Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
Last September we debuted Ocean of Pseudoscience week with resounding success. We covered issues ranging from greenwashing, to bone-eating creationism, to iron fertilization, to maximum sustainable yield, all while counting down our favorite see monsters (most imagined, some real). We’re a bit late this year (it turns out the beginning of the semester isn’t the best time to … Read More “It’s an Ocean of Pseudoscience Week returns October 3!” »
Check out my interview with Kristen “Dr. Kiki” Sanford on Twit TV’s “Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour!
Imagine yourself a fiddler crab. For this exercise, imagine yourself a male fiddler crab. Are you with me? Great. Check out your right claw, it’s a sleek, slender machine, perfect for picking through the sand as you sift out bacteria and other microorganisms for food. It also makes a handy shovel for digging nice deep burrows to protect you from harsh conditions. Now check out your left claw. Wow! This thing is massive. If you possess a particularly vivid mind and have place your ego within the carapace of Uca panacea, your giant claw is more than a quarter of your body weight. This comically mis-proportioned appendage is why those pesky bipeds call you and your cousins “Fiddler Crabs”.
See that female fiddler crab at the perimeter of your territory? Yes, she is checking you out. That giant claw of yours is primarily used to attract mates, signalling to interested parties that your are fit and fecund. You even have a special dance, unique to each fiddler crab species, to announce your vitality. And if some other, lesser-clawed, male tries to move in to your territory, why, you’re equipped with a serious piece of hardware to drive off that interloper.
Read More “In sexual selection and thermoregulation, bigger is better, at least for fiddler crabs” »
You may have noticed a leaderboard across the very top of this page advertising various biotech companies. Over the next month we’ll be experimenting with the potential for hosting ads through Sproutnova, a new, science focused advertising company. Please use the comment field on this post as an open thread to discuss the new ads … