Request Response: GIANT SQUID

Many of your comments requested more information on different topics. This week I will try and accommodate.

The Giant Squid was VERY popular.

If you didn't tour the whole site by clicking on BIG SQUID in the blog, then here is a short cut: Architeuthis dux and the Search Goes On.

Did you know there is evidence of an even BIGGER invertebrate?

Riddle: What has eight arms and two tentacles, lives in the deep ocean and is bigger than a giant squid? Answer: The Colossal Squid.

The Colossal Squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is thought to be the largest of the squid species in weight, even exceeding that of the famous Architeuthis dux. This species was first described in 1925 when two arms of the creatures were recovered from the stomach of a sperm whale. After that very little was learned about the Colossal Squid for many years as only a few incomplete or damaged specimens were found.

In 2003 the colossal squid again got the attention of the popular press when a nearly intact specimen was brought up from deep Antarctic waters at a depth of over 6,000 feet. Just three years later another specimen, a female 26 feet in length and weighing 1095 pounds, was captured accidentally by a fishing boat near New Zealand in Antarctic waters. This particular animal is thought to be the largest invertebrate animal ever found.

Both of these large squids are major sources of food for the sperm whale. Scientists estimate the Colossal Squid may make up 77% of the diet by weight of Antarctic sperm whale.

Watch a video as these "Behemoths Battle in the Benthos."

To do a simple experiment to better understand sound and movement
go to The UNMUSEUM .


More about ... Beasties of the Benthos

The term Deep Sea Creatures refers to organisms that live below the photic zone of the ocean. These creatures must survive in extremely harsh conditions; such as hundreds of atmospheres of pressure, small amounts of oxygen, very little food, no sunlight, and constant, extreme cold. Most creatures have to depend on food floating down from above. Benthos are the organisms which live on, in, or near the seabed, also known as the benthic zone. They live in or near marine sedimentary environments, from tidal pools along the foreshore, out to the continental shelf, and then down to the abyssal depths.

The Webster's dictionary defines the word monster as "an animal of strange or terrifying shape" and "one unusually large for its kind". By this definition, the creatures that dwell in the deep ocean are true monsters. Miles beneath the surface, where sunlight can no longer penetrate, exists an eerie world of cold darkness. This is the abyss. It is a world of strange and sometimes grotesque forms. Some of the animals here have evolved the ability to create their own light through a phenomenon known as bioluminescence. These lights are used to attract prey and ward off predators. There are organisms here that get their food from chemicals in the water through a process known as chemosynthesis. This is a realm of extremes containing creatures of gigantic proportions. This is where the elusive giant squid hunts. It is also where the great sperm whale comes to feed on the giant squid. Here, within the waters of our own planet, lies an alien planet of wonders that we are just now beginning to explore.
(http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/deep-sea-intro.html )

DIVE IN HERE (Hold on it's a little bit spooky)

What do you think?

What else could there be that we haven't discovered ? ( we've explored about 4% of the ocean's benthic region.)

How does what we learn about life in the ocean depths help our understanding of the world around us?

What more would you like to learn?




The Comments box is always open ... (Remember just your First Name and class color please)

Look up, Look down, Look all around.

Imagine that you are standing on a beach looking out over the vast expanse of seemingly featureless ocean that lies before you. If you turn around and look at the land on which you are standing, it seems filled with life. Birds hover overhead, trees dot the landscape as far as you can see and perhaps you might be lucky enough to see a few other animals scurry past. Indeed, the surface of this planet we call Earth seems filled with life. However, looks can be deceptive.

If you think of where the creatures you can see live, you'll realize that they inhabit a very thin veneer of the surface. Various worms, bugs and other creatures that are better left alone may dig a few feet below the surface into the rich topsoil. Birds while gliding happily through the sky, must find a place to perch, to build a nest and to find food. Even the most adventurous bird can only perch as high as the tallest tree. So life on land really only exists in a band perhaps several hundred feet thick.... regardless of the actual elevation of the land surface itself.

The oceans are different.....very different.

Back in 1960 when people descended to the deepest part of the ocean for the very first (and last) time, they turned on the outside lights and there, in front of the viewport at a depth of over seven miles (35,802 ft (10,912 m)), was a strange looking little fish looking back at them and probably wondering who these visitors were. This "flatfish at the very nadir of the earth" was living at a place where the water pressure was more than 8 tons per square inch, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo jets. Just to give you a sense of scale, at that depth you could cut Mount Everest off at sea level and put in on the ocean floor at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, where that little fish was swimming, and there would still be over a mile of water over the top of it.






