Mi hombre no necesita huevos de tortuga
My man does not need turtle eggs.
The folks over at Deep-Sea News, along with Argentinian supermodel Dorismar, want to remind all Catholics that sea turtles are not fish and make an inappropriate option for Lent fasting.
Because of the common misconception of sea turtles as ‘fish,’ it is estimated that as many as 10,000 endangered green, loggerhead, and olive ridley turtles are taken for feast food each year during Catholic religious holidays. Other species, such as leatherbacks, are also at risk as their eggs are poached in massive quantities throughout Latin America.
Continue reading ‘Send a message to the Pope: My man does not need sea turtle eggs.’
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).
![Underwatertimes.com image of shark claspers [150x200, 6.6K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070315_uw_weirdshark.jpg "Freak! Malaysian Fisherman Reels in Shark with Webbed Feet")
The Underwatertimes has an article that purports to show a baby shark with webbed feet. Looks more like the myxopterygia (i.e., claspers, intromittent organs, valva) of an adult reef shark.
myxopterygium (mix-op-ter-ridge-ee-um): The copulatory organ or clasper of Elasmobranchii and Holocephali; rod-like extensions of the inner side of the pelvic fins. It is composed of the long stem cartilage, a shorter distal cartilage, the dorsal terminal cartilage (or rhipidion, fan-shaped for dispersing sperm in a radiating spray during copulation), the hook-shaped terminal cartilage (or claw) which has a cutting edge on its inner margin, and the narrow, sharp spur. The claw and spur serve to anchor the clasper in the female oviduct and a groove along the clasper enables the sperm to reach the oviduct. The siphon contracts to propel sperm into the oviduct.
So basically, this shark died with an erection.
![Yellowfin Tuna [200x150, 8K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_070227_Tuna_MarinePhoto.jpg "Australian Maritime College Students process a yellowfin tuna in a laboratory. Stephen McGowan, 2006.")
In the tradition of Internet adages, I’d like to add another. In any discussion of sea life, no matter how rare, strange or disgusting, some knucklehead will always ask how well it goes with lemon or butter. I am calling this Gorton’s Law.
Now the more compelling question is to ask why this happens. Why do so many people consider the sea to be a smorgasbord? What difference is there between animals in the ocean and ones on land? For many, I suppose there is none. For example, on a swamp tour in Louisiana, our guide was kind enough to remind us that in his great state, if it bleeds, they eat it. However, Sylvia Earl, in her book Sea Change
, makes the point that we often eat higher up on the oceanic food chain than we do on the terrestrial one. She equates eating tuna with eating bushmeat. But it is true that many cultures do not eat large carnivores. Is this just because lions, tigers and bears are comparatively rare in the environment? Is that just because we have already extirpated them in our past? Obviously, it is certainly more dangerous to tangle with them than a herbivore. And perhaps that is the key. Even the fiercest of oceanic predators are manageable once landed. It can be a struggle to get a grouper on board, but once on deck it doesn’t take much to subdue it. So maybe it’s just a matter of buoyancy.
Many who would recognize the absurdity of a plan to sustain large and growing numbers of people by hunting and gathering from the land buffalol, deer, wild birds, rabbits, squirrels, roots, and berries seem to disengage their power of reason when it comes to the sea, apparently believing, somehow, that ocean systems are fundamentally different from those on the land, that they can year after year yield huge, comercially viable takes of wild-caught organisms and rebound indefinitely.
-Sylvia Earl, Sea Change
[via JW, thanks!]
![[64x54, 4K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_060326a_pinktentacle.jpg "Rare goblin shark [via pinktentacle.com]")
A couple of weeks ago the world got to see stunning video of a rare deep sea frill shark. Another bizarre looking customer is the goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). You can check out some amazing photos and videos of a live goblin shark at this website:
We eagerly await to see if the fine folks from Pink Tentacle can help with a translation. In the meantime, here is Google Translates robotic effort.
UPDATE: According to the Underwater Times, the shark did not survive for long.
A goblin shark — a rarely seen species often called a “living fossil” — was caught alive in Tokyo Bay but died after being put on display, an aquarium said.
The grey, long-nosed shark was caught in fishermen’s nets around 150 to 200 metres (500 to 650 feet) deep. It was discovered by officials of the Tokyo Sea Life Park when they took a boat with local fishermen on January 25.
But the shark died on the morning of January 27.
The Reuters report repeats the misconception that these deep sea creatures die primarily because of a sudden pressure change. Deep sea animals have bodies composed mostly of water, with no gas pockets. Because liquids are virtually incompressible, these animals seem to suffer little pressure-induced effects from dramatic depth changes. It’s far more likely that the change in temperature is more stressful (from 4°C to ~30°C).
We’ve witnessed the appearance of large cephalopods in our parking lots before. Now it appears other sea creatures are coming ashore to take our spaces.
