Podcast Of The Blue #1

Thanks to the overtime work of Chephalopodcast's amazing Jason Robertshaw, we are proud to present the Podcast of the Blue #1! This podcast spotlights ocean blogging posts compiled in Carnival of the Blue 22.

Listen-in as ocean science bloggers Miriam Goldstein, David Shiffman, and Kevin Zelnio joined Jason Robertshaw and yours truly to discuss all things oceanic. From so-called dolphin-safe-tuna to squid sex. Deep sea gulpers to diving sea birds.

Many thanks (and apologies) also go out to Sheril Kirshenbaum who planned to participate but technical difficulties got in the way. Sorry again, Sheril, but hope you can join us next month!

Grab a refreshing beverage of your choice, get comfy, and listen directly at this link: Podcast of the Blue #1

You may also subscribe manually to the podcast feed by clicking here:



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"And Who Are You Wearing?"

Big congrats go out to PZ Myers as one of the 2009 Humanist of the Year Awardees!

While I'm sure he's being approached by all the big designers (Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin, Men's Wearhouse) for his red carpet couture, I thought I might suggest more appropriate formal wear.

An Interesting Patch Of Quicksand

Okay fellow ocean science heads, it's quiz time. Without resorting to textbooks, Wikipedia, or Google, answer me this:

What produces most of the Earth's oxygen?
a) Forests;
b) Plants, phytoplankton, and other photosynthesizers in the ocean; or
c) Both equally.

In the interest of transparency, this is a real student survey question posed by a teacher who is testing the proposed ocean literacy principles. This post is a distillation of an ongoing and lively discussion taking place on Scuttlebutt, the National Marine Educator's Association list serve. I modified the teacher's question only slightly.

So what's your answer? Did you select "b"? If so, you would have answered correctly from the viewpoint of the teacher who designed the test. Her justification is based on Ocean Literacy Principle 4: The Ocean Makes Earth Habitable, subsection a) Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere originally came from the activities of photosynthetic organisms in the ocean. In addition, Ocean Literacy Principle 6: The Oceans and Humans are Inextricably Interconnected reinforces this concept with subsection a) Nearly all Earth's oxygen comes from the ocean.

But our intrepid teacher was hoping to find some quantitative figure to back-up these ocean literacy principles. As she commented on Scuttlebutt, "Textbooks generally say about 2/3 of the oxygen comes from the ocean. The Smithonian's Ocean Hall, on a pillar at the entrance, says about half of our oxygen comes from the ocean."

So who's correct?

A Holt high school biology textbook (© 2004) on my bookshelf by Johnson and Raven (California Science Standards Edition) states on p. 378 that, "Photosynthetic plankton that form the base of the ocean food chain account for about 40 percent of all the photosynthesis on Earth."

Back on Scuttlebutt, marine science educators began offering suggested quantitative figures for oceanic oxygen production ranging from nearly half of all oxygen produced to wide ranges of 20% to 70% over the years.

This apparent Gordian Knot of quantifying oceanic primary productivity was unceremoniously severed by the appearance of a quote from Dr. Bob Stewart in the comment thread. Dr. Stewart, a professor of physical oceanography and expert ocean science educator at Texas A&M University provided the coup de grâce in true Texan fashion:

"Plants and phytoplankton both produce no oxygen if averaged over their lifetimes."

What?! No oxygen over their lifetime? What could he possibly mean? What about Ocean Literacy Principle 4: The Ocean Makes Earth Habitable, subsection a) Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere originally came from the activities of photosynthetic organisms in the ocean and Ocean Literacy Principle 6: The Oceans and Humans are Inextricably Interconnected, subsection a) Nearly all Earth's oxygen comes from the ocean?

Dr Stewart elaborates:

The answer is somewhat complicated. And it depends somewhat on what you are trying to understand.

On average, plants or plankton produce no net oxygen. The oxygen they produce during their life is used up when they die and decay away, or when they are eaten by animals and the animals die. Oxygen in the air comes from the burial of carbon in sediments in the ocean. Plants on land, and phytoplankton in the ocean both produce oxygen, but when they die the oxygen is used up when they decay away, and no oxygen is left over. However, if the carbon in their bodies is buried, it cannot decay and use up oxygen, so some oxygen is left in the atmosphere.

[Land] plants and phytoplankton produce oxygen at about the same rate. But it is mostly dead phytoplankton that end up in sediments.

As best we can estimate, the net primary productivity on land is about equal to the net primary productivity in the ocean. A comparison by area or type of organism does not make much sense. Photosynthesis is highly variable. Trees may photosynthesize for a while, and then less if there is not enough water. Phytoplankton cannot be compared with trees. They grow so fast, and double in numbers so fast, they cannot be compared with trees which grow much more slowly. We cannot compare by weight because the tree has much mass (wood) that weighs a lot but doesn't photosynthesize. Plankton weigh far less, but produce far more oxygen per kg than land plants. The standing crop of plants on land weighs far more than the standing crop of phytoplankton in the ocean. If we compare by area, some areas at some times are highly productive, but nearby, or a few days later, the productivity is far less. Even global averages are hard to calculate.

