cmcclain | April 27, 2008Given the comments on the last post, I thought it time to give almost-a-religion-major Craig a work out.
The origin of the word coral is traced to Greek korllion and Latin coralium probably both derived from the early Hebrew goral meaning "small pebble". In the Torah goral occurs in reference to small stones used in casting lots (Num. 33:54; Jonah 1:7). The word also may have denoted "a portion or an inheritance (Josh. 15:1; Ps. 125:3; Isa. 17:4), and a destiny, as assigned by God (Ps. 16:5; Dan. 12:13)."
In English translations the specific word coral also occurs:
Ezekiel 27:16 (text from…
petnoyer | April 27, 2008Coral is a polyphyletic term for polypoid animals in the cnidarian classes Anthozoa and Hydrozoa that secrete either 1) a black, horn like proteinaceous axis or 2) carbonate skeletal material in the form of either a) continuous skeleton or b) an assemblage of microscopic, individual sclerites (Cairns, 2007). That covers black corals, reef-building corals, solitary corals, and soft corals, respectively.
The word "coral" derives from Old French (say it with an accent!), but it appears in the Old Testament twice, so its origin may be Hebrew. The word first referred to the beautiful and precious…
petnoyer | April 26, 2008This is Coral Week. Not to be confused with International Year of the Reef 2008. The goal of this week is to pull you away from the reef, actually, down into the deeper, darker parts of the ocean where corals still thrive. We want to introduce you to the other corals, the maligned and neglected ones, like the octocorals (aka soft corals, or sea fans), the cup corals, the matrix formers, the black corals, and the zoantharians like the gold corals, which can grow to be 2000 years old. Deep corals hold secrets just like the shallow ones. They have alot in common, actually. We'll write about that…
kevin z | April 26, 2008Continuing the series from VBS.tv's TOXIC-Garbage Island series. Contains some vulgar language. They finally actually do something, but they are still just as annoying. Yet, part 9 starts to nail it.
kevin z | April 25, 2008
Is that a gang sign that crab is flashing? West Side ya'll!
A half-blue lobster! Its cool how the mutation only affects part of the segment. In arthropods, each half of a segment is regulated by developmental patterning genes. Much work has been done on this in Drosophila research.
For more of the crustacean freak-show,including double crusher claws and albino lobsters, visit GoodMorningGloucester a wonderful blog that journals life on the docks in Gloucester. Make sure you sign up for their RSS feed!
kevin z | April 25, 2008Continuing the series, here is parts 6 and 7 from VBS.tv's series TOXIC-Garbage Island. Contains some vulgar language. If you can get past the annoying attitude of the host, there are some lessons here! I extremely disagree with his statement about it being so boring out on the open sea. I'm sorry you don't get fucking cell phone reception or cable TV out there brah.
petnoyer | April 25, 2008Modern ocean prophet Wallace J Nichols presented the first ever Ecodaredevil Award to Duke University graduate student Elliott Hazen this past April 22nd, on Earth Day. Elliott received the award for on-campus activism at Duke Marine Lab, co-founding GreenWave, a student led sustainability movement, and introducing a class "Green by Design" that brought experts from business, and fisheries to speak about sustainability. Elliott does great research, too.
J Nichols is on the left in the picture below, while Elliott Hazen proudly dons his brand new helmet-slash-environmental award.…
cmcclain | April 24, 2008Reading over my morning blogs, Rick at MBSL&S reports news that is going to make Craig extremely cranky for the rest of weekend (and just plained pissed afterwards). In the backass wisdom that is the CNMI Legislature, they have adopted a resolution opposing the proposed Northern Islands Marine National Monument. It looks like the logo "You'll Love How Deep We Go" will not see daylight. The reasons for the blockage ranges from stupid to idiotic to just plane asinine. Rick as the full list and its utterly shocking how many of these are moot points.
I find it alarming that this comes…
cmcclain | April 24, 2008Figures. I am out of town for a week and someone feels the need to generate some gossip about me. The latest heinous character assassination comes from Rick at MBSL&S claiming that I broke MBARI's beloved Western Flyer. To bring you up to speed you can read this post. Now I whole heartedly admit that I am tough on things...clothes, vehicles, mountain bikes, previous girlfriends and my wife, laptop. However, I was nearly 1,200 miles when the great boat was broken. I have witnesses and documentation. If Rick would bother doing some research he would have seen the MBARI website.MBARI's…
kevin z | April 24, 2008Bowie Seamount, Canada's newest Marine Protected Area.
OTTAWA (AFP) -- An underwater volcanic mountain teaming with ocean life off Canada's Pacific Coast has been added to the nation's growing list of marine protected areas, officials said Tuesday.
"Bowie Seamount is an oceanic oasis in the deep sea, a rare and ecologically rich marine area, and our government is proud to take action to ensure it is protected," Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said in a statement.[...]
