Author: Andrew Thaler

An oral history of Ocean Science Twitter

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

I created my Twitter account in the spring of 2009. Back then, science blogging was new and we all though that using pseudonyms for anonymity was the pragmatic and cool thing to do. Southern Friend Science had been cooking for over a year at that point, and we were excited about the near-limitless potential of the social web.

Blogs were still king, with Deep Sea News, and Oyster’s Garter, and Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice, and Sunsets and myriad others speaking up for the oceans, online. But this isn’t a history of ocean science bloggers, this is a history of Ocean Science Twitter.

Those early days were, more than anything, fun. We were still finding our voices and finding our communities. David joined soon after and the rest of the core Ocean’s Online crew arrived soon after. We were live-tweeting experiments, sharing hypotheses, planning research projects, starting collaborations, forming communities.

Twitter is gone now, replaced by the impersonal X, not just a new brand name, but a reminder that you should close that tab. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, the once-vibrant site has been slowly gutted, transformed into a desperate grab for cash from subscribers and an endless sea of paid content. But if this last year has been a tale of slow decline, this last few weeks have been the final death roll. The rebrand to X was bad, but far, far worse was the protection, promotion, and financial compensation of a user who posted explicit child sexual abuse material. There’s nothing left of the Twitter that was.

Everything changed for Ocean Science Twitter on April 20, 2010, when the Macondo oil well rupture, setting the Deepwater Horizon aflame. Eleven oil rig workers died and 200 million gallon of crude oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico. The community mobilized quickly to provide critical context and public outreach as the disaster stretched from days to months. Ocean scientists on Twitter were positioned to respond to media queries and act as expert sources, but beyond the communications push, scientific collaborations emerged from these very large, very public discussions. As one example, we determined that I had some of the most recent pre-spill sediment samples from the areas near the disasters and identified the right researchers to work up those samples and provide a necessary baseline for understand the scope and scale of the spill.

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The research rundown: an abbreviated list of my current ocean science, policy, education, and conservation technology efforts.

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

OpenCTD and Oceanography for Everyone

Ten years ago, Kersey, Russell, and I set of on a quixotic quest to make the tools of ocean science more accessible to more knowledge seekers at a price the reflects the reality of research budgets. The OpenCTD, a low-cost, open-source, oceanographic instrument was born. Since that first ambitious announcement, we have made tremendous strides in the quality and capabilities of the OpenCTD. With funding from BOEM, NOAA, the Open Science Hardware Foundation, and others, we’ve been able to transform our kludgey little DIY instrument into a serious piece of oceanographic kit, able to compete with handheld commercial alternatives. And the OpenCTD can be built by the user, with no prior electronics experience, over a long weekend, for a fraction of the cost of commercial alternatives.

So where are we going next? The first OpenCTD validation paper was submitted earlier this year. We are in the process of revising and updating the construction and operation manual to streamline the workshop process for educators and ocean knowledge seekers. We released a standalone manual that guides users through the calibration process and are preparing to release a new guide for deployment and maintenance.

And we were a finalist for the Hackaday Prize, which is pretty neat.

The Oceanography Lab in a Box

Through my work with the OpenCTD, I partnered with the CoLab team to develop an a la carte Oceanography Lab in a Box: a low-cost tool set of open-source and accessible tools to allow ocean knowledge seekers from around the world to access the tools of ocean science. This includes the OpenCTD, as well as a host of other tools, both analog and digital, along with training and support.

One of my collaborators is currently crowdfunding a project in Ghana to bring some of these tools to a training workshop: Tools and training for coastal oceanography in under-resourced countries

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One Mining Code to Rule Them All: The poison pill at the heart of the Deep-Sea Mining negotiations.

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

The International Seabed Authority is once again gathered in Kingston, Jamaica to continue negotiations on a set of rules and regulations to govern seafloor mining in the high seas, beyond any nation’s borders.

At stake is access to vast fields of polymetallic nodules spread across the abyssal plains. These nodules are rich in nickel and cobalt, essential elements in the current batteries needed to electrify the world’s automotive fleets. Deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules is presented as a means of breaking the world free of fossil fuel production that has the potential to be less harmful to the environment than current terrestrial cobalt and nickel mines.

And that might be right. As I said in the last talk I gave on deep-sea mining:

“I remain undecided. I do believe that there is a version of polymetallic nodule mining that has the potential to produce the metals we need for the electrification of the world’s automotive fleet in a way that represents a responsible compromise between the direct impacts of nodule extraction and the existential threat of failing to get emissions under control before the worst predictions of the International Panel on Climate Change become inevitable. I think it’s very hard to argue that polymetallic nodule mining is worse for the world than strip mining Indonesia’s remaining rainforests for nickel or having the children of Congo dig for cobalt.”

Deep-Sea Mining: A whirlwind tour of the state of the industry and current policy regimes

Polymetallic nodule mining is not the only form of deep-sea mining. The ISA is tasked with governing mineral resources on the deep-seabed. This includes nodules, but also cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts (seamounts containing cobalt ore) and seafloor massive sulphides (deep-sea hydrothermal vents). These three deposits are mined in wildly different ways and come with dramatically different environmental risks. I frequently argue that they comprise three entirely different industries.

