Today in Tentacles

MOVING TO A NEW POD

2009-10-16T13:48:00.002-04:00

Hello, tentacle fans. As you may have noticed, I have (sadly) been unable to update this blog as frequently as I would like. Today in Tentacles? More like Annually in Tentacles. And that has no ring to it at all.

I've decided to experiment with Tumblr, which makes it easier to upload images (blogger requires more clicks to deal with the spacing). We'll see how this goes.

Please adjust your RSS feeds to: TodayInTentacles.Tumblr.com!

Tentacle Pizza

2009-05-13T23:27:00.005-04:00

No, really. They have a pizza with calamari on it. And I don't even eat calamari.

That's right, I do not dine upon tentacles.

Ignazio's Pizza in DUMBO, discovered by Chassy on a menu in our wacky office.

Tabular Tentacles

2009-05-04T23:50:00.002-04:00

Chul An Kwak, a Korean designer, created these tables to inject more emotion into what he sees an otherwise static aspect of our lives. Which is kind of beautiful, actually.

I think these are the bees' knees. Or rather, the octopus' kneew.

At Boing Boing and Nerve.com and a bunch of other places. Sent in by @publichistorian and Jonathan Harford, because you all know me so very well.

Dumpling Tentacle

2009-04-30T02:06:00.002-04:00

They call it a "dumpling squid." I kind of wish I were this squid. Although it's a bit smug.

From Redbubble.com, by James Peak. Found by my stupid friend Max, who was clearly making fun of me.

Tentacle Terror!

2009-04-27T19:06:00.005-04:00

More fabulous tentacle fashions, this time by Hogboy. Sometimes I feel as though I could wear tentacle threads head to toe, 365 days a year. Plus accessories and leap day!

Not a bad idea.

Via Threadless and thanks to Dan, who thinks I'm weird.

Alma Mater Tentacles

2009-04-25T19:17:00.004-04:00

Glass Sea Creatures Shatter Expectations of Harvard Museum Visitors

by Michelle Hunter

2/12/2009

CAMBRIDGE - The spineless sea creatures on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History look as though they were once alive. They don't look like they were hand made, and crafted more than a century ago. Yet for the first time, Harvard is displaying its incredible collection of "Sea Creatures in Glass."

The collection of glass sea creatures by father and son duo, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, were acquired by Harvard University around 1878. Fifty-eight of Harvard's 429 glass sea creature models are on display at the museum's special exhibit, which is on until March 1.

"I never would have guessed that these models were over 100 years old," said Suet Wong, a Northeastern University student visiting the museum.

The intricacy of each jellyfish, amoeba and octopus model demonstrates the preciseness and complexity each one required to be made. But why glass? The glass models were preferred to real specimens, traditionally kept in formaldehyde, because they kept their color and would also never lose their shape - as specimens do when they sink to the bottom of the jars they're kept in, explained Blue Magruder, the museum's director of communications.

With tools that were big and awkward, nothing like modern technology that glass makers use today, the Blaschkas fused and glued glass together and created their own pigments by melting colored stone. They would also use copper wire for certain models for tentacles that were too fine to be made of glass.

"It's exciting that the models are both beautiful, exquisite works of glass art, as well as anatomically precise and scientifically valuable teaching models of marine creatures which can be so difficult to preserve and display," said Elisabeth Werby, the executive director of the museum.

This special exhibit also displays the original work station and tools the Blaschkas used to create these delicate models.

"These are the tools they used. These are tools you would pluck your eyebrows with. It was human skill," said Magruder.

The museum exhibit provides an extensive background on the Blaschka family, who had a long history of glassmaking. The family actually got its start in the business by making glass eyeballs. As the family business succeeded, Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) the fourth generation and father to partner and son Rudolf (1857-1929), decided to create sculptures of living organisms that would document natural history, which was becoming a popular field at that time. The family commissioned invertebrate to museums and educational facilities throughout Europe.

"I can't believe that the museum had these special artifacts hidden away in the back," said Carly Yarbrow, a student at Quinnipiac University.

As museums and private collectors began to buy the Blaschkas' work, which also included replicas of plants and flowers, the glass works caught the attention of a botany professor at Harvard, George Lincoln Goodale. He thought that these may be an excellent way to teach the students about flowers because the glass would not lose its shape or color and would remain three dimensional.

"The Blaschkas made over 4,000 plant models for Harvard University," said Magruder. "It took them over 10 years to get some of the colors to be exactly of the real specimen's."

The plant exhibit has been permanently on at Harvard since 1893 and people have come from all over the world to see it.

As for the sea creatures, they are not permanently on display and will go back in to storage with the rest of the collection in March. However, works for a smaller, permanent installation of the sea creatures are being discussed, said Werby.

From the boring-sounding Journalism Students' Online News Service

Tentacle Faces

2009-04-25T19:15:00.001-04:00

Oh, Japan.

Via Pink Tentacle.

High Art Tentacles

2009-04-12T00:01:00.003-04:00

Yet another beautiful piece - this one by Sven Atema. I can't reproduce the images here, but click through to his website: http://www.svenatema.com/

Select sculpture, and feast your eyes on the first two images. They're two different views of a gorgeous bronze tentacle sculpture.

Meaty Tentacles

2009-04-11T23:45:00.003-04:00

The headline for this one is "Redneck Sushi." The best part about it is that it's made by a brilliant artist for himself - not for a child. I will admit that I could never cut hot dogs so delicately.

From SuperTouchArt, found by Tentacle fan Katherine

Poke-Twitter-Tentacles

2009-04-11T23:26:00.003-04:00

I never followed Pokemon, but apparently many of the creatures are now on Twitter, including this guy - Tentacruel.

Tweet your tentacles away!

More Tentacles Than You Ever Imagined

2009-04-11T23:23:00.003-04:00

The oh-so-necessary

Tentacle Flickr Pool

- officially entitled "Welcome, Squid Overlords."

Hours of squiddy fun!

iTentacles

2009-04-11T23:17:00.003-04:00

Squid iphone case! Most tragically, it's already sold out.

Via Laughing Squid, as sold by Hine Mizushima.

Japanese Tentacle Advertisements

2009-03-29T20:33:00.003-04:00

Things I like:

1. Advertising
2. Japan
3. Tentacles

The city of Hakodate, Japan has been producing official tourism videos unlike any you’ve ever seen before — action-packed affairs starring famous landmarks as giant robots that battle a runaway mechanical squid hijacked by vengeful aliens.

The first video begins with an interesting factoid: According to a survey of 100 aliens, Hakodate is the number one city they would most like to invade.

Via Pink Tentacle

Pretend Video Game Tentacles

2009-03-25T00:54:00.002-04:00

I can't say I really understand this one, but the wacky video game octopuses/octopi/octopodes are *amazing. Yes, you must watch all 12 minutes. There's some good octopus action around the 3 minute mark, and plenty more where that came from.

Via Elliot. Because he's weird.

Ancient Tentacle Games

2009-03-24T20:11:00.003-04:00

Behold the greatness that is Utagawa Kuniyoshi, who has an exhibit at the Royal Academy (in the UK). They call him "Manga master of the 19th century."

This work is entitled Octopus games, dating from 1840-42. Definitely better than Rudolph's reindeer games.

Photograph from the American Friends of the British Museum (The Arthur R Miller Collection)

Via the UK Guardian. Thanks to n8!

Baby Tentacles

2009-03-23T13:11:00.003-04:00

Guest blogger Aaron Muszalski on Laughing Squid says it best when he writes:

American sculptor Daniel Edwards, best known for his often controversial depictions of celebrities and other figures from popular culture, has produced a sculpture inspired by Nadya Suleman, aka “OctoMom”, the California woman who recently gave birth to octuplets. The sculpture is entitled “String of Babies, holds a baby bottle upright” and depicts Ms. Suleman as a disembodied cephalopod, beatifically embracing her brood with her hot pink tentacles.

From the always-essential Laughing Squid

Beware of Tentacles

2009-03-17T02:13:00.004-04:00

Signs warning of poisonous jellyfish, ostensibly in Australia.

Read the full article about box jellyfish at The Gladstone Observer.

How to Draw Tentacles

2009-03-17T01:58:00.003-04:00

In case you ever wondered. Drawing lessons for the computer.

From Web Designer Wall.

Don't Touch a Tentacle

2009-03-17T01:46:00.003-04:00

Kiss a Jellyfish and Live to Tell About It!
March 14
Monica Bryant

Oceanic adventures abound from kitesurfing and windsurfing to snorkeling and scuba diving. But nothing puts a damper on a great adventure like getting stung by a jellyfish, unless, of course, you know how to handle one. Then jellyfish can become part of your adventure! For beachgoers, the possibility of a shark sighting may be on the minds of some, but chances are pretty slim that one will be spotted. Jellyfish sightings, on the other hand, are not so rare an occurrence.

Most people equate jellyfish with warnings like “Beware!” “Don’t step on it!” and “Touch it and you’ll be in the hospital!”. Rightly so. Jellyfish may be 95% water, but they can pack a painful and dangerous sting. The average person, though, has never heard how to safely handle a jellyfish. Before working a short stint at a local aquarium, I had never heard either. In fact, a recent internet search I did on the subject turned up little. So, consider yourself in an elite group.

Now that you're overcome with curiosity, here's the "fun fact" that few beachgoers are privy to: Only the tentacles of a jellyfish sting. The dome-shaped part of the jellyfish (called the bell or hood) can actually be touched. The president of the Lebanese Union of Divers, Mohammed al-Sarji, even goes so far as to kiss them! Personally, I like to keep my face a safe distance away. Jellyfish tentacles can be extremely long and they have a way of floating all over the place. (Apparently, the largest jellyfish can reach 8ft. in diameter with tentacles as long as half the length of a football field!)

Now before you set out to make “jellyfish-handling” the next great reality t.v. show, remember to exercise caution and common sense. This tidbit of information should not to be taken lightly. Picking up a jellyfish washed up on the shore is one thing. By the time you see one in the ocean, it’s tentacles may have already reached you. If you or someone you know has the misfortune of being stung by one, experts recommend washing off any tentacles with salt water or removing the tentacles with tweezers and then treating the affected area with vinegar to neutralize the toxin.

Now you've been informed and warned... so this summer when you want to impress your friends, you can courageously demonstrate how to handle a jellyfish and live to tell the tale!

From Examiner.com.

Excellent Tentacle Taste

2009-03-17T01:26:00.002-04:00

Via the messy web of the internet, I bring you another Octopus necklace.

On Flickr via the owner's Twitter account, as reposted by another who asked how to avoid tangled necklaces when traveling.

Tentacles: High Art and Low Art

2009-03-12T13:34:00.004-04:00

Tentacles can be found everywhere - not merely on octopodes (the plural of octopus) and squid. We've learned that they're all over Etsy.com can be found frequently in art galleries.

The latest tentacle sitings:

ATM ad on Allen Street in the Lower East Side - the text reads "GET MONEY! GET MONEY!"

