Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

• Friend of the blog and submarine legend Erika Bergman is leading an expedition to Belize’s Blue Hole! Follow along as she maps this unique ocean feature: Belize Blue Hole 2018. Some dudes are tagging along, too.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

• The Fourth National Climate Assessment is out and it is grim.

Climate change affects the natural, built, and social systems we rely on individually and through their connections to one another. These interconnected systems are increasingly vulnerable to cascading impacts that are often difficult to predict, threatening essential services within and beyond the Nation’s borders.

• Meanwhile: The Trump Administration’s Attempt to Bury a New Climate Report on Black Friday Totally Backfired.
• Government Climate Report Lays Out How Screwed We Are If We Don’t Act Now.

The Gam (conversations from the ocean-podcasting world)

• Speak Up for the Blue on art and the ocean.

Jetsam (what we’re reading from around the web)

• Another candidate for the Yong of the Year: The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax.

• In the Chesapeake Bay, Shell Mounds Show a Long History of Sustainable Oyster Harvests.
• Bacteria that consumes CO2 has been discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
• Scientists warn against deep-sea mining after key carbon cycle discovery.

• It’s Gar! In Texas, One of the World’s Oldest, Weirdest Fish Finally Gets its Due. Featuring Dr. Solomon David.
• This week is ocean death:
  • Dead sea lions are washing up on Puget Sound shores — with bullet holes.
  • As many as 145 pilot whales dead after mass stranding on Stewart Island.
  • Nearly 200 Dead Sea Turtles Have Washed Ashore Along Cape Cod in the Last Week.
  • Dead Sperm Whale Washes Up With 150 Plastic Cups in Its Stomach.
• Koi evacuated as search for Chinatown otter continues; fate of old, rare fish Madonna uncertain.
• Wherein Werner Herzog gives voice to a lonely plastic bag.

• Reykjavik meeting seals China’s commitment to Arctic expansion.

Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)

• Pausas and Bond (2018) Humboldt and the reinvention of nature. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13109.
• Georgieva and friends (2018) Microbial-tubeworm associations in a 440 million year old hydrothermal vent community. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.2004.
• Ribeiro and friends (2018) Scientific, technical and legal challenges of deep sea mining. A vision for Portugal – Conference report. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2018.11.001.

Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)

• Deep Sea News is on fire this week. Glad to see them back to posting after a bit of a hiatus.
  • Tipping Points, For-Profit Scientific Publishing, and Closed Science.
  • Let’s Kill the GRE.

Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)

• Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island by Earl Swift.

Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)

• Tangier, an Island out of Time.

Feel free to share your own Foghorns, Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Shipping News, Driftwood, and Derelicts in the comments below. If you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to our Patreon campaign. For just $5 per month, you can support the SFS Writers Fund, which helps compensate your favorite ocean science and conservation bloggers for their efforts.