Cephalopodcast

“It appears to be confined to the Mediterranean Sea, where it grows, especially on the southern coast, attached to rocks at considerable depths in the sea. It is fished up from the deep by means of nets and other instruments. The manufacture of ornaments of this coral at Naples is of great extent.” — Goodrich, 1859
Source: S. G. Goodrich Animal Kingdom Illustrated Vol 2 (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859)

It’s Deep-Sea Coral Week over at the Deep-Sea News blog, from April 27-May 3. It’s worth a look, with many interesting posts already up and many more to come each day.

Coral Clipart

The Florida Center for Instructional Technology
has made a number of antique woodcuts and engravings available online for educational use. Many of these include things zoological, including several anthozoan images.

While the license is generous, this collection could really benefit from an updated treatment with Creative Commons. Also, like most clipart collection, many of the specimens are mis-classified. For instance, larval arthropods are generously mixed in with the annelids. But those vermiform organisms were vexatious even for Linneaus (say that fast seven times).

In no particular taxonomic order

• Clipart ETC: Corals and Sea Anemone
• Clipart ETC: Sponges
• Clipart ETC: Squid and Octopus
• Clipart ETC: Worms (and caterpillars)
• Clipart ETC: Zoology A
• Clipart ETC: Sea Urchins and Sea Stars
• Clipart ETC: Sea Cucumbers
• Clipart ETC: Mollusk M - Z
• Clipart ETC: Fish S - Z
• Clipart ETC: Crustaceans

It can be a challenge for environmental non-profits and educational outfits to produce original multimedia content. On a tight budget it can be tough to produce compelling content in-house, so at some point, the question of using stock images or video comes up. This has a cost too in the form of licensing, clearances and properly managing the rights to the media. Fortunately, there are some low cost (and free) resources available.

Reef Vid

A resource of free coral reef video clips for educational use

Professor Peter Mumby from the University of Exeter has made available a number of coral reef video clips. The database has over 500 clips which are free for educational and research use. The clips on the Web site are suitable for use in a PowerPoint presentation. Full-quality footage is available on mini-DV tapes, DVD, or DVD-ROM (recorded in PAL) by contacting them.

Environmental Video from the Feds

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also maintains a library of public domain video footage. The only cost is for reproduction, there are no other licenses or clearances required. All they ask is that you credit them as the source. In particular, I’ve found the Year of the Ocean, Turtle Excluder Device (TED) and Commercial Fishing to be useful stock footage for many projects. They also have a photo library of royalty-free still images.

Quality at a Price

Finally, there are also exceptional stock libraries available for a fee. The quality of these is incredible and the staff are available to help you find just the right image for your message. Some of the more marine-themed ones are listed below.

Have you used any other video resources for ocean conservation? Let me know.

• Reef Vid
• NOAA B-Roll
• Stock Photo: Image Quest 3-D
• Stock Video: Ocean Footage
• Stock Video: BioMedia Associates. Bacteria, Protozoans and more.
• Stock Video: Al Giddings Images
• Previously: Vintage Ocean and Science Fair Footage
• Previously : Free fish pics: NOAA updates online photo library
• Previously: Free undersea images from Coral Reef Alliance

Flickr photo: dead horseshoe crab by Epsilon289
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Horseshoe crabs are not really crabs at all, being more closely allied to spiders and scorpions. There are only four species in the world, but they have a fossil record dating back more than 400 million years. Their annual spawning along the east coast of the United States serves as a vital food resource for migrating birds.

At work we do a program on invertebrates for the little guys (K-2nd grade). When we hold up a horseshoe crab and ask them what it is, some invariably identify it as a stingray. When we flip the carapace over they are surprised to see the pinchers and legs. So presumably, the ray is a more familiar animal to many children. If you are a teacher interested in rectifying this matter, I encourage you to check out the many lesson plans and resources over at horseshoecrab.org.

InVERSEabrates

April is National Poetry Month and the oceans provide a lot of inspiration for verse. And one outlet for that creativity comes each year with the annual arts competition from Horseshoecrab.org.

[Horesehoecrab.org] invites students from around the world to submit poems, tales and images in appreciation and celebration of the remarkable horseshoe crab. Through the arts, our future environmental stewards have a voice which is heard globally.

The competition is open to all grade levels pre-K – 12. Students may enter through their school or can enter individually. Each year 30-50 student visual/language artworks are selected to appear in our annual anthology, “Horseshoe Crabs & the Arts.” Each of the young artists as well as their teacher receives a copy of this limited edition artist’s book. All selected works are posted on our web site in the “Poems, Tales and Images” category. In addition the works are reproduced for exhibit in our traveling art exhibition, which has been hosted in art and nature centers throughout the United States and Japan. International entrants are encouraged to help us identify art centers in their countries that may also be interested in hosting the exhibition. We welcome invitations for international display of these outstanding student works!

