Carnival of the Blue 37

On this World Ocean Day, let us celebrate our ocean world and take note that June 11, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Cousteau, one of our great ocean heroes.

Much of my ocean love and commitment was formed watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau as a young boy, and I'll never forget the intense excitement of each new episode. Thank you Mr. Cousteau!

Thanks also to Jacques' needly friend (top left) who lives on my desktop and reminds me daily to enjoy the ocean instead of just studying, protecting, or otherwise working there.

And now the fun begins with our once in a while ocean quiz. What links World Ocean Day, Jacques Cousteau, and World Cup football (soccer for you Americans)? We’ll get to that interesting and little known story just below, but first to the business at hand, this month’s Carnival of the blue.

Carnival 37 marks the 3rd year of Carnival of the Blue, first seen on World Ocean Day 2007. This month’s hosts and posts are not only the same salty bloggers from that first carnival showing up again, there has been a bit of a changing of the guard, something I’ll choose to view as a sign of vitality in the ocean blogging sphere.

Of course, some denizens of the deep have been kicking around for a long time, like Deep-Sea News and their authoritative Anatomy of an ecological catastrophe series, including Miriam’s What to expect in the Gulf and Kevin Z’s What to expect in the deep Gulf. Sorry Miriam, it looks like Kevin goes deeper.

With more on the oil spill, blogfish and your goggled host wonders whether oil spill cleanup is doing more harm than good, and GrrlScientist explores the proper response to oiled birds, clean or kill? at Living the Scientific Life.

More oily blogging from Jeremy at The Voltage Gate who looks for lessons from the aftermath of the largest oil spill in history, in Saudi Arabia following the Gulf war.

Typically offbeat, even on the subject of oil spills, The Southern Fried Scientist informs us that unguided deep-sea research is essential for national and global security. You'll have to judge for yourself whether he's making any sense. With even more Southern Fried Science (which BTW has to be one of the best blog names ever) Bluegrass Blue Crab asks who wins the Gulf smackdown in Oil Spill vs. Dead Zone.

Jason Goldman at The Thoughtful Animal wonders if whales and dolphins should have "human rights," and also in the category of comparing us to ocean animals, Zen Faulkes asks if octopuses feel pain as deeply as mammals on NeuroDojo...which brings up the least important question of the day, what is the actual true plural of octopus? Any definitive answers from the cephalopodists amongst us?

What does a fish see when it looks in the mirror? BioLoser Wendy Ouriel has a surprising answer, one that seems remarkably human.

If you're getting tired of thinking by now, go to your ears and have a listen to Marah Hardt's humpback whale experience, and you'll be gland you clicked the link.

Or you can vicariously visit with:

-the abundant and interesting stormy petrel with Nate at the Drinking Bird,

-Limulus polyphemus, the crab that may have saved your life, with Matthew Wills at Backyard and Beyond,

-Green nudists with Susannah at Wanderin' Weeta--you'll never guess who she caught coming out of their shell,

-sandbar sharks, with WhySharksMatter of Southern Fried Science,

-whale sharks, Belize's Gentle Giants, on Oceana's The Beacon,

-some lovely tide pool anemones, including the one with perhaps my favorite animal name of all time, Anthopleura elegantissima, with Jill on Count Your Chicken! We’re Taking Over!

-the prodigal frog (huh, what's that?) with Darcy on Of Winds and Water,

Or, if you're tired of wonderful ocean animals, you can try visiting a beautiful beach, with Derek Miller on penmachine.com

Now about that Jacques Cousteau quiz...probably most of you don't know that Jacques was actually quite a footballer in his day. In fact, Jacques even showed his resourcefulnes early in life when he invented a new piece of football gear after sustaining a minor but painful injury. His football gear is still widely used, just like the aqualung, but you wouldn't know it now that the name has been anglicized from the original name, the "Jacques Strap."

And on that salty note, time to let you know that next month's carnival of the blue will be at the highly informative and thoroughly functional Water Words That Work. Got a wet post you want included? Use the handy BlogCarnival submission form or submit posts directly to dotoftheblue@gmail.com

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Carnival of the blue 34

For this month's best of ocean blogging, check out Carnival of the Blue 34 at Southern Fried Science. Wow, I never thought I'd be recommending anything that was "Southern" and "Fried." Give me my arugula salad and gruyere cheese please.

