Bizarre Zoology: Previously Undocumented Oregon Coast 'Sea Serpent' Report

From Bizarre Zoology: Previously Undocumented Oregon Coast 'Sea Serpent' Report.



Who knew -- I didn't -- that one of my favorite places on the Oregon coast, (Yachats) is home to sea monsters? Next time I'm out there I'll have to take a much closer look.

source: Bizarre Zoology blog

Biologists race to solve mysterious mass animal deaths in Florida lagoon | Fox News

Very sad, very scary...

Biologists race to solve mysterious mass animal deaths in Florida lagoon | Fox News: At least 111 manatees, 300 pelicans, and 46 dolphins — emaciated to the point of skin and bones — were all found dead in America’s most biologically diverse estuary.

Something is seriously wrong. The northern stretches of the Indian River Lagoon of Florida has a mass murder mystery that biologists are racing to figure out. The lagoon contains more species than anywhere else in the U.S. It is a barrier island complex stretching across 40 percent of Florida’s coast, around Cape Canaveral, and consisting of the Mosquito Lagoon, the Banana River and the Indian River Lagoon.

Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?

Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?: The scientific debate on the subject has intensified recently, with a team of British researchers proposing this month that electroshock tests suggest crabs indeed feel pain. But the study has drawn scrutiny, while another study late last year pushed back on the idea that fish, more closely related to humans than are crabs, feel pain.

Octopus as Art: Stop Issuing One-Day Hunting Licenses!

I saw this story a few days ago but didn't want to deal with it. Sometimes the greed and arrogance, as well as cruelty of humans just does me in. In this case, Dylan Mayer of Washington state and an over-blown sense of personal entitlement, tortured an octopus.

Mayer got himself a one day license to "hunt" an octopus. He did this in a protected marine area. He tricked the octopus by making noise in order to lure it from its home, then, according to witnesses, punched the still living octopus repeatedly after he hauled it onto his truck. Mayer said he wanted the octopus not just for its meat, but "to draw it for this art project."

Even if the octopus was hunted for food, as in hunting because one needs to survive, the gratuitous nature of the act is unjustified. If you need to hunt, then kill quickly and cleanly, and with gratitude.

A very sad story. So click on the link below and sign the petition. And call out this ass clown Mayer.
Stop Issuing One-Day Hunting Licenses! - The Petition Site

Lobsters, Giant and Strangely Colored

Lobster items in the news. Another giant lobster spared story, this one from New England, about a 21 lb. lobster that was caught in the waters of Cape Cod:21-pound lobster released to New England Aquarium (UPDATE) | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News A woman won a lobster raffle who said she had planned to spare the lobster's life all along:

My plan was always to donate the lobster to the Aquarium was to generate awareness and allow people to see the creature, and of course, to keep the lobster from being trapped again and, this time, ending up on someone's dinner table," she told Yahoo! News. "The only thing I requested from the Aquarium was a chance to see the lobster when I visit Boston on August 6th and they were kind enough to grant my request."

Another lobster item in the news today. A shipment of lobster's received by a Massachusetts restaurant contained several orange lobsters. This AP item appeared in the "Lighter Side" section of our local paper. Among others, The Huffington Post published the item. This designation frustrates me. The following is not a cutesy feel good item about a child's lost puppy now found safe, but an increase in unusual colorations in lobsters. The reason for these coloration are potentially disturbing reasons: global warming/climate changes, signals of things going wrong in our oceans due to pollution, etc. But the item in the local paper, concluded with comments from Michael Thusty, who is the director of research at the New England Aquarium at Boston: "Right now you can make a lot of explanations, but the actual data to find them out out just isn't there." One possible explanation for this increase in colorful lobsters was the "active Twitter sphere" and "people get [getting] excited about colorful lobsters." Another possible reason: increase in lobster harvests; more lobster hauling, more lobsters, chances increase for oddly colored lobsters. (Blue, orange, bi-colored, yellow...)

