Uncategorized – Page 37 – Southern Fried Science

Hurricane Sandy Update and Open Thread

October 28, 2012October 31, 2012 Andrew Thaler 4 Comments

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At 450 nautical miles, Hurricane Sandy is currently tied as the second largest storm on record. Right now she’s sitting off the Carolina coast delivering massive amounts on rain to Southern Fried Science HQ, but the real trouble is going to start in a two days, when she makes landfall somewhere between Maryland and New … Read More “Hurricane Sandy Update and Open Thread” »

DonorsChoose Update: Over $700 raised so far, 4 new projects added, 12 days to go!

October 24, 2012 David Shiffman

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The 2012 DonorsChoose Science Bloggers for Students Challenge is shaping up to be another big success! As of this morning, 132 people had donated a total of nearly $10,000 to help support science education in public schools, and Team Surf and Turf (Ocean and Geology Bloggers) is in the lead with over $3,000 donated. 14 Southern … Read More “DonorsChoose Update: Over $700 raised so far, 4 new projects added, 12 days to go!” »

Anonymity, Pseudonymity, and a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

October 17, 2012 Andrew Thaler

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Since the outing of one of reddit’s most notorious trolls last week, the internet has been buzzing with issues of anonymity, pseudonymity, and privacy. Joe Scalzi’s discussion of the larger issues of privacy is the best I’ve seen, so rather than rehash, I’ll just point you there. What I would like to do, is take a moment to review Southern Fried Science’s policy as it applies to our own community. We welcome both anonymous and pseudonymous commenters, and, of course, we post under pseudonyms (granted, our real identities are literally one click away). Our pseudonyms are a matter of convenience, consistency, and tradition, but we recognize that our commenters may have other reasons to use a pseudonym, including, but by no means limited to, protecting themselves from physical, social, and emotional harm as a result of voicing their opinions. Southern Fried Science strives to create a safe space for people to discuss science, politics, conservation, and any of a thousand issues related to our oceans, our planet, and our future.

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Help students in need with the DonorsChoose Science Bloggers Challenge!

October 15, 2012 David Shiffman

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I’m pleased to announce that Southern Fried Science has once again joined the DonorsChoose Science Bloggers for Students Challenge! For those of you unfamiliar with DonorsChoose, they are an online charity that allows public school teachers to describe projects, and allows anyone to donate to these projects. In the past, the Science Bloggers Challenge has … Read More “Help students in need with the DonorsChoose Science Bloggers Challenge!” »

Brief Blog Notice: Changes to the Comment Policy

October 8, 2012October 19, 2012 Andrew Thaler 4 Comments

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We’ve updated the ever-evolving, often changing comments policy and added a link to John Scalzi’s excellent “How to be a good commenter” article. As an experiment, I cleared the moderation queue giving previously banned commenters a second chance. Here is the current policy in its entirety: Commenters (including blog authors) are asked to adhere to the philosophy … Read More “Brief Blog Notice: Changes to the Comment Policy” »

Ethics, Interdisciplinarity, and the Institutional Review Board

October 1, 2012October 30, 2013 Bluegrass Blue Crab 5 Comments

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Say your local Lions Club wants to hold a focus group to determine what the community thinks would be the best way to direct community service efforts? What if you, as a blog writer, want to survey your readership about their demographics? What if the local food group wants to stand in front of a grocery store surveying people where they get their food from? What if an independent scholar wants to interview people for their next book? These are all real-world applications of social science that may have significant positive impacts to the community involved. But are they responsible to anyone for ethical behavior? Should they be? If they were University scholars, they’d be subject Institutional Review Board oversight. No IRB approval means no publishing and no funding.

Even in the university setting, what if a scholar decides to cross disciplines and use some social science methods? Are they subject ot IRB review? Say fisheries biologists want to interview fishers about their knowledge of fish stocks and aggregations or an agricultural extension agent wants to survey local farmers where they get their seed? The what-if’s could go on forever. And they are all in the ethical grey area.

Update on Blue Pints

July 27, 2012October 27, 2013 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

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Last month we launched the video component of Southern Fried Science–Blue Pints. Blue Pints was designed to be an informal conversation among marine scientists about current issues in marine science and conservation. Our first four episodes covered topics ranging from shark finning to Japanese kelp fishing to Sea monsters and hoax UFO’s. Thanks to Google+, we could broadcast these discussions live while recording them for posterity. It took several episodes for us to hit our stride and I’m certain that we’ll continue to perfect and change the formatting as we continue, which leads us to the big question on everyone’s mind:

What is next for Blue Pints?

A weekly episode proved a bit too much for our current schedules, so we’re cutting down on the number we produce every month. On top of that, as many of you know, I’m defending my doctoral dissertation next month, so my southern fried schedule is pretty much completely packed until then. Finally, as much as you all love to see mine, David’s, and Amy’s faces, I’m sure you’d much rather we mix up the hosts a bit.