The seamount, located 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in Canada's Pacific…
kevin z | April 24, 2008Did you know that the U.S. government has allowed the practice of shark-finning for several years? You might have thought this was a practice relegated to Asian countries, where shark fins are used in a local soup. In the past, fishermen could horde piles of shark fins alongside the shark bodies so long as the weight of the fins did not exceed 5% of the total weight. Shark fishermen could cheat this system though by piling fins from every shark caught, then filling the hold with the bodies of smaller sharks. New Scientist reported on Earth Day that U.S. is ending shark finning in its water.…
petnoyer | April 24, 2008Chris Mah's Echinoblog is off and running with a wealth of weirdness. Today he features the crinoidea, or crinoids, with some terrific images of open and close-fisted crinoid forms I've never seen before, and frankly, scare the daylights out of me (see the image from Charles Messing at Chris' website).
It's scary enough being in a research submarine, as if you need to worry about scaled urchins and the like. I never realized echinoderms were so... creepy. Now I'm worried.
petnoyer | April 24, 2008If you look at the Mediterranean Sea on a globe, you may get the impression that its just one contiguous water mass, but really its not. There are thirteen seas in the Mediterranean Sea. The Alboran Sea is the one closest to the Straits of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco. The Straits are shown in the lower left of the image. The Alboran Sea water mass is part of the western Mediterranean, separated from the eastern Mediterranean by a fluid boundary 200m thick called the Almeria Oran front. Below that fluid boundary lies a deeper colder layer, called Levantine intermediate water.
You…
kevin z | April 23, 2008
New Scientist's technology blog has a cool post on robot jellies! This is real slick engineering done by the German automation company Festo, which describes its AquaJelly as ""an artificial autonomous jellyfish with an electric drive and an intelligent, adaptive mechanical system." Some cool features include:
* tentacles designed after fish fins to maximize propulsion
* motion controlled by shifting its weight
* 4-arm pendulum that enables steering in 4 directions
* communicates with charging station, regulates own energy supply"Whenever the AquaJelly comes to a charger located above the…
petnoyer | April 23, 2008Shiver me timbers! The RV Tangaroa has a poet on board, and he's makin' jingles at sea.
The mate is there up on the bridge, steering us south down the Ridge. It's blowing a lot when he gets to the spot, so he alters the course, just a smidge.
The deckhands are standing about, so the bosun is starting to shout, "Quit all ya blabbing, these moorings need grabbing"- he's laid money on how many come out.
"Get to work," calls the bosun, "understand? I want all those deck winches manned!" But they all have to wait, cos the mooring guy's late........then he appears, transducer in hand.
Now the…
kevin z | April 22, 2008We previously brought you part 3, here is TOXIC-Garbage Island Part 4 and 5 from VBS.tv. Contains some vulgar language.
kevin z | April 22, 2008I want to apologize to Jason, Rick and Karen, as well everyone that expecting to hear me talk today on Earthcast 2008, for missing the program. I am quite embarrassed for missing the interview. I built it up all day with friends and family and was very much looking forward to the conversation with 3 people who I consider good friends as well as colleagues. BUT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHY!
Under the fold...
Yes, those are frikkin elephants in the road! I shit thee not! 10 to be exact, plus like 20 horses (including 2 miniature horses). Needless to say, the circus happened to be in town…
kevin z | April 22, 2008Happy Earth Day DSN Readers!
Just a reminder that I will be a guest along with Rick MacPherson of CORAL and the wonderful marine conservation blog Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets as well as the beautiful and talented Karen James of The Beagle Project and associated blog on Jason Robertshaw's special Earth Day Cephalopodcast as part of Earthcast 2008.
You can listen in live at the Edtechtalk website (audio stream upper right sidebar) and join the conversation live via a chat room where you can ask us a question. Our conversation will be on the "The other 71%", our oceans! Tune in at…
petnoyer | April 22, 2008Last year, DSN asked readers to remember the deep-sea on Earth Day by celebrating the goblin shark. This year's poster child is the gulper shark, pictured left.
Gulper sharks are a group of 15 species of squaliform sharks in the Family Centrophoridae. They occur globally in tropical to temperate marine waters. Gulper sharks are bathydemersal, living and feeding between 328 ft and 3937 ft (100 -1,200 meters). They are commonly observed along the outer continental shelves and upper slopes, usually on or near the bottom substrate.
Gulper sharks are harvested for food and pharmaceuticals,…
petnoyer | April 21, 2008Help me, somebody, please. I get the feeling from this press release that Walt Disney Co. made a deal with the Aliens. Earth inhabitants are now... just ...entertainment.
In a bid to cash in on the appetite for so-called green entertainment, Walt Disney Co. launched Disneynature, a new film label that will focus on live-action documentary films starring the Earth and its inhabitants...