Deep Sea News

LOL those octopuses, always the jokesters of the aquarium. This latest prank by a meddlesome octopod in a southern California aquarium will be the talk of the “water” cooler for months!

Totally NSFW!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently unleashed their new YouTube Channel. Of course it features Macropinna but you can also see Humboldt squid.  A new video (below) on Davidson Seamount that discusses research I have been involved with was just uploaded today.

In looking over Swimming With Sharks, I came across this video of Sea Shepard ramming a Japanese whaling ship.  Appalled is the best word I can think of to describe my reaction.  I am no whale hugger (Give me invertebrates or give me death!) but of course those big charismatic megafauna are worthy of conservation.  I definitely don’t approve of Japanese “scientific whaling”.  I support strong measures and conservation NGO’s.

However, there is so many things wrong with Sea Shepard’s actions I don’t know where to start.

1. Ramming another vessel is against every maritime code and general sense of decency I can think of.
2. For a captain to put both his own vessel and crew at risk but another as well, intentionally, is beyond forgiveness.
3. To conduct such an act that serves absolutely no function other than showboating or putting on a good show for television crews is cheap
4. To waste donation money for boat repair, given the three points above, is unethical and betrays the confidence of donors.
5. For a certain media company who owns this channel to be involved in such stunts, when the purported mission of said group is supposedly education, is hypocritical among many other not so nice terms.

Swimming with sharks has several posts that articulate these and other reasons why you should never support Sea Shepard.  Instead donate to an organization that actually gets results.

The Great Darwin Beard Challenge Week 2 is hosted at Southern Fried Science!

Click over to Southern Fried Science to find out the results of Week 2!

National Geographic is advertising “Into the Abyss” with a website that includes some sweet pelagic wallpaper, like this Atolla sp. medusa that now adorns my laptop. The previous subsea landscape from Antarctica was enduring. It lasted a full three months, but the close-ups of Celebes Sea zooplankton are tough to beat.

“Into the Abyss” follows a team of scientists on a NOAA funded expedition in 2007, including Dr. Larry Madin from Wood’s Hole and photographer Dr. Emory Kristof, as they attempt the first-ever descent into the South Philippines Celebes Sea using a remotely operated vehicle. An entourage of heavily armed Philippine Navy Seals guards the team en route. The episode premieres March 14 at 8 pm.

Learn more about Inner Space of the Celebes Sea Expedition at the Ocean Explorer website.

A teacher, leader, champion, and scientist. 24 August 1928 — 1 January 2009

It is with great sadness that I post this from the Other 95%…

I received the sad news today that Martin Wells, imminent biologist, one of the founders of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge and, a great friend of the cephalopods and all marine invertebrates, has passed away at the age of 80. Son of H.G. Wells, Martin was a highly accomplished biologist who was especially inspired by cephalopods and other marine invertebrates. His wonderful book Civilization and the Limpet portrays his love marine life. While aimed at the general audience, it should be, in my opinion, required reading for any future (or current) marine or invertebrate biologist, indeed it would be good for anyone with any interest in biology. The first time I sat down with it, I read it in one evening, it is that readable and good.

Wells’ papers were some of the first and most inspirational I read as undergraduate contemplating a career in Marine Biology.  His thoughts continue to influenced my own even as I moved away from cephalopod research.  I agree with Eric’s statement that Civilization and the Limpet is one of the best book written on the subject.  I have reposted my review of the book from last year…

Kevin was nice enough to send a copy of the Civilization and the Limpet by Martin Wells. Although aware of Well’s research, I was wholly unaware of this book. I triumphantly finished it yesterday and am admittedly impressed. The book is unabashedly Mollusc as Wells’ research is largely on Cephalopods. Much of the book also centers on physiology again because of Wells’ background. Each chapter is a stand alone narrative utilizing his experience to discuss adaptations in marine organisms and instill passion for the ocean. The book geared for the public possesses nuggets of wisdom even for well-read experts. One of my favorite chapters discusses the rise and fall of cephalopod rule of the oceans. Additional favorite passage is

Neither biological research nor college administration pays very handsomely, but when you come down to it, it is very marvelous thing that the world is prepared to pay at all for the like of us to spend so much of our lives in the study of anything so inherently interesting and outright beautiful as animals. In the bad times, I try to reflect on that. And there are bad times, just as in any other creative activity. Research is like painting pictures. The product hardly ever turns out quite as well as one might have hoped; it can be maddeningly frustrating; and one spends a lot of time simply cleaning up the equipment. But once in a long while everything goes really well, and this euphoric. And even in the bad time one is adding something, however slight, to the sum of human knowledge. Some poor people work just as hard and all they make is money.Definitely a recommended read.

Nadya Vessey's prosthetic tail is mostly constructed from wetsuit fabric and plastic molds, and covered in a digitally printed sock. (Credit: stuff.co.nz)

From CNET…

Good: double amputee gets prosthetic legs so she can walk. Better: double amputee gets realistic-looking mermaid tail so she can swim. Awesome: it’s developed and built by Weta, the special-effects company that did all the work for the “Lord of the Rings” movies, as well as “King Kong” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.

Nadya Vessey’s legs were amputated below the knee when she was a child due to illness. At one point, reports Stuff, a child asked her what happened to her legs and she told him she was a mermaid. The idea stuck with her, so she wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, two years ago asking for a mermaid tail. To her surprise, they said they’d do it.

Now she has a fully functional mermaid tail with an attached suit, making her look practically just like a real mermaid (if, you know, mermaids were real).

Having ignored the myriad blog postings about people using Google Earth’s new ocean layer to discover Atlantis, and tracking about 20 different ridiculous stories, I finally had to ask, “What is it with these people?” Don’t they know Atlantis is in the Bahamas? Even Matt Damon knows that.

As IF there’s only one Atlantis. Is, like, every city Philadelphia? There’s totally more than one! There’s a New Atlantis off the coast of Japan, and a Little Atlantis here in the Gulf of Mexico. The one here in the Gulf is a buried pyramid on the West Florida shelf, really hard to get to because the weather kicks up whenever you get within its temporal vortex.

So, a story surfaced today that’s actually worth reading, because it uses new data (shiptracks) provided by the bathymasters themselves- Walter Smith and David Sandwell. These are two of the guys partially responsible for carving their initials in compiling Google Ocean’s new blended product of satellite altimetry and multibeam echosounder data.

Ian Paul reveals their secret of Atlantis in a PCWorld story called “Google’s Atlantis Discovery Explained.” Finally, someone’s making sense!

We made a nifty little blog icon badge so you can show your love and adoration of the deep sea (and us). Wear it with pride! We are happy to host the image here and provide you with the code (below) for your own website or blog.