Cephalopodcast

Researchers from WHOI have used new technology to track one of the more elusive whale species. They discovered something surprising:

For years, sperm whales and elephant seals were thought to hold world records for holding their breath under water. But those animals have nothing on beaked whales.

Using digital tags temporarily suction-cupped to two species of beaked whales, researchers led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tracked Cuvier’s beaked whales diving to depths of nearly 6,230 feet (1,900 meters) and staying down for 85 minutes. They also documented smaller Blainville’s beaked whales diving 4,100 feet (1,250 meters) for up to 57 minutes.

“These data establish beaked whales as the extreme breath-hold champions of all animals studied so far,” said WHOI engineer Mark Johnson, who developed the “D-tags,” which record whale movements, their echolocations, and other underwater sounds.

• The Deepest Divers
• Wikipedia: Beaked Whales
• Beaked Whale Resource

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.

• LiveScience: How Whales Attack Squid: Mystery Deepens
• Laboratory of Roger Hanlon
• Biology Letters: Intense ultrasonic clicks from echolocating toothed whales do not elicit anti-predator responses or debilitate the squid Loligo pealeii

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.

• AFS Fish Name Spellchecker

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.

• The SCQ’s Most Exceptional, Illustrious, Spendiferous Haiku Phylogeny Project
• Compulsory squid haiku
• A guide to defining the haiku form

[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.

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

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

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I will be attending the FMSEA 2007 Annual Conference this week in Naples. My presentation notes and updates will be posted here. Not sure about connectivity, but I will update as much as possible.

Hey, NOAA has updated their online photo library. Because most of these images are taken as part of the normal operations of this federal agency, they are copyright free and in the public domain. All they ask is that proper photo credit is given.

Bizarrely, the search function is currently not working, making perusal of the collection a somewhat arduous expedition.

• More than 10,000 new images.
• New search capability.
• Many new albums that better reflect NOAA’s stewardship role and range of operations.
• Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina images that help record the extent of damage of this American tragedy.
• Thousands of stunning ocean exploration photographs, coral reef photographs, and polar regions photographs.
• New additions to albums including remarkable lightning photography, coastal photographs detailing the nooks and crannies of our American coastline including a medley of American lighthouses, and new images detailing the Treasures of the NOAA Library.
• And in this, the 200th Anniversary of the Coast Survey, NOAA’s oldest ancestor agency and America’s first science agency, thousands of newly digitized historical photographs detailing the work of the Coast Survey, Fisheries Commission and Weather Bureau.

In addition to still images, NOAA also makes available a number of copyright free video clips. The quality is a bit mixed, but it’s a nice way to build a royalty-free library.

NOAA maintains a library of video footage, which is compiled and categorized by subject. It’s available for the cost of reproduction on a public domain basis—no license or clearance required. It’s requested that you credit “NOAA” or “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” when using the footage.

• NOAA Photo Library
• Other NOAA photo sites
• NOAA video B-Roll

[via Metafilter]

If you are interested in sponsoring a species, BIOPAT will consider giving it the name of your choice. Not sure about the legitimacy of this organization, but I can understand the impetus. Funding for taxonomy is pretty scarce. However, it is kind of contrary to the ideal of noble science. Still, binomial classification is increasingly becoming antiquated anyway.

By making a minimum donation of Euro 2,600, you officially assume the status of sponsor. You are then given a receipt which indicates the charitable nature of the donation and is therefore usable for tax-deduction purposes. At the same time, you receive a provisional certificate designating you as the sponsor of the new species you have selected.

• offers donors the opportunity of sponsoring a newly discovered animal or plant species and of giving this a scientific name of their own choice
• agrees sponsors’ choice of names with the researchers responsible for identifying the new species
• maintains a scientific Advisory Council that verifies the bona fides of the co-operating researchers and issues recommendations as to whether a particular species should be included in the BIOPAT sponsorship scheme. The Advisory Council is made up of staff from various research institutes. External specialists dealing with particular taxonomical groups may be brought in to help with the appraisal process.
• ensures that the names suggested by donors are allocated in a scientifically sound and formally correct manner
• provides sponsors with documentary proof of their personal choice of name for the new species in question

• Patrons for Biodiversity
• Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
• Barcode of Life

More tentacle tinglage coming up from PBS. Sadly, no lesson plans or prepared companion guides for educators. Originally aired December, 2005.

