Ecology & Zoology

Anybody With a Boat Want To Visit 130 West, 44 North?

While last year's market squid bounty continues into the 2011 fishing season, the market squid's larger cousin is playing hard to get. The Humboldt or jumbo squid--you remember, our hungry friends that grow up to five feet long and eat everything ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - May 24 2011 - 7:06pm

Chefs Opine On Changing Oceans

I've got nothing at all against chefs. I'm just suggesting that when a restauranteur and TV personality says something like “Squid is now the dominant species in the Pacific,” Cosentino says. “The waters have changed.”... then you might want to f ...

Article - Danna Staaf - May 27 2011 - 1:58pm

An Interesting Encounter With Some Co-Habitating Ants

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Article - Mark Berman - May 30 2011 - 3:56pm

Can Your Skin See Color?

Probably not. Unless you're a squid, octopus, or cuttlefish, in which case the answer is a definite maybe. ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jun 1 2011 - 1:18pm

Did You Miss Kraken Day?

Argh it's taking me longer than I thought to write this fisheries post! Quick a distraction-- Did you know that June 1st was Kraken Day over at Deep Sea News? Go read all their posts! There was one every hour! Each was hilarious and/or bizarre and/or ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Jun 4 2011 - 12:25am

Mammal Rediscovered After 113 Years

Last seen in 1898, the red-crested tree rat (or Santamartamys rufodorsalis) has turned up in an ecolodge at a nature reserve in Colombia. Showing up at the front door and calmly posing for pictures, the red-crested tree rat can get 18 inches long and poss ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jun 6 2011 - 7:02am

Squid A Day is an Illuminated Site!

Wooo! I won a bloggy award thing  from Steve Jackson Games! If you're not familiar with them, you should be. Zombies! Conspiracy! Cthulhu! What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, and hackers too. ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Jun 6 2011 - 11:22am

Long Lost Squid Tag Resurfaces In Hawaii

My pal Julie Stewart tags Humboldt squid. She catches squid, attaches little recording devices to them, then drops them back in the ocean and waits for the tag to pop off a few days later. When it pops off, it's supposed to chirp out a satellite signa ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jun 9 2011 - 12:00pm

How The Diving Bell Spider Breathes Underwater

The diving bell spider, Argyroneta aquatica, spend their entire lives underwater- they even lay their eggs in their 'diving bells'. A new study shows that each spider constructs a net of silk in vegetation beneath the surface and fills it with ai ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 9 2011 - 9:41am

Like Rice? Thank A Pirate!

Domesticated rice,  Oryza sativa indica (indica) and Oryza sativa japonica (japonica), are major staple crops in Asia.   Evolutionary biologists and historians have long wondered if both once had an original point of domestication in common, or they were d ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 9 2011 - 7:32pm