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.