jellyfish, the animals are more abundant in nature, but the humans shy away. "When people think of jellyfish, they think of getting stung," said Matsushige, "and they want to get as far away as possible."

Captive settings allow the public to watch these marine fauna up close and appreciate their splendor.

"When you see a jellyfish swimming in a lighted aquarium, you realize how beautiful they are," said Matsushige. "Their transparency reveals all their internal body parts, and the way they pulse as they move is mesmerizing."

But her personal favorite is the leafy sea dragon, a relative of the seahorse covered with long leafy protrusions that resemble undulating seaweed.

"Sea dragons are very fragile," she said. "We put a lot of care into making sure they stay healthy. The health of our animals is our highest priority. And you do get attached to them."

Matsushige also works to propagate her own academic species by mentoring future marine biologists. One of her most promising student interns is , a Grossmont College student who will transfer to UCSD as a junior this year.

Hanna helps Matsushige care for a range of exotic species. His favorite animal is an octopus whose tank is wrapped in Astroturf to block slippery tentacles from engineering an escape.

"The octopus is the smartest animal in the ocean," Hanna said admiringly. "They'll steal your food when you're not looking, and they know how to plan for the future. You feel that they understand what you are doing, and that is an amazing experience."

Matsushige's love of marine animals has its roots in her own amazing experiences growing up on Oahu and the Big Island, where her interest in marine life started. As an undergraduate at the University of Hawaii, she worked for a marine scientist who was studying the ear structure of fish.

Matsushige learned to raise fish from eggs and took up scuba diving to observe marine fauna in the wild. After graduating in 1986 with a degree in zoology, she worked in fisheries and aquaculture research before joining Scripps in 1992 as a senior aquarist to help launch its newly expanded aquarium.

In her 15-plus years at Birch, Matsushige has been active in all aspects of aquarium research, husbandry, and public education. She has put on scuba gear to conduct feeding shows in the 70,000-gallon kelp forest tank, and she has traveled to international conferences to present findings from research done in collaboration with scientists from the California Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

But propagating animals is her primary job. Matsushige first put her husbandry expertise to work at Birch on jellyfish.

"Few people had worked with jellies before because they are difficult to handle," she said. "Their soft bodies can get torn up by sharp edges, and they need water flow to keep them from sitting on the bottom of the tank. So we keep them in rounded 'kreisel' tanks. And we feed them a special diet of enriched brine shrimp larvae to keep them healthy and strong."

In 1995, a philanthropic gift from seahorse enthusiast Dorothy Munro funded construction of a Birch seahorse propagation facility, and Matsushige discovered that raising jellyfish was the perfect training for raising seahorses. Like jellies, seahorses are picky eaters and delicate swimmers, so brine shrimp and kreisel tanks are a must.

Breeding seahorses is tricky. Eggs are carried in the pouch of the father, who gives birth to litters that can range between 12 and 2,000. New babies need a microscopic diet, which Matsushige dispenses through a turkey baster. And young seahorses are susceptible to disease.

"Because they hold still, parasites can easily climb onto them," said Matsushige, "and their capillaries are so tiny that gas bubbles can get trapped and cause narcosis, which is like the bends in diving."

Through ingenuity and devotion, Matsushige has mastered the intricate care of seahorses. And by sharing her innovations with other aquarists, she has had a singular impact on species conservation.

"People in the aquarium world are starting to realize that these animals can be bred and maintained," she said. "When husbandry techniques are passed around, everybody gets better at it."

Kate Callen is a staff writer in UCOP Strategic Communications.