Weekly Salvage
Ballard’s hunt for Earhart’s wrecked plane, sink or swim for deep-sea mining, prints of whales, and more! Monday Morning Salvage, August 19, 2019.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Bob Ballard is off on a quest to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Electra 10E. Many attempts have been made to discover the famed aviator’s fate, but never with the technological tools at Robert Ballard’s disposal.
- But make no mistake: behind the flashy headlines is a chance to test some of the most advance seafloor searching autonomous systems in the research armada.
A brutal slog through some of the worst ocean and climate news of the summer. Also, fish cannons. [Tuesday] Morning Salvage: August 13, 2019.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Trump Administration Guts Endangered Species Act, setting back conservation efforts by decades, dooming thousands of charismatic species to extinction, and sealing his legacy as the racist president that is unambiguously worse than Nixon. Look, at this point, if you aren’t calling your representatives on the regular to demand impeachment, I don’t know what to tell you.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Ballard announces new plan to search for Amelia Earhart’s plane. Cool.
- Side Note: Ballard’s search for the Titanic has now been revealed as a front to search for two lost US nuclear submarines. Many defense experts also believe Earhart’s flight was used to provide cover as the Navy populated the Pacific with airfields. So perhaps something else is happening here, too.
- Whooshh! Salmon Cannons Are A Thing.
Protecting the Iron Snail, more then meets the eye, ROV-bot in disguise, saying farewell to a glacier, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 29, 2019.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- For US Citizens: Call your representatives and demand Impeachment Hearings. Now. It is, in point of fact, the absolute least you can do.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- I can’t speak to the practicality of this beyond a few very niche applications, but it is still awesome. Aquanaut, an autonomous submarine that transforms into a humanoid robot.
- Scientists Just Discovered a 310-Mile Coral Reef Corridor in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The Trek to Bid Farewell to an Icelandic Glacier: A plaque will soon mark the site of Okjökull, one of Iceland’s dearly departed.
Saving the Iron Snail, Ghosts of the Potomac, Invasion of the Land Crabs, and More! Monday Morning Salvage: July 22, 2019.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
This week in deep-sea mining:
- Seabed-Mining Foes Press U.N. to Weigh Climate Impacts. Minerals used in electronics are found on the seafloor, but disturbing them could release carbon.
- Red List: Extinction threat to overlooked species.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
SPACE!
- One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for the Merchant Marine
- Discard Studies with an incredibly important dissection of the Tragedy of the Commons: The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the commons.
Negotiating the future of the deep sea, a new National Marine Sanctuary in the heart of the Potomac, nom-nomming crabs, running subs, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 15, 2019.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Once again, delegates from around the world will gather in Kingston, Jamaica to negotiate the future of the deep sea. It’s Part II of the 25th Session of the International Seabed Authority. Watch, Live!
Need to catch upon the last 25 years of deep-sea mining, exploration, and policy? The Deep-sea Mining Observer has you covered! Read through archives and back-issues, here: Deep-sea Mining Observer.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- It’s been over 15 years since we’ve had a new National Marine Sanctuary. Say hello to Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary.
- Russian nuclear submarine: Norway finds big radiation leak. Good thing we had our favorite nuclear anthropologist discuss what to do when you find a nuke in the ocean for last month’s Deep-sea Mining Observer.
Japan returns to commercial whaling, octopuses are probably smarter than you, oil companies are burning oil to refreeze permafrost, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 8, 2019.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- The women fish sellers of West Africa, a great video from China Dialogue.
- How smart are octopuses? So smart! For Smart Animals, Octopuses Are Very Weird.
Boaty McBoatface triumphs, Narluga ascends, Sharks decline, too many bro-authors, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 24, 2019
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
In every issue of the Monday Morning Salvage, we try to highlight 2 to 5 papers from the scientific literature. In doing so, we attempt to provide a broad and diverse cross-section of the diversity of people conducting scientific research. However, our priority is in highlighting papers of particular interest to ocean science, and occasionally that means that we end up recommending papers that are exclusively authored by men. A new paper by Salerno and friends highlights the extreme extent to which papers led by men excludes women co-authors.
To do our small part to push back against this phenomenon, we are adopting a new style guide for paper citations. Conventionally, at Southern Fried Science, we use the colloquial “and friends” instead of “et al.” to make paper citations more approachable and less jargon-y. Going forward, in cases where a paper contains only male co-authors, we will instead replace “et al.” with “and some other dudes“.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- It is the hero we deserve. Boaty McBoatface Just Helped Solve a Deep-Sea Mystery.
- Shark populations in NC coastal waters are down, despite uninformed opinions based on absolutely nothing.
- It may be formed from rock and plastic, but ‘plasticrust’ is by far the most Metal name they could have come up with. A Strange New Blend of Rock and Plastic Is Forming on a Portuguese Island.
After mining a seabed is forever changed, divers do good and bad, eating plastic, a Musk mystery sub, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 17, 2019
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- What Makes Things Slimy? Now, I’m just a humble country deep-sea ecologist, but I reckon it’s probably the slime.
- I’m not not considering this: I Live Alone in an Island Paradise.
A song of mostly just fire, how to hide a nuclear submarine, toasty anemones, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: May 20, 2019.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- This tune gives me so much anxiety. Scientist Composes Game of Thrones-Worthy Song From Climate Change Data.
- Huge if scalable: New plastic closes the recycling loop.
- Deep in the Ocean’s Trenches, The Legacy of Nuclear Testing Lives: The discovery of “bomb carbon” miles below the surface shows how deep human impact goes.