BIG SQUID

So when you consider the fact that life in the oceans can be found from the surface all the way down to the very bottom of the deepest submarine trench, it is not surprising to realize that the oceans represent over 99% of the living space on Earth....we are indeed living on what is truly an Ocean Planet.
(http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/SeaWiFS/ )


DIVE IN HERE

There are three special WHY questions to start...

Why should we care about the Ocean(s)?

Why study oceans from space?

What color is the Ocean? (and why do you need a satellite to tell you.)





The comments box is open

What do you think?

What more would you like to learn? ( any surprises ?)

How does this information help your understanding?

1

SLICK OIL

There are many questions regarding off-shore oil drilling. The questions and answers will have a direct impact on life in Florida, life in Pinellas County, and ... life on the beach.
The more you know, the better decisions you will make.


What's in it for ... me?

Sunday September 6, 2009. St Petersburg Times.

According to Mr. Ken Welch, Pinellas County commissioner, at the Offshore Oil Drilling Symposium sponsored by the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce, "...pro-drilling lobbyists conceded that expanded offshore oil drilling will not significantly impact the price of gas at the pump."


It depends on ...who you are?

Sunday August 30, 2009. St. Petersburg Times

A secretive group of powerful legislators, business groups and Texas oil companies has been laying the groundwork since December to win legislative approval to open Florida waters to oil exploration and end the 20-year drilling moratorium.

According to this article, Doug Daniels, a Daytona Beach lawyer representing Florida Energy Associates advocating for off-shore drilling, said the technology has changed to make drilling less visible and intrusive.

"It can be done safely, and it can be done virtually out of sight," Daniels said. Perhaps Mr. Daniels should do a bit more research.


Just one week earlier...

Sunday, August 23, 2009. ABC News

A leak at an offshore oil drilling rig has caused an oil slick off Australia's coast. According to the rig's operator, it could "take weeks to fully plug it." Gas and oil started leaking from a hole beneath the sea floor on early Friday. 69 workers were evacuated yesterday from the West Atlas Offshore drilling rig.


Did someone say...Safely?

Poisonous hydrogen sulfide began leaking from the area and sparked the evacuation, said one rig worker, who spoke to ABC on the condition of anonymity. He said that colleagues detected a gas leak early yesterday before they saw bubbling around one of the platform's 1,200-metre-deep drilling holes.

Far out and ...uh oh!

The leaking Australian oil rig is located about 155 miles off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, a region dubbed as "one of the world's last true wilderness areas" by Tourism Australia. The UPI reported that the Australian oil leak was 19 miles long after just two days, and that it would take more than seven (7) weeks to contain.


If out of sight, then ...out of your mind?

Closer to home, according to the St. Petersburg Times article, Representative Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican set to become House Speaker in 2010, said his new plan for off-shore oil drilling in Florida would require drilling to stay at least 5 miles away and will include stronger provisions to make sure beachgoers can't see drilling rigs from shore.


19 is a bigger number than 5...right?

...A 19 mile oil slick would practically cover the beaches from Fort Desoto to Indian Rocks beach. The Australian oil rig was 155 miles out to sea. Mr Daniels believes five (5) miles is far enough to be "virtually" out of sight.

If one does the arithmetic, for a 5-foot tall person with excellent/perfect vision standing on the beach, in great conditions, oil platforms would be visible. However, from a second story beach balcony, anyone would find oil drilling and platforms an obvious part of the Gulf Coast sunset scenery.

Math is such an important part of a good education, don't you think?


Who's cleaning up here?

Chemical detergents dropped from airplanes - like fighting forest fires - are being used to "clean up" the Australian oil slick. Really, it's more like dispersal - spreading it out. The detergents reduce the potential impacts of oil on surface-dwelling animals (i.e. birds and otters) but are deadly to young fish and could seriously impair the health of fish populations. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes choosing in an oil spill emergency, whether or not to disperse oil into the water and risk harming coral, versus getting the oil slick off the surface of the water so birds, mangroves and nesting turtles aren't as affected.

An Australian Senator expressed her concerns about the oil slick, "Just imagine if this was happening a bit closer to the Kimberley coast...that oil could be on shore before we even scrambled the planes."

