Aquatic This and That

Google Ocean! Science Friday! Sylvia Earle!

Yes- all three of those friends-of-the-aquatic came together yesterday on the radio. Check out NPR's Science Friday edition, and listen to the podcast here. While Dan (also a friend-of-the-aquatic) did not seem too enthusiastic about the show (no, sadly it was not about whales) perhaps others will share in my enthusiasm.

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In other aquatic (but not marine) news: I finally finished Marc Reisner's compelling book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. I am now fascinated and frightened by the prospect of water politics and water rights in our country. Did anyone know that over 600 people died when the St. Francis Dam collapsed in the 1920s in California? Me neither (either?). Just one of many largely-unrevealed facts about the history of water development in the United States which Reisner articulately exposes. If I ever got around to doing that "GoodReads" thing, I'd recommend this one highly.

Hello Fish: An Aquatic Round-Up for the New Year

Hope everyone's year is off to a swimming start. So much aquatic to share in the new year!

The New York Times has a nice aquatic slide show accompanying its article on esteemed oceanographer, Sylvia A. Earle. Her recent book, "Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas," looks pretty amazing. In addition to being a personal hero of the blog aquatic, Earle is also the author of several award-winning books- including aquatic blog's favorite, "Hello Fish!"








In other news, the blog aquatic feasted on crab once again this year. The roommates went crabbing on the Oregon Coast and brought back enough Dungeness and Red Rock crabs to stink up the freezer good, and their crabbing endeavors intrigued the blog aquatic PDX. But the real crab feasting came back in the crabtastic bay area. Much better than last year, where I swear I could taste a hint of oil spill on my crab. This year was buttery perfection.

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Finally, a bit of sobering aqua-health news about another side of The Aquatic: our drinking/ wastewater. Oregon Association of Clean Water along with well, just about every other major environmental agency throughout the country (we're just partial to the Beaver State), report trace amounts of prescription drugs contaminating our water system. Hormones, antibiotics, stabilizers- you name it: all in our drinking water. The sources are prescription pills that are only partially metabolized by people, or simply flushed unused down the toilets. (In fact, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy still recommends flushing certain unused drugs.) Prescription drug residues and toxins are ending up in our water system where water treatment plants - designed to only treat bateria and viruses- are unable to filter them out.

Many questions remain about the long term effect of consuming prescription drugs (Brita doesn't do you a whole lot of good here)- but who wants to wait and find out? (The Canadians and Europeans sure don't, but of course, we're like little drugged up lab rats here in the U.S. with our wait-and-see environmental health policies).

While not exactly a new problem -- our own special aquatic-lover, Ms. Seaman, has been all over this issue for years -- there is new legislation being introduced to reign in the rampant excess drugs flooding our world aquatic. Currently one of the biggest obstacles to simply returning unused drugs is that the Drug Enforcement Administration mandates a law enforcement official is the only person who can collect prescription drugs from a patient. Some new legislation to be proposed in 2009 will require that pharmaceutical companies be responsible for collecting unused drugs. Support local Drug Take Back Programs and prevent - some- pills from being flushed away...




Well, 2009 looks promising for the aquatic-minded. And, as always, the Blog Aquatic will see that a smallish fraction of your '09 aquatic needs will be met in a somewhat timely- (but ever-eager) manner.

Till then, Good-bye, fish.

Ocean Census

News flash: New species of jellyfish found near the Canadian Arctic Basin! Giant mollusk found in the Gulf of Mexico! Octopuses (apparently not Octopi) take advantage of the thermohaline expressway to migrate new places!

How has our little blog gotten wind of such hot new aquatic tips? It's the latest report from the 2,000-strong Census of Marine Life scientists. Yes, marine scientists from 82 nations have come together to pool their astonishing oceanic finds. These discoveries are part of the larger multinational International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 scientific expedition. Believe it or not, this is actually the fourth polar year (previous ones were in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8). IPY is organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Scientists have started to report their findings at the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Spain this past week (Nov 11- 15). The Census Project is due to be complete in 2010.
Stay tuned to future Blog Aquatic posts- your primary news source for all things IPY-related.

(Census find: A squid in the Arctic depths)

Best of the Bay Aquatic

Dear little aquatic blog, you hold no boundaries. The 7 oceans, the trenches and estuaries, even the occasional seafood-topped pizza... your virtual explorations are many. But still, it's hard to imagine your existence without the physical beauty of the San Francisco Bay Area in your backyard. In fact, for the aquatic-minded, it's hard to imagine a more inspirational playground.

And so, my sweet blog, as I shift your homebase northward and we explore the craggy open coastline of the Pacific Northwest, lets reflect, just for a moment. As a small sendoff, here's a running list-- a sort of greatest hits -- of the aquatic wonderland that is the San Francisco Bay Area...




Best Forgotten Coast Line: San Mateo County Coast
Sure Marin is incredible, and Santa Cruz is great. But, for a short trip, or something new, don't forget about San Mateo (the coastline that is). There is much to explore if you head down highway 1 south of San Francisco: Half Moon Bay, San Gregorio, Pescadero, Pebble Beach... all good places to check out, and a beautiful of strip of highway 1.

Best Walk-In Beach: Tennessee Valley or Sculptured Beach in Point Reyes
Sculptured Beach is amazing. If only I had known about the annual sand sculpture contest there this year. I am practicing my sculpture skills for next year.

Best Shell-Collecting Beach: Bolinas
Why is it that some beaches have so many shells, and other beaches have none? This is a great mystery to me. But Bolinas is an obsessive shell-collectors' dream...
Best Lighthouse and Seaside Hostel: Pigeon Point
There are several lighthouses that dot the California coast. But this is one of the better ones (and apparently the tallest in California). Even if you don't stay at the hostel, it is still worth visiting, as this bizarre virtual tower tour illustrates.
Best Pizza of the Sea: Clam Pizza at Golden Boy in San Francisco or Fellini's in Berkeley
The clam pizza is culinary genius. Enough said. But Golden Boy and Fellini's have really perfected the clam-to-garlic-parsley ratio. Golden Boy in North Beach has good hot, square slices. Fellini's is only by the pie- but quite a find, especially on UniversityAve. in Berkeley.
Best Bonfire Beach: Ocean Beach
Ocean Beach has it's moments. I mean, Baker is more beautiful, true. But Ocean Beach has such a nice urban feel to it. It sits at the end of the city, with this vastness and gritty kind of beauty. The bonfires there are a treat. But in the past couple of years, it's gotten a little trickier to host a bonfire though. So maybe you think oh they're such a hassle to organize now, or they're so Heartbreaking Work of A Staggering Genius...But on a clear night when you're all bundled up, walk maybe a few feet away from the fire: you can stare out at the ocean, watch the white waves breaking out in the darkness, and you feel the flickering fire and voices behind you, and the city behind that...
Best Tidepools: Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
You might have to knock down small children on school fieldtrips when you're scrambling around this reserve. But it's worth it. Sea stars abound.
Best First Time Surfing Beach: Linda Mar in Pacifica
Surfers, surfing are part of the California Coast Line. Like abalone divers, But I don't know the best abalone-diving-beaches. So we'll leave it at surfing for now.
Best Aquarium-I-Just-Can't-Wait-To-Visit: The New California Academy of Sciences Opening in Golden Gate Park on September 27th
If I could possibly postpone my move to see the grand opening of the new Steinhart Aquarium, I would do so. The academy of sciences has been under renovation since 2005, where it was temporary housed in a much smaller space on 5th St. Early insider informants tell me the renovation is quite impressive. I hear the aquarium is underground, the turtles are fierce, the roof is living and the planetarium is not to be missed. (Although, secretly, I hope they still have the moray eel and sea-bass tank from the temporary aquarium on 5th street. It was quite possibly the most amazing display of aquatic ugliness I've ever seen.)
Best Way to Clean Up Beaches: California Coastal Cleanup Day! (September 20th)
The San Francisco aquatic landscape has had a lot to contend with this past year, like massive oil spills (I swear that I still smell oil at the beach). I've had some very pleasant beach cleanup experiences (sunny day at Ocean Beach), and some not quite as pleasant (rainy day along the bay near the Oakland airport). But both made me feel kinda warm and fuzzy at the end: when beaches are gross and filthy, even the blog aquatic feels motivated to do a small blog part. Check out the annual Coastal Cleanup Day- or find a cleanup happening soon near you. Usually they give you some free food. Think of it as a nice walk on the beach- in sanitary gloves.

And of course, this is a running list. Best Beach Camping? Best Estuary? Feel free to add. Aquatic can mean anything and everything related to water (some confusion among blog aquatic fans). In other words... aquatic is for everyone!

Love... Seahorse Style

The blog aquatic went on a brief hiatus. Temporarily swallowed, chewed and spit out by a white shark. But the blog is back. A little salty, sure. But limbs in tact.

