A Littoral Expedition in Bodrum

Every summer, one of my favorite hobbies is taking an afternoon stroll in the littoral zone, turning over stones just beneath the water's surface and meeting the strange creatures underneath...

...As I go along, I usually (and sadly,) find discarded plastic bottles, and use them to "bottle up" some of the more interesting creatures I encounter. I later take their photos in a makeshift studio, and release them back to the waters. Here then, are the results of the littoral photo-expedition I took in August, 2007, in the waters around Bitez beach, in Bodrum.

Here are two tiny juvenile sea urchins and the strange "red object" I found under a big rock.

The sea urchins seem to be the offspring of the common variety found all over the place.

But this... the mysterious "red object" leaves me completely clueless! I first thought it could be a very young sea cucumber, due to the strange sucker-like things protruding from its side. But it also looks like a weird polychaete worm, or a larva of one. Or maybe a flatworm? My best guess at this point is that it is an Aphroditomorph scale worm, but do those things even live in the Mediterranean? Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope!

Next, we have a more familiar creature, one that occurs in plague-like densities around these parts.

Dancing around like five miniature serpents tied in a knot, these brittle stars are always an interesting sight.

These creatures appear to feed on seafloor detritus. Besides placing them in the group ophiurida, I cannot say anything about their genus or species.

Here is a common sight from Turkish beaches. Behold the bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata.(?)

Locally, these critters are known as "sea centipedes" and their scratching, sting is dreaded on every beach. They writhe around in pain and seem to suffer extremely when someone spits on them, thus explaining the local belief that "saliva is like acid to them." Don't worry, I didn't try it.

A close up of the fireworm's main weapons, the white tufts of stinging spikes.

I found a large variety of immature sea cucumbers under some larger stones. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember my previous adventures with sea cucumbers. If you haven't, suffice it say that sea cucumbers are related to sea stars and brittle stars (see above,) and are awesome.

This was the first variety I encountered on the beaches of Bitez. I don't know exactly what any of these things might be, or if they are separate species. They sure looked different enough, so I gave them arbitrary nicknames.

I call this one "the mottled variety." Here is its underside, showing the multitudes of tube-feet.

This one, the "meatball variety," was almost certainly a member of the genus Holothuria.

Here is its top view...

...and bottom view.

Finally, the third kind of sea cucumber I encountered was the "spiny variety". Quite obviously, I named it so after its fleshy spikes, and dazzling spots.

Here is its underside, showing the tubular suction feet again, and also the bizarre green tentacles that surround its mouth. Although all sea cucumbers have these tentacles, only the spiny ones had them this big and this prominent.

Another trick these ones have up their sleeves is their ability to eject their intestines as sticky, string-like gooey filaments.

Here is what it did to my hand! No, that's not what it looks like.

I also found some crabs, again unidentifiable to my armchair scientific knowledge.

These thin, dark ones had long, heavy pincers on proportionally long-ish arms.

UPDATE!

My friends Jonas and Emile tell me that these are Anomuran porcelain crabs, relatives of hermit crabs and lobsters that are not true crabs, but just crab-shaped. Notice their six legs, as opposed to eight in true crabs.

While these larger, heavyset kinds had a peculiar kind of "fuzz" lining up their bodies.

Here it is on macro, showing the cowboy-style tassels closer-up. I don't know if this integument comes from the crab's body itself, or is a sort of symbiotic algae.

As the sun began to set, I found it difficult to go walking over slippery rocks, or photograph what I found under them. I thus returned my invertebrate friends to the sea, and their plastic holding bottles to the trash. I ended my day with an immense sense of satisfaction.

I know many natural history enthusiasts and specialists are reading my blog. If you can identify what exactly these creatures were, I'll be forever in your debt. (or something like that.)

Mystery Sticker

One morning in Asmalimescit, I saw these yellow "street art" graffiti stickers all over the place.

...a few streets later I found the guy who was responsible for them. He was so captivated by his work that he did not notice me snapping a photo from close by.

St. Paul's in Deptford

Two rather moody shot of the St. Paul's in Deptford, one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in London. People living here told me that it used to host wild goth parties in the early 90's, but I'm not sure if this is a fact, or an urban myth. You can see what it looks like from the air on this link from Google Maps.

London Street Art

Houses...

