Cephalopodcast

Siesta Key Sunset uploaded by Jason

Some nice advice on taking good photos at the beach.

• Digital Photography School: 10 Beach Photography Tips [via digg]

[via SHARK-L]

An unusual observation of sealion behavior near Ano Nuevo Island made by Sean Van Sommeran, Executive Director/CEO of The Pelagic Shark Research Foundation. It is of a Stellar Sealion (Eumetopias jubatus) attacking a Californian Sealion (Zalophus californianus).

[W]e observed dispalcement of water, gathering birds and a slick in the distance, close to shore off the North end of the island, almost in the channel between the mainland and the Island itself.

Big splashes, red water and big struggling pinniped of some sort.

Then the water erupts again, [i]ts a large male (subadult) stellar sealion with a california sealion rag-dolled in its mouth like a pit bull with a chihuahua.

The stellar sealion just destroyed the juvenile common sealion (Zalophus).

What’s stranger still is that the stellar sealion was not only dismantling the sealion but eating it.

This has only been reported a few times and was the first time any of us had witnessed it.

Here [are] pictures taken with my little 7.5 mp Olympus digi, they are now up on our image archive:

http://www.pelagic.org/archive/2007-may-8-stellarpred/index.html

At first we though it was a white shark predation on a large seal, instead it was large sealion eating another sealion.

Tip of the tentacle to JW

WHOI has a marine science image of the day that you can subscribe to. It is part of their Digital Image Catalog. In additon to the WHOI IoD, you can find:

• Current images of people, places, technology, events and projects
• Underwater photography from Alvin, Jason II and other vehicles
• Illustrations from WHOI publications and presentations
• Historical photographs of the Institution and Woods Hole area

• WHOI Image of the Day

Need a secchi disk or zooplankton net? How about a rubber squid or manual on building your own ROV? We’ve mentioned the catalog company from MarineLab before. They supply a variety of materials of interest to marine science educators.

Well, from a posting on NMEA’s Scuttlebutt listserv, it appears the business is up for sale. No word on why the change. But if you are interested, check out the website, www.leaveonlybubbles.com, and contact Art Mitchell (art [dot] mitchell [at] mrdf [dot] org) for details.

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity is pleased to announce that 22 May 2007 is International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD). The focus for this year’s “celebration” is climate change.

The newest issue of Sea Stories is available. Sea Stories is a quarterly online journal of international ocean writing and art, published by Blue Ocean Institute.

Sea Stories…features contributions by ocean-lovers from all backgrounds and walks of life - writers, artists, educators, students, scientists, fishers, conservationists, explorers, and just regular people. Educators are invited to use Sea Stories in the classroom or as a publishing opportunity for yourself or your students. Join us in celebrating all things oceanic!

• Sea Stories

The first expedition of NOAA Ocean Exploration’s 2007 field season, Cayman Islands Twilight Zone, is now available on their website. The expedition runs from May 20-June 10, 2007.

During the trip, scientist will study coral reefs of the “twilight zone” in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and Cuba. These reefs have been studied much less than shallow and deep-water reefs because they are beyond the safe range of conventional SCUBA equipment, yet are too shallow and close to shore to justify the use of expensive submersibles and ROVs.

This shore-based mission will employ new diving techniques that allow scientists to personally visit deep-water ecosystems without the need for expensive submersibles. Divers will utilize both open- and closed-circuit diving systems, as well as breathe special gas mixtures, including Nitrox and Trimix.

Web coverage for this mission includes Biotechnology, Technical Diving, and Biodiversity content essays written especially for this mission. Web logs, including video and images, written by scientists and other explorers at sea capture daily activities and discoveries. An “Ask an Explorer” feature is also available to submit questions to and receive answers from the explorers while they are engaged in the mission.

• Cayman Islands Twilight Zone

[via SAYOR]

Another captive whale shark has died suddenly, this one in Japan.

The cause of the death of the 5.4-meter-long female whale shark, named Yu-chan, is unknown, according to officials. The fish is believed to be 12 to 13 years old.

• Popular whale shark dies mysteriously
• See also: Ralph, one of the Georgia Aquarium whale sharks, dies suddenly

I am scheduled to interview Dr. Clyde Roper later today. Anyone have questions they would like to ask of a scientist that studies Giant Squid? Email me PDQ at pulpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.

Got a chance to see this at FMSEA. Very nice.

The Loxahatchee River District is pleased to announce the debut of its environmental poster series: Seagrasses found in the Loxahatchee River Estuary and southern Indian River Lagoon

The poster provides a way to educate the public about the importance of seagrass and how residents can alter their actions to minimize their impact on seagrass. Through education and awareness, the poster will foster a stronger sense of stewardship for the protection of seagrasses and the Indian River Lagoon. The seagrass poster will be distributed throughout Palm Beach and Martin County schools, environmental centers, and other learning facilities. Funding for this project was provided by the South Florida Water Management District through the Indian River Lagoon License Plate Program.

• 8.5 x 11 Poster (PDF-556Kb)
• 11 x 17 Poster (PDF-536Kb)
• For more information or to obtain a poster, please contact Jocelyn O’Neill at 561-743-7123 or 561-262-2991

Take eight minutes out of your day and watch this clever little animated PSA about sea turtle conservation. Even though it is targeted at European travelers, its message is global.

The short film explains how UK tour operator practice can make a positive difference to the conservation of endangered loggerhead and green turtles during the summer holiday season at destinations in Greece, Crete and Turkey.

It’s not nearly as dry as it sounds. In fact, it is delightfully moist.

• Turtles in Trouble movie
• Turtles in Trouble resource page, including training script and handout
• Marine Conservation Society press release

[via TONMO]

Returning from the depths, it’s Octopia. No word on whether they will allow Teuthida or Nautilida to sneak in.

Welcome to Octopia, the site that aims to provide you with amusing information, art, anecdotes, and general flotsam and jetsam related to cephalopods of the order Octopoda.

And from their about page, this fun bit of trivia:

After a little bit of searching (but don’t worry, I didn’t stay up all night working on this), I’ve found some glosses for ‘octopus’. Hope you find these helpful:
French = either pieuvre or poulpe
Spanish = pulpo
German = Tintenfisch
Czech = chobotnice (pronounced KHO-boat-neats-eh)
Slovene = hobotnica
Classical Greek = polypous (paw-LOOP-oos)
Japanese = tako; yudedako (boiled octopus…yum!)
Finnish = meritursas, tursas; mustekala (also means “cuttlefish”, “squid!”)
Hungarian = polip
Swahili = pweza mkubwa

• Octopia

The weird news making headlines recently is the true story of a Oregonian boy who had a pair of spiders living in his ear. But this got my own spider-sense tingling, because that is a pretty tight space for even the tiniest chelicerates to co-habitate. Rather, I suspected that there was only one spider that had molted while in the boy’s head. And sure enough, if you watch the video at CNN, it certainly seems that way. The actual spider is denser, and sitting at the bottom of the jar. The shed skin is lighter and floating. So instead of two spiders in his ear, he had just one that was growing bigger. Not sure which is worse.

But how did the critter get in there? Well, I once heard an interesting anecdote from an arachnologist. He postulated that we are never more than eight feet away from a spider at any given time, even in the cleanest of buildings. They are just all around us.

UPDATE: Seems that Straight Dope agrees with me.

Got a chance to see Spider-Man 3 tonight. First time we’ve been to the movies since we wasted an afternoon with The Fountain. One thing that surprised me were three different ocean-related messages that popped up during the preshow.

First, we went to a new AMC Theatres theater that was equipped with a digital projector. I’d be curious to know what software they used to generated their little trivia graphics. Anyone know? Well, one of the slides was about blue whales. They related their size and weight to other critters. Can’t remember exactly what numbers they used, but think it said blue whale=1800 humans?

The second thing I noticed was yet another animated penguin movie (YAAPM) coming out this summer. This one features surfing birds.

Finally, there was a crummy commercial for Vault soda. You can watch it here while it lasts (under Advertising). The premise is that a weakling male wins back the affection of his philandering female by blowing up the reef and showering her with pearls. Take home message: drink plenty of caffeinated, carbonated, corn syrup and you will have the strength to destroy the environment, thereby intimidating your rivals and winning the attention of the opposite sex.

So anyone else notice the ocean popping up in unexpected places? Let me know.

BTW, I did enjoy the Spider-Man movie. Pacing was a little rushed, and it had an unexpected twist. But a nice popcorn flick. Nothing like the artificial experience of the cinema.

Today is the 85th birthday of Dr. Eugenie Clark. Better know as the Shark Lady, Genie is also the founder of Mote Marine Laboratory. The local paper has a retrospective of her career.

The “Shark Lady” has been diving into waters around the world and making landmark contributions to marine science for some 50 years.

But whether she was discovering a hermaphrodite belted sandfish near New Pass, riding on the backs of whale sharks in Mexico or teaching the emperor of Japan to snorkel off the coast of Miami, Clark has always returned to a small waterfront laboratory in Sarasota.

It is where a young mother with a doctorate in zoology and no idea how to hunt a shark got her start. Clark is now permanently back at Mote Marine Laboratory, which will host an 85th birthday party for its director emerita and senior scientist this evening.

• Wikipedia: Eugenie Clark
• Mote Magazine biography
• Press Release: Birthday Bash at Mote for Genie, 5/4/2007
• Read about her recent research on the odd behavior of Pholidichthys leucotaenia, the convict fish
• Amazon: Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark
• Amazon: Fish Watching With Eugenie Clark

(more…)

[via TONMO]

Attention marine biologists of the world! Gather up your plankton nets and Nansen bottles! You are urgently needed to star in the “most rockin” music video ever.

Toren Atkinson, lead singer for the Lovecraftian rock band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets will soon release a new track from their forthcoming album “The Shadow Out of Tim.” The track is called “A Marine Biologist” and is all about “bathyscaphes, benthic trawlers, architeuthis, etc.” They want to create a video for this song that features marine biologists from around the world. All they need is any video, even previously produced footage, of you doing anything marine biological.

If you want to help out, contact Toren Atkinson at thickets [at] uniserve [dot] com. I believe cephalopod costumes are optional. Or if you are not a marine biologist (or only play one on TV), please spread the word to any marine biologists you know.

• More details from Toren’s initial request over of the TONMO forums
• Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

UPDATE: DotHT have released the mp3 of their song. Check it.