![Download a White Shark Photo. Courtesy of MBA (c) 2006 [200x150, 4K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_060901a.jpg "Download a White Shark Photo. Courtesy of MBA (c) 2006")
Here’s some good news for a captive shark:
The young male white shark that has been part of our Outer Bay exhibit since September is back in the wild.
Our husbandry team tagged and released him shortly after sunrise today (Tuesday, January 16). It marks the second time in two years that we’ve exhibited a white shark and then returned it safely back
to the wild.
He was released from a boat in Monterey Bay after our staff fitted him with an electronic data tag that will track his movements for the next 90 days. If all goes as planned, on April 16, we’ll get information documenting where the shark traveled, how deep he dove and the water temperatures he favored. The data will be relayed to scientists via satellite when the tag pops free.
We released him because he’d grown considerably–from an initial length of 5-foot-8 and 103 pounds when he arrived on August 31, 2006 to his current size of 6-foot-5 and 171 pounds. He was healthy and feeding at the time of release, but was large enough that to delay much longer could have posed more risks for both the shark and our staff during the move. We expect he’ll do well after release, just as our first white shark did.
My wife and I just got back from our first trip to the Georgia Aquarium. I was planning on editing the video this weekend to post here. Then comes this news. Sad.
The first necropsy on a whale shark in the United States was performed Friday at the Georgia Aquarium following the animal’s sudden death Thursday night. The 22-foot whale shark, Ralph, was one of the first two whale sharks to be held in captivity in North America.
The GAq also recently had a sick beluga whale that died.
(via Dad)
Man, this is wrong on so many levels.
Fish ‘n Flush is a hard-acrylic aquarium that holds 2.2 gallons of water and wraps around a separate 2.5-gallon toilet tank. The kit, from AquaOne Technologies, costs $299 and includes the aquarium and flushing systems, including filters, pump, two artificial plants and a guide. An LED light costs $25 extra.
UPDATE: Well, I guess there is a bathroom sink to add to the tacky decor choices. See also, the movie.
![Link to Amazon [150x200, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220a.gif)
A couple months ago, I picked up a reprint of The Whale Book
by Adriaen Coenen (1585) at my local indie bookstore.
In the late 16th century, Dutch beachcomber Adriaen Coenen scanned the beaches of Holland for interesting marine material and produced several illustrated manuscripts of his findings, covering anything from the commonplace herring to the exotic moonfish. Coenen’s work contains the earliest European pictures of whales, naïve but easily identifiable, which makes it a rare visual and textual source for the natural world of his day.
![Link to Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) [150x200, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220b_kb.gif)
You can thumb through a detailed, Flash-based facsimile over at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (click on Blader in het Visboek). Reading the commentary in the reprint, it’s interesting seeing the transition from medieval murk to rational enlightenment. Today technology makes the oceans less opaque to exploration, but back then most knowledge came from whatever rot washed up on the shore. Consequently, it was easy to get a distorted vision of what many sea creatures really looked like.
![Link to National Diet Library [200x150, 12K]](http://www.cephalopodcast.com/img/pic/pic_061220c_ndl.gif)
It is also interesting to compare the European naturalist’s depictions to those from Japan. Over at Pink Tentacle, they link to the works of Kurimoto Tanshuu (1756 - 1834), who sketched wildlife during the Edo period. Japan’s National Diet Library makes hi-res scans available of these original works.
Coenen and Tanshuu worked some 200 hundred years apart and both seemed to take some liberty with their depictions. But Tanshuu’s skill and level of detail is compelling. Be sure to check out the comments on Metafilter for some translations of the Diet website.
The Delaware SeaGrant program produces short radio announcements on ocean topics called SeaTalk. They have material going back to 1998 in wav and mp3 formats. Wouldn’t take much to syndicate this stuff and turn it into podcasts. How about it Delaware? Don’t keep your content bottled up. Let me know if you need help. 
As a public service in conjunction with more than 35 area radio stations, Delaware Sea Grant produces SeaTalk, a bimonthly series of 30- and 60-second radio announcements on subjects ranging from sharks to sand dunes to current marine science research. The series has been in production at the University of Delaware for more than 30 years.
SeaTalk Sampler
I’ve just come across some software that combines two things I enjoy, my Mac and my aquarium.
[Maquarium is] management software for the novice or expert fish keeper. It allows users to track chemicals, schedule tasks, keep notes, manage inventory, and analyze expenses.
Maquarium features a fish, coral, plant, and invertebrate profile database which contains information that helps you track and maintain the delicate needs of each item in the tank. Furthermore, Maquarium helps the novice by warning of dangerously high chemical values and the recommended course of treatment, while allowing experts to set up custom warning values.
A demo version of maquarium is available. The full version is $24. I will try it out over the next couple of days to see how it works. If you know of similar software, let me know.
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