So the simple answer is, plants and phytoplankton both produce no oxygen if averaged over their lifetimes, where lifetime is from beginning to the time all carbohydrates have decayed away. For example, forests use as much oxygen as they produce, so their net production is zero.

I know this goes against intuition, but I have discussed this issue carefully with experts, and we all agree, oxygen in the atmosphere comes from the burial of reduced carbon, mostly in the ocean.

You could have heard a pin drop (or was that the sound of ocean educator jaws dropping) as those words were digested across the list serve community. This was one of those defining moments you hope to experience in your lifetime as a scientist or science educator. A moment of genuine cognitive dissonance where preconceptions are confronted with a new way of sense-making. It's a moment with tremendous opportunities for leaps in learning.

One commenter immediately responded that if Dr Stewart is right, "and I have no reason to doubt what he says on the topic, there is going to be a lot of stomach upset among publishers and marine educators." The commenter goes on to explain that, "we clearly need to adjust the Ocean Literacy statement previously cited. The source of the oxygen would still be the ocean, but the mechanism would be different from what has been generally accepted."

On a more positive note, the same commenter celebrated the reminder that, "Science is truly fascinating. 99.99% of us can believe we understand something and 0.01% of us can upset the apple cart."

But what about the poor ocean science teacher who opened this wet Pandora's Box? She still has a test to administer. Her reaction to the revelations was more pragmatic, "But what do I do with the question on my ocean literacy survey? Right now it's:

What produces most of the earth’s oxygen?

a) forests;
b) plants, phytoplankton, and other photosynthesizers in the ocean; or
c) both equally

Where the correct answer is "b". How should the question be written to accommodate what we've discussed today?"

Again, a plethora of answers came down the pike. There were calls to, "Change the question to some other topic. Until we establish what "produces" means in the context of your question there will be no correct answer, or at least not one that the uninitiated will understand."

But there were also commenter's who were not so eager to give up ground so quickly, "We are not going to sound particularly credible (even if we are) if we claim that oceanic plants are not producing any oxygen when what we mean is that there is no NET production of oxygen. Are we splitting hairs? I'll leave that to you, but when my 9th graders stick their noses into a sunlit tidepool and see oxygen bubbles forming on the lateral edges of surf grass, I can't very well tell them that no oxygen is being produced. . . or can I??"

George Matsumoto, Senior Education and Research Specialist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) summed it up short and sweet, "Ocean plants are producing oxygen!" He went on to explain that, "Ocean protists (algae) and bacteria are producing even more oxygen. The oxygen in the atmosphere comes from net primary production - that is, the sequestration of these carbon sources into the sediments is what keeps the oxygen produced in the atmosphere - otherwise, it gets used up when the plants, protists, bacteria decompose."

Clear enough, but isn't attempting to explain sequestration of carbon sources in ocean sediments a little like strolling into a patch of quicksand with elementary or high school students? Does an ocean science literate person in our society (not a scientist or ocean education specialist) need to know this?

One of the longest-standing architects for the Ocean Literacy Principles, UC Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science' Craig Strang (a brilliant ocean science educator whom I have the honor of calling friend) offered some tempering thoughts, "[Ocean Literacy] Concept (4.a.) was among the 3-4 most difficult to craft among the 44. We settled on a carefully worded statement that includes the words, "most" (not a %) and "originally came" (not currently produced") and "photosynthetic organisms" (not plants or plankton). We decided that an ocean literate person does NOT need to be able to quote the percentage of O2 that comes or came from the ocean (since none of us could!), nor did we think that an Ocean Literate person needs to know whether the ocean produces a net gain of O2 in the atmosphere or not."

A number of commenter's, and this reader, seemed to agree with Craig that it's probably not essential that an ocean literate person be able to quote the percentage of O2 that came from the ocean. Rather, one commenter wrote, "the important part of that concept is the simple realization that photosynthetic organisms in the ocean played a big role in making the world we live in today." Yet another commenter suggested that "the purpose of this ocean literacy concept is to start the dialog regarding the role of aquatic photosynthesis--that it is important for students to realize that aquatic photosynthetic organisms were and are an important source of atmospheric O2. If it gets to the point where learners attain a more informed understanding of all the sources and sinks of atmospheric O2, that's bonus."

Another commenter also told a story that I'd like to retell as I suspect it may likely resonate with your own experiences in elementary and high school science education. To the best of my memory, photosynthesis was taught in school from a terrestrial point of view only. It was only my obsessive love of ocean science as a geeky youth that I remember learning from one of my Jacques Cousteau books that phytoplankton produce oxygen we breathe. There was little attention paid in high school of the contribution of aquatic photosynthesis--and almost zero attention paid to ocean habitats and marine ecology as a whole. This was my formal science experience through the 70's and until I graduated high school in 1981 in Pennsylvania.

From my limited experiences in working within the formal and informal elementary and high school science education systems in the late 90's, I'd have to conclude that things have not changed much. And in a system that became increasingly geared towards No Child Left Behind (or as we called it, No Child Left Untested), teachers in many public systems taught primarily to the tests and dropped or de-emphasized science education. Not that ocean science was a big part of standard science curriculum anyway.

