Not surprised.

Oceana's blog announced the winner of the 2009 Freaky Fish contest; unsurprisingly, the winner was the anglerfish.  I personally think that anglerfish should be retired from these kinds of contests or just get honorable mention because they're going to win every time by virtue of being, well, anglerfish.  More on freaky fish at a later date, though.

I found a review for Callum Roberts' The Unnatural History of the Sea over at Conservation Maven and recently acquired a copy from the library.  If I end up having anything worth saying after I read it, I'll post it.  

The thought that came to mind when I read the synopsis was a comment from I read in one of my social studies textbooks that said something to the effect that European explorers in the 15th century described the abundance of sea life at the Grand Banks as so great that you could scoop up cod in a basket.  For some reason, that image has captured my imagination, even more so given the dire state of the long-famed New England fisheries.

Photo by Dieter Craasmann, taken from Blue Ocean Notes

The Atlantic cod, long a backbone of the New England fishing industry.  Its tastiness has led to it becoming a case study in the wages of overfishing and an unsustainable industry.

Things in the pipeline: Freaky fish update, a special post by request about sirenians and possibly the letter "B" in my Alphabet of Fish.