5000 dives under the sea, plastic nomming fungi, scanning Belize’s Blue Hole, the thawing Northwest Passage, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: December 3, 2018.

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

• With ice melting in Canada’s Northwest Passage, the area will soon be a new route for international shipping. Follow Life Under the Ice on OpenExplorer!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

• Legendary submarine pilot Erika Bergman is exploring Belize’s Blue Hole using state-of-the-art SONAR scanning tools and ROVs. A couple floppy-haired dudes are going too.
• DSV Alvin made its 5000th dive. Way to go, little submarine!

• A boon to ocean conservation? Certain fungi can degrade marine plastics.
• I missed this over the summer, but Nash was an incredible guide and touring ancient Chamorro caves with him was the highlight of my time in Guam. He will be missed by many: Traditional seafarer Ignacio ‘Nash’ Camacho dies.

Jetsam (what we’re reading from around the web) 

• Extreme field work: The Scientists Who Spend Their Summers Hunting for Whale Poop.
• Can you smell that? Oil spills change stingray’s sense of smell.
• Chokepoint Blockade Exposes Supply Risk for Black Sea Grain.
• This week in marine mammal standings:
  • Why was there a stranded sperm whale in Wakatobi, Indonesia?
  • Divers find dead dolphins in New Zealand King Salmon nets.
• China-Kenya tensions rise over fish as traders cry foul.
• Coastal Job: Sea Lion Disentanglement Expert.

• 

• Logs from the Sea of Denial: this week in climate change news.
  • Climate change is fueling wildfires, warns National Climate Assessment.
  • Climate Change Threatens Priceless Knowledge Held by Indigenous Communities, Federal Report Warns.
  • We’re Now Seriously Considering Geoengineering Coral Reefs to Save Them.
  • When will we see a global carbon peak?
• Writings on the SeaWall: Squidtoons.
• The Biological Big Bang: Testing the hypothesis that sperm whales use auditory bursts to stun prey and other proposed feeding strategies.
• Annals of big ocean noises.
  • Strange waves rippled around the world, and nobody knows why.
  • Geologists Joke About ‘Sea Monster’ After Mysterious 30-Minute Rumble Emanates from Waters Near Madagascar.
• Five technologies to save wildlife from traffickers.
• Someone needs to get David this Calendar: 2019 MERB’YS CALENDAR.

Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)

• Barker and friends (2018) Potential limits to the benefits of admixture during biological invasion. DOI: 10.1111/mec.14958.
• Howard and friends (2018) Microprocessor-based prototype bycatch reduction device reduces bait consumption by spiny dogfish and sandbar shark. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsy098.
• Gaudin and friends (2018) Marine sublittoral benthos fails to track temperature in response to climate change in a biogeographical transition zone. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsy095.
• Óskarsson (2018) The existence and population connectivity of Icelandic spring-spawning herring over a 50-year collapse period. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsy120.
• Bastari and friends (2018) Sea pens in the Mediterranean Sea: habitat suitability and opportunities for ecosystem recovery. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsy162.
• Hard (2018) Robin S. Waples ‐ Recipient of the 2018 Molecular Ecology Prize. DOI: 10.1111/mec.14959.

Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)

• A Compelling Novel About Ocean Conservation Brings Together Mermaids And Oil Spills.
• The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi.

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 our Patreon campaign. For just $5 per month, you can support the SFS Writers Fund, which helps compensate your favorite ocean science and conservation bloggers for their efforts.