I want to conclude that I don't see any of these interesting online discussions as evidence of flaws or weaknesses in developing ocean science literacy principles. I believe we absolutely must strive to have a scientifically literate citizenry. In so doing, we also need to remember that a lot of the science (be it physical, biological, or chemical) operates in our mostly ocean planet, inappropriately named "Earth."

The apparent ocean literacy paradox I describe above illuminates a sometimes messy but incredibly important process when scientific domain content knowledge doesn't mesh easily with pedagogic content knowledge. In other words, there's what we know scientifically, and there's what effective science educators know in transmitting that content to their students. The skill and science (and art) is in marrying the two for most effective and meaningful learning.

What are your thoughts?

An Ocean Victory In The Making! w00t!

Sheril over on The Intersection broke the news this afternoon that H.R. 146, The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, passed the House today. Why the excitement? Because the package includes ocean exploration, NOAA undersea research, ocean and coastal mapping integration, the integrated coastal and ocean observation system, federal ocean acidification research and monitoring, coastal and estuarine land conservation, and lots more.

With this House victory, the bill now goes before President Obama to be signed into law (allowing much needed funding to flow).

Now a cherry on the top of this terrific news would be word that the U.S. Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 has been reauthorized. The act was established in 2000 to preserve coral reef ecosystems, promote wise management, and obtain better information about the current condition of coral reefs.

As a result of this act, millions of Americans have been educated about the coral reef crisis, research has documented the threats and damage, and large areas such as the Northwest Hawaiian Islands have been protected. It is critical to continue this work to give reefs any chance to survive and to expand similar strategies around the world by authorizing activities for international coral reef conservation.

Beauty In Liquid Fury

On my recent flight to Hawaii, I discovered the absolutely sublime photography of Clark Little in Hana Hou, the Hawaiian Airlines in-flight magazine. Little (in image below) grew up on the North Shore of Oahu and appears willing to suffer considerable abuse in pursuit of his muse. In lieu of filling this space with words, I think I'd prefer to let Little's art do the talking.

I trust you'll agree, Little is a lot.

A Very Special Message From Portia De Rossi

H/T to Petulant at Shakesville

Podcast Of The Blue #0

Earlier today, ocean science bloggers Miriam Goldstein, Sheril Kirshenbaum, David Shiffman, and Kevin Zelnio joined Jason Robertshaw and yours truly to record the inaugural episode of the Podcast of the Blue. We had a ripping fun time discussing our favorite posts from Carnival of the Blue 22. Sure we had a few technical gaffes, but we still walked away feeling great about the results.

After Jason works some magic with post-production, I'll be posting Episode #1 here at MBSL&S. In the meantime, Jason, Mark Powell, and I recorded a little teaser.

You can listen to Episode #0 directly at this link: Podcast of the Blue #0

And to subscribe manually to the Podcast of the Blue feed, click on this icon:

The Perils Of Field Work #17: Shave Ice

This is a tasty Hawaiian treat called shave ice. No, not shaved ice. No, not a snow cone. Snow cones are made with crushed ice. Shave ice is, well, shaved off a big ice block into a fine powder. It's then packed by hand into a ball shape in a plastic cup, covered in tropical fruit flavored syrups, and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. A scoop of ice cream in the middle is optional.

This is a group of local kids with their purchases outside the shave ice store in Kona Town. Yes, that one girl is holding a shave ice bigger than her head.

This is me, quite delighted with my small shave ice with Li Hing Mui, Peach, and Green Apple syrup. Yes, that's sweetened condensed milk on top. Yes, I need to start a diet.

This is Liz, quite delighted with her shave ice, but more delighted with seeing this Mahalo Jesus sticker.

This is all of the small shave ice Liz could eat.

This is Liz' attempt to flush her small shave ice down the toilet.


This is a small shave ice clogging Liz toilet.

This is Liz using a clothes hanger to unplug her toilet now blocked with a small shave ice.

This is Liz' last view of her small shave ice.


Any questions?

Attack Of The Cookie Monster

Mike Spalding, a 61-year-old resident of Maui and devoted ocean swimmer, wasn't sure at first what attacked him in the water on Monday night. It happened during Spalding's attempt to swim the nearly 30-mile stretch across the Alenuihaha Channel from the Big Island of Hawaii to Maui. Spalding was about 4 1/2 hours and 11 miles into crossing the channel at about 8 PM when he felt a sharp pain on his sternum and then on his leg. "I got hit in the calf," he said. "It was such a disappointment because I knew the swim was over. I was bleeding profusely."

"I didn't see it," he said of the attacker. "All I felt was the bite, and I got the hell out of the water as quick as I could."

Fortunately for Spalding, he was being accompanied by friends in a support boat and with a kayak. After the attack, he swam to the kayak and scrambled on board. Spalding managed to control the bleeding until the support boat returned to Maui where he could seek medical attention at the Maui Memorial Medical Center. Based on the symmetrical shape wound on both his calf and sternum, Spalding and his doctors concluded that he was the victim of a Cookie-Cutter shark attack.

