Living polyp of a Swiftia sp. sea fan. Photo credit: Peter Etnoyer, HRI. Many deep-water animals have never been photographed alive in their natural habitat, they're known only from their pickled state. Dried, dusty, and broken specimens fill museum drawers. "Living specimen photography" captures vital information before a specimen is collected. Remember to "snap" before you snip. It brings those dusty drawers to life! Swiftia sp. is a dark loving, azooxanthellate sea fan, one of many 'asymbiotes' in the twilight zone of the West Atlantic. The living colony's color and morphology is seen…
Eric over at that brilliant invertablog, The Other 95%, is hosting the next edition of Linnaeus' Legacy. It is a blog carnival about taxonomy, biodiversity and systematics. The current edition is at A DC Birding Blog. You have 1 week to get in those submissions! Go here to submit.
Our expedition to the Twilight Zone is still on hold because of generator problems on the RV Nancy Foster. Now we've got Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gustav bearing down on us from the Caribbean. The storm is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico Sunday morning. So, even if we made it out to the shelf break by Saturday morning, we would only have a day or two of survey. We'll take it! When do we board? But honestly, if it wasn't for this thing with Discovery Channel, I would feel hexed. Gustav is far away in the Caribbean, but already causing heaps of trouble here in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil prices…
While we give you more details about the BIG NEWS. Japanese researchers publish there super duper extremely important must kill all whales research. They are getting skinny! Though they cite global warming as the cause in their paper, Anthony Judd thinks they might be forgetting something... The Daily Mail report on a rare albino great white shark. Majestic. Beautiful. Awe-Inspiring. Until it rips your head off... Glassbox-Design has the absolute most beautiful collection of hermit crabs I have ever been witness to!! A must see.
"I have made an important discovery... that alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effect of intoxication."
the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
...once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
is on the horizon. Are you ready to discover what it is?
This news is huge!
...we have some news...
...because...
Finally the decider has made a decision I can agree with and get behind 100%! Angelo has the details of the recent media storm (or see all his posts related to the monument). Here is Angelo in an local TV station interview. Doesn't he just look like a good poster boy for marine conservation? Keep up the good work Angelo!
Graphic from The New York Times Company. The New York Times has a well-written article about the new Alvin replacement. There is also a 15 minute Science Times podcast and several photos of the 7 foot wide, 3 inch thick titanium sphere being molded (must see) as well as the above graphic proposing a hybrid option to use the new sphere inside the old Alvin body during the interim period. Here is an excerpt:" The United States used to have several submersibles -- tiny submarines that dive extraordinarily deep. Alvin is the only one left, and after more than four decades of probing the sea's…
Learn more about $quid the movie. Hat tip to PZ.
I think I may have put this up but just in case I haven't, well it make me laugh hysterically once again so maybe it will have the same on affect on you:"Most Giant Squid remains have been found in the stomachs of Sperm Whales. This has led some of the stupider Marine Biologists to theorize that the belly of the Sperm Whale is in fact the natural habitat of the Giant Squid. Finally, today, we have proof that this isn't so. This morning a Giant Squid swam up to a luxury cruise ship and yelled out "I'm over here"." Read here to find out what happens next!
100 m deep on Flower Garden Banks. Photo credit FGBNMS/NURC. Like many marine protected areas around the world, most of the seafloor in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is deeper than the depth limit for recreational and scientific diving (50 m). We call this the "twilight zone", a poorly known depth zone considered too deep for divers, and too shallow for manned submersibles. Some marine biologists call this a new frontier. So, four years ago, I asked myself...why not make a dissertation out of it? Join the HRI Biodiversity and Conservation Laboratory as we embark…
Have you wanted to meet me in person? Probably not! I really can't blame you. What about the doofuses who run Zooillogix? Yeah, neither do I. Ahh, but do you want to drink Manhatten's, G&T's, and Martini's at trendy bar in San Francisco with like-minded scientific groupies. Well then... It's long overdue. Time for a Zooillogix writers, friends, and lowly readers party. On Friday [September] 26th, we will be having our get together at Tonic, in San Francisco, starting at 9:00PM. We think it will be fun to see what weirdos (that's you!) come out of the woodwork. At worst, Ben and I…