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A decade after #DrownYourTown, I’m still making sea level rise personal.

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Ten years ago, I launched a strange little project called Drown Your Town. The premise behind Drown Your Town was simple: I created a little macro in Google Maps that allowed you to superimpose a floodwater layer on top of 3D renders of communities. It was a quick and dirty way to demonstrate sea level rise in an era where those kinds of bespoke models were hard to generate. With #DrownYourTown, anyone, anywhere could simulate sea level rise in their own back yard.

It wasn’t originally going to be an outreach tool. I was writing a science fiction novel about life in a post-climate change world and needed an easy way to visualize places in the stories might look like. The book is still available, on Amazon, along with two other novellas that I wrote, though I warn you, none of them are very good (in my defense, it was the high water mark for self-publishing ebooks and I was still trying to figuring out what my post-academic career would be).

We pushed out the app, launched a successful tumblr page where folks could request sea level rise models, initiated what remains to this day my most successful Twitter campaign of all time, and spent the next year helping people visualize sea level rise in their communities.

We learned a lot about climate change outreach from DrownYourTown.

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Five Experiment ocean campaigns that need your support.

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Hi, it’s me, Andrew. And right now I’m crowdfunding an effort to develop an environmental baseline for microplastics in the deep sea using a historic sample archive. You can read more about it here: We need to know more about microplastics in the deep sea.

What is Experiment? Experiment is a crowdfunding platform that connects scientists with small-scale funders. It allows people to discover, fund, and disseminate scientific research and it is especially good at funding small pilot studies that are difficult to fund through traditional grant-making agencies but could lead to much more significant funding down the road. And right now, they have a campaign to fund ocean research.

You can check out my campaign: Establishing a baseline for microplastic accumulation in deep-sea animals using an historical sample archive but you should also check out some of the other ocean science projects currently running on Experiment.

Establishing the first technological network for long term ocean observations in Costa Rica

Costa Rica lacks extended time series of oceanographic data. To address this issue, our goal is to deploy and maintain an array of smart mooring devices that will provide real-time data of temperature, waves and wind. We aim to describe how these variables associate to coastal erosion/coral bleaching in the Caribbean and coastal upwelling/ENSO coupling in the Pacific. Our mission is to provide open-access data to improve management of Marine Protected Areas and blue economy projects.

Are deep-sea metals powering bioelectrical eco-evolution?

The deep sea is enriched with metals and amazing life forms. Electroactive microbes can get energy from metals, creating conditions that could sustain high animal diversity in the abyss. With genomic data to expand a large, public diversity dataset, we can use multi-omics and phylogenetics to reveal the electrobiogeochemical basis of biodiversity maintenance. It is urgent to know the role that metals play in such eco-evolutionary mechanisms before they are removed by the deep-sea mining rush.

Measuring CO2 mineralization rates in a simulated ocean environment for the characterization of low-cost sensors

Direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 is a technology for low-cost and scalable carbon dioxide removal (CDR). These systems will collect and concentrate CO2 from around 400ppm to approximately 20% CO2 by volume. The use of ocean based mineralization and enhanced weathering processes present a huge opportunity for gigaton sequestration of CO2. This project will explore low-cost sensors to quantify the mineralization and reaction rate of CO2 in a simulated ocean environment.

Improving the Knowledge of Skates and Rays in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is home to many species of skates and rays but exactly how many and their locations are still unknown. There is a lack of knowledge on skate and ray biodiversity, life-history and ecology, however at least a third are thought to be on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are commonly caught as bycatch, and increasingly being kept for commercial sale. It is important to close these gaps in support of conservation and management.

No, the deep-sea mining debate is not “gone”

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Earlier this month, Mining.com published an article on the next steps in the development of deep-sea mining which featured a pretty surprising statement from the CEO of The Metals Company:

“People think we are debating if this (deep sea mining) should happen or not, and that’s gone. It’s happening.”

Gerard Barron/Mining.com

One of the interesting things about deep-sea mining is that most of the people involved in the industry are environmentally motivated: the folks leading the charge for deep-sea mining and the folks urging caution have much more shared environmental values than coverage of the deep-sea mining negotiations would suggest. Which is why this quote caught me off-guard. Though an unapologetic proponent for the potential of deep-sea mining, Barron is usually much more diplomatic in his media statements. To declare that the debate is done seems reckless.

The deep-sea mining debate is most certainly not “gone”. It is, at the moment, more fiercely discussed that at any previous point in the industry’s 50 year history. While mining contractors have overcome significant political and technological hurdles to reach a point where they are on the cusp of the first commercial trials, the call for a moratorium on the development of the industry has more support, both within the International Seabed Authority, and without, than ever before. The invocation of the 2-year-trigger in 2021 jumpstarted the debate and forced the ISA to meet a deadline for finalization of the Mining Code, the legal structure that will determine when and how mining will proceed in the high seas.

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We need to know more about microplastics in the deep sea.