Cookie-cutter sharks (Isistius brasiliensis) are small (about half a meter long) rarely-seen species of dogfish shark. They get their rather cute name from the most un-adorable habit of removing small circular chunks of flesh from marine mammals and large fish. Photographic evidence has accumulated from sport fishers of many a ruined trophy fish following opportunistic attacks by Cookie-Cutter sharks. The presence of fur doesn't seem to serve as a deterrent from Cookie-Cutter attacks, as evidenced from images of pinnipeds (such as the Hawaiian Monk seal below) with circular plugs of flesh removed from their hides.

Cookie-Cutter sharks are known to vertically migrate, normally being found in deep water (probably below 1000 meters during the day) and migrating into surface waters at night to feed. Mike Spalding just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended-up being just another selection on that evening's buffet menu.

I must admit a certain deja vu over Spalding's recent attack. While on the Big Island this week, I remarked to my conservation colleagues, Liz Foote and Kara Osada, that we should still try the Pelagic Magic black water night dive with Jack's Diving Locker. Regular readers will recall that I continue to wet myself in anticipation of a night dive in 2000 feet of pitch-black water awaiting whatever decides to swim through my puny flashlight beam.

Kara, who has done the black water dive at least five times, gushed to Liz and I how they have seen Marlin, Oceanic White-Tip sharks, Blue sharks, and even Cookie-Cutter sharks during the dive. Liz and I looked at each other and rolled with laughter as we remarked how totally awesome it would be to be attacked by a Cookie-Cutter and have lifetime bragging rights with a most bitchin' circular scar and a divot of flesh removed from our legs.

Alas, Mike Spalding has beaten us to it! Undeterred, Spalding is already planning his next attempt, "I'm looking forward to the next time I get out there and finish this channel."

So here's to you, Mike. Hope you heal quickly. And the beer is on me next time I'm on Maui, as long as Liz and I get to see the scar!

Tsunami Warning For Tonga And Fiji

Craig over at Deep Sea News reported earlier today about the eruption of an underwater volcano off of Tonga. Now a tsunami warning has been issued for the South Pacific and tsunami advisory issued for Hawaii following a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake that registered about 209km (130 miles) south-east of Tonga. Monitors at the US National Weather Service said they did not know if a tsunami had actually been generated but the size of the quake made it possible.

The quake struck at 1818 GMT at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), Reuters quoted the US Geological Survey as saying. The island state of Tonga is a developing tourist destination. The tsunami warning covers Samoa and Fiji, AFP news agency reports.

Delicious, Sustainable, Kona Kampachi

Living in the SF Bay Area, I like to think we have our pick of some of the best and freshest seafood in the States. But then I get back to Hawaii. And one of my favorite things about visiting Kona is easy access to a very tasty local fish called Kona Kampachi.

Kona Kampachi has been called the Wonder Fish and is the registered commercial name for farmed Almaco Jack (Seriola rivoliana) known locally in Hawaii as kahala. Kona Kampachi is the brainchild of aquaculture venture Kona Blue, founded in 2001 by Dr. Dale Sarver and Neil Anthony Sims--marine biologists and longtime Kona residents--who believed there was an opportunity for sustainably managed open ocean aquaculture of high-value, sushi-quality fish.

What makes Kona Kampachi unique and highly prized is that Kona Blue is able to manage the entire life history of the species, from hatch to harvest, yielding a consistently high quality product. The fish is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, has no detectable levels of mercury or PCBs, and is completely free of internal parasites. Kona Kampachi are grown in open ocean pens in deep water about one half mile off the Kona coast.

Jacks, like the rest of their tuna kin, are predators. This means that farming a predatory species like Kona Kampachi requires Kona Blue to provide fish meal as a food source. So how can Kona Kampachi be truly sustainable? Well, not all fish meals are equal. Kona Blue feeds its farmed fish a feed comprising approximately 30% fish meal and fish oil from Peruvian anchovies (a sustainably managed fishery for the past 30 years) and trimmings from fish processed for human consumption, and 70% agricultural proteins and oils.

But enough of all this technical babble. How does Kona Kampachi taste?

I'm glad you asked. In an effort to provide my readers with the utmost in ocean awareness, Liz and I visited Wasabi's, a tiny yet terrific sushi house in Kona Town. They just so happened to have Kona Kampachi sashimi on their special board, and that's all we needed to see. Liz had never tried the fish before, and was a little nervous since she's a relative newcomer to the whole raw fish scene.

The presentation was spectacular. That's the Kona Kampachi (head and tail intact) surrounded by the rest of our feast.

The flesh is a delicate creamy color reminiscent of Hamachi, but with a pastel pink hue. I was a little worried that the fish head was going to put Liz off the sashimi, but she dove right in and kept pace with me as our chopsticks dueled over the last precious slices.

Kona Kampachi has a clean, mild, yet rich flavor. I'm tempted to say buttery, but only in the sense that it was creamy and smooth. The sushi chef had sliced the fish so thin that each bite practically melted in the mouth. While I've seen Kona Kampachi on menus with a variety of preparations, I've always preferred the simple, purist sashimi approach for maximum flavor and impact.

All the TLC and efforts for sustainability, however, come at a premium. Our 18 slices of Kona Kampachi (I could have eaten 38 slices) set us back $18. At a dollar a slice, I wouldn't call it cheap. But when you consider the savings on reduced fishing effort for other depleted species, I consider it an investment in ocean health.

