I wrote about the Creature from the Black Lagoon back in October. Sad to report that Ben Chapman, the actor that played the Gill Man, has passed away at the age of 79.
Chapman was a retired real estate executive. But his role as the Gill Man — the quintessential 1950s monster in Universal Pictures’ black-and-white film in 3-D — became his worldwide calling card and made him a darling on the collectibles and sci-fi circuit throughout the world.
The Gill Man’s place in the Universal monster lineage was a priority for Chapman, since he was the longtime lone survivor in a parade of horror monster flicks that dated to the 1920s. He cited predecessors Lon Chaney Sr. in “Phantom of the Opera” and “Hunchback of Notre Dame” in the 1920s, Bela Lugosi in “Dracula” and Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein” in the 1930s, and Lon Chaney Jr. in “The Wolf Man” and “The Mummy” in the 1940s.
I have an avatar in Second Life called Calamari Ricardo. He wandered into the lair of Grendel’s Children the other day and came across a new undersea option for avatars (see below).
Randy Olson cheekily suggested that the next Science Blogging Conference be conducted in Second Life. If so, maybe we could hold it on the newly expanded NOAA sim and all the ocean bloggers could go dressed up as Vent Nymphs.
Vent Nymphs
MiniHUD controls the black smoker effect & sound, and includes a unique skin and sculpted tubeworm growths! Both genders included. Created by Flea Bussy.
Celebrate Cephalopod Awareness Day, October 8, 2007
AKA: World Octopus Day, Squid Appreciation Day
We begin our celebration of the First International Cephalopod Awareness Day with a look back. I found this little carbuncle on the Internet Archive, and it proves you can mix the great taste of peanuts butter and octopus. It’s a 1950s show called You Asked For It, and it features a moment in the life of Ben Frick, octopus trapper, Washingtonian and “delightful fella.” Skip the knife thrower and fast forward to minute 07:00 to see all the action.
EDIT: Sorry folks. Internet Archive embedded player isn’t playing nice with Wordpress. Click the image above to open the movie in a new window.
Merely to minnow about underwater is no longer enough, and such sports as octopus wrestling are coming increasingly into vogue, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where the critters grow up to 90 Ibs. and can be exceedingly tough customers. Although there are several accepted techniques for octopus wrestling, the really sporty way requires that the human diver go without artificial breathing apparatus.
It would seem that the Japanese continue this tradition, albeit with less lively opponents and the disadvantage of being on land.
There are many things to dislike about this video. Mixing limnetic and stenohaline fishes. Confusing a Holocentrid for a Salmonid. Undergravel filters. But then you realize the kid is probably just tripping and the beatbox blowfish is really amusing. So don’t sweat the details and just give it up for Sammy the Salmon and his amazing salmon dance…
The way that taxonomy normally works, the person that describes a new species also gets to give it a new name. This bit of binomial classification is often a staid affair, although sometimes it can get a little silly. However, some researchers have cottoned on to the idea of selling off the privilege of naming rights to raise funds for more research. And this scheme recently gained a little more chic with the addition of Chrisite’s as the auctioneer and the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The Blue Auction is an historical event offering individuals, companies and organizations the opportunity to bid for the privilege of having their name (or a name of their choice) forever attributed to new marine life species recently discovered off the coasts of the Bird’s Head Seascape in Indonesia by Conservation International.
A total of 12 lots shall be auctioned by Christie’s, and the proceeds will benefit marine conservation programs associated with the long-term preservation of such species as well as other environment and biodiversity-related programs. Participation to the gala event is for qualified bidders and by invitation only. Donations from interested parties and unsuccesful bidders are welcome.
To see the habitat that these funds will be used to protect, check out the interactive photo essay over at National Geo.
So how much would you pay to name a new species? Which of these organisms do you think will get the highest bid? I reckon the shark will be the most sought after. And what about this whole notion about selling off naming rights? Is nothing sacred? Or is the whole notion of binomial classification fundamentally flawed anyway?
Reports of an unusual “albino” sand tiger shark (aka, grey nurse, Carcharias taurus) are coming in from Austalia. Pictures and videos available by following the links.
This rare albino grey nurse has been spotted at Australian’s best known diving and fishing spot Fish Rock.
The photo of the 2.2m male was taken by Fish Rock Dive Centre owner Jon Cragg 2km off South West Rocks.