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Carnival of the blue 29

The best of ocean blogging for September is now compiled and ready for your enjoyment at Cephalopodcast.com.

This month's edition features the artistic touch of Jason as host, along with the stunning variety of ocean goings-on like Miriam's plastic-search expedition, Kevin and Karen doing science under sail, a pack of snails, pseudo-genitalia on the heads of fish, auks, sharks, and even using nuisance algae as fuel may fuel. Be there or be square.

That's right folks, you guessed it, Carnival of the blue is back. Worthy of note is the handoff of czar duties and privileges from me to Jason Robertshaw, the chief cephalopod. From now on, Jason will be coordinating the carnivals and I'll retire to czar emeritus status. Wonder if that comes with a pension? Hidden deep in the carnival post is some exciting news about my future that you might not find anywhere else, since I'm such a shy fellow.

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Carnival of the blue 25

On this World Oceans Day, it's a singular pleasure to host Carnival of the Blue 25, a movable feast of ocean blogging. Featuring the best ocean bloggers doing their very best to write the best posts, it's just the best.

Now here's a fish to get you in the mood and because fish are the best.



Fish are way better than dolphins, because rising star Miriam Goldstein will tell you that dolphins are infanticidal, violent predators if you swing by The Oyster's Garter or is it Double X? I can't keep up with all of her outlets.

Fish are so great that people want to cut their fins off just to get a piece of the action, even in Brazil, according to Lucia Malla in her post on shark finning in Brazil

In fact, fish are so great that people want to eat the last bluefin tuna, preferably raw and served by a fancy chef. What should a fancy chef like Nobu do when fishy activists make a stink? Sam Fromartz gathered the views of a crop of sages at Chews Wise

That's right, fish are just the best and even a bunch of really nice pictures of silly birds can't begin to compare, even if they're incredible photos of Kelp Gulls from Capetown, by Charlie Moores. OK, these are good and if they were fish they'd be the best.

Which fish are the best? Hard to say, but certainly the luckiest ones are the fish that live in MPAs, since MPAs work in Hawaii according to Rick MacPherson.

And even though Susannah at Wanderin' Weeta shows us how worms are tenacious, they're still not the best like fish.

If you want to see some fish, who ya gonna call? Probably the Johnson-Sea-Link, which just happens to need saving and Kevin Zelnio is taking names of the people who want to help save this venerable submersible, which may be the best submersible but it's certainly not quite up to the standards of fish.

This bad news about JSL is more than matched by some good news for sharks in Florida on Southern Fried Science, thanks to Why Sharks Matter. That seems redundant, actually, sharks matter because they're the best.

Urchins are pretty good, especially when there's going topless involved, and you can see the whole business at i'm a chordata! urochordata, on a post that is sure to show up on the wrong kind of google searches.

Turtles ain't bad, especially if you're looking at green sea turtles in Hawaii like Bobbie and Jerry.

Now here's a fish that's really the best, the magnificent peacock flounder--master of camouflage.

The best thing you can do with fish is don't be a dummie and catch too many. Here's some schoolin' on overfishing by Kelsey Abbott of mauka to makai, which she'll also explain to you if you just go on over and read it.

And what happens if you can't read or don't bother, and end up running out of fish? That's really the worst says Caspar Henderson over at Barely Imagined Beings. It's so worst that it will cause at least 100 million hungry people to march as coral reefs disintegrate -- and that's on a good day!

If that's not worst enough, then try on the Undersea mining bummer which says, oh too bad, undersea mining ain't going anywhere fast, from new celebrity The Saipan Blogger, who's probably famous enough to get punk'd.

Fish are the best, but boats are not bad and most of us can always use a lift, so stop by Sea Notes and get a lift from Blue Boat Home.

Oh yeah, you probably need another fish picture since fish are just the best and on World Oceans Day you probably deserve at least 2 fish pictures from my vacation...

Here's proof that fish are just the best, look at this coexistence baby--big fish and little fish living together in harmony--it doesn't get any better than that. A lesson for world peace, fish going all Obama on us:


But not all fish are soooo awful nice, here's the word from a staunch sergeant major



get off yer ass and go read the blogs, dammit, they're really the best.

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Carnival of the blue 24

Check out this month's best of ocean blogging at SeaNotes.

