cmcclain | April 10, 2008Jeff Vrabel discusses our octopod brethren
When possible, I like to keep close tabs on the world of octopuses, for two reasons: 1. Everybody has their hobbies, mine just involves cephalopod mollusks and don't you judge me, and 2. I often get the feeling that they're plotting something.
He moves on to discuss Christine Huffard's, a post doc at MBARI and 3 cubicles away from me, recent research
...the Ginormous Squid Revelation was the biggest thing to happen to me in the past few years. That was until I came across a recent study about octopuses that said, basically, that they are kinky,…
cmcclain | April 10, 2008So obviously this challenge is easier for some. But don't hesitate to be creative! CK and MikeG have it easy. As CK notes this is a "photo on the walk back from lunch today. Don't hate us because we work here... (note this is one of our crappy beaches, so as not to make people up north or inland feel too bad)." Sounds like a challenge to me! But don't let this get you down! I happen to know MikeG's office is a broom closet with no windows. CK also dragged some friends to the beach for a picnic.
BarnOwl fulfilled this week's challenge in a creative way.
I managed to enjoy the ocean this…
kevin z | April 10, 2008Thomas Morton traveled with the R/V Alguita as they sailed the North Pacific Gyre to document the so called Garbage Island:
"Part and parcel with this was my attitude toward the Pacific Garbage Patch, or as we willfully misidentified it for the duration of our journey, the elusive Garbage Island. All the journalism I'd read about the patch had carefully danced around physical descriptions of the trash, leading myself and the rest of the shooting crew to fanciful visions of a solid, Texas-size barge of discarded Coke bottles and sporting goods. The idea that people had managed to fuck up a…
petnoyer | April 8, 2008A special guest post by Bryan Wallace of Conservation International, featuring original research
In April of last year, I posted a story about how leatherback turtles are deep-sea explorers due to their incredible abilities to cope with the challenging conditions of the deep. The story was related to the hugely successful media conservation campaign, The Great Turtle Race, which allowed people around the world to follow the race of leatherback turtles on their migrations from nesting beaches in Costa Rica to the Galapagos Islands and beyond.
While the Race was a big hit, it only lasted two…
kevin z | April 8, 2008To take our knitting challenge? Or are you waiting for us to raise the stakes a little? To refresh your memory, I challenged knitting readers to create a Bone-Devouring Zombie Worm with Dwarf Male in a previous post. Since the males are internal it would be cool to have a flap where you can open it to see the dwarf male giving up the spermie. Below is a figure from the article with the female ('D') with eggs traveling up the oviduct (white blotches). In 'E' the arrows point to 2 dwarf males, the 'fronds' (aka palps, labeled p) are topmost part of the organism.
To add to the pot, Craig said…
cmcclain | April 8, 2008I hope everyone has completed (or will very soon) the last challenge. I myself finally built up the nerve to brave the cold water of Monterey to enjoy the local subtidal life. As a birthday present, I decided to pursue my dive master master and thus have been spending a lot of my time in the water. All I have to say is that diving off Monterey is some of the most spectacular diving I have ever done. It is also some of the coldest with yesterday's balmy water temperature of 47 degrees. The diversity and density of life here, especially the nudibranchs, is amazing. The most exciting part…
kevin z | April 8, 2008The latest from Archie McPhee: Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus. Makes a great present to that little deep sea diver for the summer beach holiday!
"During a routine underwater expedition, these unfortunate frogmen were attacked by a giant radioactive octopus! Will their harpoon guns, daggers and pruning shears be enough to defeat this terror of the deep or will they all be eaten alive? Each set includes twelve, 2-1/2" hard vinyl frogmen and one, 9" soft vinyl octopus that glows in the dark!"
kevin z | April 7, 2008The eleventh edition of the Carnival of the Blue, the best of the last month's ocean blogging, is up at the ever inimitable Zooillogix. This month is complete with HOT MOLLUSK ACTION!1!!!!11!1!!!!!!11!
I'm just fear for poor Miriam after reading she might have perverted, cannabilistic mollusks on her tail wanting to break the species barrier.... oh where is a lolz when you need one...
NOEZ!!! Run Miriam!! Run!!!1!1 Someone call the army!!11!!!!
cmcclain | April 6, 2008
Several years ago as a young graduate student I was privy to gossip about a supposed site near Puerto Rico where pharmaceutical waste was dumped in the ocean. A senior scientist in my field told me that antibiotics in the waste killed off most of the natural microbes occurring in the water column and on the seafloor. That was all the specifics I received at the time. In the ten years since then I have thought about this off and on, but I was unable to uncover any further information. In January, I was searching for an article on a wholly different topic and finally stumbled across a…
cmcclain | April 6, 2008
I am so f'n excited that we funded two Donor's Choose projects with the last challenge. This week's challenge is more recreational than work. This week's challenge is is to enjoy the ocean. We are going to foster our connection with the ocean. Spring is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere and what better time to go enjoy the ocean. If you live near the coast plan next weekend to spend the day with your family at the beach. Tidepool, sift beach rubble, look for organisms, picnic, and enjoy! Pick a guidebook for the flora and fauna you might see. Take a bag and pick up trash while you…
kevin z | April 6, 2008Just in time for the big Spring Thaw, grab your Avenging Narwhal Playset!