Here in Clearwater, oil representatives at the Offshore Oil Drilling Symposium were asked what their estimate of the clean-up cost for an oil spill might be. They had an interesting answer.

"We Don't Know."






My thanks to the St. Petersburg Times. In addition, material from these sources was beneficial.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/15/how-far-away-is-the-horizon/

http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~burkardt/fun/puzzles/horizon_puzzle.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/22/2663479.htm

http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/8/24/Australia-oil-rig-leak-could-take-7-weeks-to-contain/UPI-35841251131090

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/oil_spill_cleanups_harmful.php

An Off shore Oil Drilling UPDATE MARCH 21, 2010

Florida should forget ab out drilling in gulf

In Print: Sunday, March 21, 2010

---

Drilling off Florida's coast won't increase America's independence from foreign oil, lower gasoline prices or raise billions of dollars annually for the state. •

Those are among the predictable findings of a new nonpartisan report on offshore drilling commissioned by the Florida Senate president. It is inconceivable that any responsible state lawmaker still would consider leveraging the state's pristine shoreline — and the tourism customers it draws — for such little return. Yet Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Orlando, who is in line to be the next House speaker, is doggedly pushing a plan that could put drilling platforms within 10 miles of the west coast.

The report produced by a Tallahassee think tank offers some of the best information yet to refute the propaganda from an anonymous oil industry group, Florida Energy Associates, that wants Florida's ban lifted. The report shows that the most-generous industry estimates for what Florida could collect from drilling in state and federal waters is far less than $2 billion — the annual amount suggested by the energy group's economist.

The Collins Center for Public Policy produced "Potential Impacts of Oil & Gas Exploration in the Gulf" on behalf of the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, a group set up by the Legislature in 2005 and chaired by former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, a Republican. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, asked the commission to take on the issue late last year due to concerns about a lack of neutral information on drilling.

The 40-page report uses a question-and-answer format to address 31 issues that have arisen since Florida Energy Associates began its push last year. It says the risk of a devastating oil spill off Florida's coasts has greatly diminished due to technology and safety precautions since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. But it also acknowledges the risk remains whether the drilling occurs in state waters close to shore or in the federal waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Most striking: Researchers don't think there is even enough oil in state waters to sustain the country's gasoline needs for a week. Advances in seismic technology may make it easier to find natural gas deposits, the report said. But it's not been tested in either the eastern gulf or near Florida. And harvesting natural gas in Florida would displace American-mined coal as a fuel, not foreign oil. The impact on energy costs would be minimal.

The report also states the obvious: Lifting Florida's ban would make it more likely Congress would lift its 2006 ban on the more profitable resources farther out in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which extends as much as 125 miles from Florida's shore. The industry's endgame may be to get the drilling ban in state waters lifted merely to make it impossible to continue with the ban in federal waters.

But the eastern gulf doesn't have nearly the deposits found in the federal waters of the central and western gulf — the areas that benefit Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. And none of those states have received windfalls anywhere close to $2 billion annually from offshore drilling.

If the federal ban was lifted, Florida's annual share of revenues could be as low as $20 million (based on traditional government estimates) to as high as $180 million (based on industry estimates), according to the report. New jobs would number between 1,000 to 2,500.

The report purposely does not estimate revenues from drilling in state waters, except to say they would likely be less than those of other states with greater deposits. Alabama generates the most income from near-shore production: $200 million a year. What does $200 million buy in Florida? Not much compared to a $66 billion state budget. Or compared to the potential risk to the No. 1 industry, tourism.

Supporters of drilling off Florida's shores are evoking a patriotic duty to solve America's dependence on foreign oil. Cannon warns of riots in the streets if Floridians cannot get food because there is no fuel for trucks to deliver to groceries. But these are the facts: The estimated deposits in Florida's state-owned waters aren't even enough to fuel America's needs for a week, and lifting the drilling ban would provide relatively little money for the state. It would open the beaches and the state's tourism industry to additional risk — regardless of new drilling technology. The Senate has the answers it needs to tell Cannon to forget about drilling.

Drilling in Florida waters

The state owns submerged lands from the coast to 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and three miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Here are some statistics that speak to drilling issues.

100 million

Government estimates of barrels of oil in state- owned water

140 million

Barrels of oil the U.S. uses in a week, or 20 million barrels a day

Unknown

What Florida could collect from drilling in state-owned waters, though experts expect less than other gulf states because of geological formations.

$200 million

Average annual amount Alabama collects for drilling in its state-owned waters — the most of any gulf state.