And Frank Lloyd of the Frank Lloyd Gallery in Santa Monica, CA blogs about Cindy Kolodziejski's beautiful but unsettling sculptures:

A "Favourite" Tentacle

2009-03-07T19:27:00.005-05:00

Octopuses Given Rubik's Cubes to Find Out if They Have a Favourite Tentacle

By A Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:33 AM on 07th July 2008

Marine experts have given 25 octopuses a Rubik's Cube each in a study aimed at easing their stress levels in captivity.

Scientists believe the intelligent sea creatures have a preferred arm out of eight that they use to feed and investigate with.

They are now testing this theory with a month-long observation project in which the octopuses will be given food and toys to play with.

Experts have launched a study at sea life centres across Europe to find out if octopuses have a favourite tentacle

They will then record whether the creatures use a specific limb to pick up the object or if they are octidextrous.

It is hoped the results of the Sea Life Centre study will shed light on 'handiness' in the animal kingdom.

Claire Little, marine expert at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth, Dorset, said the study could eventually help to reduce stress among octopuses.

She said: 'It will be very interesting to see the results.

'Uniquely, octopuses have more than half their nerves in their arms and have even been shown to partially think with their arms.

'We hope the study will help the overall well-being of octopuses. They are very susceptible to stress so if they do have a favourite side to be fed on, it could reduce risk to them."

The octopus research will take place in the 23 branches of the Sea Life Centre attractions Britain and Europe.

A diagram of an octopus will sit alongside the tanks with the arms on the right labelled R1, R2, R3 and R4 from front to back. The left arms will be numbered in the same way but with an L instead of an R.

Items such as a ball, a jam jar and lego bricks will be dropped into the water for the octopuses to play with.

Visitors will then be asked to note down which arm was closest to the object and which arm picked it up.

If the octopus uses several arms, they must write them all down but in the order they touched it.

Staff at the centre will also do the same during feeding time.

Miss Little said: 'Visitors will be handed a form asking them to participate in our study.

'We will add the results to all of the data that has already been collected about octopuses. It will also help towards solving the mystery of handiness in the animal kingdom.'

The results will be analysed by Sea Life Centre biologists and the results will be announced in the autumn.

Via the Daily Mail. Special thanks to Suggested Donation, because sending us this sort of tentacle news DEFINES what we do here at TodayInTentacles.

Tentacle Cards

2009-03-03T18:22:00.004-05:00

Fomato Cards not only has many nifty cards with critters on them, they organize their selection by creature. Meaning that you can skip the chaff and go straight to the tentacles!

Go straight to the octopus section at Fomato.com. Thanks Julie!

Bioluminescent Tentacles

2009-03-01T19:00:00.003-05:00

Guess who? Heh.

Photos thanks to Jigsaw Soul, who posted them on Facebook.

Tentacle Link Dump

2009-03-01T18:35:00.002-05:00

Periodically, I come across tentacle blogs and tentacle named - websites that either have nothing to do with tentacles or that have so much tentacle content, I can't even decide which post should appear here.

Presenting the latest and greatest -

The Cephalopodiatrist - A career out of squid? We can only hope.

The Celphalopod Tea Party - I think this blog may be doing similar things to what we do here at Today In Tentacles. I salute them!

Tentacle Studio - Amazing costume studio that made the Little Shop of Horrors Audrey II Broadway revival costume, some of the costumes for the Wicked Broadway musical, and many more.

Eff Likes to Play With Tentacles - Personal blog belonging to Eff. Slightly explicit, but nothing ridiculous. Not really tentacle related.

The Book of Tentacles - Forthcoming publication of sci fi/fantasy work.

Tentacle Escape!

2009-03-01T17:27:00.004-05:00

Octopus floods Santa Monica Pier Aquarium The mollusk diassembles a valve at the top of her tank, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater

By Bob Pool
Los Angeles Times
February 27, 2009

It's not surprising that with eight arms and inquisitive nature, the two-spotted octopus is pretty handy around its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

Still, those reporting for work Thursday at the popular beachfront attraction were caught by surprise when they were greeted by water lapping around the kelp forest display, the shark and ray tank and the rocky reef exhibit.

The guest of honor in the aquarium's Kids' Corner octopus tank had swum to the top of the enclosure and disassembled the recycling system's valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater.

"It had grabbed the tube that pulls out the water and caused it to spray outside the tank," said aquarium education specialist Nick Fash. Judging by the size of the flood, Fash estimated that the water flowed for about 10 hours before the first staff member, Aaron Kind, showed up for work.

Kind issued an all-hands-on-deck call to summon co-workers to the pier with mops, water vacuums and fans. Even though the aquarium is built over the beach, it has no floor drain.

The tiny octopus, which is about the size of a human forearm when its appendages are extended, floated lazily in the water that remained in its tank.

It watched intently through glass walls and portholes as workers struggled to dry the place out in time for the day's first busload of schoolchildren to arrive on a 9:30 a.m. field trip.

Randi Parent, the aquarium's community outreach coordinator, said the only significant damage was to newly installed ecologically sensitive flooring in several offices. It consists of linseed-and-cork tiles that soaked up the seawater and squished beneath workers' feet the rest of the day.

The incident was reminiscent of a 1994 incident at San Pedro's Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in which an octopus named Octavia pulled a plastic pipe loose.

That giant Pacific octopus died when all of the water in her tank drained out.

Since octopuses are considered by many to be the most intelligent invertebrate -- and to have good memories -- Fash said he jury-rigged his octopus tank piping with clamps and tape in hopes of thwarting any further mischief by its occupant. "She would need tools," he said of his octopus, which until now had no name.

"Some people are suggesting we call her 'Flo,' " he said.

Via LA Times and the Huffington Post. Thanks to Matt for sending this story in!

Please Present your Octopus

2009-02-26T01:25:00.002-05:00

I'm as confused as you are.

Via Damaged927

Tentacles No Longer in Stock

2009-02-26T00:25:00.004-05:00

Why I did not buy a hundred of these when I first saw this product listing is beyond me. Gaia used to offer these great Tentacle Arms. I need to make a tentacle costume for an undersea themed art party I'm attending on Saturday and I wish I'd ordered some!

Spotted recently at Halloween Addict, originally at The Gaia Store Online (link says "no products found."

Interior Design Tentacles

2009-02-25T14:09:00.002-05:00

Behold these illuminating tentacle chandeliers from the Jonathan Levine Gallery! Click through to their website, there are many more!

Via XStepsahead.LiveJournal.com, from the Jonathan Levine Gallery

Hungry Hungry Tentacles

2009-02-23T16:48:00.003-05:00

Laughing Squid's original title is too good not to post:

In Soviet Russia, Squid Eat You!

Check out this original art by Nancy "Dot" Dorsner posted on her Flickr from the Cephalopod Love set. Oh yes, Cephalopod Love set.

Happy belated Valentine's Day! Because Tentacles are for Hugging.

Originally via Laughing Squid.

Tentacle Death Match

2009-02-22T20:02:00.002-05:00

Meet the mantis shrimp, an animal so feisty that in Japan, they pit it against other creatures... like the octopus!

Reminds me of the great "Octopus vs. Shark" video that circulated a few years ago. Behold:

Mantis Shrimp Death Match via Japan Probe (last video). Octopus vs. Shark on Youtube.

Bejeweled Tentacles

2009-02-22T17:04:00.002-05:00

Well, this is fancy. Platinum! Check out the rest of the jewelry in the slide show - it's all beautiful.

From FashionAndRunway.com. Exact Image here.

Stiched Tentacles

2009-02-22T16:53:00.002-05:00

Manic Mansion Green Tentacle Crosstitch (Ed. Note - I don't really know what that means, but I do love the arms attached to the tentacle that he's using to play the piano.)

"kimberly sent in this sweet maniac mansion cross stitch. Before you get up in arms, she knows that the green tentacle played the drums…she just happens to know that the green tentacle is actually proficient in many instruments. and, to back her up, I happen to know that he is quite a singer…"

Originally via SpriteStitch

Tentacle Head

2009-02-22T16:43:00.002-05:00

Yep.

Originally via Office Twenty Three, by Ralf Breitenbacher

Robotic, Imaginary Tentacles

2009-02-22T16:34:00.003-05:00

While I'm not convinced these are tentacles, they're close enough.

If you ever wondered what the colorful creations born of EA's Spore gaming universe might look like in real-life robotic form, you need look no further than Yoichiro Kawaguchi's prototype robots designed to mimic the organic forms found in nature.

Far different from the geometrically sterile robots we're used to, Kawaguchi's robots are meant to function on a primitive/intuitive level, with biomimetic actuators like tentacles and claws used to move the robots through the real world. The current models are just the beginning, Kawaguchi's team hopes to have fully functional versions of these robots working in about two years.

Originally via Dvice.com

Tentacle Costumes

2009-02-21T14:03:00.003-05:00

Next Saturday, I shall be attending an undersea/nautical themed party on a boat. I must devise some sort of tentacle costume, quickly! My friend Daniela spotted this lovely ensemble, but somehow I don't think it'll fit -

Originally at BoingBoing.net

TENTACULO ESPECTACULO!

2009-02-16T19:15:00.003-05:00

I can only guess these squid belong at a restaurant in Buenos Aires, as that's where the friend who sent me them is currently vacationing. The caption, recaptured here in the blog headline, really makes the photo.

TENTACULO ESPECTACULO!

See the original on Flickr

Flying Tentacles

2009-02-13T17:08:00.003-05:00

Taken by my friend Tendency during her many travels and posted on Twitter -

Originally at Twitpic

High-Fashion Retail Tentacles

2009-02-11T13:29:00.004-05:00

The display in Bloomingdale's in New York, sent to me by a friend.

Thanks, Amanda G!

Alien Tentacles

2009-02-11T13:19:00.005-05:00

I've written about Dark Roasted Blend's report of the mimic octopus before, but they included too many new and nifty photos of weird octopi for me to ignore. The piece is entitled "Cephalopods rom Outer Space," and, well. wow. Here's a sample image, click through to the link for more tantalizing tentacles.

Via Dark Roasted Blend.

Crafty Tentacles

2009-02-11T12:47:00.003-05:00

Two tentacle projects from the Craftzine Blog: A Squid cake and a knitted octopus.

Squid Cake here, Knitted Octopus here. Thanks to Polina for finding these cuddly and tasty tentacles!

Non Newtonian Tentacles

2009-02-10T11:04:00.004-05:00

The essential Laughing Squid has all kinds of tentacle appropriate content. Check out what happens to everyone's favorite cornstarch and water colloid, otherwise known as Oobleck, on top of a subwoofer of sorts. Hint: It appears to grow tentacles.

Watch our new cornstarch tentacle overlords here at Laughing Squid.

And here's a glossy photo of some oobleck out at Burning Man, at my theme camp that goes by the same name.

