Carnival of the Blue Eleven

Welcome to the eleventh and by far the most important, although surprisingly the most poorly formatted, installment of Carnival of the Blue. Before we get down to the watery, salty, and sometimes rubbery details, we wanted to take a moment to ponder the significance of Zooillogix's role as host of the eleventh COB. Why not the fifth or the ever popular tenth? Why not the second or maybe seventh, sixth, eighth, ninth or third?

Well, according to Biblestudy.org, "If ten is the number which marks the perfection of Divine order, then eleven is an addition to it, subversive of and undoing that order. If twelve is the number which marks the perfection of Divine government, then eleven falls short of it. So that whether we regard it as being 10 + 1, or 12 - 1, it is the number which marks, disorder, disorganization, imperfection, and disintegration." We hope to live up to the prophecy.

Hot Mollusk Action

* Ever wonder how your squid lover's beak can be both gentle yet firm? Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science does.

* Octopus flirting, hand-holding and MySpace page-stalking at Zooillogix.

* Would you accept immortality in exchange for life as a clam? Chris Patil of Ouroboros explores this ridiculously bad deal.

* Speaking of immortality, maybe injecting yourself with hot molten plastic for posterity would be just as good... This giant squid at the Paris Museum sure did. Thanks to that cave troll, Benny of Zooillogix, for sharing.

* Perverted cannibalistic hermaphrodites haunt the Pacific Northwest! Miriam Goldstein of the Oyster's Garter risks life, limb, and interspecies virginity to investigate.

* March also bore witness to yet another senseless geek war that wasted countless hours of academically funded time - Echinoderms versus Mollusks. Sheril Kirshenbaum of The Intersection covers the fray.

Much more below the fold...

Sea life - It's What for Dinner!

* For the most part, the ocean is a big empty place. Ed Yong explores how all manner of sea life finds its way to other sea life to consume it.

* Live fish shooters in red wine? Delicious say the Flemish and Mark Powell of Blogfish.

* Boost Mobile hires great white shark to promote it's "Where U At?" campaign. Not true. However, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has tagged their three great white sharks and you can track their progress as they prowl some of the most popular beaches in CA! Thanks to Ken Peterson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

* Sting Rays launch suicide attacks on boaters off the Florida Keys. This and other leaping marine life at Rick MacPherson's Coral Notes from the Field.

* Giant sea life and obscure references to the movie Deep Star Six. Useless font of wisdom, Andrew of Zooillogix (aka me), shares.

Darling It's Better, Down Where It's Wetter...

* Ever wanted to kayak next to a whale? Now you won't! Hugh Powell of Aphriza shares.

* Who needs Dax when you have hermit crabs and their symbiotic counterparts. Thanks to Mark Hall of Daily Kos.

* Deep sea drilling now comes equipped with sexual innuendo and double entendre thanks to Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News.

* Birding the Seattle to Bremerton Ferry here on 10,000 Birds courtesy of Mike.

* Much like the Fonz, Coral knows how to keep its cool. From The Gist, the Smithsonian's blog.

* Galapagos inspired poetry from Jennifer Jacquet of Shifting Baselines.

Shameless Self Promotion

* Zooillogix wanted to take a moment to note that Peter Etnoyer of Deep Sea News superstardom also happened to get some silly little award from the NOAA for outstanding oceanographic research... Although we haven't read the research ourselves, we understand it involved groundbreaking paper mache and an intriguing mix of vinegar and baking soda. Congrats!

* Dr. Wallace J Nichols, Senior Research Scientist at the Ocean Conservancy, is leading a trip to Baja to swim with and learn about sea turtles. Should be a fantastic opportunity to learn about these gentle critters in the field from a bonafide turtlephile. In fact when Dr. Nichols moves to a new neighborhood, he is required by law to notify everyone on his block who owns a turtle.

* Last but not least, Angelo of Saipan Blog points us to news coverage of Saipan's proposal for National Park of the Sea comprising a portion of the Marianas Trench!

Whaling Does Not Make You Popular with the Cool Kids

While soliciting submissions for Carnival of the Blue Eleven, we asked bloggers to also send along a post concerning "examples of Japanese research." Long term Zooillogix readers will know that we even have a special tag for crazy stories from Japan, entitled Weird Japanese.

Well given the recent Japanese whaling hoopla in the media, the submissions we received all had a common theme.

* Peter Etnoyer of Deep Sea News points out the startling Japanese research revelation that you cannot cross-breed cows and whales.

* Mark Powell of Blogfish pointed us to a heart-warming video game called Japanese Research where you try to harpoon whales and dodge activists.

* Japan eventually got its due in criticism, but back in May of 2007, James Hrynyshyn of Island of Doubt pointed out that the International Whaling Commission and it's member countries should share some of this blame.

* Speaking of dishing out blame, Coral Notes from the Field also covers Canada's latest methods for "harvesting" those awful awful seals.

Well thanks again for reading. At the end of the day, we think Carnival of the Blue Eleven went wonderfully well and those Bleimans at Zooillogix must be pretty incredible people.

For many more fascinating ocean related posts, please peruse Zooillogix. It won't take much scrolling. Tune in again May 5th, when COB will be hosted by the fabulous Oyster's Garter.