How Do You Pluralize Octopus?

Merriam Webster tackles the difficult question with three possibilities. The result? All three are acceptable, but octopuses or octopi are most likely to be understood by modern audiences. I generally go with octopi, myself, though I've been known to slip up.

Ocean News

Time for a few stories that have little, or nothing, to do with the Aquaman character, but everything to do with his environment...

Check out this amazing jellyfish in the Mariana Trench.

Drifting in the trench...

Amazingly, starfish are recovering after a massive die-off caused by a wasting disease over the last two years. The decimation, which killed between 80 and 95 percent of the sea stars on the West Coast, put the entire ecosystem off balance. It will hopefully recover in the next few years, but it's impossible to see if the wasting disease will continue to be a problem.

Ever wanted to see octopus eggs hatching? Well, there's a video of it for you to look at. The action starts about a minute into the video. They're so cute! And a bit ... creepy. And fast. Dang, they are fast. Lots of little topos squirting around.

And to end this posts, here's some animated GIFs of the Mariana Trench jellyfish...

Ocean News

Time for a few stories that have little, or nothing, to do with the Aquaman character, but everything to do with his environment...

I'm not sure I get the science behind using seawater for heating, but I'm happy to see an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels. More here.

A tuna accidentally ate a seagull... but it spit it out. Check out the video and the explanation at Southern Fried Science.

A woman paints an octopus using 95 million-year-old octopus ink (Google Translate version). Original article in Norwegian. Via MeFi

Learning from Comic Books

Understanding Dead Water from Southern Fried Science.

Science - What about the sea floor?

Southern Fried Science is a great blog that often tackles ocean-related issues. There's a great post there about what happens when us crazy humans punch holes in the floor of the sea.

Manmade holes in the ocean totally change the local ecosystem... yikes.

In the example SFS uses, the seafloor used to have a bunch of happy clams... which were smothered in less than a year by the tailings from the drilling. Then the temperature changed because layers of rock that had been protecting the area from geothermal forces were drilled through.

What had once been a muddy seafloor dominated by cold seep communities was now a full-fledged hydrothermal vent ecosystem. The changes appear to be permanent. This new vent system has so far persisted for over two years.

I can imagine that Atlanteans would have some serious problems with surfacers permanently altering seabed ecosystems... Aquaman stories have tackled these sorts of issues for years, this is just another example of how it plays out in real life.

Aquaman, Biodiversity and Southern Fried Science

Yay! Southern Fried Science has finished the series on Aquaman #31's variant cover as mentioned on this blog and over at the Aquaman Shrine.

Mike Allred didn't just draw Aquaman, he drew a number of REAL sea creatures (though not to scale). So here's the tally...

1. Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus)
2. Giant Deep-sea Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus)
3. A deep-sea worm with no common name (Eunice pulvinopalpata)
4. Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta)
5. A different giant isopod (Glyptonotus antarcticus)
6. Hairy anglerfish (Caulophryne polynema)
7. Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi)
8. Monkfish (Lophius americanus)
9. The muppet-faced worm (Nereis sandersi)
10. Pacific viperfish (Chauliodus macouni)
11. Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
12. Gulper eel (Saccopharynx ampullaceus)
13. Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti)
14. Anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius)
15. Supergiant Amphipod (Alicella gigantea)
16. The Vampire Squid from Hell (Vampiroteuthis infernalis)
17. Scale worm (Lepidonotopodium piscesae)
18. Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

Visit Southern Fried Science to learn a LOT more about each of the fish, complete with photos. Seriously, this was a very cool set of blog posts, so go learn a bit more about Aquaman's world.

Biodiversity

Southern Fried Science really likes the Mike Allred variant cover to Aquaman #31 because of the incredible biodiversity in the images. In short, the various sea creatures are real... and can be identified.


In the first part of a multi-part series, Southern Fried Science identifies a frilled shark, two giant deep-sea isopods and a deep-sea worm that doesn't have a common name. The blog will continue the series soon with identifications of the next three creatures, so tune into Southern Fried Science for more.

Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes?

Linkdump

Aquaman Artwork by Eshwin Dhir, click for full size.

Aquaman Artwork by Brian Denham, click for full size.

Aquaman Artwork by Kate Beaton.

Eminem vs Aquaman.

Brightest Day Aqualad Wallpaper.

Jacques Cousteau, 100 years.

Sharks smell in stereo.

Sea Turtle Finds Lost Camera, Films Itself Swimming.

Most oil-struck birds and marine life die uncounted.

Daily Dead Tally from the BP Oil Spill.

Aqualinks

Congrats to Rob for making some waves with his photoshop of Nick Cardy's cover to Aquaman #45.

Get your fill of Aquaman images with F--- Yeah, Aquaman!

