I won’t bother you with specifics that you could just Google. But to make it easier, here’s a link to their Wikipedia page if you want to learn a little more about these special creatures.

These babies were born 107 days ago and it feels like only yesterday when I helped “massage” their egg mass into the world. If you’ve never massaged an egg mass of any sort, it’s kinda like popping bubble wrap with a tiny wriggly surprise in the middle of each bubble. Pretty cool!

It’s been fascinating to watch them grow (he has them on display at the Windows on Research desk @ Vancouver Aquarium) and I hope to know them when they are full grown beasts (growing up to 8ft in length!)

Facts from Jonathan:

They had visible teeth less than a month after hatching.  When feeding I can feel the teeth but they’re not strong enough to break skin (yet). In the picture, they’re eating thawed whole krill and sometimes they’ll fight over a piece tug of war style.  I have pellet food but they like the shrimp better and they attack it like it’s swimming prey.

I’m feeding them once per hour while I am in the lab.  The ones we have shipped to Qualicum are being fed 24h/day with a feeding robot and they are 50% bigger than these.  At the beginning they’d get full of pellets and pass out on the bottom; now they don’t get full, they just keep eating non stop.  A lot of them stay on the surface waiting for someone to walk by the tank and they’ll poke their heads out of the water looking for food.

My last measurement was 252mm, 6.21g.  loooong eel.

Here’s a grown buddy found on RockfishDivers:

PHOTO SOURCES: Jonathan Wong (3); RockfishDivers

Too bad Vancouver’s marvelous beauty is not often complimented with star architect treatment as other areas of the world are. I’m sure someone will get upset at that statement. But really, for a city surrounded by ocean and mountains, smoothly formed by once deep oceans and melting glaciers, this city could use less… sharp angles.

Regardless, take a moment to ponder how thoughtfully organic this structure will be, so fitting to its landscape. I wonder where the current animals will live while this sexy beast is constructed?

From the information I’ve found, lucky they are mostly small creatures like scallops, piranhas, which are found only in the Amazon basin, thornback rays ,flathead mullets ,red mullets, caviars , cichlids, trichogasters, barbuses, tiger barbs, black- spot barbs, clown loaches, red-tailed Black Sharks….

When it is built, the Batumi Aquarium will be a unique home to species from the Black Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea & Indian Ocean.

Here’s a little background on the building from the architects, Henning Larsen:

The 2,000 m2 aquarium will replace the previous aquarium of the port and will be situated on the beach side of Rustaveli Str. adjacent to Batumi 6 May Park featuring a Dolphinarium and Zoo.

Inspired by the characteristic pebbles of the Batumi beach, continually shaped by the wash of the waves through millennia, the building stands out as an iconic rock formation visible from both land and sea. The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype.

”The building will become a landmark and an organic reference to all elements of the sea”, explains Design Director and Partner at Henning Larsen Architects, Louis Becker. “It captures the special atmosphere by the sea and thus becomes a tribute to the power of the sea!”

Henning Larsen, the firm that won the competition to design this building, posted detailed renderings on ArchDaily (a great resource & inspiration hub for architects and those interested in architecture, btw) so scroll through the above photos or check the site for more photos.

BATUMI AQUARIUM HISTORY & INFORMATION

HENNING LARSEN ARCHITECTS

PHOTOS SOURCE Arch Daily

While searching for humane (and other) methods of getting rid of our little friends, Drosophila Melanogaster, I came across this awesome video that took me beyond Microcosmos.

TECHNOLOGY! Amazing. Hope you enjoy it!

Zoom into the eye of a FLY
Uploaded by Weird_Weird_Science. – Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

And if you are wondering how to get the party out the door without calling the cops, this wikiHOW was pretty useful.

PHOTO SOURCE @ MAX PLANK GESELLSCHAFT <– Which, by the way, accompanied a really interesting article about fruit flies called Olafactory Research is a Precision Business. Say what you will about that last sentence, but I gained a greater understanding of the inner and outer workings of this half millimetre creature.

As well, it may shape your decision on which method you use to dominate the furry little beasts!

My Ride: The lady in the middle pre-whitewall tires

One day, when I upgrade from my beloved “Suburban”, a golden 5-speed cruiser with whitewall tires, to an essentially necessary road bike (I am a non-driver) I would like to join the ranks of the handfuls of people who cycle for a good cause!

