Carnival Of The Blue III

Welcome folks and step right up to Carnival of the Blue III: a collection of July's best ocean writing on the blogosphere. I have the pleasure of hosting this month, and many thanks to Mark Powell at Blogfish for his passing the torch and providing all of his assistance.

Since this is a carnival, I suppose that technically makes all the contributors collected here carnies. Carnies are typified as sly and coercive salespeople, but the term itself merely refers to any employee of a traveling circus or carnival. Carnies are commonly perceived as an insular and discrete subculture, an example of a marginalized segment of society banding together and consciously separating themselves from mainstream society. Not exactly the sort of cohort I'd go out of my way to associate with. Wasn't it only nuclear war that scares Austin Powers more than carnies? Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

If loving the ocean and working to protect it makes us a marginalized subculture, then so be it. I'm proud to band together with this group. But this collection of essays, musings, and observations indicates that ocean awareness is hardly a marginalized interest but rather a rapidly growing, almost viral enterprise. And that certainly is good news to me. But enough of my yacking, on with the carnival. And apologies for any whiff of cabbage herein.

Carnival of the Blue is delighted to welcome Blue Ocean Institute president and co-founder Carl Safina with his first submission, Bye Bye, Bluefin. Carl describes how the Bluefin tuna gets no respect – or justice – from the very people who are charged with looking after it.

Over at Hope for Pandora, Thomas Robey points out the importance of new remote sensing buoys and the potential for improved data collection for modeling ocean health. Thomas also provides great links to remote video captures of jellies and dogfish sharks.

At Island of Doubt, James Hrynyshyn explains why climate change is such a favored topic for him. For James, there is no more important a public policy challenge. And because the role of uncertainty in climate science--and science in general--has been grossly distorted in many popular media, his blog was established in part to combat such propaganda. His carnival contribution explores the appearance of a graph in last month's journal of Science that addresses both climate change and uncertainty.

Perhaps ocean science and ocean conservation wouldn't be so opaque to the general public if we did a better job of instilling a solid foundation of ocean concepts in our children. Emmett Duffy explores this idea and the growing Ocean Literacy Network at The Natural Patriot.

Brian Switek at Laelaps wonders why science must take a back seat to ratings during the ever popular Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. This annual morbid fascination of blood and fear comes at what cost?

Carnival of the Blue founder Mark Powell's contribution over on Blogfish begins with a peculiar question, What are oceans for? Mark thinks it’s a question people are beginning to ask, and he thinks the answer leads towards conservation.

Feeling crabby? If so, then Mark Hall has a trilogy on Horseshoe crabs on The Daily Kos. Yes, yes, I know... Horseshoe crabs are chelicerate arthropods, not true crabs. But until a better name comes along, enjoy this natural history. Kick-off with some Horseshoe Crab basics, move on to anatomy, then close the loop with some conservation. You can also read more ecological gems from Mark at his Biomes Blog.

And now for something completely different, Andre over in the UK ruminates about all the problems plaguing modern fisheries and wonders just what one should eat from the sea. His suggestions may catch you off guard.

Just like the diversity he so loves in the invertebrates he celebrates at The Other 95%, count on Kevin Z to provide incredible diversity for Carnival of the Blue. First he showcases sea squirt promiscuity (how risqué). Then enjoy his synthesis of science and music with his spineless song (and new Deep Sea News anthem), What does the Deep Sea Say?

And speaking of the boys at Deep Sea News, they submitted a slew of posts for inclusion in this month's carnival. So it's dealers choice. First, Craig describes (sarcastically) why Canada should welcome global warming and an ice-free polar sea for all its potential benefits. Then enjoy a post from Peter that asks, How safe is your sushi? Peter set off a firestorm of comments with this, and they are as much fun to read as his post itself.

If it's great ocean conservation blogging with equally great comment trails that piques your interest, then check-out Jennifer's post on Shifting Baselines that followed Al Gore's Chilean Sea Bass drama from last month. Did he or didn't he? Find out for yourself. But the news was so popular (and contentious) that Jennifer had to follow-up with an additional post. Jack Sterne from Ocean Champions also contributed his take on the matter with a guest post on Shifting Baseline's Politics Tuesday.

Since the whole Sea Bass brouhaha got so much press, it's not surprising it showed-up in numerous blogs. Sheril Kirshenbaum at The Intersection found herself in a similar predicament as Mr. Gore and in turn asked her readers, What would you do?

Turning our attention to Micronesia, you can check-out The Saipan Blog where Angelo Villagomez treats us to an amazing gallery of Saipan nudibranchs and his thoughts on everything from island blogging, building an online community and conservation ethic in the CNMI, and a future that includes what Angelo calls Ecotourism 2.0.

On a subject near and dear to my heart, coral reef conservation, Caspar Henderson at the forbodingly named Coral Bones wonders if ocean and coral scientists are being too reticent and that warnings of ocean threats may be too conservative.

Jason at Cephalopodcast provides us with a great list of video and audio aquatic podcasts so you can feed your eyes and ears with great ocean news and views.

Wonder what tide pooling looks like in Malaysia? Join the folks at The Tide Chaser and virtually explore the exposed rocky shorelines of Singapore. Amazing nudibranchs and anemones every month.

The folks at Squid, the blog of Laughing Squid, the San Francisco-based web hosting firm that's also dedicated to art, culture, and technology, covered the ongoing invasion of Humboldt squid into northern California. Can you say jumbo orders of fried calamari?

And while we're on the subject of squid, he may have been too busy to submit his favorite ocean-themed post from last month, but you can always count on PZ Myers at Pharyngula to remind you that he's got some serious squid envy. For some great cephalopod science, check out his piece on what the developmental biology of squid can teach us about evolution. On the lighter side, PZ gives us a snippet of the last thing you can expect to see before being eaten by his favorite cephalopod.

Finally, yours truly was all over the map as usual in July on Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets. I'll point you to two favorites: First you can find out about how recent science is uncovering that some coral species, and their algal symbionts, are more resistant to heat stress than formerly understood. Potentially positive news in a warming world. Lastly, I challenge the notion that scuba divers and other marine recreationists are somehow better informed and that conservation messaging to this audience is unnecessary.

Yikes! That was exhausting! Who knew that one month held so much great ocean writing? Of course, all apologies if I missed anyone in this roundup. Please shoot me a heads-up and I'll add your post to the carnival. And be sure to look for Carnival of the Blue IV which will be coming from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, hosted by Angelo over at The Saipan Blog on September 3.

Keep it blue!