Cephalopodcast

Welcome to the 17th Carnival of the Blue. Getting a little later start to the Carnival this month so it can coincide with the 2nd annual International Cephalopod Awareness Day.

The idea of a blog carnival is to highlight the best blog posts on a specific theme during a given period of time. Someone collects all those posts and turns them into one uber-posting called a “carnival.” Thus the Blue Carnival is a community of ocean-related blogging and bloggers representing the other 70% of our planet. It was kicked off on World Ocean Day 2007 by Mark Powell (blogfish).

I am pleased and honored to host the Carnival of the Blue here at the Cephalopodcast Web Site this month. Any errors or omissions in this entry are my own. For corrections or additions, please contact me at pulpodcast [at] gmail . com.

It would not be a Carnival without exotic animals, so we start with a menagerie drifting in with this month’s collection:

Acclimatization

You may not have noticed, but it is political season in the United States. However, if you have been involved in this debate you may have heard John McCain repeatedly criticize the Federal government for spending millions of tax dollars on grizzly bear research. Now, I find some irony in a man who identifies so strongly with Teddy Roosevelt (eponym of the teddy bear) having a beef (or pork) with bear research. But rather than bore you with my op ed, I’ll let you consider an entry from James Hrynyshyn over at the Island of Doubt. He covered the issues of researching a bear of a different color, Ursus maritimus, the polar bear. Climate change denialists seem to believe polar bears can easily become solar bears. James is not so sure.

• Island of Doubt: Polar bears in scientific tug of war

Another critter that can be found chilling up north and that warms my heart is the hook-nosed sea pig. Never heard of it? Head over to GrrlScientist to see one.

• Living the Scientific Life: The Amazing Hook-Nosed Sea Pig

Around this time of year we usually start seeing snowbirds around Florida. But Corey Finger up in New York got a visitor from the other direction. Over at 10K Birds, he takes us along on the chase as he spots and photographs a Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) soaring around his area. Even in southwest Florida I rarely see these tropical seabirds so I still have to wonder what made this one wander so far out of his way. Guess it was not just the weather we were sending up north last month.

• 10,000 Birds: Magnificent! (Frigatebird in New York)

Regular readers of the Carnival know what a curious crew is at the helm of Deep Sea News. But this month Peter Etnoyer comes dangerously close to confessing vertebratophilia while working on the recent Deepwater Coral Expedition with NOAA. It seems he has gone crazy for catsharks (Scyliorhinus retifer). I usually think of the Pacific when anyone mentions these critters, but Peter says there are at least six species in the Gulf of Mexico. And he has made some egg-citing discoveries about them while collecting deep sea coral samples.

• NOAA Ocean Explorers, Deep Coral Expedition: Crazy for Catsharks

Fail Whales

When I first saw this picture of two dead whales, it looked weird to me, as if they were laid out on ice at a seafood counter. Turns out that’s not far off, as they were the targets of a Japanese research hunt and also the subject of a post by Mark Powell at blogfish. It seems Japanese scientist required a “representative” sample of at least 4500 specimens to figure out that whales are not as meaty as they once were. Sadly, it does not seem to be enough evidence to realize the paradox of killing hungry whales to feed an already well-fed population that is increasingly uninterested in the product.

• Blogfish: Killing whales to save them?

The obvious relation between climate change and skinny whales has another, more oblique consequence that sounds dire for cetaceans. With warming water temperatures comes a well-established trend of more acidic levels in the world’s oceans. James Hrynyshyn has another entry on reasearch from the Geophysical Research Letters that shows the relationship between decreasing pH and the way that sound waves travel in the oceans. If you are a whale, you might want to listen to the results. And ocean acidification has another obvious and insidious effect. It eats coral. Or rather, it dissolves the calcium carbonate shells, tests and calyces of invertebrates like coral. It makes it harder for them to form (foram) their homes. And if you are a big animal that eats lots of little, hard-shelled animals, you might really be in double-jeopardy.

• Island of Doubt: Global warming and whale song
• Island of Doubt: Again with the corals

Finest of the Spineless

If you’ve had enough of vertebrates, then head over to The Oyster Garter, where Miriam offers relationship advice for the lonely invertebrate while reminding us that the only good kind of plastic found in the ocean is phenotypical. Blogging about recent tunicate research by A. J. Crean and D. J. Marshall, it seems there is an answer to the age-old question of how much squirt does a sea squirt squirt when a sea squirt does squirt squirt.

• The Oyster’s Garter: Absence makes the sperm grow smaller

As I mentioned earlier, it is political season here in America. You may have also noticed that it is the International Cephalopod Appreciation Day? These two forces combined to give us a re-contribution by Mark Hall from the Daily Kos’ Marine Life Series. While Mark is on a well-earned election hiatus, he offers this re-entry on the eyes of the octopus.

