Best of DSN 2007 : Deep Sea News

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Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.

Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.

Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.

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Best of DSN 2007

Category: Best of
Posted on: January 7, 2008 11:27 PM, by CR McClain

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

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Comments

Dolphins suck (sorry Peter).

Posted by: kevin z | January 8, 2008 9:16 PM

Harsh! Now I know why Megavertebrate Week was snubbed at the Awards.
The numbers don't lie. I nominate these for the People's Choice Award:

Leatherback turtles: going where few air breathers dare
http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/04/leatherback_turtles_going_wher.php
Bryan Wallace, Duke University

Whale sharks do it deeper
http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/04/whale_sharks_do_it_deeper.php
Peter Etnoyer, Deep Sea News

Posted by: Peter Etnoyer | January 8, 2008 10:55 PM

Actually the people choice award would go to the Military Dumping post. I guest that means invertebrates get it! ;-)

Posted by: CR McClain | January 8, 2008 11:07 PM

Indeed, Munitions Dumping had nearly as many hits in one week as DSN had in its biggest month ever, nearly 50,000 hits, I think, in December 2007. Munitions Dumping is an all-time great. The megavertebrate nominations have cumulative power, though. They top the charts daily.

I move that we check the numbers. Is it possible?

Posted by: Peter Etnoyer | January 8, 2008 11:46 PM

ahem, cumulative power??? I think all the giant squid posts alone from 2007 beat out ALL megavert posts from 2007. I believe that was a resounding spineless checkmate.

Posted by: kevin z | January 9, 2008 1:44 PM