Most causes go toward saving humanity from all that ails us which is commendable and great and all, but I personally would have to follow my commitment to the planet, everyone’s Mother, Earth.

Just as I was thinking about standing up for the planet, I came across two young British Columbians who are doing just that, and for my favorite aspect of conservation, our oceans.

Two brave young women, Hannah & Tyese, took time this summer to make the 1200 km journey from Victoria to Kitimat, stopping at communities along the way to spread the message: Say NO to oil tankers threatening our coast, while stimulating conversation about solutions.

Check out their adventures on their enjoyable blog, Cycle for the Seas. Let them know you read this and show them your support!

Just as Southern BC’s coastline is threatened by the promise of increased oil tanker traffic into Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet, Northern BC coastlines are experiencing the same threats — along with crude oil filled pipelines from Alberta to the coast along many of our pristine waterways, as well as, plans for offshore drilling in an area prone to earthquakes.

Good times.

So what are you supposed to do with information like that without bicycling 1200km or screaming in the streets?

Lead by example:

1. Ride your bike, take transit, walk, skateboard, fruitboot, use whatever mode of transport you desire that does not require a lot of gas guzzling. The lack of support for the oil industry shows with each person who takes action.

2. Inform yourself. Read alternative news sources. Sign the petitions. Better yet, write letters, they get read, they are heard, and many times, they work! — People love to complain about the government without providing them with better solutions. So send away.

3. Support & buy local, less travel for your commodities requires less fuel. Do what you can with what you have where you are. Just because it’s an eco-friendly alternative to something you currently own, it doesn’t mean you need it ASAP.

Little action + little action + little action = Great big positive outcome for everyone.

PHOTO SOURCE @ PROJECT GROUNDSWELL

BP Oil Spill Dance speaks for itself.

Created by the CABK-ArtEZ Academy Alumni Laura Brockotter en Fenna Grijpma, 2010 Music: Bram van Beelen

www.laurabrockotter.nl

www.fennagrijpma.nl

Obama/BP cartoon courtesy of OpEd Cartoons, check the link for 8 Oil Spill Cartoons You Have To See

Turns out they were taken by a literal pioneer to the world of underwater photography – from the art of, t0 the technology of – Bruce Mozert.

The Smithsonian Magazine wrote a great article about Bruce Mozert a couple years ago and, to me, the most exciting thing about it is that he is still very much alive with a progressive sense in his work to this day.

From Smithsonian Magazine:

“Everything has a picture in it, a sellable picture,” Mozert says. “All you got to do is use your imagination.” To create bubbles in a champagne flute, he would stick some dry ice or Alka-Seltzer in the glass; to simulate smoke rising from a grill, he used canned condensed milk. “The fat in the milk would cause it to rise, creating ‘smoke’ for a long time,” he says. With his meticulous production values and surreal vision, Mozert cast Silver Springs in a light perfectly suited to postwar America—part “Leave It to Beaver” and part “The Twilight Zone.” His images anchored a national publicity campaign for the springs from the 1940s through the ’70s; competing against water-skiing shows, dancing porpoises, leaping whales and hungry alligators, Silver Springs remained one of Florida’s premier attractions, the Disney World of its day. Then, in 1971, came Disney World.

It’s hard to compete with the corporate colossus 90 miles south, but Silver Springs is still in business. So is Bruce Mozert. Almost every day he drives the 11 miles between his Ocala home and his studio near the springs, where he mainly digitizes customers’ home movies. In 2004, he published a calendar featuring his work—photographs of young women posing under preternaturally clear water. He also takes the occasional commission for aerial photographs; at 91, he pilots the plane himself.

READ ON: The Life Aquatic with Bruce Mozert

Since Mozert’s early work, technology has raced forward to reveal some amazing advances. For example, check out 50 Stunning Underwater Photos from foward-design resource, Smashing Magazine.

If you are interested in ordering your own Bruce Mozert prints from the original negatives, visit Bruce Mozert’s Studio

Alternatively, featured in early Halibut Herald (.pdf days), I appreciate the underwater photography of Dustin Humphrey:

Dustin Humphrey Examples:

PHOTO SOURCES: BORED-BORED, SMITHSONIAN MAG, PHOTOSHELTER, CORBIS, STRANGE BEAUTIFUL

With summer in full motion, I was curious what her garden was like so I’ve asked her:

What’s the best part about having your own garden?