Two things are happening between now and the end of August. First, we’re soliciting guests to join in on our broadcasts. If there are issues in marine science and conservation that you’d like to talk about, or you just want to hang out online with us talking about the ocean, drop us a line or leave a comment on this post and we’ll start assembling a schedule of ocean communicators. Second, we’re launching a complementary program–A shot of Blue–which will be a short (5 minutes or less) discussion covering a single topic. This will help round out the schedule with out demanding too much of our time. We may continue to run episodes during this month, but will not be sticking to a regular schedule.

Check out the first 4 episodes of Blue Pints:

Books reviews: read up on sharks and grouper before the AES/ASIH meeting

July 23, 2012July 23, 2012 David Shiffman

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In just three weeks, the American Elasmobranch Society and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists will hold their annual meeting. This year, it will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia as part of the World Herpetology Congress. I’ll be presenting, and I’m looking forward to seeing many of our readers there. Those of you who will be attending this conference, as well as anyone with an interest in sharks and other marine fishes, may be interested in these great new marine science books!

1. Groupers of the world: a field and market guide (by Matthew Craig, Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson, and Phillip Heemstra). Grouper are some of the most economically important fish in the ocean, and it’s important that scientists, managers, and eco-conscious consumers have access to the latest scientific and conservation information about these fish. As fisheries landings have increased greatly in recent years (the 300,000 tons landed in 2008 are 10 times the landings from the 1950’s), many species are rapidly declining in population. Recent research showed that 12% of known grouper species are Threatened (Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered according to IUCN Red List standards) and another 13% are Near Threatened. Mating behaviors like spawning aggregations and the tendency to change sex further complicates management.

In addition to introducing readers to the field and summarizing the latest scientific discoveries, this book serves as a detailed reference guide to the 163 known species of grouper. The authors demonstrate how to identify each species using more than 300 beautiful color photographs and line drawings, and detailed maps show where each can be found. The population status (including major threats and some proposed solutions), IUCN Red List conservation status, life history information and known feeding behavior is also reviewed for each species. $79.95, CRC Press.

Shark fin soup, conservation, and racism: A Storify of yesterday’s twitter discussion

July 19, 2012 David Shiffman 3 Comments

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Accusations of racism and cultural imperialism have long plagued the shark conservation movement. Earlier this week, a second lawsuit was filed in California opposing their shark fin ban. One of the reasons given for the Chinatown Neighborhood Association’s lawsuit was discrimination against citizens of Chinese descent. According to the San Francisco Examiner:

“[Chinatown Neighborhood Association Member Marcus] Lee noted that the law allows consumers to eat shark meat steaks, but not shark fin soup, leading to racial tensions. “How can you save the shark if you ban eating only the fins, but not the shark meat?” Lee asked. “This ruling is not the solution to the problem. In order to save the sharks, you might as well ban the whole shark entirely.” “

An earlier lawsuit against California’s fin ban, filed by the Asian-American Rights Committee of California, also pointed out the cultural significance of shark fin soup. According to the Huffington Post:

” “Shark fin soup is an Asian cultural delicacy with origins in the Ming Dynasty. It is a ceremonial centerpiece of traditional Chinese banquets, as well as celebrations of weddings and birthdays of one’s elders,” the committee wrote in its complaint. “

My personal views on this issue are complex. Populations of many species of sharks are declining at alarming rates (which has numerous negative ecological consequences), the single largest driver for these declines is demand for shark fin soup, and this demand primarily comes from Asian cultures. With very few exceptions, conservationists are not racist, and there are very good reasons to campaign for reducing shark fin soup consumption (and reducing shark fishing in general) . There’s a big difference between criticizing something because it’s different from your own culture and criticizing something because it creates negative ecological and economic ripple effects worldwide. However, when conservationists who are primarily Westerners criticize something that is done primarily by non-Westerners, it undeniably creates what politicians call troubling “optics”. In short, I don’t think campaigning to reduce shark fin consumption is racist, but I can understand how some people might.

I asked my twitter followers what they thought of the claim that criticizing shark fin soup is racist, and added some of the best contributions to the excellent discussion that resulted to a Storify. Check it out below, and feel free to continue the discussion in the comments below.

The Beneath the Waves Film Festival is touring the U.S. West Coast

July 18, 2012 David Shiffman 3 Comments

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Regular readers know that we are big fans of the Beneath the Waves Film Festival, which shows marine science and conservation movies (I’m actually a co-organizer). If you’ve been excited to attend the festival after reading about it on Southern Fried Science but haven’t been able to attend, this could be your chance. The flagship event takes place each March as part of the Benthic Ecology conference, but this year the festival has expanded to include a variety of public screenings throughout the country.