BBC News - "No evidence of mermaids, says US government"

This may seem to be a fluff piece but I can't help myself, I sense an undercurrent (no pun intended) of disinfo and distraction. No, I don't mean to suggest mer-people literally exist. But in this article: BBC News - No evidence of mermaids, says US government it is made clear the National Ocean Service took the time to respond to supposed public inquires about the existence of mermaids after Animal Planet aired Mermaids: The Body Found. In the BBC news article, we have this quote from NOAA's Carol Kavanagh that the NOAA article (see below) "was written from publicly available sources..." and that is  due to their lack of a  "mermaid science programme."

Here is the official article from NOAA: No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.  It's a very short piece -- three paragraphs and concludes:

But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.

I haven't seen Animal Planet's program. According to the press release at their site, they reference the Aquatic Ape Theory:

The Aquatic Ape Theory makes it possible to believe that while we evolved into terrestrial humans, our aquatic relatives turned into something strangely similar to the fabled mermaid. As evidence that humans once evolved into aquatic creatures, the Aquatic Ape Theory cites some of the striking differences between man and other primates and the many features we share with marine mammals, including the following:

• Webbing between fingers (other primates don’t have this) Subcutaneous fat (insulating from cold water)

• Control over breath (humans can hold breath up to 20 minutes, longer than any other terrestrial animal)

• Loss of body hair (hair creates drag in water) Instinctive ability to swim (human babies are able to do this)

• A highly developed brain, which depends on nutrients provided by seafood  Here's a blog about the program from Cryptozooogy the Science of the Unknown, with link kindly provided to the full program on YouTube.  
•  (Image found at Vintage Clip Art.)

Canibal Shrimp Invasion

Cannibal shrimp: The invasion has begun

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New Zealand: Huge eels found swimming in the streets after 'weather bomb' hits | Mail Online

They are one of the least attractive of all fish species and are normally found lurking in oceans and rivers.

But when part of New Zealand was hit by a 'weather bomb' recently, a number of eels suddenly sprung up in some surprising locations.

Residents in one street in Masterton, Wellington, were left shocked to discover dozens of the slimy creatures swimming in large puddles and gutters in the road.

New Zealand: Huge eels found swimming in the streets after 'weather bomb' hits | Mail Online

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A Dead Whale In Tokyo Bay

A Dead Whale In Tokyo Bay

As for the dead blue whale in Tokyo Bay (see below), it probably was while still healthy...feeding somewhere between the Bering Strait and the Sea of Okhotsk, unknowingly ingesting radioactive and chemically-contaminated krill at depths of 100 meters or more. These krill are spawned over the Japan Trench were the warm Kuroshio meets the cold Liman currents.

Upon feeling strange symptoms in its gut and having difficulty in holding in air, the huge cetacean rose to the surface for easier breathing and slowly swam southward in the Liman/Oyashio Current in search of warmer waters. Once past Choshi Point, it headed toward the brackish water flowing out of Tokyo Bay in hopes of reaching the estuary of the Edo River, where it could rest in the shallow bed of running fresh water. It senses filth in the water, however, and decides to push further south in search of a cleaner river.

Beebe: Fortean Synchronicity Name Game

(Thanks to Greg Nathan) I discovered yet another Fortean twist to the bird falls-Beebe name game. The town of Beebe, Arkansas, as I wrote in the earlier posts, was named after Roswell Beebe. Another twist: the inventor of the bathysphere as William Beebe, among other things, an ornithologist:

William Beebe, born Charles William Beebe (July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962)^[2] was an American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New York Zoological Society, his deep dives in the Bathysphere, and his prolific scientific writing for both academic and popular audiences. ~ (source: Wikipedia)

Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

The Gulf will never be the same; and the invasion of giant shrimp adds to the problems in the area: Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

Though no one is sure what the ecological impact will be, scientists fear a tiger prawn takeover could knock nature's balance out of whack and turn a healthy, diverse marine habitat into one dominated by a single invasive species.
"It has the potential to be real ugly," said Leslie Hartman, Matagorda Bay ecoystem leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But we just do not know."