Just a brief post on one of the wonders of the aquatic world, the seahorse. More specifically: seahorse birds and bees.

So the rampant seahorse rumors are true: it is the male seahorse who gets pregnant and gives birth. The woman deposits her eggs in the male's so-called brood pouch. Then the male fertilizes the eggs, where they mature inside him for around 3 weeks.

When it comes time to give birth, the male goes into a sort of seahorse labor, where he has muscular contractions and expels the babies (anywhere from a dozen to hundreds). His body shrinks (seahorse stretch marks?) and he loses color. Typically this happens at night and yet- miraculously- he's usually ready for a new batch of eggs by morning.

...But before the babies, there is, of course, the courtship.

Seahorses are monogamous and their flirtation is elaborate. When two seahorses realize there is a mutual interest, they start a ritual 'pre-dawn' dance where they swim together, holding their tales or swirling around a single blade of grass. This can last for days. They dance, change color in a sort of seahorse-blush and tell eachother all the little hippocampus secrets of their heart.

Finally, they're ready... The two seahorses drift out of the sea grass, snout to snout, often twirling and spinning. The female deposits her eggs into the male- and to the brood pouch they go.

Throughout the male's pregnancy, the female continues to see the male for short daily morning visits, where they reenact their courtship days. “They change color, wheel around sea grass fronds, and finally promenade, holding each other’s tails. Then, the female swims away until the next morning, and the male goes back to vacuuming up food through his snout.” (from the article, "Pregnant- and Still Macho- Seahorses")

While the pregnancy and courtship rituals of seahorses are not exactly an evolutionary fluke, the male still expends less energy overall despite his pregnancy, and can exhibit aggressive competitive behavior...there's still something, well, sweet about the whole thing, from their twirling dances, to the male's brooding pouch.

In the food chain battles, trenched mysteries and general weirdness of the aquatic world, the seahorses are small reminders that, even in all this, there's room for a little lovin' - snout to snout, in the sea grass.

Blog Aquatic Goes to the Shark Cafe

For the better part of this year, Very Special Friend to Blog Aquatic has been working on a documentary. An aquatic documentary, that is. Seeing as this blog appreciates the quirkier, cuter side of the aquatic, we commend Special Friend for making a film on the cuter and quirkier side of an unlikely source: The Great White Shark.

Considering how many fears and nightmares surround the Great White Shark (to this day the Blog Aquatic gets a little ansy in the deep end of a pool), there is very little that is actually known about the sharks. Shockingly little in fact. For years our understanding of the Great White Shark has been reduced to the sensationalized, blood-thirsty images of Jaws reruns and nature shows.

But, as the film, Shark Cafe, explores -- all this is about to change. White shark research is now making unprecedented growth, with the most important research happening right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biologists and researchers are learning more about the great white than ever before. Developments in technology, along with changing public perceptions, are creating a unique moment in great white history. We have the opportunity to dramatically change our understanding -- and appreciation-- of the Great White Shark's role in the ecosystem.

Shark Cafe is smart without being too flashy, insightful without giving too many easy answers. This film has amazing archive footage, brawny marine biologists, and of course sharks as you've never seen them before. Please join me at the film's premiere next Friday before it moves on to aquatic film festivals everywhere (Here's to Ocean Film Festival 2009).

See you at the screening:

Shark Cafe:
A Curious History of The Great White Shark from Jaws to Facebook
NorthGate Hall, Room 105
Friday May 16th, 2008 6:30 pm
(Directions to NorthGate Hall on the UC Berkeley Campus can be found here.)

The Blog Aquatic Goes to Boston

This past weekend Blog Aquatic left the sunny warmth of the West Coast and headed East to visit special sister to Aquatic Blog, Octopus Cake. Because so many of my devoted blog readers hail from the greater Boston area (ok, just Dan), I thought Blog Aquatic readers would appreciate an update on one of the more quirker aquatic gems to be found in the little-city-that-could. The lobster? The harbor? No. I'm talking of course about the glass sea creatures of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Glass sea creatures? We were initially suspicious as well. But these meticulously-constructed glass animals embody the kind of neurotic precision and obsessive fanaticism that is the true Blog Aquatic spirit. A German father and son team, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, created these shockingly lifelike representations of underwater invertebrates in the late 19th century. Originally commissioned for the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, the sea creatures were used as teaching tools.

