Science – Page 70 – Southern Fried Science

Dolphin-safe tuna: conservation success story or ecological disaster?

July 26, 2010December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 49 Comments

I used to feel warm and fuzzy inside when I saw the dolphin-safe logo on my tuna. I felt like a decision I made was helping the environment- like I was making a difference.

The commonly believed narrative about dolphin-safe tuna goes something like this: Lots of dolphins were being killed by tuna fishermen, outraged environmentalists led a massive PR campaign, legions of adorable children wrote to their elected officials, elected officials changed the rules to protect dolphins, and everything is better now. Hooray, we saved an innocent species and helped the environment!

That narrative is a great story. It shows that if a few people who care can convince others that their cause is just, there’s no limit to what we can accomplish. It’s inspiring. Too bad it’s not really true. As it turns out, we made things worse- a LOT worse.

Adventures with Citizen Science: perspectives of a shark biologist

July 24, 2010December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Conservation, Science

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on facebook may have seen that last month, I asked for volunteers to come catch and tag sharks with me here in Charleston. While I was pleased by how excited respondents were for this opportunity, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that involving members of the public in scientific research is an old idea. It’s called Citizen Science.

E.O. Wilson is the Lord of the Ants

July 24, 2010June 16, 2010 Andrew Thaler

Popular Culture, Science

A wonderful Friday surprise

July 23, 2010 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Science

At a recent conference, I was engaged in a multiple-day bidding war over an item for sale at the silent auction. The item eventually went for more than three times what my maximum bid was and ended up raising a lot of money for student travel. Still, I was sad to have lost, even though matching the winning bid would have meant not eating for a week or so.

The item was a first edition copy of Eugenie Clark’s classic book ” Lady and the Sharks”, and since Eugenie was there, she volunteered to give a personalized signature to the winner. Close friends know that “the Lady and the Sharks” was very influential in my decision to become a shark biologist, and Eugenie Clark was one of my childhood heroes.

Chemistry of the Great Big Blue

July 22, 2010August 31, 2010 Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment

Science

Remember when I promised to profile chemicals in the ocean as a New Year’s resolution? If not, here‘s my first in the series of one posts that resulted, reposted here as a reminder. As always, I encourage checking out the old comments. From now on, I still hope to give the series a second shot at life, so keep checking back for more installments of the series.

As my fellow fry-entists can attest, we know so little about the oceans that every deep sea expedition yields a handful of new species to describe, focus on saving one species may come at the demise of another, and people still won’t go swimming in some areas for fear Jaws will eat them. And that’s just a quick sampling of what we’ve written so far. The depth of our societal ignorance about the ocean and how it functions is enormous. Just as the fishermen of days gone by used to think that the sea offered God’s unlimited bounty, modern day people don’t seem to understand that the ocean isn’t an endlessly large dumping ground for all things undesired in our terrestrial lives. From trash to carbon dioxide to birth control pills, our oceans are the unfortunate downstream victims of human decisions. We don’t understand the impacts, sources, or even types of chemicals that are ending up flushed to the seas. One of my new year’s resolutions is to become more acquainted with the chemicals of the great big sea. Today’s profiled chemical: the unknown.

Philosophy of activism: comment “swarming”

July 21, 2010 David Shiffman 12 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

In my ongoing Philosophy of Activism series, I describe tactics used by various advocacy organizations and solicit feedback from our readers to determine if those tactics are effective or not. For the latest edition, I wanted to pick all of your brains about a tactic that I personally used this week.

Alien Invaders: coral pathogens

July 20, 2010July 20, 2010 Andrew Thaler

Science

The following is a repost from the old Southern Fried Science WordPress blog. The original can be found here.

It was a story that could very easily have been written as science fiction. Gorgonian (sea fan) corals of the Florida coast were turning black and dying. The infectious culprit was something no one working on the reefs had encountered before. It was totally alien. The black rot spread across the Caribbean, decimating coral populations. By the time the contagion had been deduced, more than 50% of total sea fan tissue had been eradicated in the Florida Keys. It was one of the worst coral epidemics in recent history.

The culprit was indeed an alien, though certainly not extra-terrestrial. In fact, it was very terrestrial. Aspergillus sydowii, a globally distributed saprophytic soil fungus was the nightmare creature. Aspergillus causes a variety of diseases in humans and birds, but had not previously been recognized as a marine pathogen.

Cosmic Quandaries with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

July 18, 2010 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Science

This panel discussion is definitely worth watching in it’s entirety, but if you can only watch one bit, this section where Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about UFO’s and the arguement from ignorance is marvelous. ~Southern Fried Scientist

Get ready for the Summer SharkTakular!

July 18, 2010July 18, 2010 David Shiffman

Science

Starting tomorrow, Oceans4Ever.com will be hosting the Summer SharkTakular, a week devoted to shark biology and conservation! The SharkTakular will include guest posts from experts from all corners of the shark world, including science, conservation, and filmmaking. It will also feature posts by yours truly! Be sure to follow along on Oceans4Ever all week. There … Read More “Get ready for the Summer SharkTakular!” »

Shark reporting fail in my hometown newspaper

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010 David Shiffman 7 Comments

Popular Culture, Science

I was excited to see that today’s Charleston Post and Courier has a shark on the front page. The content of the article, entitled “Sharks Swarming“, inspired entirely different emotions. Much of the information it contains is either exaggerated to make the situation appear scarier than it is or is simply wrong. Here are some examples:

Read More “Shark reporting fail in my hometown newspaper” »