Bright Blue Lobster saved from dinner table

A beautiful "electric blue" lobster saved from the boiling pot and given to an aquarium.
Bright Blue Lobster saved from dinner table

Animal Blog Thing of the Day

Which mysterious sea monster are you? Your Result: Selkie   Selkies are shapeshifters that can change from a seal into a human by sheding their sealskins. They are said to be cursed because when they are at sea they long to be on land and when they are on land they long to be at sea. As a selkie, you are darkly beautiful with handsome features and love the sea.
Mermaid
Loch Ness Monster
Kraken
Which mysterious sea monster are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Inside the mind of the octopus | Orion Magazine

This is a beautiful, sometimes sad, piece on not just the intelligence of the octopus, but the awareness of such a mysterious and enchanted creature, in particular, one named Athena in an aquarium that moved the writer deeply: Inside the mind of the octopus | Orion Magazine

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Rafael and his crew were using nets to catch bottom-dwellers when they inadvertently snagged the giant tuna. However, federal fishery enforcement agents took control of the behemoth when the boat returned to port. The reason for the seizure was procedural: While Rafael had the appropriate permits, fishermen are only allowed to catch tuna with a rod and reel.

NOAA and the government take over. Proceeds go, well, somewhere, but not to the fisherman:

And while Rafael is denied the mother of all fish stories, the federal impoundment of his catch also means he's probably losing out on a giant payday. A 754-pound tuna recently sold for nearly $396,000. NOAA regulators do not share any of the proceeds from the fish's eventual sale with a fisherman found in violation of federal rules.

"They said it had to be caught with rod and reel," a frustrated Rafael said. "We didn't try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn't catch it with a net."

Rafael says he has meticulously prepared for a giant catch like this, purchasing 15 tuna permits over the past four years for his groundfish boats. He even immediately called a "bluefin tuna hot line" (yes, such things exist) to report his catch. "I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat," he said. "It was a beautiful fish."

(cross-posted at Octopus Confessional.)

Cyclops Shark & Other Cryptic Creatures Make October Creepy - Yahoo! News

Sad, creepy, crypto:Cyclops Shark and Other Cryptic Creatures Make October Creepy - Yahoo! News

The Kraken Rum

Black Spice Rum: The Kraken. Wish I liked rum! And I know it's a huge marketing gimic, but it's a very cool marketing gimic! The Kraken Rum.

Giant red crabs invade the Antarctic abyss

Three years ago, scientists predicted that giant red crabs (King Crabs) would invade the Antarctic within a hundred years. Their prediction was too conservative; the crabs are already in there:

Giant red crabs invade the Antarctic abyss - environment - 07 September 2011 - New Scientist: They are laying waste to the landscape. Video footage taken by the submersible shows how the crabs prod, probe, gash and puncture delicate sediments with the tips of their long legs. "This is likely to alter sediment processes, such as the rate at which organic matter is buried, which will affect the diversity of animal communities living in the sediments," says Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, whose team discovered the scarlet invaders.

Oklahoma Octopi

Is there a fresh water octopus in Oklahoma?Have you seen the Oklahoma octopus?
Says John Money,of the Oklahoma Aquarium:

"Every now and then I get a call, someone will say they had a fish right at the edge of the boat that looked half fish, half octopus." That sounds odd, but hang on, John has heard it may be a bigger monster "I've heard it's the size of a horse and pulling boats over and taking swimmers to the bottom."

Go to link for story and link to interview.

Whale in the Park

While walking along the Willamette River in Skinner's Butte Park a few days ago I saw a whale. Not a real whale of course, a whale play structure on the little playground. Actually it's been there for decades; I remember when it was a plain sand colored object.  Over the years it's been painted in various ways; this is the latest.