The competition begins each September and the deadline for entry is today. Selected artists are notified in the beginning of June.

• Horseshoecrab.org: Horseshoe Crabs & the Arts Competition
• Horseshoecrab.org: Previous competition winners (poems, art and more)
• Horseshoecrab.org: lovely anatomy of a horseshoecrab poster (34″ x 22″, $18.00 each)
• University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program: Horseshoe crabs
• PBS Nature: Crash: A Tale of Two Species. This is a video program about the horseshoe crab and the red knot. There is also an Educator’s Guide
• Windracer: Horseshoecrab Transformers
• Andrea Koupal: Anthropomorphic Horseshoecrab
• More Ocean Art Contests: Our Ocean and Coastal Ecosystems Art Competition

Here’s a couple more amusing items for your consideration today.

• Cloaca Classic Thong
• Avenging Narwhal Play Set
• Explorer 420 Windup Submarine
• Gummy Tapeworm
• Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus
• Missing Cat Poster
• Bill Nye Bobblehead

Hello Arthropodcast

This is a difficult decision, but I’ve been thinking about making some serious changes to the focus of this Web site. As you may have noticed, I have not been especially productive in the output of actual podcasts. I finally realized the problem was with the name. For whatever reason, I settled on cephalopods as a mascot and icon for this site. I thought the name was clever. I thought cephalopods were cool. It was a mistake. As my buddy Lirpa Sloof said, crustaceans are really the coolest creatures in the sea (and by extension, so are all arthropods). So I am officially changing the name of the site to the Arthropodcast. This will have several advantages.

First, the recent Invertebrate Wars have made me realize that neither group of organisms (echinoderms or molluscs) really captures the imagination and hearts of ocean enthusiasts. I think people are much more excited and interested in the arthropods, especially terrestrial ones like insects and spiders. This name change will also make it easier for folks to get the pun in the title (i.e., it’s a podcast about arthropods).

Second, arthropods are more abundant and diverse than both molluscs and echinoderms combined. As I mentioned, they are also masters of both land and sea. Compare this to the other two groups. There are no living examples of terrestrial echinoderms. There is only a rare fossil specimen of an arboreal urchin, but that species died out with the tree ferns. Also, the few examples of terrestrial mollusks are pretty pathetic, consisting of only a hand full of thin-shelled snails. True, there are rumors of an arboreal cephalopod, but most of those sightings can be ascribed to Bigfoot chasers high on mescaline and urchin envy.

So there you have it. My rationale for changing this Web site. It will take me a little while to make all the necessary changes. But I hope you will agree it’s for the better.

*I also briefly considered calling it the Isopodcast, but quickly realize that was in fact too obscure.

UPDATE: This compelling argument from Craig helped me come back to my senses and restore the original mascot and moniker to the Web site. But for historical purposes, here’s a screenshot.

What is all this twit?

When visiting the cephaloblog you may have noticed the purple squircle on the right side near the top. It’s a little Flash app that loads messages from my Twitter account. Twitter is a free service that allows anyone to send micro-messages of 140 characters or less out into the world wide Web.

It is easy to be skeptical about this tool and it is difficult at first to describe the utility of the service. The best explanation that I have found so far is this video from Common Craft:

An Ocean of Messages

So Twitter can be about the little things that happen in your life. But it can also be a neat collaboration and connection tool. For instance, I have found a number of users focused on ocean and science topics.

One of them is Michael Coyne from seaturtle.org (seaturtle). He recently got the crew from the popular tech podcast Buzz Out Loud to adopt a leatherback sea turtle. A satellite tag was placed on that sea turtle, named JaMoTo, and it is now sending updates of its position via Twitter. And you can follow along.

Another example is Dr. David E. Guggenheim from 1planet1ocean.org (OceanDoctor). I recently followed a series of messages he sent from the Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York City. It is unlikely I would be invited to such an event, but it was neat having my own paparazzitwitterazzi there to cover the carpet:

I barely recognize many of my colleagues in clothes, let alone formal wear. I'm used to seeing them in/under the water. 11:57 PM March 15, 2008

I'm honored to be seated at dinner beside Don Walsh, one of only 2 humans to have visited the deepest part of the ocean 08:15 PM March 15, 2008

Sylvia Earle: How did (I) become an explorer? It's easy. You ask questions, and you never stop. 07:51 PM March 15, 2008

Message in a Bottle

At first it is easy to get lost in the overall ocean of messages that Twitter can generate. But the trick is to search for and follow just the folks you find most interesting. I find the people I am following often lead me to information I would not otherwise have normally found, but still within the purview of my interests. In turn, I can post about resources that they may not have noticed either. Plus I get to learn when they are drinking coffee, all at the speed of 140 characters per second (or thereabouts).