Photo from Loupiote's Flickr and thanks to Walter (a fellow Ooblecker) for pointing out the Laughing Squid link.

Superbowl Tentacles

2009-02-10T10:53:00.004-05:00

Hulu.com presented a rather amusing ad, featuring Alec Baldwin as an alien.

It's a good ad, but the kicker comes at the end, when Baldwin reveals his SECRET ALIEN TENTACLES. I'm so thrilled.

Ads are rather proprietary, so I can't embed it for you. Check out the entire ad on Youtube.

Still from the ad via SlashFilm.

Inaugural Tentacles

2009-02-10T10:25:00.002-05:00

From an artsy inaugural party that I attended on January 19, the eve of Hope and Change.

Via the Costume Network.

More Blogs with the name Tentacles

2009-01-30T17:05:00.003-05:00

More blogs with the name tentacles in them that don't particularly feature tentacles. Continue to marvel!

Lucid tentacles test 'n sleeved

Alternative Tentacles (a cool record label)

Nuclear Tentacles (WARNING this one is depictions of nude female humans. NSFW. It's not even tentacle in nature - although as you may recall, this blog does not cover that, as I have pointed out before.)

Tentacle Music Fashion

2009-01-27T22:51:00.001-05:00

All the cool kids wear tentacles - to artsy meetings that I attend.

Cinematic Tentacles

2009-01-27T18:43:00.002-05:00

Originally at Tsutpen, a blog with a really long name and found by Max.

Too many and too few tentacles

2009-01-26T18:21:00.003-05:00

"It is very rare in nature to find octopuses with extra tentacles, but in December 1998, a common octopus was captured in Matoya Bay, Japan, which had a whopping 96 tentacles.

The unusual octopus had the normal 8 appendages attached to the body, but each one of those branched out to form the extra tentacles. The specimen survived for five months after its capture, and even laid eggs, which hatched into normal 8 tentacled octopi. Upon its death, the 96-tentacled octopus was preserved and now remains on permanent display at the Shima Marineland Aquarium in Shima, Japan.

This was not the first instance of an over-tentacled octopus specimen being displayed in Japan...."

Read more - and see more photos! - at Cryptomundo.com

Looks like those guys should lend some of their extra tentacles to this guy...

Harryhausen producer Charles Schneer dies

Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:17am GMT

...Schneer had the idea of a making a film about a giant octopus that pulls down the Golden Gate Bridge and was introduced to Harryhausen by an Army friend. Harryhausen had honed his craft with Willis O'Brien, who, in the 1930s, was responsible for the most famous of all stop-motion creations, 1933's "King Kong."Schneer and Harryhausen then made "It Came from Beneath the Sea," which gave Schneer his first credit as a producer. Keeping with Katzman's low-budget mantra, however, the film's octopus had only six tentacles instead of the customary eight.
       As Harryhausen says in his autobiography "Film Fantasy Scrapbook": "Two tentacles less to build and animate during the long process of stop-motion photography did save quite a bit of time. And in Hollywood, time is money." ...

Read more at Reuters UK

Bloomy Tentacles

2009-01-26T01:45:00.003-05:00

Jellyfish Swarms Invade Ecosystems out of Balance

ARLINGTON, Virginia, December 16, 2008 (ENS) - Jellyfish blooms are ruining some of the world's most beautiful vacation spots, according to a new online report by the National Science Foundation on massive jellyfish swarms in U.S. waters and around the world.

At least 150 million people around the world are exposed to jellyfish every year, the report says. Swarms of stinging jellyfish and jellyfish-like animals are transforming many world-class fisheries and tourist destinations into "jellytoriums" that are intermittently jammed with the pulsating, gelatinous creatures.

This is happening in U.S. waters from Hawaii to the Chesapeake Bay, where 500,000 people are stung by jellyfish every year.

Another 200,000 people are stung every year in Florida, and 10,000 are stung in Australia by the deadly Portuguese man-of-war, according to the report.

These jellyfish explosions are generated by human activities, some scientists believe. Possible causes include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and the presence of artificial structures, such as oil and gas rigs.

Jellyfish swarms have damaged fisheries, fish farms, seabed mining operations, desalination plants and large ships, and they have disabled nuclear power plants by clogging intake pipes.

Dense jellyfish swarm in the Gulf of Mexico (Photo by Monty Graham)

In the Gulf of Mexico's densest jellyfish swarms there are more jellyfish than there is water - 100 jellyfish can occupy each cubic meter of water.

"I'm often asked whether a single, overarching condition is triggering jellyfish swarms in diverse locations," says Monty Graham of Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. Graham says the abnormally large, dense or frequent jellyfish swarms are "a symptom of an ecosystem that has been tipped off balance by environmental stresses."

"The exact nature of such balance-tipping environmental stresses may vary from place to place and usually involve unique interactions with local ecology," Graham explains. "But such stresses are often caused by people."

So, just as a weakened person is vulnerable to opportunistic diseases, stressed ecosystems are vulnerable to infestations of jellyfish.

"There is clear, clean evidence that certain types of human-caused environmental stresses are triggering jellyfish swarms in some locations," William Hamner of the University of California at Los Angeles says in the report.

These stresses include the introduction of jellyfish species into non-native habitats by ships; the formation of ultra-polluted areas, known as Dead Zones, where jellyfish face few predators and competitors; and increases in water temperatures, which accelerate the growth and reproduction of many jellyfish species.

As prey, jellyfish are eaten by seabirds, salmon, sun fish, turtles and other gelatinous creatures.

But as marine turtles have disappeared, jellyfish have proliferated. All seven species of sea turtles eat jellyfish and all seven species are endangered. Their survival is threatened by fishing lines that trap them, pollution, beach development, climate change and sales of turtles and turtle parts.

Box jellyfish in Hawaii (Photo courtesy Waikiki Aquarium)

Jellyfish are not all bad - scientists are identifying ecological services provided by the gelatinous creatures. For instance, recent studies show that the tentacles dangling from the Bering Sea's large jellyfish provide hiding places for young pollock that are pursued by other predators but have grown too big for the jellyfish to eat.

Most species of jellyfish and jellyfish-like animals are not harmful to people, according to the National Science Foundation report. But it warns that all true jellyfish and some species of jellyfish-like creatures sting - and a single stinging tentacle may be studded with thousands of stingers.

Stinging gelatinous creatures cause various reactions in people, ranging from no noticeable sensation to rashes, and some cases, death.

Australia's beaches host many types of toxic gelatinous animals, including the Portuguese man-of-war and the world's most venomous animal, the Chironex fleckeri, which can kill a person in under three minutes. In addition, the potentially deadly Irukandji jellyfish, currently increasing in number, are small enough to slip through nets that protect Australia's beaches from the larger Chironex.

Beware, warns the report. Gelatinous creatures that are harmful to people live in every ocean.

Click here to view the report, "Jellyfish Gone Wild: Environmental Change and Jellyfish Swarms."

Originally via Environment News Service

Fishing for Tentacles

2009-01-26T01:40:00.001-05:00

Up for grabs with an octopus

Ed Walker, St. Petersburg Times Correspondent
In Print: Saturday, January 17, 2009

The subtle tug on the other end of the line did not feel like the grouper we had been reeling up.

"Maybe a grunt," I mentioned to my fishing partners. As I reeled the mysterious thing up from the bottom 60 feet below, it stopped pulling back altogether.

"What ever it was it is gone now," I mistakenly uttered.

As my rig came to the surface, I saw that there was indeed something attached to the hook — an octopus.

I lifted it into the boat and grabbed it behind the head. Immediately the tentacles wrapped around my arm and the creepy suction cups latched onto my hand, wrist and arm. Knowing that the beak in the center of all those legs can inflict a nasty bite I tried to pull it off, but it was too late.

He had me; his suction cups were locked on and lining me up for a bite. Just as the beak was getting near my skin I managed to rip him off and drop him on the floor of the boat. There he began slithering around, climbing the walls. Soon he simply walked himself up and out of the boat, which was okay by me.

During most years this encounter is relatively unusual; however, this has been one of the cyclical seasons during which large numbers of octopus appear over shallow shelves off West Florida.

It is the thing commercial stone crab trappers fear most. According to them, the octopus show up en masse every seven years or so and wipe out the fishery. When this happens, the marauding eight-legged creatures gobble up a good portion of all the stone crabs in the area.

Not only do they eat the wild crabs, they are adept at entering stone crab traps, eating the crustaceans inside then moving on to the next trap. The only evidence of what has happened to the would-be catch is a large number of crab shells and pieces in the bottom of the trap. Usually the stealthy creatures depart before the traps can be hauled aboard the boat.

Over the past few months the commercial crab catch has plummeted. Trappers generally describe their catch in the average poundage of crabs per trap among all the traps they pull in a day.

In late October many Nature Coast trappers were enjoying a 1 pound or better average over 300 to 400 traps per day. Then came the octopus. Now the catch has plummeted to as low as 15 pounds of claws total for the day out of the same number of traps. Many of the larger operators are hauling their gear in and hoping for a better season next year. In a recent visit to Pelican Point Seafood in Tarpon Springs I witnessed large commercial crab boats unloading their catch for the day, which consisted of more octopus than crab, a bad sign.

For the angler

For the most part, octopuses do not have an impact on hook and line fishing. They seldom prey on fish so the fish do not seem to mind them much. The one way octopus can benefit anglers is as bait. When the tentacles are cut off they make appealing yet tough bait for grouper, particularly red grouper.

Another bizarre benefit is that the tentacles will continue to move around for as long as 30 minutes after they are trimmed from the animal and placed on the hook.

Several years ago we used a piece of octopus to make one of the strangest catches ever. The bait had been on the bottom only for few minutes and the rod tip began to bounce. John Peppe reeled a struggling fish to the surface to find a good sized triggerfish that was not even on the hook. The suction cups on the piece of octopus had latched onto the raspy skin of the triggerfish and held onto him all the way into the boat.

On the table

Although octopus is one of the most popular items on the menus of greek restaurants in Tarpon Springs, cooking them yourself, at least in my case, has proved somewhat difficult. On several occasions I have tried, and no matter how much tenderizing I do they come out tough and chewy. Pounding with a tenderizing hammer or marinating to break down the toughness is what the pros recommend, but my fishing friends and I who have caught octopus have not had much luck.

For now, I'll stick with using them for bait and visit the sponge docks when I have a taste for grilled octopus.

Originally via the St. Petersburg Times

Overdecorated Tentacles?

