Oil Vs. Echinoderms-the Video version!

So, here is the video version from Ocean Planet of my Echinoblog post on oil affecting echinoderms and the related Ocean Portal post on the same topic!! This usually lives here (on Ocean Portal).....Enjoy!

The 6th North American Echinoderm Conference in Anacortes, Washington!!!

An announcement from Professor Jim Nestler at Walla Walla University about the 6th North American Echinoderm Conference!

The 6^th North American Echinoderm Conference will be held on 14-19 August 2011 at the Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory, Anacortes, Washington USA. The 6^th NAEC is the first to be held on the west coast of the US.

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The conference will commence with a Welcome Reception on the evening of Sunday 14 August 2011. Oral and poster presentations will occur on Monday (15 August), Tuesday (16 August), Thursday (18 August), and Friday (19 August). Wednesday (17 August) is set aside for field trips and an evening “Cuisine of the Pacific Northwest” banquet.

The official web site for the 6^th NAEC is at http://naec.wallawalla.edu (or click on the logo above). Online registration and abstract submission will open on 1 December 2010. Costs for registration, housing, and field trips have not yet been set, but will be announced prior to 1 December.

A Facebook page has been set up (search for “6^th North American Echinoderm Conference”) to allow you to keep track of updates, ask questions, and share information.

Shrimps ♥ Sea Urchins!! Videos showing tropical crustacean-urchin LOVE!

I'm not sure why..but for some reason there's a TON of awesome sexy shrimp-sea urchin commensal love videos floatin' round the Internets this week!!

Go Forth and be amazed!!

A shrimp that the videographer-the awesome Morphologic Studios identifies as Gnathophylloides mineri on the Caribbean "sea egg" Tripneustes ventricosus...


Morphologic studios shot this amazing footage of a "pea crab" (Dissodactylus primitivus)(length=7.0 mm!) on the heart urchin Meoma ventricosus!


A tiny shrimp on what looks like a fire urchin..


Here's a little guy in what looks like a diadematid urchin..with just some stunning video..


What looks like the same species...of shrimp/urchin...


I'm guessing this is a decorator crab that has added a fire urchin (Astropyga?) as it makes a break for it across an open plain...


Oddly enough here's another person with video of the SAME thing...