If readers would like me to undertake any further foodie explorations for the sake of ocean education, feel free to let me know. I'm always up for the challenge.

Calling All Invert Peeps

While waiting-out a rain shower under a tree yesterday, I pierced the air with a most undignified scream as I backed into this big yellow fella's web. Things do grow large here in Hawaii! A few seconds after snapping these images, I ran back to my hotel room, stuffed a rolled-up towel under the door, crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head.

The body length from tip of cephalothorax to abdomen was at least one inch and each leg of this spider was at least three inches. All stretched out, the spider would easily span the area of my palm.

Any arachnophiles out there know what this is?

MBSL&S Goes To Hawaii

Another airport, another surreal ballet with the always pleasant TSA officers, and I'm off to the Big Island of Hawaii for field work. I'll be joining my pal Liz Foote along the Kailua-Kona coast for the next several days. Lots of meetings, lots of logistics to sort out, lots of water time, and lots of quality assurance on Mai Tais and pupu. Alas, somebody has to do this.

Drop by over the next few days and catch some Island Flava!

360 Degree Reef

Climate Shifts has posted a remarkable panoramic image of an Indo-Pacific coral reef. For some real fun, open the image on full-screen setting and pretend you're in the middle of that amazing scene.

If I have any gripe (and you know I always do) the fish look like they are in a feeding aggregation (mixed species, not polarized in any particular orientation) often seen when artificial food is introduced (rice, bread, frozen peas, commercial fish food, etc.). My opinions regarding fish feeding are a matter of record.

Don't Pull That Mussel's Finger!

Alternate Title: Silent But Deadly Spring

Well, we can collectively start feeling less guilty over all the CO2 we keep pumping into the atmosphere that contributes to climate change. In fact, this news may leave you laughing.

After years of pointing the finger at cows for the copious volumes of methane tooted from their derrieres (a byproduct of cellulose's long, slow trip through a ruminant digestive system), scientists have found that mussels, marine worms, freshwater snails and other aquatic invertebrates have been found to squeeze-out nitrous oxide--commonly referred to as laughing gas.

So what? Well, nitrous oxide also happens to be a little talked about greenhouse gas. Yes, that happy gas you huff at the dentists office--and that made Dennis Hopper so creepy in Blue Velvet--behaves just like its more familiar gassy cousin CO2 in the ability to trap heat in the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide emissions are known to come from agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste. But this recent research by scientists at the Max Planck Institut and Denmark's Aarhus University uncovers a previously unidentified though potentially massive source.

As it turns out, benthic invertebrates apparently emit nitrous oxide farts when nitrate is present in the water. And where does the nitrate come from? Well, here is where we should start feeling guilty again. Increased use of nitrate-rich fertilizers on land for agriculture and landscaping means that higher levels of nitrates are being washed from the soil into rivers, lakes, and aquifers. These nitrates can also concentrate in coastal waters as well.

As nitrate pollution continues to rise, so too will nitrous oxide production--further adding to greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere. I bet Al Gore didn't factor invertebrate farts into An Inconvenient Truth. If there is an upside to this, I suppose at least we'll all have smiles on our faces as we bear witness to our warming Earth.

Big Brass Balls

In what I can only assume is an 11th hour attempt to steal the nomination for "Utter Dick of All Time" mantle from former Vice President Cheney, Ken Starr successfully hit one out of the ballpark and shows he's right up there with the best of them in sheer dickishness.

During yesterday's hearing by the California Supreme Court to consider overturning Prop 8, Justice Chin asked for Starr’s response to the argument that the purpose of an Equal Protection clause is to protect minorities.

Barely missing a beat, Starr--a white, male, heterosexual--stated that "Each of us is a minority – a minority of one".

Mr Starr, for the ability to utter those words without spontaneously bursting into flames from the blistering irony, we here at MBSL&S award you this month's Big Brass Balls.

Ocean Science's Rainbow?

Miriam is getting a lot of air time here at MBSL&S the past several days, and today will be no exception. Over at The Oyster's Garter, Miriam wrote a great post that continues a discussion first raised by the boys at Deep Sea News. It all began with Craig and Peter's thoughts on pursuing a career in the ocean sciences. Miriam picked up the discussion on her blog with an interesting permutation,

Now, I’m not a deep-sea researcher, but I am at an oceanographic institution with five research vessels and I do go out to sea. I agree with Peter and Kevin that it’s a lot easier to be female in the sciences these days, but I have no idea if it’s hard to be gay. That’s because I know very, very few LGBT scientists, grad students, or even undergrads. In fact, I think that I've only met three LGBT ocean scientists ever - Rick MacPherson, a former master’s student at SIO, and a friend in Boston who is just starting to get into marine resource management. (Along with Joan Roughgarden, but I’ve never met her.)

Since I bordered on haggery in college, it’s not for lack of knowing tons of LGBT people outside of science. But even at my very LGBT-friendly undergrad institution, I think there was only one gay undergrad in the ecology department. And currently at SIO, I don’t know a single LGBT person.

For the record, Miriam, you can be my hag any day.

