LiveScience reports on new research by Dr Roger Hanlon which suggests that squid are oblivious to the ultrasonics of whales. It was theorized that whales might use ultrasonic blasts to stun their prey. Instead, it may be that whales capture thier prey by creating a super suction by flexing their bodies.
The researchers played recorded ultrasound whale clicks to several long-finned squid (Loligo pealeii) swimming in a water tank.
The ultrasound clicks were broadcast at up to 226 decibels, which is about the most intense whale echolocation click a squid would be exposed to in the wild. If the clicks were at a frequency humans could hear, they would be as loud as a rifle shot heard from three feet in front of the muzzle.
But not only were the squid not knocked senseless, they did not react at all to the ultrasound bursts, and actually swam in front of the speaker as if nothing were happening.
Hanlon is also the scientist who filmed the disappearing octopus video.
![TONMOCON II, June 24, 2007, Sarasota, FL [200x200, 20K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070623_TONMOCONII.jpg "TONMOCON II, June 24, 2007, Sarasota, FL")
Tomorrow I will be participating in the second cephalopod conference organized by the TONMO.com community, TONMOCON II.
Conference-goers will enjoy a full day of back-to-back presentations and panel discussions on various subjects pertaining to cephalopods, including octopus and cuttlefish care, cephalopods in art, cephalopod study in marine biology, and much more. Dr. Steve O’Shea is the featured speaker, covering “Giant Squids, Whales, Sex and Conservation.”
There is the possibility of a live webcast/Skypecast/Talkshoecast of the event. Or at the very least, audio recordings of the sessions will be made and posted. More details and the agenda are available here.
Mingle is a Web 2.0 dating site. They have a marketing ploy that’s got the blogosphere buzzing. It’s a rating system for blogs based on the MPAA rating system. The MPAA’s system is proprietary, so I don’t think Mingle will be allowed to continue this for too long. And the automated results are also somewhat questionable. It just seems to scan the text for objectionable keywords. A more effective system would also consider what sites a blog links to and what sites link back to it.
More importantly, there are better, less gimmicky ways to rate your blog. If you have control over your metatags, consider adding your own rating to the header.
Attributes:
<meta name="Rating" content="text">
| Safe For Kids |
G |
| General |
Roughly equivalent to PG |
| 14 Years |
PG-13 |
| Mature |
R rated more or less |
| Restricted |
X rated |
Of course, there is no uniformity or consensus on what constitutes objectionable material. This metatag can also be replaced by the more targeted PICS tag.
![Flickr:kidcadaver, Kaiyukan - Manta Ray [240x160]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/439458964_b61efe9e64_m_d.jpg "Flickr:kidcadaver, Kaiyukan - Manta Ray")
[via Tony Wu]
Watch the birth of a baby mantra ray literally unfold.
Video of the world’s first live birth of a manta in captivity. Healthy baby female, about 1.9 metres across, born at the Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan. Video is from a TBS news broadcast.
I am curious to know if the animal mated and reproduced in captivity or if it was captured while pregnant.
UPDATE: The story at Japan Probe and Yahoo News suggests that the parents mated while in captivity.
UPDATE II: Sadly, the baby manta has died. 
Keepers believe the baby died of bruises and cuts, apparently caused by its abusive father that constantly chased after the baby, often slamming into it, the aquarium said.
The reason for the father’s violence was not immediately known, and the baby’s death was still under investigation, the aquarium said.
![Octopus by william.ward [100x75, __K]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/24/102786599_bd82fe4458_m_d.jpg "Octopus by william.ward")
Sweet octopus constructed out of LEGO. 
Members of the Bay Area LEGO Users Group install a new aquarium-themed display at the Stoneridge Mall LEGO store in Pleasanton, CA on Feb 20, 2006.
The American Fisheries Society is offering a free custom spellchecker/dictionary of the common and scientific names of North American fishes. Currently compatible only with Microsoft Word documents.
There is a new inky link for cephalopod enthusiasts: The Cephalopod Centerfold. It is a blog by Jessica from Massachusetts.
I live in Massachusetts. I like squids, octopus, nautiluses, cuttlefish-anything with at least eight underwater arms. Uh, drowning spiders don’t count.