The exhibit currently on display is one of a much larger collection that also includes the Blaschkas' more famous glass flower sculptures. The sea creatures include jellyfish, octopi and even mysterious animals called sea pens. (Futher Blog Aquatic research found that the strange sea pens are in the same phylum as jellyfish, or Cnidaria.) Here are just a sampling of the Blaschka's incredible handiwork:

















































As if their manic fascination with sea creatures was not enough for us to revere the Blaschkas, I was further heartened to learn that Leopold Blaschka also kept a pet snail. Yes. A pet snail.
Leopold named the snail Lotte, and the two co-existed peaceably for some eight years until Lotte the Snail's death. Yes- 8 years. The current exhibit on display at Harvard actually includes Lotte's shell-- as well as an epitaph that Leopold wrote for his dear snail.


Oh Leopold. Oh Lotte.


More on my edible aquatic adventures of Boston in later posts...

Lumpfish, Oh My

Dan sends us yet another gem. The aptly-named Lumpfish or Lumpsucker. While it looks like a distant cousin of Jabba the Hut, the lumpfish is no fictitious creature. It is a a small, slow-moving fish native to cold Arctic, North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. In Denmark and other Scandinavian countries Lumpfish roe are actually eaten as an inexpensive alternative to pricey, luxury caviar.

But Lumpfish are so much more than cheap caviar for hungry Danes. In general the Lumpfish is small, except for the Smooth Lumpfish that can grow up to 20 inches. The Lumpfish generally hangs out on the bottom of the ocean as its weight- to- length ratio is so disproportionate (i.e. small bodies, a lot of weight), they cannot swim very fast or far. In order to camouflage on the ocean floor, they are usually beige or grey in color.

Perhaps one of the most interesting facts about the Lumpfish is the male's devotion to the eggs before they hatch. While the male waits for the eggs to hatch, he fasts so that he can stay close to the eggs. The male also fans the egg mass constantly with his lumpy fin. (The female has since moved on.) When at last the eggs hatch, the male is so thin and exhausted he cannot continue on with the babies and they swim off on their own. This story of male devotion rivals that of the Empire Penguins. Move over March of the Penguins!

(Finally, I should also mention that in my research I learned the Lumpfish is not only a rather ungainly, fleshy-looking fish, but it is also the name of a party-rock/cover band in Connecticut. Lumpfish sets are "designed to get people off their asses early and keeping them dancing drinking and singing all night long." If anyone is ever in Connecticut, please oh please check out the Lumpfish.)

The Rebirth of Aquatic

Oh abandoned Blog. I've let you down with my prolonged absence. But in light of oil spills, crab seasons, and my ever-loyal readers-- I cannot stay away from you. Aquatic Blog is back (in baby blue!) with a crop of exciting new aquatic tales...

I thought it best, on this relaunching post, to visit Aquatic Blog's personal Mecca-- The Monterey Bay Aquarium. Opened in October of 1984, the MBA - along with its sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (in Moss Landing) is one of the largest aquariums in the world. Funded largely by the Packard family, it has over 35,000 plants and animals, and 550 species. The famous Outer Bay exhibit alone contains over 1 million gallons of sea water. MBA was also featured in Startrek IV, "The Voyage Home" (where it was apparently called "The Sausalito Cetacean Institute"). You can check out the MBA website -- even send aquarium e-cards.

Special Friend to Aquatic Blog visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and brought us back these lovely photos:


Stay tuned for more exciting aquatic blogs to come...

(Incidentally, this re-launching is in the memory of one Gilda the Goldfish -- couldn't have aqua-blogged without her:)

Back From The Bottom of the Ocean

There's no other excuse as to why I disappeared from my little blog: I was on a deep-sea mission (of course). In a little underwater hovercraft, I crawled to the depths of the ocean to bring you back rare and exciting finds. It was a little hairy at times. But then again, these deep-sea expositions always are. Here is my underwater hovercraft (and thanks Dan for another brilliant find):

(Can you see me waving?)

And here are some of my favorites from the exposition below. You can check out more creatures here.

Dumbo octopus or grimpoteuthis. Depth 300- 5000 meters. 20cm

Football fish or Himantolophus paucificolus. Depth 1000-2000 meters. Females up to 45 cm.

(not sure where these strange text boxes and graphics are coming from on this post, it must be technical problems from my deep-sea travels)

Sea Cucumbers! Look at them Go!

Thank you Dan for sending me this picture. I wasn't sure what I could post about after the colossal squid story. I mean where do you go after mammoth squids?! (Using the term mammoth loosely here.) But now it's apparent what the next post should be: Sea Cucumbers!! Just look at that picture! So much that could be said...