Miriam proposed three possible explanations for the apparent lack of GLBT folks in her ocean science experiences:

1) There are GLBT folk around her, she just doesn't know them;
2) Since GLBT folk are statistically purported to be 1 in 10 of the population, and there aren't that many ocean scientists, it's probable that there just aren't that many GLBT ocean scientists; and/or
3) Ocean science is hostile to GLBT folk.

(By the way, it's only out of habit that I use the shorthand GLBT for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered folk. It is in no way meant to be a sexist diss on lesbians that I don't use LGBT.)

Sparing you all my thoughts on the purported 1 in 10 statistic for another time, I wanted to share some thoughts Miriam's interesting post generated here at queer ocean science and conservation central.

In my undergraduate, graduate, and professional career as an ocean scientist (a total of 28 years as of today) I've met exactly one other out, queer, ocean scientist (the amazing Joan Roughgarden) in my travels. Which is not to say (and as Miriam postulates) there weren't other GLBT folks in proximity (I have really shitty gaydar), but that's all who ever seemed out/open/etc.

In my day to day professional life as a queer ocean scientist/conservationist, I've not encountered any apparent hostility or cliques of homo-hatery. I do grow tired of colleagues who ASSUME I'm straight at meetings (Are you married? What does your wife do? That sort of thing). But if I got pissed all the time over that, I wouldn't get through a day. Besides, it's fun to watch people blush when I say, "No, my boyfriend and I can't get married."

Sometimes in my work in the field, I have to choose discretion over honesty because my immediate conservation work is more important than the social transformation of local people's views on queer rights. For example, I'm just another straight guy in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Indonesia, Belize, etc. because I want to be the "conservation guy," not "the gay guy." I deflect questions that get too personal (hard to do in cultures that seem to NEED to know whether you are married like Indonesia and Melanesia).

But here in the States, I don't think I have ever sensed the apparent lack of GLBT representation in the ocean sciences as being a function of ocean scientists/ocean science departments being less hospitable to GLBT folk. I've found us marine biologists to be a pretty socially liberal crowd. Our propensity for drinking and singing certainly doesn't seem to support conservative leanings.

I personally think that the apparent dearth of out/open GLBT individuals in the ocean sciences has some real connections to academic preparedness of candidate GLBT youth who might be inclined to enter ocean science programs out of high school.

The 2007 National School Climate Survey (the most comprehensive survey ever conducted on the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students) found that of 6,209 middle and high school students surveyed, nearly 9 out of 10 GLBT students (86.2%) experienced harassment at school in that year, three-fifths (60.8%) felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and about a third (32.7%) skipped a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe.

In 2008, a new study of public school principals released by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, in collaboration with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) found that half of principals view bullying as a serious problem at their schools, yet they appear to underestimate the extent of harassment that GLBT students experience. GLSEN studies of both students and teachers have shown that GLBT-identified students and those perceived to be GLBT are harassed at much higher rates than their non-GLBT peers.

When you are in survival mode in elementary and high school, this added stress and anxiety often results in academic performance taking a back seat.

Ocean science undergraduate programs (such as a BS in Marine Biology) typically tend to require additional science and math courses on top of those normally required for a straight (pardon the pun) Biology major. My course load as a 2nd year undergrad in Marine Bio was brutal: I had Organic Chemistry, Biometry, and Invertebrate Zoology concurrently. Both O Chem and Invertebrate Zoo had associated labs. Biometry was deep statistical biology that used the Sokal/Rohlf textbook. Those of you who know what I'm talking about will likely cringe at the thought of what that book put you through.

My point is that entering an ocean science undergrad program (assuming they even qualify for acceptance) while not being academically prepared or on par with your peers and expect to be coddled or slowly brought up to performance speed is incredibly unrealistic. O Chem is a classic "culling" course, and I remember my class size dwindled from that course alone. All students deserve to face that academic challenge being as prepared as possible. Not having to struggle because high school math and science fundamentals took a back seat to heckling or threats.

As a not fully academically prepared queer undergrad myself, I survived out of sheer will and obsessive love of the ocean. My foundations in math and studying were not where many of my apparently straight peers was, and I constantly felt like I was running to keep up. I don't know how it might have felt if the academic challenges weren't also compounded by the challenges of coming out in college as well.

It seems that racism and sexism have a seat at the table in most discussions of elementary and high-school learning. But homophobia and heterosexism are still taboo areas. It's still don't ask, don't tell. Ensuring safe learning environments for ALL students could go a long way to ensuring a true diversity of voices in ocean sciences.

Carnival Of The Blue 22

All blog badges courtesy of Jason Robertshaw!
Welcome one and all to the twenty-second installment of this monthly meeting of ocean mirth we call the Carnival of the Blue. For nearly two years now, bloggers world-wide have rallied to fill this monthly compendium with their favorite writings on ocean science, conservation, natural history, art, photography, history, critical analysis, and much more.

And this month's CotB is no exception.

We have a total of 28 submissions from Carnival of the Blue regulars as well as a few first-time contributors. There's a lot of great reading to be found here, so get ready to enjoy the show.

But what's that you say? You want more?

Sure, reading Carnival of The Blue is great. But wouldn't it be super duper great if Carnival of the Blue could somehow tap into all the bells and whistles of new media?

Wait no further, my friends. I'm tickled to unveil not only Carnival of the Blue 22, but the very first Podcast of the Blue! Made possible through the technological acumen of Cephalopodcast's very own Jason Robertshaw, Podcast of the Blue is an opportunity for ocean bloggers to discuss the blog posts with their peers. And listeners get to hear some of the Carnival authors dive behind their writing to elaborate on the subject.

Then of course there's the opportunity to hear Kevin Zelnio's sultry voice... perhaps even performing one of his ocean tunes live someday!

How Will It Work?
About one week after the Carnival of the Blue, after everyone has had a chance to read the entries, that month's host invites the authors on a first come, first serve basis to do an audio chat about their entries. That month's host can emcee the conversation if they are comfortable with the added role. Jason can act as the podcast producer, corralling the guests and making sure the technical details are covered. After post-production, Jason sends that month's host a link to the audio file so they can put up a second entry on their blog. This means that the CotB host gets two opportunities for traffic. After one month, Jason will duplicate the entry from their blog onto an archive at the Podcast of the Blue site. Then the cycle starts again.

This month's podcast invites will go out soon. Jason has even launched Twitter of the Blue to follow the carnival and extend your bloggy influences to Twitter's microblogging network to share the news. I can tell you right now it's gonna be a blast!

But enough of my yackin'. On with the Carnival...

Ocean Family Fun
First up is a post by Carnival of the Blue founder Mark Powell. Mark is so fresh-back from a Mexican holiday with the family that you can still smell the Caribbean on him. Or is that just the tequila? Mark's tee-off is a mostly photo-essay of his adventures in Akumal, part of the Riviera Maya in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Mark reminds us not to forget the importance of family fun in the ocean.

Florida Wildlife
From the Yucatan we scoot to more subtropical climes of Florida where Christie Lynn (self-described "Oompa-Loompa of science" and author of the fabulous blog Observations of a Nerd) is killing time on break from school. Since Florida is already ground zero for student break, Christie has found herself some real party animals.

Cephalopodcast
While we're still in Florida, another Floridian, Jason Robertshaw, submits for your enjoyment Cephalopodcast #9: I Heart Darwin, a special podcast in celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday. Jason's podcast features the year of living scientifically, an interview with Scott Isebrand about the BlogForDarwin promotion, and how cephalopods ♥♥♥ science. Be sure to tune in to the next Cephalopodcast that will include an interview with an aquarist from the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, home of the deluvian cephalopods.

Her Deepness
Yet another Floridian, Sarah of WaterNotes, sends us some comments and thoughts reflecting back on Dr. Sylvia Earle's acceptance of her TED prize and her "wish" for the world concerning the construction of marine protected areas (MPAs) in our oceans for preservation and conservation. As the world's leading spokeswoman for the oceans says, "No Blue, No Green."

Birds, Birds, Birds
And from Florida, we zip up a few lines of latitude along the Eastern Flyway to the Delaware Bay region where A DC Birding Blog's John Beetham writes about declines in the Semipalmated Sandpiper. How are shorebird populations connected to Limulus polyphemus? Head over to John's blog to find out.

Let's stick with the bird theme for a while. On the Monterey Bay Aquarium's SeaNotes blog, Kasia Deuel writes a post about the two oldest shorebirds in the world that are alive and well in the coastal aviary at the Aquarium. The two females – a sanderling and a willet – are both more than 20 years old, compared with a normal lifespan in the wild of around five or six years. Just between you and me, I think they've had some work done. See for yourself at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's live aviary cam.

Mike Bergin of the always fascinating 10,000 Birds sends in a post by his blogging colleague Charlie Moores on one of my favorite coastal birds, the Barrow's Goldeneye. If you think ducks are dull, then you don't know your Anatidae. Mike not only features these adorable birds on the surface, but underwater as well. Time to dust off my binoculars!

Saipan
To the other side of the planet we go--the beautiful Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to be exact--where the Saipan Blogger Angelo Villagomez, tells us about a survey that was recently undertaken to rediscover all the World War II era wrecks in the Saipan lagoon. The CNMI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs recently released a documentary on their findings. Angelo also shares a news story from Fiji which explores alleged Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WESPAC) meddling in the Northern Mariana Islands. Angelo reminds me to mention that as you read this story, keep in mind that Kitty Simonds--WESPAC Executive Director--thinks that the Saipan Blogger is hot. But who doesn't?

Philippines
I first bumped into the next Western Pacific blogger, Kaylin-Quinn from the Philippines, on Twitter. Everyone join me in saying, "Mabuhay!"She's a diver who authors the blog Penguin Wonderings. Check it out. Kaylin gave me carte blanche to choose any post I fancied. There are a lot of great news items cataloged there, but I decided to feature her photoessay of vintage diving images from Life magazine. Diving sure has come a long way. Now if I can just find these in a size 12. OMG, Shoes!

Singapore
Around the corner from the Philippines, Marcus Ng of The Annotated Budak follows ocean life in Singapore so you don't have to. Marcus sent in a slew of excellent posts which made choosing quite difficult. So I'll feature two. First, a discovery while exploring the Chek Jawa Wetlands that Gray Plover's have a dark side. Second, Marcus catches crabs... doing the nasty. Whoa... when did Carnival of the Blue go R-rated? This is a great post that shines light on the sex life of crustaceans.

