Author: Andrew Thaler

Marine science and conservation. Deep-sea ecology. Population genetics. Underwater robots. Open-source instrumentation. The deep sea is Earth's last great wilderness.

Understanding the Executive Order on Deep-sea Mining and Critical Minerals: Part 1, what are we talking about?

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Conservation, Featured, News

Late yesterday afternoon, the President signed and executive order on Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources. This order accelerates the US’s expansion into the nascent deep-sea mining industry, asserts its claims over minerals of the US outer continental shelf, and reasserts its claims over mineral deposits in the high seas, with some interesting caveats. … Read More “Understanding the Executive Order on Deep-sea Mining and Critical Minerals: Part 1, what are we talking about?” »

Deep-sea mining, forest ecology, and Dungeons & Dragons: all the podcasts I’ve been on this quarter

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Blogging

Between the ramp up in deep-sea mining and the publication of my Jabberwock adventure, I did a lot of podcasts this quarter. Listen to some of my favorite interviews, below. Deep-sea mining keeps heating up. I joined Hopkins Public Health on Call to talk about the current state of deep-sea mining and what the future … Read More “Deep-sea mining, forest ecology, and Dungeons & Dragons: all the podcasts I’ve been on this quarter” »

Ocean Science Blogger Roll Call!

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 12 Comments on Ocean Science Blogger Roll Call!
Blogging

Blogging never dies! For over 17 years, Southern Fried Science has been writing about the oceans from the perspective of working scientists and policy experts. Along the way, we’ve seen hundreds of great ocean blogs come and go, coalesce and expand, move and change and evolve. Some of you are now podcasters. Others are going … Read More “Ocean Science Blogger Roll Call!” »

The Metals Company has a Jones Act Problem

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, News, Policy

The deep-sea mining world was thrown a curveball last week when, as the spring session of the International Seabed Authority came to a close, the Metals Company, one of several commercial ventures seeking permission to mine polymetallic nodules in the Clipperton-Clarion Zone, announced that they would seek permission to mine directly from the United States, … Read More “The Metals Company has a Jones Act Problem” »

We are a maritime nation: my comments at the March 3 Defend NOAA rally.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Policy

On March 3, 2025, hundreds of people gathered in front of NOAA headquarters to protest the illegal, wasteful, and capricious firing of career civil servants at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I was invited to speak on the value of NOAA scientific research. Below is a transcript of my remarks. NOAA is the original … Read More “We are a maritime nation: my comments at the March 3 Defend NOAA rally.” »

10 Tips for Running a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign for Education

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Education, Featured

This December, I published The Last Hunt for the Jabberwock: A Feywild Adventure in Ecologic Succession on the Dungeon Master’s Guild. Last Hunt for the Jabberwock is a 12 to 20 hour Dungeons & Dragons campaign with a twist: the adventure, set in a whimsical forest in the midst of tremendous environmental change is complemented … Read More “10 Tips for Running a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign for Education” »

The Truth about Vaccines is Written in Stone

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Education, Science

This piece originally appeared as a letter to the editor in our local paper, the Star Democrat. Walking through the Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in the heart of St. Michaels, you might notice something that we don’t see very often: tiny tombstones. A daughter who lived two weeks before passing in 1901. A brother and … Read More “The Truth about Vaccines is Written in Stone” »

A tongue-eating isopod takes a 5-million+ year journey through fossilized feces

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Science

One day, 5 to 20 million years ago, a tongue-eating isopod parasitized some unknown Miocene fish, embedding itself in the fish’s mouth where wit would grow and consume scraps as its host feed. That partnership lasted until the fish, itself, became food, likely eaten by an ancestral sea turtle. And that’s where a million-year old … Read More “A tongue-eating isopod takes a 5-million+ year journey through fossilized feces” »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Experts respond to Executive Order renaming a subsection of the Gulf of Mexico

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Policy

In an Executive Action entitled Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness, the President declared that: “The U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf … Read More “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Experts respond to Executive Order renaming a subsection of the Gulf of Mexico” »

How Donald Trump’s Day 1 Executive Actions Impact the Ocean

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Featured, Policy

It is day two of the Trump Administration. Yesterday saw a flurry of Executive Actions targeting immigration, climate change, energy, and social and justice issues. Trump also issued an executive order to overrule Trump’s Supreme Court’s upholding of Trump’s TikTok ban. In a sea of disinformation fueled by both propaganda, the reaction economy of social … Read More “How Donald Trump’s Day 1 Executive Actions Impact the Ocean” »