2009-01-25T17:18:00.002-05:00

Tossing Tentacles at the John DoryBrilliant expensive seafood in a darkling corner of ManhattanBy Robert Sietsemapublished: January 21, 2009    Daniel Neuner       
         Fancy décor, delicious food, but at a price
The John Dory
85 Tenth Avenue, 212-929-4948
 Tropical fish cavort in an aquarium behind the bar, dolphins dive synchronously over the door, and steel-blue anchovies swim in the raw bar's clear Lucite, as a Roman mosaic spills angular seafood onto the floor. Then there are the fish plates, fish charts, fish tiles, translucent fish light baffles, and fish bas-reliefs. "This place is way over-decorated," my date observed, doing a 360-degree turn of the room. "It worked at the Spotted Pig, but it doesn't work here." We were sitting at the raw bar at the John Dory, the only seats available unless you reserve weeks ahead. Walk in and sit down at around six in the evening, and watch as the wealthy arrive to claim their tables. The John Dory is the latest project of Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield. Named after a largish deep-sea fish beloved of Brits that grows a fake eye on its side to discourage predators, the restaurant sits on lower Tenth Avenue at the ass-end of Chelsea Market, a strip that has improbably become the city's most upscale restaurant row.
Compared to nearby behemoths like Morimoto, Del Posto, and Craftsteak, the John Dory is relatively small and manageable, consisting of a bar, a pair of picayune dining rooms, and the seating that we occupied along the counter. This counter barely separates you from the narrow kitchen, allowing you to watch the cooking staff of 10 play Twister as they prepare your shore dinner. While the John Dory's décor reminds you of a Yankee fish house in Massachusetts or Maine, only half of its menu is devoted to traditionally prepared seafood. The balance plumbs the depths for creatures that can be served as stylish ceviches and crudos.
As has been reported, the menu is sometimes shockingly expensive. On our first visit, a half-dozen oysters set us back $24, though a general outcry resulted in a $6 discount by our second visit. From a choice of West and East coast varieties, these bivalves are as fresh as an Arctic breeze, accompanied by a spicy green cilantro mignonette and a fluorescent-orange carrot relish. Also among the uncooked selections is a choice of two scallops: tiny Nantucket Bays ($16), slicked with olive oil and a little sea salt, and a single large "day boat" scallop that comes sliced and squirted with colorful sauces. The best of the uncooked selections is the yellowtail, cut into fat matchsticks and dribbled with ginger oil, which is made crunchy with shreds of purple shallot and flakes of charred skin. What a beautiful picture it made on the plate!
We weren't so impressed with the octopus ($20): Rather than meaty appendages, we were served delicate baby tentacles tossed with bottarga (dried cod roe) in a fussy and lackluster salad. The minced razor clams were much better, napped with a zippy, bright-green parsley sauce. That stunning sauce is Bloomfield's signature, and we saw it again and again in its verdant variations. It came, for example, on cod milt (fish sperm, $16), a dish that defines just how far the menu will go to deliver novel seafood sensations. While this may conjure up images of ejaculating fish and hapless under-chefs running after them with paper cups, the semen comes in a sac that fries up like sweetbreads. For aficionados of weird food, it's delicious.
Naturally, the John Dory serves John Dory, and a variation of the green sauce came on the pair of crisp-skinned fillets we sampled one evening. A week later, a whole John Dory ($50) was available as an entrée for two, smothered in the same sauce. The whole-fish selection (which changes frequently) often includes a pair of fine red mullets in an adventuresome sauce of clementines and puntarella that was a tad too sweet, and a sea bass heaped with a green anchovy sauce that mated perfectly with the fish.
Certain entrées are perhaps too predictable—a fish soup ($30), for example, predicated on bouillabaisse. The brick-red broth is unimpeachable, and the assortment of shellfish and fish fillets is impressive. Still, the soup is a little boring as you spoon your way through it. More adventuresome are the pair of splendid squid carapaces stuffed with Spanish chorizo—in a recipe swiped from Casa Mono—and a Dungeness crab in a sauce so peppery that it made my nose run (it was probably inspired by Fatty Crab). There's also an oyster pan roast—a Yankee standard—filled with so much flavor that you may never want to eat the Oyster Bar's version again.
Then again, on second thought, maybe blandness is the whole point of a pan roast.
Originally found at the Village Voice

Stealth Tentacle Fashion

2009-01-24T13:27:00.003-05:00

Spotted on the subway - more tentacle tote bags. I saw this bag twice and snapped it once with my cell phone. I saw another tentacle bag, but it was leaving the subway so I did not get a chance to capture it. It was black with cartoony, blocky, colorful squid figures.

Tentacles - so hot right now. Apparently. Who knew?

Tentacle Jewelry of all types

2009-01-22T12:31:00.005-05:00

From the beautiful to the tacky, these tentacles are wacky.

More of some of the more elegant tentacle jewelry I've seen at FreshPicsArt

Another Etsy.com option from Squidglass.

Ok, none of these are particularly tacky, but I was thinking of this green plastic necklace that I wrote about earlier. I also found this silver specimen.

More websites that claim Tentacles

2009-01-22T12:09:00.003-05:00

But of course, many of them do not cover tentacle news. Here at Today in Tentacles, though, we let the reader judge for him or herself. Please turn your objective tentacle eyes to these links. If some of them are reposts, forgive me. Tentacles are tricky.

River of the Tentacle Beast

Queen of the Tentacles

Stitching Tentacles

And some websites that do cover tentacles, sort of:

Squid from Space: Musings of the Cosmic Calamari.
Whether or not he's blogging about tentacles all the time, this is a guy who clearly gets it.

Squid.us
The closest thing I've seen to what I'm doing here - and it's been going on for 3 years, via Laughing Squid and now closing down. I feel only slightly foolish.

Tentacle-named Album

2009-01-22T11:55:00.001-05:00

Crystal Antlers prep debut full-length, tour Europe

January 21, 2009 12:28 p.m. by Matthew Fiander

It is getting difficult to keep all these "Crystal" bands straight, but Crystal Antlers seems to be the band that released a proggy, self-titled EP last year. And now the band is coming out with their first full-length record, and perhaps they'll be the only Crystal band to do so, giving them a little time in the spotlight. Tentacles will be released by Touch & Go on April 7 (April 6 in the UK). The 13-song album was recorded in one week in San Francisco and marks the return of original guitarist Errol Davis. While they wait for the album's release, the band will head out on a massive tour, including their first trek through Europe and a number of west coast dates. 

Originally via Prefixmag.com, via Pitchfork

More Etsy Tentacles

2009-01-22T00:10:00.001-05:00

Etsy.com sells so very many products that involve tentacles and squid.
Originally by DigDownGallery via Etsy.com - found by Tendency.

Rock 'n Roll Tentacles

2009-01-16T22:41:00.003-05:00

The video game Rock Band (like Guitar Hero, but with all the instruments) has some great tentacle art in it. That's because tentacles are pretty ROCK 'N ROLL and METAL. Yeah!

Check it out -

See more at the RockBand Store.

Hollywood Tentacles

2009-01-16T22:18:00.002-05:00

As long as we're on the topic of Hollywood tentacles - Pirates of the Carribean, Transformers - let me mention some older tentacle news: the jellyfish in Will Smith's latest film, Seven Pounds. Of course, there were [poisonous] tentacles.

Jellyfish

Will Smith flashes forward and backward as a troubled man who must audit his own life in 'Seven Pounds'

By Richard von Busack

TRYING TO WRITE honestly about the sight of Rosario Dawson requires not words but sounds. The hnhn hnhn hnhn bleat of a guinea pig being gripped too tightly, maybe. Or, when she shyly unfolds the pearliest overbite on the planet, the whimpering you might hear at 3am in a Moldavian orphanage. Thing is, Dawson must be found utterly innocent of Seven Pounds.

Explaining the title right off beggars community standards of sanity and is a spoiler to boot. Let's prepare for that revelation by condemning how the goddessy Rosario is vandalized. In the interests of pathos, director Gabrielle Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) has powdered her with blue-gray makeup to give her the cyanotic hue of someone with a bad heart.

Worse, in some scenes, she wears the plastic mustache of the oxygen-tank huffer. She's in a bad way, see. And then she meets her angel, Ben Thomas (Will Smith). Carrying around an IRS auditor's pass, he busybodies his way into the lives of several individuals somewhere in the nicer part of Southern California.

Seven Pounds begins like that D.O.A. movie the producers think nobody saw, with Ben sweatily phoning 911 to report a suicide. His own! And yet (flashback!) recently, he was a slick aerospace executive, telling his minions that the best way to sell something is to (1) figure out what you're going to tell the client, (2) tell the client and (3) tell them what you told them. And that's precisely the way Seven Pounds tells its story.

On some mysterious Mary Worthian journey of investigation (the time frame is so shattered you can't really tell what comes first), Smith holes up for two weeks in a crap motel. There, he is exposed to regularly scheduled doses of ethnic comedy by the clerk. Smith's lone companion is a deadly Australian box jellyfish in an aquarium tank. "Nobody keep fish in the room!" complains the Honduran (or something) hotelier, played by Joe Nunez. Chekhov's law: If you see a jellyfish in the first act, it must tentacle someone by the end of the story. This stuff underscores the part the deadly floating cubozoan will play in the drama to come.

While sniffing around, Ben stalks a blind customer service rep (Woody Harrelson) at a steaks-by-mail outfit; the man keeps his cool even as Ben badgers him for selling dog-food-grade meat and being a blind virgin vegan to boot. Later (flashback or flash-forward?), Ben mulls over the case of a guy who runs an old-folks convalescent home.

There, our hero discovers that one old lady is mistreated. Or so she says; demented old people say a lot of things. In another episode, Ben saunters into a golf course to have meetings with an old pal (Barry Pepper, squirming in an underwritten part) with whom he has some fatal contract.

At last, some romance. Our mystery man worms his way into the life of the mortally ill Emily Posa (Dawson), a wedding-card designer with antique letter presses in her garage workshop. The film almost perks up here. Knowing how sweet Dawson looks with her glasses on from seeing Clerks II, you could imagine her poring over the fonts and the kerning, her lovely café au lait brow furrowed in concentration (whimper)—believe it or don't, the line they gave this remarkable woman is "Just so you should know this, I used to be hot."

They do try to keep Dawson idealized, sometimes. Emily collapses when walking her dog (a great Dane who keeps stealing scenes), and she hits the concrete in slow-motion like a KO'd prizefighter. In the next scene she doesn't have a mark on her face.

Such is Seven Pounds—an awkward match of the metaphorical and the literal, with hand-held camera meeting luxury-car commercial settings. Nothing smells up the place like leftover haggis, and this is a movie made by people who saw Crash and wept for a solid week afterward. Trying to straighten out this film would be like trying to unscramble an egg.

There are signs of the cast calling for help throughout. Sample line, Emily to Ben: "I know I'm the girl with the broken wing, but who are you?" This stuff might have made it with a more classical Hollywood studio tone, but there's something about the cruel atmosphere of hospitals that makes this literal, clinical and creepy.

  The commercials for the movie are trying to veil the subject matter, as well they might. So, beware, here comes the SPOILER: As for the seven pounds (of flesh) Smith proposes to deliver up, it is the ultimate Magic Negro experience in cinema, as well as being absolute total bollocks. But it's all just a more extreme version of the self-flogging trip so many of the stars of this Christmas season are on: whether it's Ralph Fiennes pantomiming that his German clothes are on too tight in The Reader or Brad Pitt deciding to wander the world like Caine in Kung Fu. For one very last time, let's blame George W. Bush for this epidemic of guilt. 

Probably everyone has said to their lover, "For you, my adored, I would rip out my heart, Aztec-wise, and make a sacred bloody chacmool out of your lap." Maybe not in so many words, but still. Yet staging this kind of poetic sacrifice is a painful literalness, a stomach turner when the holidays are queasy-making enough as it is.

This particular article is from MetroSantaCruz.com, but you can find many more if you Google "Seven Pounds Tentacles".

Transformer Tentacles

2009-01-16T21:24:00.003-05:00

The next Transformers movie (cue robotic movement noise - ju-JU-ju-ju) will feature a baddy with a tentacle arm! So very exciting. I wish they had a picture to go along with this newsflash. I've bolded the relevant text.

Roberto Orci Addresses Some 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' Rumors

January 15, 2009 07:09:35 GMT

Talking about the upcoming sequel of 'Transformers', 'Revenge of the Fallen', the action film's co-scribbler Roberto Orci gives out hints on some of the rumors.

Screenwriter Roberto Orci has talked about a couple of rumors circulating around "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Sharing a few hints about the "Transformers" sequel to IGN, the co-creator of "Fringe" confirms previous speculation about Pretender and has an extremely short say about Ravage.

Though he doesn't exactly give out much on the details of the Pretender or confirm speculation that Alice is a Pretender, Orci insists that the Transformers hiding inside a human-shaped shell will indeed be seen in the sequel. "I'll give you an exclusive here," he gushes. "There is a Pretender. I'm going to get killed for saying that."

Back in October 2008, TWF2005 has broken out the speculation that Isabel Lucas' Alice will be a Pretender, a transformer which hides itself inside a disguising shell. "The Pretender Transformer will have an arm that transforms into an energy weapon, a long tongue, and a scanning tentacle," the blog further detailed on the new robot.

Apart from confirming the existence of Pretender in the film, Orci also discusses the story of the sequel compared to the first one. "It's an extreme [jump] from the first one," he says. "The outrageous, crazy humor is more outrageous, but then so is the serious side of it and so is the stakes of the Transformers plot and the seriousness with which some of their mythology is treated."

"So it kind of swings wildly between those two extremes, and that I think was one of the successful parts of the first movie. Again, some of the die hard fans will be equally annoyed at some of the things they see, but I can also say they will be more gratified than they were for the first one, to see how some of the Transformers story and how their battle takes place in the second one," Orci adds. Complete interview with Roberto Orci can be read via IGN.

Written by Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," will follow Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes as they are being attack by Decepticons because Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth. While the baddies try to capture Sam to acquire the knowledge, U.S. military and an international coalition unite with Autobots to fight back the villains' attack.

Starring once again Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro, the action fantasy film will be supported by Isabel Lucas, Rainn Wilson and others. While the trailer is said to be debuted during Super Bowl on February 1, the movie itself will come out in the U.S. big screen on June 26.

Originally via AceShowBiz.com

Face Tentacles on People

2009-01-14T14:23:00.004-05:00

Art - by Jeremy Forson, originally via Curiouser and Curiouser

Also in tattoo form on Mr. Forson's Flickr:

And in Hollywood - Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, as played by Bill Nighy:

Face Tentacles

2009-01-14T14:20:00.001-05:00

Here, fishy fishy fishy fishy...

Original link.

Video Game Tentacle Boss

2009-01-13T14:34:00.002-05:00

Resident Evil 5 has a Tentacle Boss! I'm not really sure what that means.

Posted Jan 10, 2009 at 02:43PM by Isaac C. Listed in: Resident Evil 5, Games, Screenshots Tags: Capcom 18 QJ

Just don't tell me that's Jill Valentine.

New screens of Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360) reveals a new tentacle monster that will be a reoccurring boss character. It looks like a pretty tough boss to beat. Creepy as hell too. Can you imagine what a tentacle monster would to you?

Um, for the record, that wasn't meant to sound dirty. Ok, yes it was.

Originally via QJ.net

Tentacle Reproduction

2009-01-10T14:58:00.009-05:00

Bizarre Reproductive Techniques Discovered for deep-ocean squid

December 09, 2008

Males that produce sperm packages that can penetrate deep into the skin. Females with bellies full of stored sperm. Males that seriously injure the females during mating. This is just a selection of the bizarre reproductive techniques that marine biologist Henk-Jan Hoving has discovered with different species of deep-ocean squid. He will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 19 December 2008.

‘Reproducing in the deep ocean is a real challenge’, says Hoving. The deep ocean is unbelievably huge – 80 percent of the seafloor lies at depths of two kilometres or more. It’s not easy to find a partner in that gigantic, pitch-black environment. So, once you find one, you have to seize the moment. Squids that live in the deep ocean have developed a wide range of fascinating reproductive techniques to this end.

Deep cuts
Hoving investigated the reproductive techniques of no fewer than ten different squids and related cuttlefish – from the twelve-metre long giant squid to a mini-squid of no more than twenty-five millimetres in length. Along the way he made a number of remarkable discoveries. Hoving: ‘Reproduction is no fun if you’re a squid. With one species, the Taningia danae, I discovered that the males give the females cuts of at least 5 centimetres deep in their necks with their beaks or hooks – they don’t have suction pads. They then insert their packets of sperm, also called spermatophores, into the cuts.’

Through the skin
With a different species, the Moroteuthis ingens, the spermatophores are introduced in a more peaceful way. ‘With this species the spermatophores penetrate the skin independently. They probably do that with the help of an enzyme-like substance that dissolves tissue.’ Hoving is the first to be able to prove that these sperm packets are able to penetrate the skin under their own steam. He discovered this when he experimentally placed spermatophores on the skin of just-caught individuals. His results are supported by an incident in Japan, where someone had to have an operation after eating squid to remove a spermatophore that lodged in his throat.

Sperm in reserve
When studying the mini-squid Heteroteuthis dispar, Hoving also made an extraordinary discovery. For the first time he found a squid that probably fertilizes its eggs internally. ‘The females have a pouch for storing sperm that is directly linked to the belly and the oviducts. This indicates that fertilization takes place within the body and not outside - which is more common for squid.’ Males fill the female’s pouch with a great deal of sperm. About three percent of the body weight of a female who has mated consists of stored sperm. This has a number of advantages. The females, who produce eggs over a long period, thus have a steady supply ‘in reserve’ which they can make use of. Another advantage is that when the pouch is full, no sperm from other males will fit.

Female characteristics
Hoving was also the first to discover male squid with female characteristics. ‘Usually, squid have separate sexes. There are no hermaphrodites, as with snails. But with one species, Ancistrocheirus lesueurii, some of the males turned out to have small glands that in females are involved in egg production. They also had significantly longer bodies than “normal” males.’ Hoving cannot explain this phenomenon. ‘It’s possible that it’s the result of hormones and hormone-like substances that end up in the surface water as a result of human action – for example use of the pill – and then sink down to the deep ocean. However, it may also be an alternative reproductive strategy and a way of getting closer to the females.’

Vulnerable ecosystem
Hoving’s research has produced a wealth of information about deep-ocean squid. ‘Previously, there was little known about these organisms. That was because they were very difficult to study. The deep ocean is very inaccessible. Diving to such depths is only possible with the help of advanced technology.’ In order to gain an understanding of the reproductive habits of squid he had to use dead individuals, which he got hold of in many inventive ways. ‘For example, I’ve joined scientific expeditions but have also used examples that were found in the 1960s and 1970s in the stomachs of commercially caught sperm whales.’ Hoving hopes that his research will contribute to sustainable exploitation of the deep ocean. ‘Fishing is taking place at deeper and deeper depths. The deep ocean is a very vulnerable ecosystem, however. We desperately need to learn more about this ecosystem.’

At The University of Gronigen NZ, via Schneier on Security

Cute but Deadly Tentacles

2009-01-08T13:33:00.004-05:00

More deep-sea tentacle footage. It's adorable. I recommend turning on the sound for the full Japanese-monster-movie effect.

Via the essential PinkTentacle.com

REAL NEWS: Rumor of Tentacle-shaped UFO

2009-01-08T13:18:00.006-05:00

Could 'Tentacle' UFO Have Destroyed UK Wind Turbine?
Andrew Williams
January 6, 2009
CleanTechnica.com

Several residents of a remote English village have reported sightings of a bizarre tentacle-shaped UFO above a local wind farm, on the night before a wind turbine was mysteriously destroyed.

Engineers from energy suppier Ecotricity are investigating why a blade more than 20 meters (66 ft) long fell off the turbine at a wind farm in Conisholme Fen, Lincolnshire, early on Sunday morning. In the meantime, locals are coming to their own conclusions after many of them saw strange flashing tentacle shaped lights above the wind farm on the night before the damage occurred.

John Harrison, a resident of nearby Saltfleetby, said he looked out of his window on Saturday night to see “a massive ball of light,” and “tentacles going right down to the ground” over the site. “It was huge” he said “At first I thought it must have been a hole where the moon was shining through but then I saw the tentacles – it looked just like an octopus.

“It was an incredible site; I have never seen anything like it before. I have no idea what it was, all I can say is what I saw”.

However, officials are remaining tight-lipped about the cause of the damage. A spokesman from Ecotricity said, “This has never happened before so we really have no idea what might have gone wrong. We will conduct a thorough inspection of the turbines to see if there is a problem and put it right.”

Damage to wind turbines, although rare, is more common than many would anticipate. This link provides dramatic footage of a wind turbine appearing to spin wildly out of control before shattering and falling to the ground.

Found by Alex via CleanTechnica.com

Fast Tentacle Facts

2009-01-05T16:11:00.000-05:00

Jan 5, 2009 12:11 pm US/Eastern

Fast Facts: Portuguese Man O' War

'Jellyfish' It Is Not--Actually 4 Individual Creatures

Tentacles Can Stretch Over 100 Feet

Man O' War Is Common In South Florida

MIAMI (CBS4) ―

                                                                                                                                             
                                           numSlides of to

The Portuguese Man O' War, known to most people as a jellyfish, is not a fish or even a single animal, but is actually a floating colony of four different organisms. They are different, though, than the traditional Jellyfish, known as the box Jellyfish, and their stings should be treated differently.

Man O' War can be found in many tropical parts of the world, but are plentiful on South Florida beaches in the winter, when favorable currents blow them ashore.

The Man O' War is known for long blue, threadlike tentacles, which dangle far below the part of the colony which lives on the surface. The surface portion acts as a sail, helping move the Man O' War along. The tentacles below, which can trail feet from the main body, act among other things as a stabilizer and rudder.

The tentacles also protect the Man O' War and stun its prey, which if it happens to be Human, can cause painful welts.

WHAT IT IS:

The man-of-war's body consists of a nitrogen-filled bladder-like float which is translucent and which may be 3 to 12 inches long and may extend as much as 6 inches above the water.

Beneath the float are clusters of polyps, from which hang tentacles of up to 165 feet in length concerned with detecting and capturing prey, with reproducing, and with feeding. The "animal" moves by means of its crest, which functions as a sail.

The Man O' War can eat basically anything that comes in contact with its stinging tentacle polyps which "fish" continuously through the water. The sting is very painful to man and can cause serious effects, including fever, shock, and interference with heart and lung action.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

The indications that you have been stung by a Man O' War are: Stinging, burning, redness, swelling of lymph nodes. You may see long welt lines. In some people sensitive to the Man O' War venom, there may be severe reactions, including difficulty with breathing and cardiac arrest.

The sting toxin secreted from the tentacles is a neurotoxin about seventy-five percent as powerful as cobra venom. The welts can last for minutes to hours.

Studies on the effectiveness of meat tenderizer, baking soda, papain, or commercial sprays (containing aluminum sulfate and detergents) on nematocyst stings have been contradictory. It's possible these substances cause further damage.

IMMEDIATE FIRST AID ADVICE:

If you have been stung with what you think is a Man O' War, try these steps to minimize the pain and damage.

---Rinse the area with seawater or fresh water to remove any tentacles stuck to the skin. This can be from a spray bottle or in a beach shower.

---For severe pain, try applying heat or cold, whichever feels better.

---While most stings are NOT generally fatal, some people can have severe allergic reactions to the sting that can cause a health danger. Consider even the slightest breathing difficulty, or altered level of consciousness, a medical emergency. Call for help immediately.

--- Irrigate exposed eyes with copious amounts of room temperature tap water for at least 15 minutes. If vision blurs, or the eyes continue to tear, hurt, swell, or are light sensitive after irrigating, see a doctor.

Tentacle Messenger Bags: So Hot Right Now

2009-01-05T16:03:00.004-05:00

While it certainly confounds me a bit, I'm pleased to see that so many other people appreciate tentacle-chic.

The elephant-squid messenger bag, by Resist Today, available at Shanlogic.com.

And the tentacle messenger bag, by Raygun Robyn, spotted on her Livejournal, Curdburger, and available at her Etsy.com store.

Construct a Tentacle!

2009-01-04T23:50:00.002-05:00

What *is* it about tentacles? At least other people agree with me. Check out Te Papa's Colossal Squid Site, which is the companion site to the Colossal Squid exhibit that opened in New Zealand recently. It's cute, it's kitschy, and best of all, you can Build Your Own Squid! It's more fun than you can shake a tentacle at. The opening of this exhibit marks one of the bits of actual tentacle *news* - as opposed to kitchy products for sale - that's been mentioned on Today in Tentacles.

May I also strongly encourage you to check out a video of the tentacles up close and personal. Go to this link and click "Getting up close to the colossal squid's arms and tentacles".

I found it via MAKE Magazine.

"Tentacle Lickin' Good"

2009-01-04T23:36:00.003-05:00

The original blog post says it all. Paul appears to be a noble curator of tentacles and all things reefy and has generously shared his 72 gallon aquarium with us via the internets.

Paul has captured his sea anemone with a tentacle STILL IN ITS MOUTH. Check it out:

I fed my Bubble Tipped Anemone a small sliver of frozen Formula One yesterday. It closed around the piece of food and ate it. When it started opening back up I was able to snap this picture of the anemone with a tentacle still in its mouth. I never really knew before how it got the food to its mouth. I always thought that the tentacles kind of pushed it in that direction until it fell in. From this picture it looks like a tentacle grabs the food and places it in the mouth.

How does it do this? This animal has no brain. How does it know the spatial relationship between its tentacles and its mouth? Simply fascinating.

Original post at the aptly named Paul's Reef. Click back to the main blog to read more about all his tentacled pets and their friends.

Tentacle Art

2009-01-04T23:19:00.003-05:00

Spotted at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, CA this past June. I tried to figure out the artist based on the Flickr upload date (June 5, 2008). It may be from the Four Group Show that went up at the Gallery on May 30. Unclear.

Photo via Flickr.

Be Serpentine in 2009!

2009-01-02T12:04:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, tentacle fans!

Risque Tentacles

2008-12-31T17:25:00.001-05:00

It's art, not taboo tentacles.

From Fort Ignorance.

More Tentacle Trinkets

2008-12-31T17:21:00.002-05:00

Glowing, laser etched tentacle pendant.

Available at Missmonster.com

Tasty Tentacle Refreshment

2008-12-31T16:24:00.003-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MNEMOSYNE RELEASES NEW SODA, TENTACLE GRAPE

NEW YORK, NY - December 29, 2008 –Mnemosyne LLC has teamed up with the people who brought you the Anime After Dark Film Festival to bring you a new taste sensation!

This new beverage, inspired by the genre of adult Japanese animation called Hentai, is a perfect caffeine rush for gamers, cosplayers, and comic book fans.

“Obviously I don’t take the brand very seriously… we can’t. The best I can do is develop products that I’d want to buy myself and frankly this is the right combination of ridiculous and delicious.” Says brand creator, Dekker Dreyer.

Each 12oz glass bottle of Tentacle Grape comes with a collectors’ edition label limited to the first thousand cases. Six packs are currently available for pre-order at www.tentaclegrape.com for $15.99 plus shipping. Orders before January 5th 2009 will be eligible for complimentary Tentacle Grape branded condoms or bumper stickers.

Additional flavors and label designs are slated for the third quarter of 2009.

ABOUT MNEMOSYNE: Mnemosyne develops and manages products for fans of genre entertainment. Founded in 2004, Mnemosyne runs the massively-multiplayer game "Rubies of Eventide", and builds geek-chic brands including "Tentacle Grape" soda, and Lolcattz (collectible card game).

Thanks to my friend Elliot for finding this first at Kotaku.org!

Tentacle-Wear

2008-12-28T21:29:00.001-05:00

Available at Etsy.com.
More tentacle fashions. Back to news shortly, I promise.

Cannibalistic Tentacles?

2008-12-28T21:19:00.002-05:00

Speaks for itself.

Originally from Flickr.

Happy Belated Cephalodmas!

2008-12-24T00:51:00.004-05:00

I missed it! It was December 22. More evidence that there is quite a niche for tentacle news on the net -

Figure out what this holiday means to you at the source, Cephalopodmas.com.

Be sure to explore their Far Reaching Tentacles (links), too!

Tentacles Blowing in the Wind

2008-12-23T01:00:00.003-05:00

Today in year old tentacle news, from Pink Tentacl e last January. I decided to present a screen shot, as the photograph looked so lovely on Pink Tentacle's site.

See it full size at Pink Tentacle.

Art and Tentacles

2008-12-21T01:20:00.007-05:00

I think that glass is one of the most versatile, beautiful and expressive mediums for art. Glass is particularly adept at interpreting nature - see the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, particularly his floriform vases.

Both Tiffany, and one of my modern glass favorites, Dale Chihuly, have works in the Victoria and Albert Museum of decorative arts in London. Chihuly made the fabulous, tentacled chandelier on display in the lobby.

Big surprise that the Tentacle Blogger Girl (that would be yours truly) likes this stuff, eh?

Anyhow.

I was reminded of it when I saw this recent video of siphonophores - deep sea, colony organisms that appear to function as one creature.

Coincidence? I think not.

Chilhuly? Or CTHULHU?

As usual, Pink Tentacle's got the full story on the undersea adventurer.

Squid Tentacles

2008-12-20T15:33:00.003-05:00

Pair
Originally uploaded by kowitz

You know you love it.

Meet the Purple Tentacle!

2008-12-20T15:24:00.003-05:00

Art inspired by a computer game called Day of the Tentacle. No, I have no idea either.
Originally found at 4thegirlgamers.blogspot.com.

Sci Fi Story Featuring Tentacles

2008-12-20T15:07:00.002-05:00

Interested in learning more about tentacles, but can't stand dry scientific journals? Check out a great story on Ignoring Friction, a blog by the physics students of Gettysburg College. They intend the blog to, "communicate entertaining scientific information and analysis in a clear, factually correct, and creative fashion."

The story is called One Cell in the Sea and I won't you anything else, save that it features romance, jellyfish, and and frozen, sliced, poisonous, virus infected tentacles.

Tentacle Teeth

2008-12-19T17:57:00.003-05:00

FYI Manly is the name of the town from which this man hails. I cannot vouch for his masculinity.

DIVER WRESTLES TEETH FROM OCTOPUS
December 19, 2008
BELIEVE it or not. 
 When Manly diver David Baxter emerged from the water clutching a set of false teeth he had wrestled from the tentacles of an octopus he knew he would have trouble convincing people his tale was true. 
 “In 20 years of diving it’s the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever encountered,” he said. 
The proof was the set of dentures, complete with algae, that he had recovered from the Manly swimming enclosure between the wharf and Oceanworld while filming seahorses. Mr Baxter said he first saw a common octopus in a crevice, its two eyes visible and a tentacle draped just below in a Bela Lugosi pose. It was also clutching a row of false teeth. 
Mr Baxter is a bit of an octopus aficianado - he showed a blue- ringed octopus at the recent Ocean Care display - and he knows they have beaks not teeth. The octopus had “sucked up” the teeth, presumably from the seabed floor, with its tentacles. 
 “I never expected to have an octopus smiling back at me,” he said. “I was so startled I spat my regulator out.” 
 Mr Baxter assumes someone dropped them while swimming, - perhaps they coughed or sneezed. 
Knowing how expensive dentures are he gently prised the teeth from the tentacles and is hoping they can be returned to their owners. 
They probably haven’t been in the water that long - they are still in great condition other than a little algae posing as plaque. 
If these are your chompers we’ve got our tentacles out for the full story. Please phone Undertow on 9976 1941 for their retrieval and a story to last a lifetime.

Originally spotted on The Daily Telegraph, who pointed me to the Manly Daily.

Severed Tentacle Fights on!

2008-12-18T16:09:00.003-05:00

I must credit the photographer with this particular headline.

Found on Flickr. Click through the set for more severed tentacle pictures.

Artsy Tentacles

2008-12-17T15:21:00.002-05:00

Check out these great tentacle paintings for sale by Karly Fae:

A Plentacle of Tentacles (grey) Tentacles a Plentacle (tan)

You can find out more at her website: Karly Fae, Printmaker

Sad and Hurtful Tentacles

2008-12-17T01:37:00.003-05:00

From a German ad raising awareness about sexual abuse. Depressing but moving, the creepy tentacle is somewhat amazing.

Originally from Adweek.com's Freakiest Ads of 2008

Tentacle Terror

2008-12-16T01:34:00.007-05:00

Close call for 3 year old girl stung by deadly box jellyfish

Published: Monday, 15-Dec-2008
News-Medical.net

A three year old girl is lucky to be alive after she was stung by a deadly box jellyfish at a remote beach in Milingimbi in the Northern Territory, Australia.

The youngster was reportedly playing in the shallows when she stepped on the adult jellyfish, which injected her with venom.

She collapsed and her family rushed her to a nearby local health clinic where doctors and nurses worked desperately to revive her.

The Arnhem Land community of Milingimbi is about 440km east of Darwin and visiting community GP Dr. Paul Spillane says the girl was "lucky to survive" and was saved because there were experienced nursing and medical staff in the health centre at the time who were able to resuscitate her before she was evacuated to Gove District Hospital.

Dr. Paul Spillane says she was very lucky that the health centre was so close to the beach as had it been any further away she may not have lived.

Dr. Spillane says children are worst affected by the creature's venom and he has warned families to avoid swimming in the sea during stinger season which is from October to May.

Dr. Spillane says during the stinger season parents need to realise a day on the beach can quickly turn into a life-or-death situation and the best strategy is prevention and avoiding the water altogether.

Since first reported in 1883, box jellyfish have been responsible for at least 64 deaths in Australia - the last fatality was also a Northern Territory child, a six-year-old boy, who was also playing the shallows near the Milikapiti barge landing at Snake Bay on Melville Island in November last year which was the first stinger fatality in the Territory in more than a decade - the previous death was a three-year-old girl at a remote community in February 1996.

As many as 30 deaths have been recorded from jellyfish stings in the Territory and ten have been children.

The Department of Health and Families says first aid is essential, victims must be got out of the water and the stung area immediately doused with vinegar and if the person is seriously ill, CPR may need to be carried out.

Box Jellyfish (Chironex Fleckeri) are pale blue and transparent and bell or cubed shaped with four distinct sides - they can measure up to 20 cm along each side of the cube or bell and have as many as 15 tentacles on each corner which can be 3 metres in length with up to 5,000 stinging cells.

The box jellyfish swims along at speeds of up 4 knots in a jet-like motion and appears along the shore in calm waters when the tide is rising - they are often found near the mouths of rivers, estuaries and creeks following the rain and feed on small fish and crustaceans.

The box jellyfish season starts with the onset of the wet across the top of northern Australia, usually around October and lasts until April - further south along the northern Queensland or northern Western Australia coast the season is usually from November to March and prevents swimming in the sea unless the beaches have protective stinger nets or a purpose designed stinger suit is worn; fortunately the Great Barrier Reef is free of box jellyfish through all the seasons.

The venomous sting causes such excruciating pain that victims go into shock and can drown before reaching the shore and unless treated immediately, a victim has virtually no chance of surviving.

In treating the sting methylated spirit or alcohol must not be used as only domestic vinegars poured liberally over the tentacles inactivate the stinging cells allowing the tentacles to be removed.

Where antivenom is unavailable, pressure-immobilisation may be used on limbs after the stinging cells have been inactivated and artificial respiration and cardiac massage may be needed until medical assistance is available.

I found it on News-Medical.net

Evolving Tentacles

2008-12-12T15:46:00.001-05:00

NewsBlog:

Tentacles test tenets of evolution

Posted by Elie Dolgin

[Entry posted at 18th November 2008 02:42 AM GMT]

Novel genes, rather than regulatory DNA, underlie the evolution of morphological traits, according to research published today (Nov. 17) in PLoS Biology. The new study reports that genes found in simple freshwater animals -- but not in any other evolutionary lineage -- can drive changes in body plan, and stokes the flames of a long-standing debate among evolutionary developmental biologists.

"This is the first study that puts together comparative molecular evolution data and experimental data into a cohesive case for this mode of evolution," Günter Wagner, an evolutionary developmental biologist at Yale University, who was not involved in the research, told The Scientist.

The underlying genetic basis of morphological adaptation has been hotly debated in the evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) field. On the one side, many argue that innovations in body plans stem from modifications in the spatial and temporal activity of well-conserved regulatory DNA, known as cis elements. Others, however, argue that adaptation and speciation originate from structural mutations in the protein-coding regions of genes themselves. Although many agree that both sorts of changes take place, the relative importance of each process has remained unclear.

Now, a team led by Thomas Bosch, an evo-devo biologist at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, has found that expression of a single gene drives major differences in tentacle formation between two closely related freshwater polyps of the genus Hydra -- score one for the structural mutation camp. What's more, the tentacle-related gene was found only in Hydra, with no shared genes in other evolutionary lineages.

Hydra tentacle formation during budding
Bosch's team scanned all the messenger RNAs of two closely related Hydra species for genes differentially expressed in the main polyp-specific structures -- tentacles, nematocysts, and the stalk. Their transcriptome-tracking turned up Hym301, a gene coding for a secreted protein that was expressed in the tentacles of one species and everywhere but the tentacles in the other species. By using transgenic and mutant Hydra that overexpressed Hym301, as well as RNA interference to silence Hym301, they showed that the gene affects the general timing and order in which tentacles arise in the different cnidarians.

Genes such as Hym301 that don't resemble known coding sequences in any other organisms -- known as "orphan" genes -- are thought to constitute around 5 to 10% of all genes across most taxonomic ranks, and, yet, geneticists have largely ignored them for two reasons. First, characterizing a gene of no known function is time-consuming and laborious. Second, many suspected that these genes had counterparts in other organisms, but limited data precluded their detection.

"You can't ignore [orphan genes] anymore because databases are getting very complete," Bosch told The Scientist. "There are obviously evolutionary selective constraints on keeping them for millions of years... They can't just be nonsense genes that are lying around."

Perhaps the best examples of orphan genes, noted Bosch, can be found in the innate immune system where organisms need highly self-specific defense mechanisms. He said he also has unpublished results of Hydra anti-microbial peptide genes with no genetic equivalents outside the genus. Further, he points to human beta-defensin as another lineage-restricted antimicrobial peptide gene that is found only in mammals.

"These novel genes are important for adapting an organism to its particular needs," Bosch said. "That's why these genes are not found outside [their] taxon."

Caltech evo-devo biologist Eric Davidson, who was not involved in the study, however, doesn't think that the results of the paper can be generalized to account for fundamental evolutionary processes in other organisms. "What makes [a] body plan is fundamentally and generally the deployment of regulatory genes, not the specialized downstream genes," he wrote in an E-mail.

Wagner takes a more nuanced stance toward the study's implications, though. "It certainly doesn't undermine the fact that cis-regulatory changes are important in morphological evolution, but it broadens the horizon by showing that other mechanisms, including new genes, can contribute to morphological differences."

Image courtesy of PLoS Biology

Article originally at The-Scientist.com (free registration, but you have to log in)

Both real and digital tentacles

2008-12-12T15:34:00.002-05:00

This guy breeds cuttlefish, and has a great URL as well -

thetentacleparadox.com

Like what you see? He also makes and sells elegant preserved squid sculptures. So many tentacle gifts, so little holiday.

And another tentacle website for you

2008-12-11T16:08:00.002-05:00

http://www.1000tentacles.com/

A Tentacle for Someone Special

2008-12-11T15:55:00.004-05:00

In need of a special gift for that Tentacle lover in your life? May we recommend the $185 sterling silver Tentacle pendant? Hint, hint.

Made with love and for sale with the same over at Shopaganda.ca

Lovely Tentacles

2008-12-07T23:24:00.004-05:00

Yes, via Boing Boing, via Decona.de, via JWZ.

Gratuitous Tentacle Photo Included

2008-12-07T20:52:00.003-05:00

Everything's in Season for Squid Along the Pacific Coast
Tom Stinstra
Sunday, December 7, 2008
SFGate.com

Out of Half Moon Bay, 100 miles out to sea, the ocean surface erupted for a half mile in a froth of white water and tentacles.

 
"The squid were eating a school of fish," said commercial fisherman Bob Longstreth. "I've seen them out there. Serious predators."
In another episode, a gang of Humboldt squid had circled the boat New Salmon Queen from Emeryville. The squid were in full attack, with the anglers aboard hooking up on every drop. Capt. Craig Shimukuzu got out his video camera to film the action and as he pressed the record button, the ocean "blew up" - a pod of 10 killer whales came to the surface in a feeding frenzy of their own, slashing the squid to bits with their teeth.
On Thursday morning out of Bodega Bay, 20 fishermen aboard the New Sea Angler caught an estimated 15,000 pounds of Humboldt squid in 90 minutes; 400 squid that averaged 30 pounds and topped out at 70, with 90 percent of them hooked near the surface. Capt. Rick Powers said he found the squid on the northwest edge of Cordell Bank.
The arrival of the giant schools of Humboldt squid means two things, good and bad:
--  Good: They are providing the most exciting new fishing (and good eating) on the Pacific Coast.
--  Bad: These squid are predators that could alter the basic food chain in the ocean.
Humboldt squid were first seen off California in 1930, then not again until the El Niño year of 1997. They disappeared again for five years, but since 2002, they have been here to stay, according to the Monterey Bay Research Institute, taking over new territory. They are best known off the coast of South America, and in recent years, Baja California, but have expanded their range north along the Pacific Coast.
They are one of the fastest growing creatures in the world, transforming from a single cell to as much as 100 pounds during an average life span of about one year. They average 15 to 60 pounds and measure up to 6 feet long.
"They're an eating machine," Powers said. "They eat their body weight daily."
Humboldt squid are built for the job. They have 10 tentacles that are filled with teeth-lined sucker cups, including two extended tentacles that pull victims into razor-sharp beaks. "We've seen them eat each other," said Craig Stone at Emeryville Sportfishing.
Field scout Pence MacKimmie, a commercial fisherman out Half Moon Bay, said he and others have seen squid marks on deep-water black rockfish. Stanley Carpenter, a sport angler, said he saw squid marks on salmon out of Fort Bragg. Longstreth has seen them mow down huge schools of sardines and anchovies. Off of Chile, Humboldt squid are blamed for the collapse of hake.
"We don't know the impact," Power said. "That's the scary thing."
It's possible that squid have ravaged schools of salmon and rockfish, contributing to their low numbers, but this has not been verified. Capt. Tom Mattusch of the Huli Cat in Half Moon Bay has donated the stomach of every Humboldt squid caught on his boat the past few years for a federal study that is analyzing the contents.
The chain of amazing episodes reported by those on the sea tells you this: They eat everything in their paths.
One night, for instance, when the lights were left on aboard the commercial boat Promise, the glow on the night sea attracted needlefish, anchovies and sardines around the boat. That's when the Humboldt squid showed up and attacked, Longstreth said. By morning, 800 pounds of squid were stuck to the side of the boat and the skipper had to gaff them one-by-one to get them off.
On the Huli Cat, in the middle of a similar frenzy, Mattusch found what he thought was a two-headed squid. On close inspection, however, he saw "one had actually eaten the body of another, and only the head was sticking out."
Originally local news at SFGate.com

Tentacle-free Tentacles

2008-12-05T14:18:00.003-05:00

I introduce you to the INCREDIBLE MIMIC OCTOPUS.