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Establishing a baseline for microplastic accumulation in deep-sea animals using an historical sample archive: https://experiment.com/projects/establishing-a-baseline-for-microplastic-accumulation-in-deep-sea-animals-using-an-historical-sample-archive

Most of the plastic that enters our oceans in unaccounted for. While large, charismatic macroplastics float on or just beneath the surface, making for dramatic scenes of vast swaths of garbage littering the sea, the bulk of the plastic in the ocean exists as tiny particles of degraded plastics that sink to the bottom, enter food chains, and accumulate not just in the ecosystem, but within the tissue of marine animals.

The deep sea is a hotspot for microplastic accumulation. While we are just beginning to understand how microplastics accumulate in deep ocean sediments, precious few studies have investigated microplastic accumulation within organisms at vents and seeps.

Microplastics are now ubiquitous in the world’s oceans. Though they have been found in the tissues of shallow water species and isolated from deep-sea sediment, only a few studies have investigated the extent to which microplastics have accumulated in the tissues of deep sea macrofauna, especially those associated with hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. These ecosystems are not only deep, dark, and diverse, but rely on chemosynthesis for primary production.

If you’ve been following along with my adventures across social media, you may have seen that I recently inherited a massive collection of biological specimens from the deep sea. In addition to all the samples from my PhD work, I now have an archive that covers hydrothermal vents and methane seeps around the world collected over the last 20 years. This unique archive of biological samples provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to establish a baseline for microplastic accumulation in hydrothermal vent and methane seep species.

So that’s what I’m doing. But! I need your help.

Today, I launched Establishing a baseline for microplastic accumulation in deep-sea animals using an historical sample archive on Experiment, a crowdfunding platform for scientific research.

My objective is to establish a baseline for microplastic accumulation in deep-sea macrofauna from hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. This baseline will allow us to address key questions about the accumulation of microplastics in the deep sea.

Do microplastics accumulate in species that derive their food from the chemical energy in the plume of a hydrothermal vent? Does microplastic accumulation differ among non-chemosynthetic species associated with vents and seeps? Do patterns of microplastic accumulation vary among distinct deep-sea ecosystems and the general abyssal plane?

Consider heading over to Experiment and contributing a few dollars towards helping us better understand how human impacts are impacting some of the rarest and least understood ecosystems on the planet.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you some of the weird and wonderful creatures that are part of this collection, including, of course, the iconic Giant Deep-sea Isopod (don’t worry, this particular specimen is staying on display).

Giant Deep-sea Isopod, Bathynomus giganteus

Hey, Andrew, don’t you have a Patreon? Yes, yes I do. And I realize it’s super confusing to have two different fundraising platforms running simultaneously. Patreon supports this website, OpenCTD development, and my other weird projects. Experiment will be used to fund this microplastics study, exclusively. And, just to make things more confusing, everything I raise from Patreon this month will also go toward the Experiment microplastic project.

A wild week for the future of the ocean

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Biden unveils an Ocean Climate Action Plan

President Biden unveiled the nation’s first climate action plan specifically targeting ocean health. The Ocean Climate Action Plan advance several key climate initiatives, including providing 40% of federal investment benefits relating to climate change to disadvantaged communities; producing 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2030; conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030; and achieving zero emissions from international shipping no later than 2050. It’s a huge step forward and possibly one of the most consequential pieces of ocean policy since the Guano Islands Act.

Biden also announced plans to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine Monument, this would dramatically increase the proportion of protected oceans in US waters and get us closer to the 30 by 30 goal. The call also includes potentially renaming the Monument and several of the islands to recognize the history and heritage of Pacific islanders rather than the legacy of imperialism and colonization.

No word yet on the expansion of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.

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What does the high seas biodiversity treaty means for the future of deep-sea mining?

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

This month, delegations from around the world agreed upon a treaty to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction — ocean life beyond the limit of any country’s borders. The High Seas Treaty represents the culmination of over 2 decades of debate and negotiation. Once adopted, it establishes a framework for the protection and equitable sharing of marine genetic resources — animals and their DNA; promotes the implementation of marine protected areas in the high seas; and creates a scientific and technical body to review environmental impact assessments for ocean activities beyond borders.

While this treaty is a monumental achievement for protecting the common heritage of humankind, it still leaves several loopholes for ocean exploitation. Chief among them is the exemption of deep-sea mining from the final regulations.

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Woodworking off the grid: upgrades to my DIY solar workshop

Posted on by Andrew Thaler

Two years ago, I set out on a little mission: to build an off-grid solar array that would power my woodshop. This array needed to charge all my cordless batteries, but also drive my table saw, miter saw, circular saw, and the big router on my slab flattening jig. But there was a catch. The entire system could cost no more than one American Recovery Act stimulus check. 

That first build can be found here: I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.

It worked. I beat the heck out of that set up and, other than in the dead of winter when it was too cold for the battery, it could handle most everything I threw at it, pretty well. It wasn’t perfect, and it had some issues with overdrawing, but the safety stops I put in place ensured that when I did push it too hard, it shut itself down rather than compromising components. There were limits, though, as I added bigger tools like a bench planer and started hogging through much tougher stock, I began to run into more and more issues. 

So here we are, 2 years later, with all the upgrades and modifications that I made to my off-grid workshop to keep things running hard. 

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