Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- The fight for our Marine National Monuments isn’t over. We now know of the contents of Zincke’s monument review memo, and it is not good. The DOI wants to see commercial fishing return to the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments. Longline fishing in these regions has historically been conducted by foreign fishing fleets which have been documented using slave labor. Many ecologists believe that maintaining these protected zones serve as a refuge that boost populations of many important commercial fish and improve the overall health of the fishery. Any change to monuments created under the Antiquities Act must be approved by congress. You’ve got a lot of reason to call you representatives this week, so why not add “I opposed the reintroduction of ecologically and economically destructive commercial fishing to the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll Marine National Monument.” to your script?
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Jellyfish sleep. Mind. Blown.
- Our Pacific Monuments are also extremely important scientific sites. Commercial fishing could jeopardize decades of research efforts in the remote Pacific. Scientists pan proposal to open pristine Pacific islands to fishing.
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- Octlantis, an underwater city, by octopuses, for octopuses.
- Researchers create a remora-like robot that can cling to shark skin underwater. Robots are just taking all our jobs, these days.
- Environmental Justice Means Desegregating the Environmental Movement.
- How a photographer snapped this tragic photo of a seahorse lugging a Q-tip.
- If you’ve ever wondered why scientists are firing air guns at narwhals: Why Scientists Are Firing Air Guns at Narwhals.
- Dominica has lost almost all communication, but the mighty Ham radio endures: In Devastated Dominica, ‘Hams’ Become Vital Communications Link.
- Harvey Spilled 22,000 Barrels of Oil and Chemicals, Says Coast Guard. Reasons we need an effective EPA #5,602,348.
- The Golden Age of Animal Tracking. Scientists may soon be able to monitor whole ecosystems in real time.
- Starving Killer Whales Are Losing Most of Their Babies.
- All the weird fish that breath air, courtesy of the Fisheries Blog: A breath of fresh air.
- oceanbites explains how to observe ocean clarity from space.
- Why did one of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced subs return to port with a pirate flag? I have a theory…
- How to clean a sea turtle. File under: Useful Skills.
- 134 environmental defenders have been killed so far in 2017, one of the deadliest years ever.
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Truelove and friends (2017) Isolation by oceanic distance and spatial genetic structure in an overharvested international fishery. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12626.
- Faulkes (2017) Filtering out parasites: sand crabs (Lepidopa benedicti) are infected by more parasites than sympatric mole crabs (Emerita benedicti). DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3852.
- Baeza and Behringer (2017) Integrative taxonomy of the ornamental ‘peppermint’ shrimp public market and population genetics of Lysmata boggessi, the most heavily traded species worldwide. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3786.
Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)
- When two lines of research collide. Get the story behind the paper, straight from Zen Faulkes!
- Metrics do not mean academia has been “hacked”. It’s a Neurodojo double-header!
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
- Making Your Donations Count: 5 simple guidelines for selecting conservation organizations to support.
- Playing against the slaughter rule.
Feel free to share your own Foghorns, Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Shipping News, Driftwood, and Derelicts in the comments below. If you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to my Patreon campaign to help us keep the servers humming and support other innovative ocean science and conservation initiatives.