This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia on the bottom of a muddy river mouth. For the next 2 years, scientists filmed nine different mimic octopuses, Thaumoctopus mimicus (Norman & Hochberg, 2005), impersonating sea snakes, lionfish, and flatfish—a strategy used to avoid predators. The mimic octopus reaches about 60 cm long, and is typically brown and white striped.

The mimic octopus has been observed shifting between impersonations as it crosses the ocean floor to return to its burrow.

Read more, watch more at MarineBio.org

Originally via Dark Roast Blend.

Off Topic Tentacles

2008-12-03T01:20:00.003-05:00

It has come to my attention that many people come to this blog, this one-stop source for your up-to-the-minute tentacle news - and expect something different. After considering many responses ("I don't care," and "It's nice when people use their imaginations," ranking high among them), I can only tell you, tentacle fans, that Today in Tentacles seeks to bring you news about real, hard hitting tentacles - and not "fantasy" tentacles. I am confident that the internet is in no short supply of that kind of thing. Really.

The internet is also full of blogs with tentacles in their name that have absolutely nothing to do with tentacles at all!

Observe:

www.thetentacle.com

www.tententacles.com

(and if that's not enough for you, try the next one - )

tenthousandtentacles.blogspot.com

nicolelang.blogspot.com (the blog is called "TENTACLES")

Mysteriously, tentacle.com is available.

Many Tentacles, Many Surprises!

2008-12-01T16:56:00.003-05:00

That's the *real* headline, folks.

Census of world's sea life tallies up tentacles of surprises

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

A shark playground, a mountain of sea stars, and octopi revealing an unsuspected Antarctic ancestry are among the mysteries unveiled in the latest worldwide efforts, released Monday, to draft a census of all sea life.

At the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Valencia, Spain, which begins Tuesday, researchers will discuss the "Census of Marine Life" update report. It details efforts by more than 2,000 scientists from more than 80 nations to account for all the species in the world's oceans by 2010.

"We're in the home stretch," says project senior scientist Ronald O'Dor. "Not to say someone won't pull up a giant squid from somewhere unexpected, but we think we are going to have a very good census."

Since 2000, the initiative — executed by boat, tags, nets and submarine — has uncovered more than 5,300 new species, as diverse as blind lobsters and sulfur-eating bacteria. Among the highlights:

• The deepest hydrothermal vents, 21/2 miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean, are thronging with species of shrimp and mussels.

• Great white and other sharks head to a previously unknown offseason Pacific region, perhaps to mate.

• Tens of millions of brittle sea stars were discovered tip-to-tip on an undersea mountain in the Antarctic Ocean.

• Combined genetic evidence from deep-sea octopi shows that many newer species evolved from a predecessor living in shallow Antarctic waters about 30 million years ago.

The researchers say changes in the ocean driven by a warming climate, overfishing and environmental damage add urgency to their effort. Moreover, the oceans remain by some estimates 95% unexplored, which makes them rich with discoveries.

"The more we look, the more we find," says molecular biologist Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., who heads census efforts to profile marine microbes. Microbes total perhaps 90% of ocean life, he says, and they help keep the Earth habitable by cycling oxygen and carbon into the atmosphere.

"I would say we are in a second Golden Age of marine biology," says project scientist Patricia Miloslavich of Venezuela's Universidad Simón Bolívar, comparing today's efforts with those of earlier naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Carl Linnaeus, who first set out to catalog species. "I hope it doesn't end."

From USA Today Technology

Your Source for Up-To-The Minute Tentacle News

2008-12-01T16:34:00.002-05:00

So you know that time we told you about how we were going to bring you up-to-the minute, breaking tentacle news? You know, right there in the header? Well, we weren't lying.

But we also realized that there was a good deal of UNDOCUMENTED tentacle news floating around on the net that had to be recapped. While we're not going to tell you about the giant squid siting of 2005, we will potentially go back a few months in tentacle time.

Tentacles on Display

2008-11-30T19:10:00.002-05:00

World's first colossal squid display open soon
NZPA | Saturday, 29 November 2008

The Museum of New Zealand will open the world's only colossal squid exhibit on December 13.

The 495 kg, 4.2m female colossal squid will be on show at Te Papa in time for the summer school holidays, and will stay on free display for three years.

It will be lit in a custom-built tank, with displays of various body parts including the lens of its eye, and models of its beak and tentacle swivel hooks that can be touched and rotated.

"This exceptional specimen. . . contributes to our understanding and appreciation of our oceans depths and the amazing creatures that inhabit it," said Te Papa chief executive Seddon Bennington.

The tank with the squid inside weighs 3 tonnes and will be transported from the museum's Tory St workshops on Monday.

It is the most massive invertebrate ever discovered, and holds the record for the world's largest eye, measuring 27cm in diameter.

The squid was heavily hyped as a monster and "T-Rex of the Seas" after it was landed by the fishing vessel San Aspiring – gnawing on a hooked toothfish – in the Ross Sea in 2007.

Donated to the museum by then Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton, the squid turned out to be more a damp squib in terms of the 10m length initially estimated by the trawler skipper.

But when it was defrosted in April, the female squid proved fascinating in many other matters than size.

Marine biologist Dr Steve O'Shea, the main squid expert at Auckland's University of Technology, put together a theory that the female's body may be dark-coloured to cloak the glow of thousands of baby squid, which each have luminous glowing spots near their eyes.

"My research suggests they're not the T-Rex of the sea, they get more docile as they mature. . . as she got older she got shorter and broader and was reduced to a giant gelatinous blob, carrying many thousands of eggs," he said at the defrosting.

"It's likely she was just blobbing around the seabed carrying her brood of eggs, living on dead fish, while her mate was off hunting."

Discovery Channel US filmed the defrosting and examination of the colossal squid for a documentary that was released in the North America earlier this year.

From the aptly named Stuff.co.NZ

Robot vs. Tentacle

2008-11-30T18:53:00.004-05:00

Not quite a robot - but I think you'd agree the iPhone is fairly close. - Audrey.

'But the food is taking a little while, so we get two orders of “live octopus”. An assortment of sauces are brought out, followed by two plates of chopped, raw octopus tentacles, which are, amazingly, still moving. They’re a little difficult to pick up with chopsticks, since the suction cups are still going strong and clinging to the bottom of the bowl. I grab a chunk, dip it in an sesame oil sauce, then pop it in my mouth. If you don’t start chewing right away, the tentacles start sticking to any part of your mouth they can— but the fact of the matter is that octopus is a delicious animal, so when it’s this fresh, it’s really, really good....

One tentacle manages to drop on GFB’s iPhone, and sticks with Herculean strength, even wiggling it’s way up toward the top, as Mr. Meatball yells “Keep it off the earpiece!”'

From Day 86: South Korea of Man Bites World

Next: Opposable Thumbs

2008-11-30T18:41:00.005-05:00

Alien-like Squid With "Elbows" Filmed at Drilling Site
Kelly Hearn
for National Geographic News
November 24, 2008

A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, a remote control submersible's camera has captured an eerie surprise: an alien-like, long-armed, and—strangest of all—"elbowed" Magnapinna squid. (See photos of Magnapinna.)

In a brief video from the dive recently obtained by National Geographic News, one of the rarely seen squid loiters above the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico on November 11, 2007.

The clip—from a Shell oil company ROV (remotely operated vehicle)—arrived after a long, circuitous trip through oil-industry in-boxes and other email accounts.

"Perdido ROV Visitor, What Is It?" the email's subject line read—Perdido being the name of a Shell-owned drilling site. Located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) off Houston, Texas (Gulf of Mexico map), Perdido is one of the world's deepest oil and gas developments.

The video clip shows the screen of the ROV's guidance monitor framed with pulsing inputs of time and positioning data.

In a few seconds of jerky camerawork, the squid appears with its huge fins waving like elephant ears and its remarkable arms and tentacles trailing from elbow-like appendages.

Despite the squid's apparent unflappability on camera, Magnapinna, or "big fin," squid remain largely a mystery to science.

ROVs have filmed Magnapinna squid a dozen or so times in the Gulf and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

The recent video marks the first sighting of a Magnapinna at an oil development, though experts don't think the squid's presence there has any special scientific significance.

But the video is evidence of how, as oil- and gas-industry ROVs dive deeper and stay down longer, they are yielding valuable footage of deep-sea animals.

Some marine biologists have even formed formal partnerships with oil companies, allowing scientists to share camera time on the corporate ROVs—though critics worry about possible conflicts of interest.

Real Deal

The Perdido squid may look like a science fiction movie monster, but it's no special effect, according to squid biologist Michael Vecchione of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who is based at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

In 1998 Vecchoine and University of Hawaii biologist Richard Young became the first to document a Magnapinna, based on juveniles of the Magnapinna pacifica species. M. pacifica was so unusual that the scientists had to create a new classification category to accommodate it: the family Magnapinnidae, which currently boasts four species.

In 2001 the pair released the first scientific report based on adult Magnapinna specimens, as seen via video. The study demonstrated that Magnapinna are common worldwide in the permanently dark zone of the ocean below about 4,000 feet (1,219 meters).

(See "'Weird' New Squid Species Discovered in Deep Sea" [December 20, 2001].)

In 2006 a single damaged specimen from the North Atlantic led to the naming of a second Magnapinna species, M. talismani. And in 2007 the scientists documented two more: M. atlantica and a species based on a specimen from the mid-Atlantic.

That fourth Magnapinna species remains nameless, because its arms were too badly damaged for a full study. "However, it was clearly different from the three known species," Vecchione said.

The Magnapinna species apparently have only slight physical differences, mainly related to tentacle and arm structure in juveniles.

The subtlety of those variations makes it impossible to identify which species is in the oil-rig video, given that at least two Magnapinna species—M. atlantica and M. pacifica—are known to inhabit the Gulf of Mexico, Vecchione said.

Enduring Mystery

Based on analysis of videos not unlike the one captured at the Perdido site, scientists know that the adult Magnapinna observed to date range from 5 to 23 feet (1.5 to 7 meters) long, Vecchione said. By contrast, the largest known giant squid measured about 16 meters (52 feet) long.

And whereas giant squid and other cephalopods have eight short arms and two long tentacles, Magnapinna has ten indistinguishable appendages that all appear to be the same length.

"The most peculiar structure is that of the arms," said deep-sea biologist Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

Referring to the way the tentacles hang down from elbow-like kinks, Robison said: "Judging from that structure, we think the animal feeds by dragging its arms and the ends of its tentacles along the seafloor as it drifts slowly above it."

The elbow-like angles allow the tentacles to spread out, perhaps preventing them from getting tangled.

"Imagine spreading the fingers of a hand and dragging the fingertips along the top of a table to grab bits of food," he added.

But NOAA's Vecchione suggests a feeding behavior that is more like trapping than hunting. He speculates that Magnapinna passively waits for prey to bump into the sticky appendages.

Read the full article at NationalGeographic.com