Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- The deadline for comments on Marine National Monuments and National Marine Sanctuaries has been extended due to overwhelming responses. You now have until August 14, 2017 to leave a comment.
- Scientists, researchers, explorers, and conservationists with particular ties to the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument can sign on the this letter co-authored by me, James Cameron, and numerous researchers who’s worked has benefited from the Mariana Trench.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- A new generation of robots is set to explore marine mysteries around the world. 5 Ways Underwater Drones Are Helping Citizens Save the Ocean. And check out this very short Wired piece on OpenROV Trident!
- Earlier this week, Snooty, the world’s oldest living captive manatee died tragically. Now residents of Manatee County want to replace a Confederate statue with a statue of their beloved manatee. How can you say no to this face?
Snooty. Photo via @GWR
- Personally, I am 100% behind replacing all Confederate statues with beloved ocean animals. H/T Aaron Mannes.
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- Move whale! Get out the way! Ships are huge and loud, yet they seem to take whales by surprise. Why Don’t Whales Get Out of the Way?
- The last US orca calf born in captivity dies at SeaWorld.
- I am just generally ambivalent about these kinds of programs. It did, however, do a great job raising Michael Phelps Awareness: Michael Phelps just raced a great white shark. It went about as well as expected.
- Two great pieces on the new Deep-sea Mining Observer, a project by Arlo Hemphill: Nautilus Minerals Commence PNG Submerged Trials and An Interview with New ISA Secretary-General Michael W. Lodge.
Photo via Nautilus Minerals.
- People have thrown away 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic since 1950.
- At the beginning of his tenure, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sent a letter to NOAA saying he “believed science should be left to the scientists”. In his first major intervention in the fisheries management process, Secretary Ross has flushed that promise down the head: Trump administration steps in on fishing limits, and the implications could ripple.
- Underwater robot photographs possible melted fuel at Fukushima plant.
(SHUJI KAJIYAMA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO)
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Geyer and friends (2017) Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700782.
- Carroll and friends (2017) Defending the scientific integrity of conservation-policy processes. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12958.
- Borggaard and friends (2017) Managing U.S. Atlantic large whale entanglements: Four guiding principles. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2017.06.027.
- McCuaig and friends (2017) The bivalve Thyasira cf. gouldi hosts chemoautotrophic symbiont populations with strain level diversity. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3597.
- McKnight and friends (2017) Good vibrations: a novel method for sexing turtles. DOI: 10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-19982.
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
A few Shark Week Classics.