Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - This weekend, former TOPP principal investigator Randy Kochevar will be the guest speaker at Camp Ocean Pines 2008 Marine Science Series. Randy developed "Mysteries of the Deep" for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and was the first outreach coordinator for TOPP. He'll talk about TOPP's history, the 22 species of animals that our researchers have tagged, including elephant seals, white sharks, turtles, squid, and albatross.

Randy (it's his handsome mug that's featured here) now works with the folks at ad@, a company that is well known for Web sites it does for Hollywood movies, businesses, and nonprofits, such the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, for which it produced a Flash presentation about the Oceans Portal that the Smithsonian will launch on the Web this year when it opens Ocean Hall in September 2008.

Last weekend, about 130 people turned out to hear pioneer researcher Burney Le Boeuf's talk about elephant seals. KSBY, the local NBC affiliate in San Luis Obispo, covered the story, especially since one of the local elephant seals crossed Highway 1. (See our post about "Lucky".) Then on Sunday morning, his recent interview with NPR was aired.

Camp Ocean Pines's terrific lecture series is held during January and February, and provides a unique opportunity for people to meet some of TOPP's scientists in person. Lectures are held on Friday nights in Cambria and on Saturday nights at the Avila Beach Marine Institute. As Camp Ocean Pines executive director Chris Cameron notes, "at $5.00 per person, these lectures are cheaper than a movie, and much better for your mind!"

Upcoming lectures feature Scott Shaffer on laysan albatross and sooty shearwaters (Jan. 25-27), Bill Gilly on Humboldt squid (Feb. 1-3), and George Shillinger on leatherback turtles (Feb. 8-10).

Bill Gilly will be leading a special squid dissection on Saturday, Feb. 2, as part of a weekend teachers in-service program. Check out the Camp Ocean Pines site for more information. It's sure to be fun -- these squid can grow as large as 8 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. The squid that Bill will be providing will be a bit smaller -- around 30 pounds.