Guess the last bit means that ear spiders are out of the consideration. But highlights so far include: baconopod, sink cephalopods and octopus papercraft.
![http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawboneradio/533726939/ [83x100]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1163/533726939_23ffb9f8c9_t_d.jpg "Len's Octopus, inspired by Johnathan Coulton")
[via Glenn]
Johnathan Coulton has released another song about love, life, relationships and cephalopods. Octopus is his first public song since his celebrated Thing a Week ended last year. Nice to hear from him again. If you like the music, support the independent artist by buying his song. He has several other sciencey songs available too, like Womb with a View, Bacteria, Seahorse and That Spells DNA.
Johnathan is also the contributing troubadour for the Popular Science Podcast.
[via tastyblogsnack]
Sad news. The Georgia Aquarium has lost another whale shark. Norton is the second whale shark to die at the facility.
ATLANTA (AP) - Norton, 1 of the original whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, died early today, the aquarium’s second whale shark death in five months.
Aquarium officials said in a statement that in the last few months, Norton had stopped eating and showed erratic swimming behavior. The Georgia Aquarium hosts the only whale sharks on display outside of Asia.
Husbandry staff noticed a decline in Norton’s swimming behavior yesterday and blood work confirmed a decline in his health.
Norton had been placed on a 24-hour watch. Officials said early this morning, the whale shark stopped swimming and settled to the bottom of his tank.
![World Oceans Day logo [8K, 393x142]](http://cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_060608_wod.gif "Celebrate World Oceans Day!")
Today is World Ocean Day.
Whether you live along the coast or far inland, each one of us is connected to the world’s ocean. Make your ocean connection on June 8th!
![Carnival of the Blue [100x100]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1148/531775421_125285bc74_t.jpg "Carnival of the Blue")
Today also marks the start of the first Carnival of the Blue.
More events and activities will be posted here later today soon. Stay tuned.
![Ocean Book of the Month: Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl [158x257, 34.8K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070606_OBOTM.gif "Ocean Book of the Month: Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl")
Now that schools out, it’s time to enjoy some summer reading. And the folks over at The Ocean Project make it a bit easier for the ocean enthusiast. They have monthly Ocean Book of the Month recommendations.
Each month, The Ocean Project will highlight a book focused on our blue planet or environmental sustainability. Books for all age groups will be covered, non-fiction and fiction, prose and poetry.
If you have a suggestion, let them know.
[via digg]
myIPneighbors is an IP search that shows who your neighbors are on a shared host. The Cephalopodcast has hosting at LaughingSquid.net. Here are some of the more tentacly of my 160 other neighbors.
And some other honorable mentions:
The Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory, a science centric teaching facility based out of the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, needs your haikus:
The [Science Creative Quarterly] is about to embark on a creative bioinformatics project that aims to collect a myriad of Haiku’s that reflect on an organism. These, we will collect and present as an exercise in phylogeny at a later date. Called the Haiku Phylogeny project. For more details, please go here.
Here is my contribution:
PATTERNS IN THE SAND
Heave ho, there she goes
a sea turtle on the beach.
Don’t disturb her nest.
Backside of a fossil sharks tooth, one of the largest ever excavated in Florida. On display at the Paleo Preserve (www.paleopreserve.org).
The Florida Museum of Natural History will soon open a new exhibit called Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived
At about 60 feet long, Megalodon was the largest shark that ever lived. The dominant marine predator vanished 2 million years ago, but its story inspires lessons for ocean conservation today.
Visitors enter a full-size sculpture of Megalodon through massive jaws. Once inside, they will discover this shark’s history and the world it inhabited.
The exhibit opens June 16 and runs through January 6, 2008.
[via FMSEA]
[via SHARK-L]
Here is some more video of a live goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). It is a WMV file hosted at Tokai University’s School of Marine Science and Technology. Think this is the same specimen from a couple months ago? It’s in Japanese, so I can’t be sure. Here’s a nice, gnarly picture too.
Also, there’s a Flash movie featuring pics of a captured megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios), which is another rarely seen species.
Jason Robertshaw
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