So if you are not on Twitter and do decide to stick a toe in, let me know. And if you are already swimming in it, message me directly.

Ocean and Science Twittizens

Here are some of the folks I am following on Twitter:

• Michael Coyne, from seaturtle.org (seaturtle)
• JaMoTo, an adult female leatherback sea turtle (JaMoTo )
• Dale Basler, a Wisconsin science teacher and co-host of Lab Out Loud (Basler)
• Sonya Buyting, science journalist from Sassy Science (sassysonya)
• Dr. Kirsten Standford, co-host of This Week in Science (drkiki)
• Dr. Jenn Forman Orth from the Invasive Species Weblog (invasivespecies)
• Dr. David E. Guggenheim from 1planet1ocean.org (OceanDoctor)

culture.jpg © Mark Rehorst

[via Make:]

Oh, this is clever. I might try making some of these to go with the cat litter cake. There seems to be a blog idea in this, in food that looks like science. Paging Dr. Kiki.

I’ve had a few microbiology classes and cultured many different types of bacteria on different media, and I happened to have a case of pyrex Petri dishes from an old surplus buy (relax, they were unused) so I thought it would be fun to make dessert that looked like bacterial cultures served in Petri dishes! I prepared the media (jello, tapioca pudding, and lemon pie filling) and Alex did most of the decorating. This should be good for a Halloween party or a creepy movie night with friends. They might go well with bowls of gummy worms served on ground-up Oreo cookie dirt.

• Bacterial Cultures (NOT!) for Dessert
• Food Science

Eggcase from a skate. © J. Robertshaw

The Great Eggcase Hunt

With the coming of spring in the northern hemisphere also comes a time to hunt for eggs. But it’s not just about birds anymore. The folks over at the Shark Trust also want people to head to the beach to look out for the fecundity of fish.

Colloquially known as mermaid’s purses, eggcases are the protective capsules laid by skates and some rays**. Inside is a tiny baby skate and a big yolk sac. Typically the capsules have odd keels and horns to help them remain tangled in seaweed and camouflaged on the bottom. The young develop for several months before hatching out as miniature adults. But after hatching, the horny cases begin to breakdown and may come loose, washing up on the shore. Storms might also dislodge living ones from the bottom. If you find a lot of eggcases in an area, it may indicate that a skate nursery is located nearby. This kind of information is valuable to conservationist who are trying to protect these species.

Why does the Shark Trust want you to record eggcases? In recent decades several species of skate and ray around the…coast have dramatically declined in numbers…The identification of these critical areas will enable the Shark Trust to propose conservation measures, in order to reverse the decline of these charismatic animals.

So now’s your chance to contribute to skate and ray conservation and have a lot of fun at the same time.

They have a lot of resources for citizen scientists and for educators who want to organize a local eggcase hunt. And if you don’t live near the coast, you can still take some time this spring to create your own giant eggcases (PDF link) out of balloons and papier-mâché. Or better yet, make some chocolate ones that you can send to me!

• Great Eggcase Hunt
• A Fieldguide to Eggcases (PDF)
• **What’s the difference between a skate and a ray?

Rabbitfish Helping to Save the Reef

Continuing with my aquatic version of things vernal, there is news that rabbitfish might be helping to save the Great Barrier Reef. Many herbivorous reef fish species like parrotfish and tangs regularly graze on the fast-growing algae of the reefs. But apparently they only like to eat it when it’s young and not too weedy. This is where the rabbitfish comes in.

“Then, to our even greater surprise a fish we had never seen in this area before was observed grazing on the weed. The rabbitfish (Siganus canaliculatus), came out of nowhere and began to clear-fell the weed placed on the reef crest.”

The rabbitfish were caught on underwater videocams, in schools of up to 15 fish, grazing the crest, slopes and outer flats of the reef, and chomping away at more than ten times the rate of other weed-eaters.

• Red Orbit: Rabbitfish Helping to Save the Great Barrier Reef
• Science Daily: Rabbit Fish To The Rescue Of The Reef

sƎʇɐʞs ɹƎɥ :ɐ*

[via Kasey]

I first came across Australian cartoonist Phil Watson back in late 2006. I reckon his work is on par with the likes of Toomey. Now it looks like he has since teamed up with the Mall of America and their Underwater Adventures Aquarium in Bloomington, MN. This must be a good thing because he is turning from one-off one-panels to full blown animated shorts. Some of them are quite topically amusing, managing to poke fun at Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Steve Jobs and the like. But here’s one of my favorites, since it also features a cephalopod:

A couple of other amusing ones include his movie parody called 20 Last Dates and Sharky in Lock Ness.

