Cephalopodcast

Dr. Clyde Roper, world-renowned teuthologist will be giving a presentation at Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL this coming Monday.

Giant Squid: Who’s Chasing Whom?

Mote’s 2008 Special Lecture Series continues next week with the lecture “Who’s Chasing Whom? The Quest for the World’s Largest Calamari, the Giant Squid,” by Dr. Clyde Roper, Zoologist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. On Monday, Jan. 28, Dr. Roper will trace the historical legends and concepts based on the giant squid and present results of his deep-sea expeditions in search of the squid with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel in addition to subsequent attempts by colleagues.

Dr. Roper, an Adjunct Scientist at Mote, has had a long-standing relationship with the organization and was instrumental in obtaining the giant squid specimen that is on permanent exhibit at Mote Aquarium.

The Special Lecture Series will continue every Monday until March 10 and all lectures will take place at 7 p.m. in Mote’s Immersion Cinema located at 1600 Ken Thompson Pkwy., Sarasota. Log onto www.mote.org/news for more information and brief speaker bios.

A photo of Dr. Roper and specimens jars is available for media to download.

Members of the media interested in attending any lectures should contact Jamie Tacy at 941-388-4441, ext. 228 or jtacy@mote.org.

• Previously: Cephalopodcast #6, an interview with Dr. Clyde Roper
• 2008 Mote Special Lecture Series lineup, and additional details.

Today is National Peguin Awareness Day. The official declaration is over at the Peguin Geek blog.

Unfortunately, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguin Cam is currently offline, so you can’t celebrate that way. But they are working on a new exhibit which should be open in March. In the meantime, try the other links below.

Penguins are birds. They have feathers, beaks and wings, and they lay eggs. Their closest relatives are other fish-eating seabirds: albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters.

There are currently 17 species of penguins. They range in size from the small two-pound (1 kg), 16-inch (41 cm) little blue penguin to the large 84-pound (38 kg), 51-inch (130 cm) emperor penguin. They’ve adapted to environments as different as Antarctic ice fields and the tropical Galápagos islands. Yet all penguins share their ancestors’ trait: they’re at home in the ocean.

• Penguin Geek: National Penguin Awareness Day
• Zapatopi: Penguicons
• MBAq: Become a Penguinologist
• Wikipedia: Penguin
• SeaWorld Education: Penguins
• Defenders of Wildlife: Adopt a Penguin
• Penguin Caffinated Peppermints

UPDATE: I composed this post rather quickly and did not do as much link research as I had hoped to do. If I had, I might have also discovered these other remarkable penguin Web sites:

• Penguin Science understanding penguin response to climate and ecosystem change (via kottke)
• Penguin of the Day: View a different penguin every day! You can also see the last week’s worth of penguins, just in case you missed one! (via Nicola Rickett’s Antarctic blog)
• Real-time penguin blogging with Viola Toniolo at Antarctic Journal: I’m working on my graduate research project on the foraging ecology of Adelie Penguins
• Penguinsland Blog: a blog for cute pictures, fun videos, news, and information about penguins

I’ll be headed up to where it’s colder this weekend for the NC Science Blogging Conference. I will be participating in one panel discussion during the conference, Real-time blogging in the marine sciences from 9:50-11:00 a.m. (ET).

Moderated by Kevin Zelnio of The Other 95%, Peter Etnoyer of Deep Sea News, Karen James of the Beagle Project, Rick Mac Pherson of Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets and Jason Robertshaw of the Cephalopodcast.

Our discussion will be initially be focused on the following:
- Using blogs as a tool in Science, Conservation and Marine Education
- Blogs as filters of novel research and synthesizers of concepts
- Communicating Marine Science to the public via blogs (including podcasting and video blogs) to increasing public awareness of Ocean Science and related issues (i.e. who reads marine biology blogs and why).
- Blogging from the field as a method to communicate the scientific method, how research is done and what its like to be a scientist
- The multifaceted constraints of blogging in the field and to what extent blogging does or does not represent the organization you work for.