But what's the sea cucumber's story? Is it more than just a pretty face? Yes, yes it is. Happily for me, the scavenger-of-the-sea has many interesting characteristics. My favorite being the cucumber's strategic defense mechanisism: defensive vomiting. Yes that's right. When the little guy is feeling threatened it expells its internal organs. Bam!

That would sure scare me away. I guess it's a tactic to confuse the predator's hunt (especially when these predators hunt by scent.) Lucky for the sea cucumber, these organs can be regrown.
Sea cucumbers can be found in just about any sea environment- but always on the floor of the ocean. They move by tiny tentacle-action. Also, their skin is apparently kind of leathery- like a snake. (I guess- I've never compared the two.) The cucumber is related to the sea star and sea urchin. And they can grow as big as 16 inches. Foot-long sea cucumber!

Finally, sea cucumbers are popular for their delicate flavor (so I hear) and their medicinal properties, especially in Asia. Apparently sea cucumber 'extract' (I'm not quite sure what that is) is good for tissue healing, and even removing the appearance of scarring.

Here's another picture:












yah little cucumber!

Very Big Squid

Oh dear. Crab season came and went and I never even blogged about it. But the dungeness crab was mighty tasty. It might be our last crab till next season. It was a nice way to go out.

But on to bigger things... COLOSSAL SQUID...

Check out the SFGate article about a mighty and Colossal Squid caught off the coast of New Zealand. The squid is 990 lbs, 39 feet long. They say that if the squid was made into calamari, the rings would be the size of tractor tires.

We're all more ore less familiar with the Giant Squid -- but bigger than that is the Colossal Squid- so rare that it battles sperm whales. It has the largest eye of any animal. And a very mean hook.

Axolotl

Gearing up for crab tomorrow, so just a quick post to keep the momentum going.



Here's a picture of the axoltl. Genus: Ambystoma. Species: Mexicanum (is that Latin for Mexican?). Related to salamanders. Living only in a few lakes in Mexico. Known as the WuperRuper in Japan. I promise this won't turn into some sort of 'cute underwater creatures' blog... cute as the axolotl may be.

Pizza of the Sea: Anchovy Pizza

This is the first in our Pizza of the Sea entries, where we will explore pizzas that make clever gastronomic use of seafood -- and a little about the seafood before it ended up on pizza.














Had my first anchovy pizza last night -- it was pretty incredible. Anchovies, hot chilies and fresh oregano. What a brilliant combination. We got the pizza from Gioia Pizzeria in North Berkeley on Hopkins St. I'm going to be bold and say that Gioia is the best pizza in the bay area. That's right. I said it.

(When it comes to pizza, I'm a purist of the east coast variety. Very thin crust. I am not fooled by any of this over-hyped Little Star thin crust pizza. Cheeseboard is good, I'll definitely admit that. But really, it's a little too California to even be in the running.

And why so much feta, Cheeseboard, why?)

But back to anchovies: Native to the Mediterranean, anchovies are small and greenish in color. Although they have a silver racing stripe on their back, which makes them appear very shiny. You can see them in all their silvery glory at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Anchovy Tank (you can do no wrong Monterey, no wrong at all).

It seems just about everyone in the sea eats the little anchovy, from halibut to sharks. Marine birds eat them too. As a side note- birds typically bore me, even marine ones. But Wikipedia, mentions that some bird called the elegant tern is pretty much dependent on the anchovy for its recent breeding success.

But here's the most interesting thing about anchovies: In September of last year, around 3 tons of baby anchovies beached themselves on a beach in Spain. That's a whole lot of anchovies.

But the crazy thing is that they did all these tests on the anchovies to figure out why the little guys would have just beached themselves- chemicals? toxins? Nothing. So the new working theory is that the anchovies were just trying to escape a hungry dolphin or tuna.

That makes no sense to me. These are fish -- they don't just take a wrong turn and end up out of the water. Why did all three tons of them screw up so badly this time?

I'm not buying this 'hungry dolphin or tuna' theory. In fact, I suspect this is part of some sort of mass global anchovy conspiracy. I don't know who's in this thing or how far it goes, but I'm thinking it could be big.

Huge.

First Post: Looking at the world from a Fish-Eyed View

I should be honest - I'm not sure what a 'fish-eyed view' is.

After all, how do fish see when they have eyes on either side of their head? I've always wondered this.

Incidentally, it was very difficult finding a URL name for my little aquatic-themed blog. Who new that URLs like 'octoblog', 'fishy'... even 'fishtastic' would already be taken?