$189 million

Amount the Florida Lottery is expected to raise this year to enhance the state's education offerings

$66 billion

Florida's 2009-2010 state budget

Source: Potential Impacts of Oil & Gas Exploration in the Gulf, Collins Center for Public Policy; 2009 Florida General Appropriations Act (SB 2600)

[Last modified: Mar 19, 2010 09:05 PM]


Students and guests are welcome and encouraged to respond in the comments section. Comments may be moderated.

What do you think?

How might this information help you form an opinion?

What else would y0u like to know?

The Hole In The Wall Gang ...

Are you a member of the "hole in the wall gang?" Do you get meals in a car from someone "throwing food through a hole-in-a-wall to you? Have you ever really thought about that? Lets leave the food out of the discussion.. for now.

Every time you use a drive through, you burn at least 18 -25 cents worth of gas idling your car. According to Quick Service Restaurant Magazine, the average drive through wait time once the order is taken is three minutes. Add the minute or two that it takes to place the order, and that means one billion car-minutes spent idling each year in front of Burger King restaurants alone! Estimates for total fuel costs for idling in front of every drive through in America are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. You have to let your window down twice ; to order and to get your food.. ( some places have a third window just to pay.) Its not just food that's served ... a heaping helping of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide... all toxic- are served right along with the fries.

An idling car is guilty of using up valuable fuel, not only unnecessarily wasting this expensive resource, but also causing danger to the environment and a risk to the health of many others. Idling may actually harm your vehicle, but that's only the start. It can also be responsible for increasing pollution levels caused by gasoline burning in the atmosphere.

Reportedly idling Americans burn at least 2.9 billion gallons of gas a year, worth around $7.82 billion, according to a recent report from Texas A&M. That doesn’t count the damage done to idling engines by incompletely burned fuel. There are a lot of studies, and people often disagree on the numbers. But ask yourself, would you really want to spend a lot of time behind a vehicle in a long line breathing in the exhaust?

Neither does the planet.

Many people believe that there are times its okay for their car to be idle. This common misconception is what makes parents rushing to drop their children off at school or those in a hurry at the cleaners to leave their car in this dangerous mode. Avoiding idling can also help preserve your car's engine. An engine that's in an idle state doesn’t operate at its peak temperature and fuel combustion is unfinished. This causes fuel residue to constrict cylinder walls, expel oil and harm engine components.

The damage that can be done by an idle car, though, isn't limited to just the vehicle itself. Idle cars produce emissions that have been found to negatively affect respiratory health. Vehicle exhaust also contributes to unhealthy air quality and the presence of smog. These factors have resulted in ailments like asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Children and the elderly have been affected the most, but the environment itself is also impacted.

So lets see:

Idling your car gets:
ZERO miles to the gallon, damages your engine, wastefully pollutes the environment -outside and in, directly and immediately endangers the health of children and the elderly, is specifically a waste of money and dwindling natural resources.

Hmmmmmm......?

Long lines of idling cars doesn't seem too "green" now does it?

What can you do?

Some cities and countries have anti-idling laws. What do you think?

Should cars automatically turn off when in idle? ( hint: mine actually does)

Read more:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/5135#ixzz0PnSR8DOz

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Letting-Your-Vehicle-Idle-Can-Cost-You-Big-Money-At-The-Pump&id=343799

Morning Flight

Well... first day has begun. We really need to talk to traffic control for Tampa International Airport. MBFS has people coming and going. Cars doing drop-off and pick-up where they're supposed to and where they are not. Students struggling with luggage too big, overloaded or barely balanced on wheels bumping over humps or cornered in cracks. Bigger people pulling smaller people, rolling, dragging, bumping in multiple directions at once. Head and shoulders above the adolescent gaggle, semi-official "directors" , drovers of the disembarked, gesture at traffic, waggle at obstinate autos, holding onto wayward nomads. Ahh... notice how just the tiniest bit of authority and one's physical demeanor is infused with an earnestly evident sense of duty. The clustered congregation mills about all the while deciphering script on schedule slips and asking anyone who stands still or even slows down "which way is whatever." We have first class and coach, aisle seats and window, overhead bins, long lines, stay-in-your-seats, and pilots aplenty, TIA has nothing on us.

Surprisingly, the afternoon pickup went ...hmmm...lets say, "as well as could be expected." One problem however, all the cars in idle create a major carbon footprint. Let's trust this will be reduced.