...and a door decorated with attractive street art in Deptford, London.

Matisse in Bodrum

A power transformer painted over with reproductions of Henri Matisse's The Dance? It could only happen in Bodrum, one of Turkey's most liberal places.

One Year After Hrant Dink

Yesterday, the 19th of January, was the first anniversary of Hrant Dink's murder. One year ago, tens of thousands had spontaneously gathered where he was killed and assembled into a peaceful demonstration condemning the murder. "We're all Armenians" was their rallying cry, protesting the government's cumbersome, half-hearted efforts at prosecuting the killer, as well as its repressive attitude towards the remaining minorities in Turkey.

One year later, things were considerably different as the "peaceful" protesters worked themselves into a frenzy, attacking and trashing surrounding buildings, shops and offices and effectively spoiling the nobility of their cause

Curiously, this screw-up led my mind back to a similar, but completely unrelated conflict that took place around Hrant Dink's death, last year in my university. A huge on-line fight had flared up over the issue of gay rights in Turkey. A few days later, someone sprayed these "We're all faggots" stencils all over the campus, hitting two birds with one politically-incorrect stone by ridiculing gay rights and anti-nationalist activists in one go. The graffiti themselves later assumed the nature of the insult ridden school forums, replaying the crass exchange of insults on a simpler chalk-and-pencil medium.

I was convinced around then that Turkish people would take a long time abandon their over-the-top and pumped-up attitudes when defending their ideas, whatever they might be.

At the Citadel of Bus People

Turkey may not have a decent railroad network, but it has one of the most developed coach systems of any country. Not in many other places can you hope to catch a bus from one end to the other of a 783,562 km² country in less than twenty-four hours. This summer me and my girlfriend took such a journey, and got a chance to photograph one of the chaotic coach hubs in the middle of western Anatolia. Behold the citadel of... bus people!

The glowing panoply of coach company signs immediately announce the presence of a bus terminal in Turkey. This mini-terminal, in the Aegean-coast town of Bodrum, has signs for companies that trave as far as Lake Van and Diyarbakir. We asked, the longest journeys apparently took thirty-six hours... without stops!

Here and below, the anarchy of multi-colored coach company logos in the main bus terminal in Smyrna.

So many choices, so little time. Coaches arrive and depart by the second. People crowd at one of the hundreds of little kiosks to grab a ticket.

Sitting next to a lady? Some of the more "traditional" bus companies reserve tickets for women only next to other female passengers. Opinion is divided on whether this is a repression of women's rights, or an honest attempt to protect people from young, horny, leering assholes whose only idea of male-to-female interaction is rape.

After getting your tickets, you can grab a road reader from this depressing little bookstore.

Almost all Turkish coaches come equipped with a toilet, but taking a dump is recommended before boarding. Want to queue up at the metro-like megatoilet?

The walls of lavatories are covered with the horribly misogynistic statements, homosexual innuendo and phone-in promises common in roadside toilets everywhere. After the number, the text translates as; "I AM ACTIVE CALL ME BRING YOUR MOTHER AND HAVE HER FROM THE ASS MAY I F**K YOUR MOTHER WIFE OF-." Yes, is sounds as senseless in Turkish as well.

You are advised to try the bus stations' horrible blend of oily, greasy rat-bait food at your own risks.

A weary traveler enjoys a last-minute meal as he contemplates his final destination.

Despite their stink, crowds and ultimate hostility to human comfort, such centers connect the entire country in an efficient, if uncomfortable network.

Shahmaran

Half-woman, half-snake, all goddess. A framed picture of the hybrid Anatolian Shahmaran folk figure decorates most houses in Anatolia. This bizarre figure has been attributed to old Greek, Alevi or even Kurdish myths, but probably is an antique vestige that predates them all.

Aztec Death Masks

Three Aztec/Mixtec ceremonial masks from the British Museum, dating back to the mid 1400s. Beautifully inlaid with turquoise and obsidian, these objects are gruesomely built around human skulls.

Vomit in the Streets of London

A British Classic: Drunken people helping their drunken friends vomit on the pavement. To be fair, such scenes can be observed in almost any metropolis in the world.

To illustrate my point, here is another example, this time from Istanbul. Behold the vomit-clogged sinks of the infamous Bambi Bufe in Taksim.