Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

• Stop. Breathe. Take a step back. This can all be incredibly overwhelming. Pick the fight that matters most to you and take a few days deciding what success looks like, what strategies will work, and what tactics are available to you. And then hoist your flag and get to work.

• And when you meet someone fighting a different fight, remember to support them. There are already enough fronts to advance without taking friendly fire from our flanks.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

• Maybe it’s time to seriously consider just giving control of the world to the cephalopods. A New Species of Giant Octopus Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight.

• The most depressing annual run-down on the environmental science web: The Animals That Went Extinct in 2017.

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

• Deepest fish, massive craters, and a new continent: Eight Awe-Inspiring Ocean Discoveries in 2017.
• Last year, were barely ever went a week without new updates in the emerging deep-sea mining industry. This year is shaping up to be an intense one, too: Deep-Sea Gold Miners Target PNG Coast and Nautilus continues to seek finance.
• Jellyfish Are the Badass Deep Sea Predators You Never Saw Coming.

• This is fascinating, ignore the ham-fisted headline. Intersex shark produces viable gametes for either sex (though there’s no evidence that sharks have a concept of gender, or, for that matter, “self”). An intersex shark discovered near Taiwan shines a light on fluidity in the animal kingdom.
• In a deep, dark and unexplored corner of the ocean, researchers are searching for the answer to how all life on Earth began.
• Massive data and old wooden ships are two of my favorite things: Ancient Shipwrecks Are a Treasure Trove of Climate Data.

• Will the World Come Together to End Ocean Plastic Pollution? It Depends.
• Scientists on Mount Washington Are Experiencing Some of the Most Extreme Weather on the Planet.

• Trump Administration Rolls Back Offshore Safety Rules Put In Place After Deepwater Horizon.
• The backbone of an ecosystem: bone-eating zombie worms control biodiversity at deep-sea whale falls.
• Want to be a mermaid? I know at least one salty scientist who secretly does. Florida’s Weeki Wachee attraction seeks new mermaids.
• How Toxic Masculinity is Destroying the Planet.

• Let 2018 be the year we can stop having this particular conversation: How We Know Megalodon Doesn’t Still Exist?

And finally, we morn the deaths of almost 200 environmental activists, killed in the line of duty defending the natural world against overwhelming odds. Farewell, friends, we’ll see you again on Fiddler’s Green.

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

• Domingues and friends (2017) The importance of considering genetic diversity in shark and ray conservation policies. DOI: 10.1007/s10592-017-1038-3.
• Fallon and friends (2017) Experimental leaching of massive sulphide from TAG active hydrothermal mound and implications for seafloor mining. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.10.079.

I haven’t been great about sharing PhD and Master’s theses among the lagan but they deserve recognition to, so here’s one I found useful last week:

• Artis (2017) Examining Stakeholder Perspectives of Large Marine Protected Areas: A Q-Method Study.

Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)

• At-Sea Training Opportunity with Republic of Korea.
• Pew Applauds UN Action to Protect the High Seas.

Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)

For 2018, we’re going to recommend our favorite ocean themed fiction, SciFi and otherwise.

• A novel of finance, pirates, and the cutthroat world of the shipping industry: The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery.

Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)

• Abnormal is the New Normal: Shifting Baselines, Polar Vortices, and Climate Change.

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.