FAQ | Register Now | Sign In

Subscribe to the newsletter

[x]

Stay in touch with the scientific world!

Vampire Squid And The Evolution Of Cephalopod Sex

Everyone loves vampire squid, right? Their monstrous name belies their gentle nature as graceful...

Learning Science From Fiction: A Review Of Ryan Lockwood’s “Below”

In last month’s review of Preparing the Ghost, I mentioned that you can actually learn facts...

Usurped By Legend: A Review Of Matthew Gavin Frank’s ‘Preparing The Ghost’

When you read something in a book, do you believe it? You might say, “Of course not if it’s...

Squid Lady Parts

This Bobtail squid was imaged by the Deep Discover ROV in Atlantis Canyon, is less than one foot...

Danna Staaf

Cephalopods have been rocking my world since I was in grade school. I pursued them through a BA in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by a PhD dissertation at... Read More »

Swordfish Find Squid Delicious; Suffer Consequences

Aug 15 2011 | comment(s)

From a certain perspective, it's really weird that we manage fisheries in these discrete little units based on species. There are swordfish permits, swordfish boats, swordfish managers. There are squid permits, squid boats, squid managers. And so on.

But species don't exist in neat boxes. That's the fundamental truth behind ecology. When you go out to catch one species, you're bound to run across several other species as well, and even the most carefully designed fishing gear will occasionally catch something it wasn't supposed to.

Flexible Sex: Squid Tailor Sperm To The Environment

Aug 11 2011 | comment(s)

It's about squid and it's about sperm, and apparently the combination is sexy enough to get this research onto the BBC, MSNBC, Discover, and more. (Not to malign io9--that's actually where I first read about it.)

Only Twelve Squid Jiggers in Australia??

Aug 08 2011 | comment(s)

I love the weird articles that show up on my "squid" news alert. Here's one about the Australia Census called Portrait of a nation, squid jiggers and all:

The last official ''snapshot of the nation'', taken in 2006, turned up 58,053 Jedi Knights. At least one person, when asked their religion, stated ''Moroccan Chicken'', the Bureau of Statistics revealed recently. Of the more than 400 languages spoken at home by Australians, 133 people in the 1996 census nominated an ''invented language''.

It's Hard to Talk About Camouflage on the Radio

Aug 07 2011 | comment(s)

NPR's Science Friday was about cephalopods two days ago! I've no time to opine at length, but basically it's awesome and you can take a listen here. It's an interview with Roger Hanlon, who is pretty much the cephalopod camouflage expert.
And if it's frustrating to hear about how pretty cephalopods are without being able to see it, well, there's a video too!

More Unintended Fishing Consequences

Aug 05 2011 | comment(s)

Yesterday I mentioned the idea that fishermen killing sharks might have allowed squid to proliferate and eat up some of the smaller fish that fishermen like to catch. What goes around comes around!

So when I saw this piece suggesting that squid fishing in New Zealand had caused sea lion decline, I first guessed that it was because the sea lions were starving for want of squid. That's part of it, but it also seems that the fishery may be directly killing sea lions:

Shark Week--Squid Tie-In

Aug 04 2011 | comment(s)

It's Shark Week! Not that I begrudge the elasmobranchs their ten thousand minutes of fame, but come on, Discovery Channel, you do Shark Week every year. When are you going to switch it up and do Squid Week?

Anyway, sharks eat squid (along with everything else*) so there is an interesting cephalopod tie-in, reported by Philip Friedman: