Cephalopodcast

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

Leatherback sea turtles are the largest and most ancient lineage of marine turtles. Eleven of them have been fitted with satellite transmitters as part of the Great Turtle Race, which begins on April 16, 2007.

The event is organized by The Leatherback Trust, Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP), Conservation International and Costa Rica’s MINAE. Some of the turtles are sponsored by Plantronics, Yahoo and West Marine, among others.

The whole site is a pretty slick production and includes Flashified trading cards for all the animals and a Flickr page. No word on whether the sponsors got to stencils their logos directly onto the turtles.

The sponsored turtles…are “racing” toward feeding areas south of the Galapagos Islands after nesting at Playa Grande in Costa Rica’s Las Baulas National Park, the primary nesting area for leatherbacks in the Pacific. The leatherback is a 100 million-year-old, massive sea animal that outlived the dinosaurs but is now dangerously close to extinction. Leatherback numbers have decreased at Playa Grande from thousands of nesting turtles 10 years ago to fewer than 100 in the last five years. This online event will raise funds to protect Playa Grande and raise awareness about what individuals can do-no matter where they live-to help protect sea turtles in our daily actions.

Lesson plans for K-5 and 6-12 grades are hosted by ERIC. Additional educational materials are supposed to be available in the “Sea Turtle School” area at www.GreatTurtleRace.com.

• Wikipedia: Leatherback Sea Turtles
• Great Turtle Race
• Great Turtle Race: Lesson Plans
• Flickr: Leatherback Turtle
• Yahoo Video: Great Turtle Race
• The Leatherback Trust
• National Geographic: It’s Tough to Be a Leatherback Turtle (3-5)
• National Geographic: Can Research Save the Leatherback Turtle? (6-8)

UPDATE: Stephen Colbert devoted part of his monologue to the leatherback race. One of the turtles is named after him.

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

(more…)

While browsing through the PBS website for the Kings of Camouflage, I came across a link to a free UN document of cephalopods. It is available in a manner similar to the sea turtle anatomy book PDF. However, it is produced by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, so it’s emphasis is more on cephalopods as a fishery. Still, there is a lot of great info and illustrations in there. And it appears that educators can reproduce and distribute the information freely as long as they provide proper attribution.

Cephalopods of the World
www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0150e/a0150e00.htm
…free downloads of illustrated fact sheets on nearly every living cephalopod.

There are similar documents available on other marine organisms too:

• 548 Species Fact Sheets (bony fish, crustaceans, marine mammals, algae, shellfish, sharks, cephalopods, etc.)
• FAO Sea turtles of the world
• FAO Marine Mammals of the World
• FAO Sharks of the world, Part I and Part II

[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…)

Trolling the Google for sharky news so you don’t have to:

Swim At Your Own Risk is your daily dose of all things sharky… oh, and we’ll also try to fill you in on any other aquatic antics we stumble upon.

• SAYOR: squid
• SAYOR: dolphin
• SAYOR: sharks

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.

(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.

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.

[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

A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday.

• Fishermen catch rare 39-foot squid
• TONMO coverage and discussion

[via JW, thanks!]

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:

• Tokyo Zoo: Goblin Shark
• Video: Quicktime
• Video: Windows Media
• MarineBio.org species profile

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.

• Reuter news: goblin shark
• Reuter news: frill shark

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).

via Plankton Forums (Izzy Dolphin)

Looking for more marine podcasts? Scripps Institution of Oceanography has started offering access to their digital audio and video content via iTunes.

They are also now producing a free monthly electronic magazine about Scripps research, called Explorations@Scripps.

• Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Scripps Multimedia and Podcasts
• Sign up for their new e-newsletter, Explorations@Scripps

OceansLive.org is a NOAA outreach program affiliated with Bob Ballard and company. It’s difficult linking directly to their content because it’s partly tied up in Flash. But one of the videos worth noting is under their ARCHIVED VIDEO section. It is a dissection of a dead Laysan Albatross chick on the Kure Atoll. It’s a pretty graphic depiction of the problem of plastic in our oceans. The parents mistake the floating debris for food items and instinctively regurgitate them to the young. The chicks can become so impacted that they die of malnutrition. Or in the case of the bird in the video, the plastic punctured the stomach and acid burned the liver and blackened the lungs.

It is remarkable and sad how much garbage the researchers pull from one dead chick. The other absurdity is just how remote Kure Atoll is from the rest of civilization. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere, but still affected by our conspicuous consumption.

• To see the video, go to oceansLive.org, click ARCHIVED VIDEO, then scroll down to ALBATROSS NECROPSY
• See also, Free Resources for Educators and the Community: “Are Seabirds What They Eat? Plastics and Seabirds” [PDF]

Available now from the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in Sanibel, FL, in VHS format ($19.95) or DVD ($22.00). Quicktime snippets on their website.

Mollusks In Action is a nature video that features living mollusks found on the beaches and tidal pools of Sanibel Island, Florida. It was filmed and produced by Shell Museum education docent Joyce Matthys. The 30-minute video covers, in an easy-to-understand approach, different aspects of molluscan biology such as feeding, locomotion, anatomy, defense strategies, and reproduction.