What the?

Molded surimi lobsters from Surimi & Surimi Seafood by J.W. Park (2005). We've talked about surimi before, but it's worth a reminder on the official definition: "Surimi is stabilized myofibrillar proteins obtained from mechanically deboned fish flesh that is washed with water and blendedwith cyroprotectants." And then surimi is shaped into things people really want to eat, like lobster and shrimps (also in the photo). More than half a million tonnes of pulverized fish are shaped into things humans really want to eat every year...just another shifting baseline.

Fifty-three sea lions were slaughtered in the Galapagos Islands. Thirteen pups, 25 youngsters, nine males and six females were all found with their skulls bashed in on Pinta Island. The New York Times questioned this week whether tourism is compatible with conservation. Are humans?

I got a tip on a Discovery show called Dirty Jobs that aired tonight and explored the slimy hagfishery off the coast of Maine. I was interested to see it but (I'll expose a little of my technological incompetence) was unable to download the software and so went in search of reviews. People seem to love Dirty Jobs and the slime eel show sounds particularly enticing: Mike then heads to the coast of Maine to join forces with slime eel fishermen. Climbing around a hagfish boat, his first task is to separate buckets full of eels from their slime. Mike quickly learns why they're called "slime…

Another great product from Despair, Inc.

In the true spirit of Christmas, a man in Bremerton, Washington nailed Santa to a cross in his front yard. Horrible? Gruesome? Repulsive? Art Conrad says his crucified Santa is an artistic piece condemning the commercialization of Christmas. His neighbors are more disturbed, though, by the headless carol-singing Santa on Conrad's front porch...

Dead Zone Widens. Thank You Ethanol! Demand for ethanol is rising (dumb) and with it, an increased production of corn and use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. All those fertilizers in the corn belt make their way into the Mississippi River and out to the Gulf of Mexico, creating a dead zone where nothing can live. According to the Associated Press: The dead zone was discovered in 1985 and has grown fairly steadily since then, forcing fishermen to venture farther and farther out to sea to find their catch. For decades, fertilizer has been considered the prime cause of the lifeless spot. And…

Kits = Kitslano = Hipster neighborhood lining beautiful False creek here in Vancouver, aka "Hipslano". Manhattan has Prada, Beverly Hills has Louis Vuitton and Kitslano has Lululemon. Lululemon Athletica is high-end designer yoga wear and, since it went public in July, its shareholders have been saying a lot of 'namastes' to Lulu customers across the continent. But a friend pointed out a recent scandal (thanks SCS) that "has Kits in a sweat" (and it's not from too many sun salutations). On Friday, The New York Times uncovered that Lulu's lines, VitaSea, supposedly made from seaweed, looked…

According to BBC news, a Japanese fleet has instructions to kill 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks, which have been spared from hunting since the 1960s. A 2003 study in Science estimated there used to 240,000 humpbacks in the North Atlantic pre-whaling. Now there are 10,000. Can anyone help me understand why a nation with so much wealth needs humpback meat (especially since its people haven't eaten it for forty years)?

The video of the Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, age 40, being tasered to death at the Vancouver airport was released this weekend. I'd expect something like this to come out of the U.S. (certainly the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq) but to see this man tasered to death by the RCMP in Canada is astonishing (Dziekanski's own actions are also unsettling). The footage was captured by a civilian with a camcorder that was then taken by the police, who refused to return the tape. This was then followed up by a threat of lawsuit before the video was released, three weeks after the incident.…

If you haven't seen the stunning footage friend and cameraman Paul Stewart shot of birds of paradise for the BBC series Planet Earth, it really is a must. So are the "Diaries" that follow each program where you get a behind-the-scenes look at filming, including Stewart's endless hours in a hide with bad 80s music stuck in his head while he waited for the birds to display. The footage of the birds of paradise is so special, there is now an imitation display available on YouTube. See both below. The original: The imitation:

Some stories are worth repeating. Seven years ago (to the day), the BBC ran the story Giant cod conceals ghastly secret. After centuries of humans eating cod, the predator-prey relationship was reversed... And speaking of predator-prey reversal, last week a new fish fashion was advertised. Almost as bizarre but not as life-threatening as man-eating cod: China's Fish Spa, where tiny fish will nibble away at guests' skin diseases.

Wyland has been described as the "Marine Michelangelo". He has painted nearly 100 murals of whales around the world. We even have one here in Vancouver (see photo). I am crazy about Wyland murals. My loved ones know this and they have found a number of Wyland products to substitute for the murals, which they can't afford. First, I got some notecards... And then I got a bread plate... And then I got Wyland Monopoly... And then a desk calendar... When I was in Kona, Hawaii last month, I visited a Wyland gallery. The art seemed to target the sport fishing crowd with sculptures of billfishes…

Two whacky stories in one day: a Rhode Island man was arrested and accused of throwing liquid into a whale tank (where three beluga whales reside) at the Mystic Aquarium. The police said Mr. Watkins told them he threw the liquid into the tank "to keep the fish warm and protect them from Agent Orange." Read more here. A Mystic Aquarium beluga spyhopping--on behalf of the Viet Cong?

A few buddhists bought $7000 worth of live eels, frogs, and turtles for sale in New York City's Chinatown today and set them free in the polluted Passaic River of New Jersey (not exactly seafood heaven). Read the full story here.

Big, predatory fishes such as tuna and swordfish used to decorate the kitchen whisk. Today, scrambling eggs is only possible with those creatures lower on the marine food web, such as cephalopods. This mysterious creature from the deep (aka squid whisk) is a belated birthday present from my sister and my latest addition to ocean paraphernalia (PZ, famous for his cephalopod fetish is indubitably envious). Given their rank in the marine food web, there are enough squid whisks for everyone.

Al Gore's daughter got married last week and apparently the event was so sacred it called for eating one of the world's most endangered fish: Chilean sea bass (which is not actually a 'bass'). Now Gore is justifiably under scrutiny by the media and charged with eco-hypocrisy. The D.C.-based National Environmental Trust launched the Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass campaign in 2002. Maybe Gore was still busy treating the wounds after the ill-fated 2000 campaign, but really: how can someone so in tune to the problem of global warming be so in the dark about Chilean sea bass? Even Randy I'm-…

The New York Times, ever one to embrace diversity, can run a flag-waving article about the plight of bluefin tuna and the future for sushi (deer meat) and then turn around, as it did today, to publish a glowing review of sushi restaurant on New York's 15th Street. The review's clever title Does the Squid Get a Mani-Pedi? was a reference to the laborious massaging of the octopus (PZ's dream job) before its big brain was slow-cooked. But the reviewer's behavior was even odder than the chef's. He orders essentially everything under the sea, including bluefin tuna, without so much a word on the…

If there was any doubt that we are farming the seas...these unbelievable photographs are of a throng of Chinese shrimp trawlers near the mouth of the Yangtse River--FROM SPACE. They were published today in Nature and hit the press. Kyle Van Houtan, a conservation biologist with Duke University, discovered the technique to zoom in on the trawlers. He and shifting baselines' own Daniel Pauly are now working with the satellite data to quantify how much sediment is churned up by fishing.

About six of these newcomers have been seen roaming around Galapagos. If anyone can identify it, please post a comment. Photographed at Punta Estrada in Academy Bay off of Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz by Claudia Molina.