Best Photo (Ansel Adams On Ship Award): Again in the peace loving, utopia that is DSN…we are all winners.

International Polar Year
Scaly Foot
Radiolaria “I’m kind of a Haeckel groupie and this picture of the real thing is obviously a rip off of his artwork“stated one of The Judges!
The Art of Kawika Chetron.
Animals in Formalin Overheard judges comment, “Yeah, yeah… call me a classicist.”

Best TGIF video: Peter introduced the Thank God Its Friday Video series this year, thereby creating more work for me but making Friday a little more enjoyable.

Fish Guys
Cruise, Cruise, Baby (Honorable Mention) updated link
GIANT ISOPODS! (Honorable Mention) updated link
Its hard not to like Fish Guys for all of its magnificent geekdom…systematics, museums, obscure pop culture references. Two of The Judges! pointed to the line, “Yeah, she’s like Thelma going to Scooby-Do’s Funeral.” One of the Judges! noted, “This was probably a no-brainer for someone using the blogging handle FishGuyDave” Another of The Judges! commented, “I’ve also tried to make office space jokes to stiffs. I totally run around in my lab shouting species names too. You can ask anyone.” Cruise, Cruise, Baby gets a nod from The Judges! and myself (secretly we all love Vanilla Ice and Rick James) GIANT ISPODS! is also in because as Chief Justice I can do whatever the hell I want and one of The Judges! is ” partial to this amazing footage of my brethren at a holiday meal.”

Best Conservation Post: Me being overly optimistic that we can actually do this.
How to Save the Ocean

Most Entertaining/Funniest Post:

Gorton’s Law
Hurricanes Lead to Incursion of Deep Sea Squid Up the Mississippi (honorable mention)
So You Want to Be A Marine Biologist (honorable mention)

Multiple votes were cast for each one of these but ultimately Gorton’s Law took the cake. I thought we only had 8 judges? The first likely won because “sometimes the truth is funny and sad.” My April Fool’s Joke originally duped at least one of The Judges!. The last caused one commenter to criticize us all for hating dolphins and hating those who love dolphins.

Best Cephalopod-Related Post: Who doesn’t love tentacled mollusks? If you love charismatic megavertebrates then you’re in the wrong place but if you love charismatic mega-INvertebrates then welcome home!

Three way tie

Biggest Squid Ever (part one & part two)
Voracious Deep-Sea Squid
Humboldt are here and they are hungry

Post Most Likely to Put Zooillogix out of Business:
Attack of the 2000lb Deep-Sea Monster