• Phil Watson’s YouTube Channel
• Sherman’s Lagoon
• Previously: Daily Shark! Cartoon

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

Carnival of the Blue #6 will be appearing here on November 5, 2007. Remember to send in your submissions early and often. For your blogging convenience, web badges are available in different sizes and colors.

What is the Carnival of the Blue?

The idea of the blog carnival is to highlight really good blog posts on a given theme during a certain period of time. Someone collects those posts and turns them into one uber-posting called a “carnival.” Carnival themes can vary from cats to causes to the crazy.

The Blue Carnival was kicked off on World Ocean Day 2007 back in June by Mark Powell (blogfish). “[It] is meant to provide a community for ocean-related blogging and bloggers.”

Send your postings to me (pulpodcast [at] gmail . com) or Mark (mpowell [at] oceanconservancy . org). Note, I will be away from the keyboard until Sunday, so there there might be a slight delay in acknowledgment.

Also, this Carnival may very well be podcasted. At least, I plan on publishing Cephalopodcast #7 on 11/5 and will be inclined to highlight early submissions. Carnivals are primarily about the words. But if anyone is interested in augmenting their submission with an audio interview too, let me know. But again, audio is not necessary to participate next month. I just think it would be a fun supplement.

Note to Mark: The Carnival of the Blue is not listed here. Any ideas?

Saw one of these embiggened octopus plushies today. FAO Schwartz sells them. At ~183 cm across, it’s probably a little too big (and spendy) for Cephalopodcast HQ.

Our octopi [sic] are available in two sizes. The Giant Octopus lives up to his name, reaching almost 63″ from head to tip of tenctacle and he makes a very comfortable pillow. If that’s too big to handle, we also offer a smaller version, constructed of the same richly-detailed plush.

They also have other large, fluffy sea creatures, including sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, walruses, jellyfish, stingrays and clownfish.

How not to overwhelm with Charts and Graphs

Over on the 43Folders blog, Matt Turk is asking how he can improve his academic presentation style.

I am in a fairly quantitative science…Unfortunately, what most people in my field do is to simply overwhelm the audience with lots of facts and charts and bullet points. Obviously this is a bad idea — but on the other hand, if you don’t give enough ’serious-looking’ plots, you run the risk of being dismissed by the majority of the people in the audience.

So how do I strike a balance? How do I keep my presentations in the manner of a good narrative, with appropriate display methods, when constrained by an audience that could liberally describe as ‘hostile’?

There are obligatory recommendations of Tufte, but also to The Craft of Research by Booth, Colomb, and Williams.

If you have any ideas about effectively communicating science information, head on over to 43Folders and chime in.

A funny thing happens when you start rearranging the letters in the title of some blogs. Strangely, I see a definite trend towards analagrams with the results from my own blog.

Anagrams for Cephalopodcast (67254 found)

1. Coastal Chopped
2. Papa Cod Clothes
3. Clashed Cat Poop
4. Cloaca Depth Ops
5. Cecal Pathos Pod

Anagrams for Pharyngula (176 found)

1. A Phyla Rung
2. A Harpy Lung
3. Angry Pal Uh
4. Ah Pray Lung
5. Gnarl Yap Uh

Anagrams for Deep-Sea News (1267 found)

1. Seaweed Pens
2. Sand Pee Wees
3. We Need Peas
4. Sea Deep Wens
5. Sea End Weeps

Anagrams for Laelaps (46 found)

1. Ale Laps
2. Seal Pal
3. Paellas
4. All Peas
5. All Apes

Anagrams for Shifting Baselines (58824 found)

1. A Belting Fishiness
2. A Sensible Fish Ting
3. A Binge Elfish Snits
4. A Bile Fishnet Signs
5. Lets Begin A Fish Sin

You can explore your own confirmation bias over at the Wordsmith Internet Anagrams Server.

Microbe Week continues over at the Deep Sea News Blog. But if you need an additional inoculation, consider tuning into the very well produced MicrobeWorld radio/podcast.

MicrobeWorld Radio is an educational outreach initiative that revolves around a daily, 90-second radio series designed to increase public understanding and appreciation of the vital role microbes play on our planet and to promote the science of microbiology.

Some osteological curiosities have been collecting in my cabinet inbox. It’s hard to articulate why I find these so humerus since some of them are quite gross.

• Michael Paulus: Skeletal Systems, a character study of 22 present and past cartoon cahracters
• Hyungkoo Lee: Looney Toons I and II
• Pac Man
• Bigfoot
• Grey Alien
• Hajime Emoto: Creepy

And if you want to take these things more seriously, try the teaching kits.