Now, I’ve had many opportunities to sample her delectable creations and I look forward to trying out whatever it is she comes up with next… Particularly anything honey flavoured

Here’s what she’s got to say:

The beauty of having my own organic garden…..

I can’t tell you just how much satisfaction I’ve been given in having my own organic herb and tomato garden. I am giddy just thinking of new ways to use them in my cooking.  But there is so much more to having a garden, I get to give back to an incredible species. BEES!

I love bees! I was so sad when I heard their populations were dramatically dropping worldwide.  British Columbia has some of the world’s best honey, I love to use honey in my cooking. Funny thing about honey, the edible flowers and herbs that bees love happen to go magically together with honey. Bees love my lavender and I love lavender honey. It’s quite easy to make your own, I pick lavender flowers before they open and put them in my honey. In a couple of days, magic!

But let’s talk more about my furry little friends; these magical flying critters are dying off at an alarming rate. Worldwide scientists have come up with some theories; chemical pesticides and growth hormones for one.

This chemical cocktail is having effects on their sight and sense of smell.  This interrupts not only their mating habits but also the way they produce honey. When Scout Bees find a source of food, they return to the hive and dance on the vertical walls of the honey comb. They dance in a figure eight pattern with a little waggle in the middle. The direction and duration of the waggle tells other bees where they can find the food source. So you can see their dilemma if they can’t see so well. They rely heavily on their sense of smell to find the food in the first place. I feel so bad for them, so that’s why I wanted to share this.

What can you do for them?

#1 stop using chemicals!  It’s said that pesticides may also play a big part on how their brains function. Just think bees help pollenate 1/3 of the world’s food crops. That’s one in three bites of food you eat everyday!

Can you imagine life without peaches, blueberries, strawberries, melons, citrus fruits, apples, broccoli, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers; I could so go on and on!!!! Basically if they die away into extinction we would be left with just grains and water, how boring would our lives be without them?

Never mind never having honey, I would really miss the presence of my extraordinary little friends.

So really I am asking for you to help my friends out by buying organic, growing organic and living organic. Show some love for these charismatic creatures, I am sure we would dearly miss them.

Happy eating!

Myke Shaw

Executive Sous Chef

MORE BEE INFO: BEES FOR DEVELOPMENT DOT ORG

PHOTO SOURCE @ BUG GUIDE

Keeping cool in the shade with Alexandra Cousteau and my parents! Thanks Mike for your talented photography skills!

So my parents left this morning and as I mentioned in last week’s post how stoked I was to take them to meet Alexandra Cousteau and her Blue Legacy crew, we had a great time! (See video above for an introduction to the crew)

A marvelous day of forward-thinking conversations and education about a variety of topics from local watersheds to Arctic Ocean health and many other global commonalities regarding the issue of water management.

I’m so blessed to have such passionate people in my life and to have the opportunities to meet others, like Alexandra Cousteau & Jonathan Smith, who share the same passion (click links for their respective Twitter accounts).

My deepest appreciation goes out to Blue Legacy and I wish them the best of luck in their Blue Planet Expedition across North America, motivating the armchair activists and all the freshly educated folks they meet into making conscious changes in their lives for a better future for our planet and for generations to come.

Get inspired by learning all about what they do and why they do it here:

Blue Planet Expedition @ National Geographic
Alexandra Cousteau dot org
Vimeo: Michael Duff: onboard video editor for Expedition Blue Planet
Facebook: Expedition Blue Planet
Flickr: Expedition Blue Planet

PHOTO SOURCE @ FLICKR

The deep sea squid (Onykia ingens) caught by researchers in the Falkland Islands caught them off guard as told by the BBC in the July 7th article:

See long white tentacle like structure lacking suckers. That's it!

“When the mantle of the squid was opened for maturity assessment, we witnessed an unusual event.
The penis of the squid, which had extended only slightly over the mantle margin, suddenly started to erect, and elongated quickly to 67cm total length, almost the same length as the whole animal.”

Full Article @ BBC

On another fitting note, check out this amazing sculpture from Glover’s Harbour, Newfoundland:

Click image for full detail

MAIN PHOTO SOURCE @ TOLWEB.ORG

(Not the old Dodge Caravan your mom drove the family around in back in ’89. Or wait… I think that was my mom?)

Also check out Miniature L.A. by the same guy!

Both videos created by Tony Leech hosted on Vimeo

PHOTO SOURCE (SCREENSHOT) @ VIMEO