That's right, it's carnival time again, and Carnival of the Blue makes it's monthly return to the blogosphere. This month's greatest hits of ocean blogging features fantastic visuals, photos of a dolphin, sea cucumber, a barreleye fish (wow), a Humongous leatherback sea turtle (the size of a Volkswagen beetle?), and my favorite, the geoduck (left).

Next month's carnival will be right here at good ol' blogfish.

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Carnival of the blue 23

Is now live at Deep Sea News. Check out this month's "best of" ocean blogging.

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Carnival of the blue 22

Carnival of the Blue (best of ocean blogging) is now bigger and better than ever! Check out the new Podcast of the Blue, and other features such as new ocean bloggers. Way to go Rick!

It's at Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets.

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Carnival of the blue 20

Is up at Biomes Blog. Thanks to host Mark Hall for hosting, and for blogging oceans in the big leagues in his Marine Life Series at Daily Kos. He probably gets more visitors in one day than blogfish gets in a year.

...and I'm back from vacation (5 feet of new snow in Montana, wow!) and ready to blog some more. Hope you all had a great Christmas break like I did.

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Carnival of the blue 19

This month's best of ocean blogging is live at WaterNotes. Stop by and have a read, and say hi to your host Sarah.

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Carnival of the blue 17

It's a cephalopod-fest this month over at Cephalopodcast.com, where carnival of the blue (the best in ocean blogging) meets International Cephalopod Awareness Day.

I'm all for cephalopod education, but I'm not sure we need a special day when we all focus on making cehpalopods aware.

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Carnival of the blue 16

Go to The Saipan Blog for this month's ocean blogging special. Comes complete with appetizer, beverage, and dessert.

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Carnival of the blue 15

Is now live at Sea Notes, the excellent blog from the fantastic Monterey Bay Aquarium. Stop by for this month's best in ocean blogging, and find out what exactly is an Oyster's Garter?

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Carnival of the blue 13

Who knew there was this much blue to blog?

Carnival of the blue is 1 year old. Learning to walk, prone to throw food, and otherwise out of control. That's seems appropriate for our wild, wet, and wonderful world of oceans, and it's nice that the birthday comes on (almost) World Oceans Day. Go here for the carnival archive.

Does World Oceans Day matter? Does ocean blogging matter? Rick MacPherson over at Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets ponders these questions and more. Will blue blogging emerge out of it's toddler stage and find a way to matter? We'll see.

Something new is happening with the launching of Junk, a raft made entirely of plastic bottles. As J. Nichols explains at his self-named blog, it's a new issue that's helping connect people with oceans, and see how their actions do matter. Junk is cruising from California to Hawaii to raise awareness of the problem of junk outta the trunk and in the ocean. Go here to follow their exploits and learn more about plastic junk in the ocean.

Since World Ocean Day is this week I hope everyone will do something oceany, like go for a swim, look at a fish, or at least eat one. That advice ought to get Jennifer and a few others riled up, but I must say my wild Gulf shrimp dinner this week was a great way for me to live Blue. Swing by and give it a try.

Craig McLean of Deep Sea News offers thoughful insights on deciding what seafood to eat, and the best part is that his answer isn't designed to guilt you. The Deep-Sea News troika of Craig, Peter and Kevin is sooooo good, this wasn't even their submission, but I like it so it's in.

What they really want you to read is this post that makes it look pretty clear that orcas don't thrive where crude oil has been spilled, whattya know? Also a story about giant squid and colossal squid and their truly massive body parts, like eyes.

My personal favorite from this month is Justin Van Kleeck's series on sensory flashbacks, sacred places, and what makes people into environmentalists. Here's an important reminder to notice nature in the here and now, and remember that it's not just the great pristine far away that deserves our respect.

Here's my blogfishy answer asking is wilderness a place or a feeling, wherein I muddy the waters in an attempt to explore how people get connected and begin to care about wild places like our oceans.

To make matters clear, a fine example of finding the wild is this Long Island shorebirding adventure reported by Mike Bergin of 10,000 birds that involved dodging airplanes and barricades to find a fine time with some worthy birds.

If you live in New York city and want to catch a fish, you may be surprised to learn that the fishin' is pretty good in the shadows of the skyscrapers, according to Clare Leschin-Hoar the new co-blogger on Chews Wise. Her fearless leader and author of Organic, Inc., Sam Fromartz is forging a broad view of seafood sustainability from his unique perspective, and he got some nice new food for thought at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions event.