Hot Squid Sex
Okay, since that last post got us in the mood, it's time to turn the heat up even more. And Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster's Garter peels the garter down a wee further as she explores squid sex in Motion in the Ocean on Slate Magazine online. When you begin a science essay with a line like, "... that special time of year when giant underwater orgies are followed by immediate death," you just know it's gonna be a great read! Kudos to Miriam on her Slate feature. And being the good scientist, she even provides all the research citations she used over on her blog.

Deep Sea Weirdness
Excitement of a different kind was making ocean news last month, and ocean bloggers were shouting it out loud. Mark Hall of the amazing Biomes Blog published a piece at The Daily Kos exploring the discovery that the Pacific barreleye has a freaky transparent head. Yes, I said transparent head! Take that, science fiction writers!

But wait, there's more! Craig McClain, formerly with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) which made the discovery, gives his perspective on Deep Sea News about why this fish is so freakin' crazy. The comment threads in both Craig's and Mark's posts are as much fun to read as the reports themselves. Clearly, weird sells as much as sex!

Speaking of Deep Sea News, let's see what the other 2/3 of the abyssal troika were up to. Kevin Zelnio gets his peer review on as he discusses an in-press paper that explores deep-sea megafaunal scavengers of the Hawaiian Islands. Say that five times fast. In particular, Kevin is interested in deep sea gulpers.

Peter Etnoyer rounds out the rest of the DSN contributions with his short but sweet post on the world's deepest sea fan. Convexella krampi may the deepest sea fan, Peter, but I'm your biggest fan! Cue Kathy Bates in 3-2-1...

More Weird Fish Eyes
If you still need some additional fish weirdness, Carnival of the Blue first-timer (hopefully long-timer) Daniel Brown of Biochemical Soul dredges-up memories of 9AM Developmental Biology class as he explores the evolution of flatfish eyes. This post has it all... some ontogeny, some phylogeny, some eyeball migration. Perhaps with the right encouragement we can get Daniel to focus exclusively on the ocean and change his blog title to Biochemical Sole?

Pole to Pole
Lingering in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina a bit longer, we have a post from The Intersection's very own Sheril Kirshenbaum who reminds us that, "The occasional positive ocean story is worth sharing again." Sheril highlights the news of ocean species recently found at both poles--including some that are new to science.

Who You Callin' Safe?
Moving more to the Carolina coastline, David (resident shark expert and one-half the feistiness over at Southern Fried Science) submitted a post on the ecological disaster that is dolphin-safe tuna. Wait, so that dolphin-safe logo on my can of Bumblebee doesn't also mean turtle-safe, pinniped safe, shark safe, etc? Read the post and definitely read the comments section. I gotta hand it to the Southern Fried boys. They know how to generate discussion on their blog.

Beagle Tales
From the Carolina coast we bounce to the shores of Britain for a check-in from our friends at The Beagle Project Blog who are thoroughly exhausted from all the Darwin celebrations last month. No matter, Karen James sends me two Beagle Project contributions. First, fellow BP colleague Peter McGrath writes about the lore and language of the sea which also includes a great BBC radio link. Next, Karen describes her efforts to bring HMS Beagle to life... well Second Life. So when the new Beagle is built, will that be Third Life?

Inverta-Wow
Keeping the Darwin love-fest rolling, we bounce back to the States to visit The Other 95% where Eric Heupel reminds us of Charles Darwin's inordinate fondness for invertebrates. Eric takes us on an intellectual field trip in exploring Darwin's interest in barnacles. While some of us have enough trouble balancing one blog in our lives, Eric also managed to submit two posts from his other blog, Eclectic Echoes. The first is his coverage of a recent PLoS One article on deep sea fishing impacts to sea mounts (co-authored by none other than Craig McClain) and another PLoS One paper on fossil whales in Antarctica. Hey Eric, slow down! You're making the rest of us look like slackers.

Is It Getting Hot In Here?
Heading up the coast to Beantown, we have a post from Jives at the New England Aquarium who shares news of a climate change symposium in Boston that was hosted by the New England Aquarium and the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution. Speakers explored the biological impacts of climate change on the Gulf of Maine and how rising sea levels will affect (reshape) Boston. The Aquarium also launched an online climate change ocean resource, based on research by longtime whale researcher Steven Katona.

Conclusions
And finally, perhaps the biggest most breaking news of the Carnival of the Blue, Andrew Bleiman of Zooillogix gives us the story 60 Minutes couldn't: An interview with Ben Apgar, the creator of the classic interweb hit from circa 2000 - Lobster Magnet. Andrew demonstrates that he pulls no punches and is a regular Edward R. Murrow with questions such as "How many times, would you say, that you had sexual relations
as a direct result of Lobster Magnet fame?" and "Anything else?" Hard hitting stuff.

And that's all she wrote, folks. I'm exhausted just looking back on all that ocean goodness. If I accidentally missed including anyone, please let me know. I hope you enjoyed the carnival and also hope you tune in for Podcast of the Blue. And be sure to join us next month when the Carnival of the Blue is hosted at SeaNotes.