This is in an unconference format, so everyone who attends the event is encouraged to be an active participant in all of the sessions and discussions.

Also, depending on the bandwidth capabilites available, I will attempt to stream the presentation.

• My conference updates will be available at the Offical Cephalopodcast NC Science Blogging Conference page
• Any streaming will take place at the Cephalopodcast ustream.tv channel
• If ustream fails, I might try Talkshoe

Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria, California has a number of workshop opportunities for educators this year. One in particular caught my eye:

Jumbo Squid Dissection, Teacher In-service February 1-3, 2008

The naturalist staff at Camp Ocean Pines have invited Dr. Bill Gilly, professor of Marine and Organismal Biology at Stanford to lead a study of these amazing squid. This is a great opportunity for hands-on experience with a 30-pound giant Humboldt squid. You’ll be studying under an expert who has researched the behavior and biology of squid for more than three decades.

Schedule
Friday, wine and cheese social and dinner before Dr. Gilly presents research and insights on the Humboldt Squid. Overnight accommodations available in straw bale cabins (with bathrooms and showers).

Breakfast Saturday morning, when Dr. Gilly will lead a dissection of Humboldt Squid. After this expert instruction, we share our experiences leading squid dissections in the classroom with students. Lesson plans and other handouts will be provided.

Lunch on Saturday and opportunity to join naturalist staff for a kayaking tour of the Morro Bay Estuary or a tour of the local elephant seals.

Saturday night join the staff for a relaxing campfire or visit the local attractions.

The weekend ends Sunday after breakfast and closing ceremony.

Open to science teachers, naturalists, docents, and marine science
educators.

Cost
Option 1 is $195/person (some partial scholarships available). Friday-Sunday, 2 nights lodging, wine reception, five great meals, instruction, kayak rental.

Option 2 is Saturday only $100/person for locals. Includes squid, instruction, lunch and dinner, evening lecture (either Friday in Cambria OR Saturday in Avila Beach).

• For more information visit www.campoceanpines.org or call (805) 927-0254
• Previously: Squidology

Some of the kids over at Metafilter are suggesting that today is Giant Squid Day. Others suspect it maybe Cloverfield virality. Either way, get your ink on over here:

• Real Giant Squids
• Vertebrae not required

Cephalopodcast - The Ocean Podcast

 

 Cephalopodcast 08 January 2008, Episode #7: Happy Blue Year: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (483)

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog and the podcast. Here’s a new episode. My thanks go out to Mark Powell from the Ocean Conservancy for taking time out to share his thoughts about the Carnival of the Blue. The interview was recorded back in November, shortly after CotB #6.

Show Notes

00:00 www.cephalopodcast.com
01:08 Happy Blue Year: 2008 Color Trends, Pantone color 18-3943
02:12 LivBlue
03:00 Sea Notes
03:38 Center for Ocean Solutions
05:06 Carnival of the Blue #8 at I’m a chordata, urochordata!
06:00 Interview with Mark Powell from blogfish
14:38 International Year of the Reef
15:11 ICRI IYOR Mini-Symposium, Washington, DC, January 25, 2008
15:35 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 7 July 2008
15:54 Coral Discovery Kits from NOAA
16:31 Coral Reef Conservation Fund from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 20 Feb 2008
17:05 Year of the Frog
18:16 New frog species in North America, Cajun Chorus Frog, Pseudacris fouquettei
19:15 Some mammals smell underwater
21:05 Underwater text-messager for safer SCUBA
22:10 Underwater camera in SCUBA mask
23:25 NC Science Blogging Conference, 19 Jan 2008, Real-time blogging in the marine sciences. Discussion leaders are Kevin Zelnio, Karen James, Rick

Thanks for listening. If you have ideas for future programs or feedback, please send me a message at cephalopodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or call the Cephalo-Hotline at 1-941-256-0097. Also be sure to check out the cephal.icio.us links to see what’s coming for future shows.

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New Ocean Music: Jonathan Coulton, OCTOPUS [5:43]

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