Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
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” »
NOAA, the US government science and management agency in charge of sustainable fisheries, the national weather service, and ocean exploration, is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and Project 2025. Though criticisms from “small government” types imply that having a US government science agency at all represents some kind of expansion of government power … Read More “NOAA carries a two century legacy of America’s first government science agency” »
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” »
Anupa Asokan, founder and executive director of Fish On—a new fishing interest organization working to advance ocean conservation policy—recently published a peer-reviewed perspective in Frontiers, “Marine Protected Areas as a Tool for Environmental Justice.” Anupa is a lifelong fisherwoman and has become a passionate advocate for ocean conservation and justice. I’ve known her for several … Read More “People and Ideas You Should Know: 5 Questions with Anupa Asokan” »
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” »
The march towards deep-sea mining is a slow and stately trudge through a complex international negotiation. The real progress isn’t made in flashy headlines or overhyped announcements, but in painstaking deliberations and incremental progress in the mining code and the environmental and financial regimes. In as much as 2024 was a fairly standard year in … Read More “Deep-sea Mining: What went down in 2024?” »
At the beginning of 2024, I made a commitment to make it the year of the OpenCTD. A CTD is an oceanographic instrument that measures salinity, temperature, and depth. It is an essential tool in the conduct and marine scientific research. Access to CTDs often present a barrier to communities and knowledge seekers interested in … Read More “Open-source science hardware for an Open Ocean: Reflecting on the Year of the OpenCTD” »
More people care about marine biodiversity and saving the ocean than ever before. But progress towards evidence-based conservation is hindered by widespread public misunderstanding of the key issues in play. You’ve heard versions of this rant from me for 15 years, but this is not a post about sustainable fisheries, or shark conservation. This … Read More “The wrongest belief about the deep sea is wronger than you know” »
The year was 1916, the First World War raged, Woodrow Wilson was in a desperate three-way race for reelection, and sharks were about to experience a shift in public perception that would endure into the next millennium. Prior to 1916, sharks weren’t regarded as particularly dangerous in the United States. A 1915 letter in the … Read More “How the summer of sharks reshaped our understanding of US presidential elections.” »
Earlier this month, I released The Last Hunt for the Jabberwock, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure in ecologic succession. This campaign is an expression of my two favorite things: being giant nerd going on strange journeys with an odd assortment of friends and helping students of all ages learn about their world through experiential education. … Read More “‘Twas brillig… building a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for adventurers in and out of the classroom.” »