ENCOUNTERING SEA MONSTERS
Airs April 8, 2007 at 8pm on PBS

NATURE follows Bob Cranston in his quest to film and understand the world’s most mysterious cephalopods.

• ENCOUNTERING SEA MONSTERS: Humboldt Squid
• ENCOUNTERING SEA MONSTERS: Giant Squid
• ENCOUNTERING SEA MONSTERS: Book and web links
• NATURE: The Octopus Show
• NATURE: Incredible Suckers

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[via TONMO]

PBS airs another oceanic special, this time on cuttlefish. My tentacles are tingling!

Cuttlefish: The Brainy Bunch by Kaufmann Productions
a film by Gisela Kaufmann & Carsten Orlt
Premiers Tuesday, April 3 at 8 pm

Join NOVA on a voyage beneath the waves, where you’ll discover a bizarre, alien-like creature like no other. It’s an animal with eight sucker-covered arms growing out of its head, three hearts pumping its blue-green blood, and a doughnut-shaped brain. It has the ability to change its color and shape to blend in with seaweed and rocks, and it has a knack for switching on electrifying light shows that dazzle its prey. Perhaps most surprising of all, this animal is quite intelligent, with a highly complex brain. In this program, underwater cameras capture the extraordinary, transformative powers of the cuttlefish.

• Cuttlefish camo videoclips
• Anatomy of a Cuttlefish (web interactive)
• Cephalopod links and books to accompany the program
• Teacher’s Guide: Kings of Camouflage (nb: taping rights-can be used up to one year after the program is taped off the air.)

I am thinking of hosting a webcast/Skypecast during this program. Would anyone be interested in joining a simultaneous conversation while the show is airing?

(more…)

PBS is airing its tenth installment of Journey to Planet Earth series tomorrow. The show is hosted by Matt Damon, which is kind of annoying. Expect a disheartening survey of the many ills facing our planet’s oceans interspersed with optimistic words about mankind’s resourcefulness and the hope that technology and international cooperation will someday solve all these problems.

STATE OF THE OCEAN’S ANIMALS
Premiers March 28th, 2007 at 8pm on PBS
Check local listings

Nearly half the world’s marine animals may face extinction over the next twenty-five years. Global warming, over-fishing, and habitat destruction are emptying the world’s oceans. Join host Matt Damon as “State of the Ocean’s Animals” takes a hard look at the future of our watery natural world: the beauty, the incredible animals, and the dangers that threaten them.

Features scenes from the Pacific Northwest (whales, salmon and sea otters), Florida (sea level rise and its effect on loggerhead turtles), Japan (the slaughter of dolphins), China (shark fin trade), and the Antarctic (threats to Emperor Penguins).

• Journey to Planet Earth - State of the Ocean’s Animals
• Educational materials, including Teacher Guides.

[via CTURTLE]

Download a free PDF copy of the Anatomy of Sea Turtles by Jeanette Wyneken, Ph.D. Not for the squeamish if parasagittal dissections make you squick. It includes black and white illustrations by Dawn Witherington and color photographs.

…a fundamental background, reference photos of normal anatomy, and diagrams to guide novice or professional biologists, stranding personnel, and veterinarians. Species identification, standard dissection techniques, standard measurements, and basic anatomy are covered with a diverse audience in mind.

• Download the entire book in English [PDF, 25.6M]
• Download the entire book in Spanish [PDF, 27.4M]
• Download various sections.

A Mote scientist received an unidentified floating object (U-FL-O?) last week. It was a squid found at the surface by a sharp-eyed fishing captain southwest of Key West last Tuesday. The story made the news and now there are some updates. There is still a chance it is a new species but all the major characteristics point towards Asperoteuthis acanthoderma.

A. acanthoderma reaches a rather large size. The largest specimen known has a mantle length of 78 cm and long, slender tentacles. In one squid (45 cm ML) the tentacles were over 12 times longer than the mantle (i.e., about 5.5 m) (Tsuchiya and Okutani, 1993). The most distinctive feature of this species is the presence of very small, pointed cartilagenous tubercules over the surface of the head, mantle and arms.

The really interesting thing is that if this is A. acanthoderma, then it may be the first time it has been documented in the Atlantic Ocean. Up until now, all specimens have been found deep in the Pacific. So where has this one been hiding? How did it get here? Many mysteries remain.

• Asperoteuthis acanthoderma
• Do You Know This Cephalopod?; Florida Squid Find Defies Categorization, Puzzles Scientist
• Wikipedia: Chiroteuthidae