Aquaman Super Hero Club Button.

Sharks are scary even in the egg.

Aquatic Links

Aquaman sketch by Jeff Clemens.

Black Lantern Aquaman by Tony Fleecs.

Dave Stokes Aquaman Sketch.

Custom Aquaman Mugg.

Comic Book Amigurumi Dolls, including Aquaman.

Pacific Whale spotted in the Mediterranean. Scientists think the lack of ice at the North Pole got him confused.

Friday Links

Tempest returns in Titans #15. Well, it seems I got my wish with regards to Dolphin.

Blackest Night Aquaman:


If you aren't reading The Aquaman Shrine daily, you are missing a lot. Rob tends to scoop me on just about every story because I'm blogging very infrequently lately.

More Aquaman reflections from The Comic Treadmill.

The webcomic Sheldon mentions Aquaman then clarifies a little.

Kurt Busiek has a website.

More on Mermaids.

I don't really understand why Spain would have a claim to this recovered gold. And speaking of underwater treasure, look at this rock heist that stole $1 million from an underwater farm.

In another story right out of an Aquaman tale, Mexico is looking for a missing island. The reason is logical, they want the territory the island would give them. But you have to wonder where the island went, if it ever existed in the first place.

Friday Links

The Aquaman Shrine does a study on Aquaman Logos, then Todd Klein does his five part study of the Logos: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V.

Joe's daughter met Aquaman.

Black Manta comes up in Vince Moore's article Bring on the Black Bad Guys.

Aquaman comic strip sightings: Medium Large, The Argyle Sweater, and Ink Pen.

I never thought I'd feel sorry for a baby shark.

Cryptomundo reports on mermaid sightings.

Links

Rob at the Aquaman Shrine continues to offer fantastic Aquaman coverage: Interview with Mike Grell. Interview with Dan Jurgens. Interview with Steve Epting.

If you find a neat Aquaman sighting, you can report it here on the Wiki, but be sure to send it to Rob's Aqua-mail so he can feature it.

Joe gives us a collection of Aqua-Icons.

Eli Kochalka is an Aquaman Fan. Yay! And his father drew Aquaman in his American Elf strip. Yay!

Pink Dolphin!

HMS Victory Discovered.

This isn't a fish poisoning you want to get. Yikes.

Lotsa Links

Scipio's prediction.

Aquaman at Six Flags.

More Comic Treadmill Aquaman indexing.

Aquaman Shrine:

• Mattel 2008 Aquaman Action Figure.
• Aqua-Mail.
• Dick Giordano Sketch. Nice.
• Dick Giordano Interview.
• I'm Jealous.

Men of the DCU Contest.

Japanese Aquaman design. More info here.

Aged Superheroes.

More Seaguy.

Starfish: masters of the undersea mountains.

How David Blaine Held His Breath. Not recommended for beginners.

Don't like the land? How about Sea Steading?

Aqua-Links

NYCC Aquaman News.

Dear Aquaman. I may need to hunt down some of these to watch. The Aquaman Shrine interviews Ben Stout about them.

Tonner Dolls. Scroll down for information about the Aquaman Doll. No, I don't want the Tonner Aquaman Doll. I wouldn't mind the Mera one, but the Aquaman looks wrong to me.

I am only linking to this article because of the name of the seal.

More DC Filmation coming out, including the Teen Titans. Gonna have to get this set.

Links, Mostly Aquaman Shrine

Aquaman Timeline.

Aquaman crosses boundaries.

Original cover to Time and Tide.

Sensor Sweep points us to an Ethan Van Sciver interview.

Mark Aaron James sings Aquaman's Lament, in which Aquaman woos Vicky Vale.

Everybody wants to see a shark up close, so much so to cause a traffic jam.

Friday Aqua-Links

I wish I could get this! I probably wouldn't use it either, but it looks great.

Can you identify the fish? It's pretty scary looking.

I feel sorry for these fish. Strange how people get pets, then mistreat them. Why get pets if you can't take care of them?

Pirates of Somalia seize a yacht, capturing 30 crew members and apparently holding them hostage. Of interest: "The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years."

The humbolt squid. More on the show about the squid. Watch it here.

A Few Links

The Comic Treadmill does more Aquaman Indexing.

Stumpy Friends! from friend-of-the-blog Karin!

Black Manta's Costume is Cool.

Dolphins are cool.

Poor little octopus.

Aqualinks

Mike Sterling agrees that Year One Aqualad is Ugly.

The Aquaman Shrine interviews J.M. DeMatteis.

The Comic Treadmill indexes more Aquaman stories. Yes, Ripples Through Time will return. Eventually.

Aqualad/Tempest HeroClix.

Super Friends coloring book.

A nice use for an old phone booth.