"The narwhal is an arctic-dwelling whale that has been called "the unicorn of the sea" due to its long pointy tusk. There is debate about the true purpose of this tusk, but finally the truth is revealed! The narwhal uses its tusk to impale the cute animals of the world, specifically baby seals, baby penguins and koalas. This 5-1/2" long, hard vinyl narwhal comes with four magic tusks (crystal, onyx, ruby and ice) to impale the three 1-1/2" long, soft vinyl cuties. Don't let cute overrun the world, fight back with your…
cmcclain | April 6, 2008
Adrian Glover, deep-sea scientist and polychaete expert, is live blogging his experience aboard the RRS James Clark Ross in Antarctica. Posts will cover the expedition with occasional rants about his research including that on whale falls communities. I have to say the British know how to conduct science in style
Nevertheless, this being the RRS James Clark Ross on a Saturday night, dinner was shirt and tie, with cocktails in the bar before dinner, wine on the tables and fine silver to eat with. With teamwork, we made rounds of bloody marys, possibly not the easiest thing to do when…
cmcclain | April 6, 2008The rights to name an Osedax species is up for grabs for $25,000.
To set the prices, Scripps researchers considered several factors, including rarity, the species' importance to science and how expensive and difficult it was to collect. Also for $25,000, one's name can be on a deep sea worm affectionately called the green bomber, which drops luminescent green particles to distract predators.
Not that I have the answers and I make no comment on ramifications of such, but what are you thoughts on auctioning off species names? More at the San Diego Union Tribune.
petnoyer | April 4, 2008
For many years, the Japanese were accused of exploiting the 'scientific whaling' loophole at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for the purposes of commercial harvest to satisfy a seemingly insatiable appetite for seafood. But, until now, there was little evidence to support the claim.
Dr. Nick Gales, head of the Australian scientific delegation to IWC says a scientific review of 43 research papers produced in Japan over 18 years revealed "bizarre and strange experiments with sheep and pigs and eggs" such as efforts to inject minke whale sperm into cows eggs to produce test-tube…
petnoyer | April 4, 2008Surfrider Foundation says.... you have the power to help preserve and protect our oceans, waves and beaches by asking your Congressional Representative to support the Oceans Conservation, Education and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act ("Oceans-21"). Oceans-21 provides common sense legislation to ensure that our ocean water and marine life remain healthy.
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans is considering Oceans-21 this month. YOUR representative sits on this subcommittee!! Please CALL your Congressional Representative Today! Click here to…
cmcclain | April 3, 2008The structure of the gastropod shell forms a logarithmic spiral first described by Descartes and later by Bernoulli. Good ol' Jakob called it the "marvelous sprial" or the Spira mirabilis. Those who believe in crystals also believe the logarithmic spiral is part of the "sacred geometry". Nothing displays this beautiful coiling in gastropods like x-rays of the shells. Pictures are from here and here. The second link contains several x-rays worth looking at.
cmcclain | April 3, 2008Been awhile since we talked about Mollusks here at DSN. A couple of Friday movies to rectify that problem. The first one not so serious...the second serious (and in high res).
cmcclain | April 3, 2008John Hocevar visited MBARI yesterday discussing Greenpeace's research on canyons in the Bering Sea. We've discussed this research before but a followup is worthy of another post. Greenpeace has been trying to convince the powers that be to protect deep-sea diversity from fisheries practices. Unsurprisingly, some people don't give a damn about the deep. It's all I get mine and make some Benjamins. Some of the focus has been on Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons. Zhemchug is the largest canyon in the world by volume (19x Monterey Canyon where my current interests and research are focused) and…
kevin z | April 3, 2008Way back in the day with deep sea drilling they used to just let it all flow out if you know what I mean. Now in the PC world and all, we have to watch what we spill, give rattail's fin about other critters, yadda yadda yadda. The japanese, being the ever inventful gadgeteers they are, have outfitted their newest and top of the line drill ship CHIKYU (japanese for "earth") with a Blow-Out Preventer (BOP) for just those uncomfortable circumstances when the pressure is a little higher than you expected that day.
"Further Blow Out Preventer (BOP) makes safe drilling even where there is…