Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
Several months ago, I asked for your help to get 10,000 signatures on a petition to protect lemon sharks in Florida coastal waters. Thanks to your signatures and the hard work of dedicated activists in Florida, we have succeeded! The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has agreed to protect lemon sharks!
I will be attending “blogger day” this Saturday at the Georgia Aquarium this Saturday. I’ve heard some good things about the aquarium and their “Planet Shark: Predator or Prey” exhibit, and I’m excited to finally check it out. The last time I was in Atlanta was literally one week before they opened. I’ll have a … Read More “Blogger Day at the Georgia Aquarium” »
Since I discovered the Global Draining phenomenon yesterday, my e-mail and twitter has been flooded with witnesses of similar events all over the country. By fortune and chance, Jeff Priddy documented the earliest stages of Global Draining over three days this weekend. In it, you can see the wetland begin to drain, slow down briefly … Read More “More proof of Global Draining” »
Friends, colleagues, I stand before you today with the worst possible news. Earlier today, as I sat watching the sea, I noticed a disturbing trend. While scientists and environmentalists may claim the sea level is rising, I watched with my own eyes as the sea retreated. The data are irrefutable, we have entered into a … Read More “Global Draining” »
This is the first entry in Crowdsourcing ConGen. This entry is meant to be half of an Introduction which lays out the framework for what conservation genetics is, its philosophical basis in population genetics, and why it’s a meaningful method of inquiry for conservation. This first section is meant to outline foundational concepts in population genetics. It is not meant to be a detailed summery of population genetics, but needs to be accurate and clear.
Read More “The Conservation Context in Population Genetics, Part 1” »
It’s been a long time since we’ve reposted this video. Even Osedax needs some love.
Hundred-leven to 1, Polyandry like Crazy!
~Southern Fried Scientist
Lyrics below the jump:
The piracy situation in Somalia is a terrible human tragedy. That’s why when conservationist Joni Lawrence said that it was great because it helped fish stocks to recover, people like myself and Blogfish author Mark Powell got angry. As it turns out, Joni Lawrence wasn’t just being horribly insensitive- she was wrong.
Originally published on April 26, 2009 How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel has been one of our most popular posts. Over the past year, through experimentation and advice from fellow scientists and brewers, I’ve modified the recipe. The biggest criticism was that in order to make good beer, you needed to smuggle hops aboard. “Well, if you can bring hops aboard” they ask, “what’s to stop you from bringing any other brew supplies aboard?” The answer is nothing. So we went back to the brew pot, experimented with new reagents, and bring you now the definitive guide to brewing beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel.
Part 1 of 3 in the Series “Get to know your fry-entists”
It is impossible for a biologist, ecologist, environmental scientist not to think about conservation. The problems our planet is facing are so concrete, so quantifiable, so visible that to ignore them would be to betray the very thing we’ve dedicated our lives to studying. I always chuckle when scientists are portrayed as cold, calculating, and heartless, when the truth is that they’re more committed to understanding their system than any one else. Science is a labor of passion and scientists dig deeply into the inner workings of their world.
As promised, this week’s ethical debate deals with one of the most hotly debated issues in the marine conservation community- the tactics of “Sea Shepherd”.
Though “Sea Shepherd” is most famous (or infamous) for their work with the Japanese whaling fleet, which is featured in “Whale Wars”, they are also heavily involved with the shark finning industry.
Before we get started, I want to say something about the tone of this debate. I know from our own comments sections, even ones that don’t deal directly with Sea Shepherd, that there are strong opinions on both sides of this issue. See last week’s Deep Sea News, particularly the comments section, for an example of this. Here at Southern Fried Science, we recently came up with a new comments policy, which we will be enforcing strictly with this post. DO NOT personally attack anyone, DO NOT try to change the subject to something totally irrelevant, and DO NOT post under multiple names to create the false appearance of a majority (“sock puppetry”). Since the Deep Sea News post covered whale stuff pretty solidly, we will only be talking about shark finning here. WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT WHALING IN THIS POST.
Ok, now on to the debate.
Read More “Sea Shepherd: Friend or foe of shark conservation?” »