Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
What do you do if you find yourself at the helm of a major Louisiana marine science institution? If you’re Dr. Craig McClain, you plant the first experimental Alligator falls in the deep Gulf of Mexico!
On the other hand, if you find yourself at the helm of a US Navy destroyer, you might want to review this incredible and exhaustive accounting of the USS Fitzgerald disaster and how training deficits, exhaustion, and poor decision making compounded to create a deadly situation.
Jetsam (what we’re reading from around the web)
- The Ocean Cleanup struggles to prove it will not harm sea life, probably because it will undeniably harm sea life.
- Who knew the life of an Instagram Yacht Influencer (Yacht-fluencer?) could be so bleak?
- Endurance: Search for Shackleton’s lost ship begins. And… it’s over. Their robot got stuck in the ice.
- Killer Whales Are Expanding into the Arctic, Then Dying as the Ice Sets In.
- Oceanbites with the latest on ocean circulation: OSNAP! This is what we know about global ocean circulation.
- Paul Allen Expedition Team Locates Historic Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet in South Pacific.
- Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, ecological monitoring of the Gulf of Mexico’s saltmarshes was minimal. Now we are learning what can be saved or restored: Renewed Hope for Coastal Marshes in Louisiana.
- How do skates of the deep survive the crushing pressure?
- FYI, the starfish are still dying. Starless Seas – Where have all the stars gone?
- This is not a great headline: Scientists hope DNA in water could be way to save rare fish.
- Verge of extinction: How efforts to save the vaquita backfired.
- There’s a story behind this that gotta be unbelievable, right? Ocearch researchers denied state permit to tag sharks.
- Melting glaciers spell more disaster for China and South Asia.
- Does recycling actually conserve or preserve things?
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Francis and friends (2019) Shifting headlines? Size trends of newsworthy fishes. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6395.
- Stafford and Jones (2019) Viewpoint – Ocean plastic pollution: A convenient but distracting truth? DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.003
- Akhtar and friends (2019) Pillars or Pancakes? Self-Cleaning Surfaces without Coating. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02982
- Harrould-Kolieb and Hoegh-Guldberg (2019) A governing framework for international ocean acidification policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.004
- France and Forney (2010) The Relationship between Spatial Structure and the Maintenance of Diversity in Microbial Populations. DOI: 10.1086/701799
- Wright and friends (2019) Marine spatial planning in areas beyond national jurisdiction. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2018.12.003
Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)
- Small Teams of Scientists Have Fresher Ideas: A new study shows that little teams are more likely to take their research in radically new directions and Ed Yong has the scoop.
- The Warrior: This neuroscientist is fighting sexual harassment in science—but her own job is in peril. Vanderbilt revokes an award winning researcher’s tenure over exposing sexual harassment in science, while protecting harassers. I wish this were remotely surprising.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
More exciting coverage of Alex Dehgan’s The Snow Leopard Project: And Other Adventures in Warzone Conservation.
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.