The Cooking for Solutions event always has a lot to offer, and Ken Peterson of Sea Notes summarizes the action and links to a veritable who's-who of food and ocean writers and their thoughts on the event.

Speaking of seafood, if you like lobster, you'll love this story of making the Maine lobster fishery more sustainable by reducing the risk of catching whales in lobster gear, from Hugh Powell at surf.bird.scribble. Hugh's been off on some intersting adventures lately, and has some great stories to tell.

Now for those of you who like a sharper edge on your knife, hear the words of Greenpeace's John Hocevar about their plans to rock the US seafood world as only Greenpeace can, since he has more hope for Tibet than our ocean fish, brought to you by the happy pessimest Jennifer Jacquet of Shifting Baselines. She also offers a story about feeding bugmeal to farmed fish so they don't need to eat all those lovely little fish and krill.

Miriam Goldstein, the sharp-elbowed blogger from Oyster's Garter, reports on ultimate fighting between corals and colonial tunicates in the "thrilla from Curacao" and the similarity to a short person's battle for space on a New York subway.

Making doubt a lifestyle, or at least a blog title, James Hrynyshyn worries about a decline in minke whales and what it means for our oceans, and also helps explain away some of the fake doubt about climate change in clarifying the great blip of 1945 when the earth seemed to get (briefly) cooler.

As if warming wasn't enough, Eric Heupel scares us with stories of brittle stars on acid that we can expect in our acidified ocean future, thanks to excess CO2. But he settles us down with a nice story of progress in farming the critically endangered and truly tasty queen conch, so we can all feel a little less guitly when we eat them in secret.

Giving new meaning to the term "happy as a clam," Chris Patil of ouroboros reports on the "imperceptible senescence" and extreme longevity of the ocean quahog, and possible lessons on the biology of (not) aging.

Quahogs aren't the only nifty bivalves, Mark Hall regales with tales of the Steve McQueen-like blue-eyed scallop, which "has succeeded by breaking or bending the rules of bivalvery at almost every turn."

Natural Patriot Emmet Duffy reports on a new report on The Disappearing Chesapeake, let us hope that we change course before it's too late.

I really like this next one where Megan Smith of Blue Ocean Institute politely reams a new orifice in Land Rover for daring to mess with that venerable ocean beast, the loggerhead turtle. You mess with our oceans and you're messing with Megan Smith, and after seeing her put Land Rover in it's place, I won't make that mistake.

And for more on ocean people making things happen, Eric Eckl of Water Words that Work tells us about The Shark Group, a Google Group that gave Discovery Channel a very hard time about using inflammatory language like "mindless killing machines" to talk about sharks.

Ever wonder which cruise lines are "overweight?" Anthony Townsend of Blue Economy has some investing smarts to share about those love 'em or leave 'em ocean users with the really beeeeeg ships.

Marine mammals are in the news, and Buck Denton reports on the first-ever observation of the birth of a right whale calf, improved species IDs, and more over at The Conservation Report.

Loss of really big fish is sad, but Walruses are really cool, as Caspar Henderson reports on the beautifully named blog The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (shifting baselines from a poet's perspective?).

And speaking of barely imagined beings, how about President Bush, environmental hero? Sheril Kirshembaum tells you the surprising story at Intersection.

For the wooly-er side of blue blogging, you've got to swing by Stichin' Fish from the Ecology Action Center, where Sadie Beaton has "hooked up" a fantastic wolf fish with her crochet hook, as part of their effort to connect people to oceans and tell the amazing stories of ocean life off Halifax.

If you're looking for answers in how to save our oceans, look no further than Pepijn Koster and his querulous cat over at MyFavoritePlaces.org. He's now started a whole new wave of ocean fun, launching the LOL oceans virus (at least this is the first time I've gotten infected).

Finally, let's all send a cheer out to our blue friend Jarrett Byrnes who is busy turning in his dissertation instead of doing blue blogging at I'm a chordata, urochordata. Here's an undated link and a classic (salty poetry) since he's been a bit busy lately.

Next month, drop by The Blue Economy for Carnival of the Blue 14

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Carnival of the blue 12

is on an island, thank goodness...far from parts well traveled, in unchartered waters beyond the Sea of Certainty, on the Island of Doubt. This outpost of Scienceblogs.com welcomes all who dare to abandon all dogma.

Stop by for the best of ocean blogging if you can do without dogma.

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