Does this make an octopus’ eyes actually superior to ours? No. It can get away with this setup because the rods and cones face toward the light instead of away from the light like ours. Which means to get to these cells of ours, light has to pass through much more nerve and blood tissue as it is reflected off the back of the eye, which is what helps to increase the acuity of our sight. Although an octopus has very good eyesight at close range, it is very nearsighted and cannot see a thing past about eight feet.

• Daily Kos: Marine Life Series: Octopus Eyes

If Mark’s absence has you jonesing for some sea life oddities be sure to check out Deep Sea News’ 27 Best Deep-Sea Species and Oceana’s Freaky Fish. They are both running a series of ooky-spooky critters during the next month.

• Deep Sea News: The 27 Best Deep-Sea Species: #25 Stalked Crinoids
• Oceana: Freaky Fish #4: Googly-eyed Glass Squid

Conservation Consternations

Rick MacPherson is constantly trying to disabuse us of the notion that his jetset lifestyle of international coral conservation is one filled with Mai Tais and lovely sunsets. Indeed, sometimes it seems to be as much about constipation as it does conservation. And this month he also reminds us that the most fragile thing in conservation is not always the natural systems themselves, but the hopes, dreams and trust of the local people charged with protecting them. So what happens when that trust is broken? Sadly, he recently had the occasion to find out.

• Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice and Sunsets: The Wrong Path To Conservation

As further evidence that Rick’s trips to the tropics are not always pleasant, he recently had to deal with the morality of moray mortality while on a trip to Bonaire. He also managed to make one of the most descriptive and distinktive tropes of this month’s carnival:

During a morning dive, a dive master found a recently deceased Spotted moray resting near the reef drop-off. With good intention, he brought it back to the dive boat in hopes of delivering the eel to the marine park authority for study. But with no means of temporary preservation in this tropical heat, a dead eel specimen rapidly degrades from fresh cadaver to a stinky wind-sock of liquefied goo (emphasis mine, JR). We looked for something to place the specimen in, but the only available storage was a cooler where cold drinks were stored. Not knowing what possible agent is at work in the moray deaths, it would be ill-advised to store a potentially infectious corpse where human food is also stored.

• Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice and Sunsets: Say It Isn’t So

Chewswise.com is a delightfully double-entendric blog about sustainable food chains. This month Clare Leschin-Hoar rips a hole in a chef’s toque for knowingly serving bluefin tuna. Then she shows how to search restaurant menus on the Web to avoid eating endangered species. Personally, I can’t wait until this function is iPhone app-ified and tied into Google’s map API (he said, deliberately glancing towards Monterey). While I wait for that dreamy interactive mobile version, Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Blue Ocean Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund are working now on a new consumer guide for choosing sustainable sushi. It should be out on October 22 and you can read more about it at SeaNotes.

• Chewswise: Clare Whacks a Chef with a Fish
• SeaNotes: If You Knew Sushi…

Over at the Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum notes that you can also choose to chew wisely by participating in a novel seafood program called Catch a Piece of Maine. By adopting your own lobster trap (and all the lobsters it catches) you can seize your seafood for an entire year and support a unique community-based fishery model that directly supports lobstermen. I wonder if this notion will be a success and spread.

• The Intersection: Catch A Piece OF Maine… With Sheril’s Favorite Lobsterman

Last month was the International Coastal Cleanup. Wallace J. Nichols reports that up to 90% of trash picked up is disposable, single-use plastic and gives some suggestions on ways of keeping plastic out of our oceans and out of the stomachs of sea creatures.

As individuals, we can easily reuse glass or metal water bottles, bring our own cups, carry a bamboo spork and stash reusable bags here and there for those times we need to carry things.  In our communities we can champion efforts to ban wasteful non-biodegradable single-use plastic and foam containers.  And we can support legislation that will help keep our ocean, beaches and river clean for future generations.

• wallacejnichols.org: OpEd: Rise Above Plastic

Finally, if you are unfamiliar with how big a problem plastic pollution is becoming, head over to Shifting Baselines. Randy Olson has a new video comparing the travels of two sailors rafting across the Pacific, their voyages set fifty years apart.

• Shifting Baselines: Emptied Oceans: The Latest Project from Shifting Baselines

Dive in Again Next Month for Carnival of the Blue #18

Carnival of the Blue #18 will be hosted at the new digs of the Deep Sea News. Send your submissions to Mark Powell (blogfishx (at) gmail (dot) com). Remember to include: post author, URL and a brief description.

The Carnival of the Blue Web badge is available under a Creative Commons license in a variety of sizes and a couple of colors.