Mr Cragg was speechless when the amazing creature swam past him.
“I saw the big white shadow in the water with two other sharks then when I saw it I couldn’t believe it, it was like a ghost coming out of the darkness,” Mr Cragg said.
“No one has ever seen one like this before - it was pretty exciting.”
Naturally enough, cephalopods provide a lot of inkspiration when it comes to tattoos. Over at TONMO they did a reader survey to find out what motivates people to go under the “pen.”
The most popular location for a cephalopod tattoo is the lower back, with four (25%) tattoos residing there. The left arm was a close second (3), followed by a 3-way tie for right arm, left leg, and upper back (2 each).
So why do people choose to get a cephalopod tattoo over something different? Here is some of the insight provided by our responders. It’s interesting to note the prevailing observation that cephalopods are so “alien”-like.
When I was a kid my uncle took me scuba diving, and I held a small octopus on that arm [where I got my tattoo]. It was such an amazing experience…
I’m a scuba instructor, and they’re my favorite…
my favorite animal since i was a kid
Cephalopods are my favorite creatures on the planet. They are not only highly intelligent and full of personality, but they are both entirely alien looking (compared to all other animals) and adorable at the same time.
I like cephs a lot, and have devoted a lot of time to them. More importantly, I found an image of a ceph that resonated with me, and seemed to reflect other aspects of my life besides cephs.
…you can’t really sail to French Polynesia and not get a tattoo, so i got one of an octopus…
I love cephalopods - the last (known) living sea monsters, intelliegent, and alien to us - but given that most of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans, they’re probably more abundant than even all 6 billion of us. Their colors and elegance of motion make them living art (to me, anyway).
The Prelinger Archives are a great source for royalty free videos. They have many vintage instructional films and ephemra.
Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.
I recommend checking out two selections from the extensive archive. The first is the Hanford Science Forum, featuring “science student of the week” Doyle Burke, circa 1950s:
Television program (one of a series) sponsored by General Electric Company for telecasting to residents of the Richland, Washington area. This interview with Dr. Richard F. Foster, manager of the Aquatic Biology Division at the Hanford plutonium plant, presents his research that the plant’s radioactive effluents have no effect on aquatic life in the Columbia River.
You might also want to check out one of my personal favorites, Fish from Hell Part I and Part II. Some might argue that our attitudes towards the oceans have not changed much since then.
Essentially, this “film” is just murky stock footage of men on a fishing trawler. What transforms it into an epic tale of Man vs. The Sea is an amazing narration by somebody named Wilfred Lucas. Mr. Lucas pulls no punches; in this violent world, decent men kill every fish they meet. But that’s okay, because — as Mr. Lucas explains — fish are evil and deserve to die. A manta ray gets a harpoon in its skull because it’s a “devil fish,” and a “terror of the deep.” An octopus barely escapes with its life, even though it’s a “slimy, death-dealing monster” and a “black-hearted scoundrel.” Even porpoises are slandered, being derisively referred to as “clowns” and “good for lubricating oil.” As if this weren’t enough, a whole section of this film is devoted to a battle between a whale and a swordfish, which is the whale’s “greatest enemy” (something many ichthyologists would be interested to learn). As the camera cuts rapidly between stock shots of a leaping swordfish and completely different footage of a sleeping whale, Mr. Lucas tells us that “no one has ever been lucky enough to photograph a scene like this before.” Truly a triumph of style over content; great fun to watch. Look for the cameo by Wumpy the parrot.
Reports of an albino dolphin photographed near Lake Charles, LA.
[S]potted and photographed by Capt. Erik Rue of Calcasieu Charter Service on June 24th, 2007 during a charter fishing trip on Calcasieu Lake….
It appears to be an uncanny freak of nature, an albino dolphin, with reddish eyes and glossy pink skin. It is small in comparison to the others it is traveling with and appears to be a youngster traveling with mama.
[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:
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.
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
Cephalopodcast.com - The Ocean Podcast: Featuring science education and information about our oceans. Produced in south Florida, it includes news and ideas for marine educators and those who wish to learn more about our water world.
Chapman was a retired real estate executive. But his role as the Gill Man — the quintessential 1950s monster in Universal Pictures’ black-and-white film in 3-D — became his worldwide calling card and made him a darling on the collectibles and sci-fi circuit throughout the world.
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