Andrew Thaler

Apple’s war on repair, mining the deep sea, reflecting on the mid-terms, (not) repelling sharks, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: November 12, 2018.

November 12, 2018November 11, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Take a moment. Breathe. Then get back to work.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Here Are All the Candidates With Science Backgrounds Who Just Got Elected. Note, my representative, Dr. Andy Harris, MD, also has a science background and he’s an awful, incompetent, ineffectual, and embarrassing representative, so having a “science background” isn’t everything.
Mining the deep ocean will soon begin. What will that mean for existing denizens of the abyss? Featuring Drs. Diva Amon and Leigh Marsh!

Coral reefs lose their champion, which laptop is really the greenest, new sea slugs, and an octopuses garden in the sea. Monday Morning Salvage: November 5, 2018.

November 5, 2018November 4, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Help the Victims of Typhoon Yutu.
Ruth Gates dedicated her life to saving the world’s reefs and training the next generation of reef scientists. The Fight for Corals Loses Its Great Champion.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Scientists Have Just Named 17 New Sea Slug Species, and They’re All Fabulous.

The newest members of the nudibranch family. (H. iba comes in 2 color morphs.) Photo: California Academy of Sciences — The newest members of the nudibranch family. (H. iba comes in 2 color morphs.)
Photo: California Academy of Sciences

A close-up photo of the sponge that is being studied. NHM.

Youth v Gov, thinking about oysters, how to talk climate change to radicalized conservatives, delightful dumbo octopuses, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 29, 2018.

October 29, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

The kids are alright. I’m suing the U.S. government for causing the climate change crisis #YouthVGov.
This fleet of underwater robots will help citizen scientists make the case for ocean conservation. Find out how you can get yours through the SEE Initiative!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

The Deepest Volcanic Eruption Ever Documented Left a Gnarly Sight on the Ocean Floor.

A lava flow detected in the Mariana back-arc that’s evidence for the deepest historic eruption ever detected. Photo: Courtesy Bill Chadwick.

This comic comes at you like a kick in the teeth. Can Climate Science Be Rendered Conservative-Friendly? How to pitch environmentalism to climate change deniers.

I made a ridiculous Glowing Wall Mount for my OpenROV Trident!

October 26, 2018 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Open Science

Because OpenROV Trident is a work of art and should be displayed as such when not on deployment. This was my first big design project using the Glowforge and integrating LED strips If you have a Trident, you can download the plans and bill of materials right here: OpenROV Trident Glowing Wall Mount. More importantly, if … Read More “I made a ridiculous Glowing Wall Mount for my OpenROV Trident!” »

I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.

October 22, 2018October 21, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots. That’s why Nat Geo and OpenROV are giving away 1000 robot submarines!
National Geographic Announces Initiative to Donate 1,000 Underwater Drones to Explore the Ocean.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Get inspired with the latest TED Talk for OpenROV visionary David Lang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k32nNIzWHog

Teen scientists went looking for meteorites in the Great Lakes. They found another type of alien.
- And follow these kids’ incredible expedition on Open Explorer.

How goats got the bends, a new ship for VIMS, a new deep-sea submersible for all of us, our looming destruction, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 15, 2018.

October 15, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

It ain’t going to be easy, but it isn’t over yet and none of us have earned the right to quit. What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Goats are magnificent. We don’t deserve goats. The Dark Story of How Scientists Used Goats to Solve the Bends.

Bends in the foreleg of a goat after experiments performed by physiologist John S. Haldane, published in the Journal of Hygiene Vol. 8, 1908.

There’s a new full-ocean capable submarine in town, and for $50 million, you could buy it! Discovery and Science Channel to Document the Five Deeps Expedition in Limited Series.

Submersible. Photo courtesy Discovery. — Photo courtesy Discovery.

We haven’t earned the right to quit. Monday Morning Salvage: October 8, 2018

October 8, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!) The new IPCC Climate Change Report is out and it is grim. With very little time left to hold back the worst outcomes of global warming, we need a massive multi-national coordinated effort at a scale that we have never before even attempted. The clock is ticking and the time … Read More “We haven’t earned the right to quit. Monday Morning Salvage: October 8, 2018” »

SeaWorld versus OSHA versus Brett Kavanaugh, sea lions and sucker punches, this dumpster whale is all of us, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 1, 2018.

October 1, 2018September 30, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Irrational, unhinged, and belligerent, Sweaty Brett Kavanaugh has no place on the Supreme Court. Call your Senators and let them know. And, because all drains lead to the ocean, read his inscrutable dissent on the SeaWorld v. OSHA case.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This kayaker got sucker punched. Sorry, I’ll show myself out.

It was a banner week for ocean gifs. Dead whale spends night in Rye parking lot after movers realize they’re going to need a bigger tote.

I’m pretty jazzed by the idea of a transparent canoe.

High octopuses don’t love you back, sextants in space, protect our ocean monuments, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 24, 2018

September 24, 2018September 23, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Logo for Monday Morning Salvage.

Foghorn (a call to action)

After a decade spent expanding marine protection throughout the US EEZ, the federal government is going to war on healthy oceans: The Trump Administration’s New Attack on Marine Monuments.
Want to work for COMPASS in DC? One of the nation’s preeminent science communications institutions is hiring, and trust me, DC needs you.
If fleeing to Canada is more your style (David (¬_¬) ), Ocean Watch is hiring a manager to plan, manage and execute the Coastal Ocean Health Initiative.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Gulper Eels are amazing. Amazing.

This is an amazing series of visualizations from the Guardian. Seven endangered species that could (almost) fit in a single train carriage.

There are approximately 30 vaquitas left in the world Illustration: Mona Chalabi — There are approximately 30 vaquitas left in the world
Illustration: Mona Chalabi

There are sextants on the International Space Station and I can’t stop thinking about it.

The rise of low-cost ROVs and community submersibles

September 20, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Open Science, Science

The following appeared this Monday on the DSM Observer, the only trade journal committed to covering all aspects of the emerging deep-sea mining industry. Though written for the deep-sea mining community, the subject is broadly relevant to a host of ocean industries, so we reprint it below.

The submarine Noctiluca cruises across the surface. Photo Courtesy Shanee Stopnitzky.

As a community, we discuss mining, management, and monitoring, as well as the regulations that shape them, in terms of governments, major corporations, and research institutions. The deep-sea mining community is small and the complexities of working at abyssal depths engenders collaboration, cooperation, and, in the case of exploitation, compromise. While there are many stakeholders potentially affected by deep-sea mining, only a small proportion of them will ever directly engage with the deep seafloor.

A few extremely wealthy individuals have access to private submersibles and ROVs and have on occasion made them available for research and exploration, but they are the exception. The tools necessary to reach the depths of a hydrothermal vent or polymetallic nodule field are simply too expensive.

That may soon change.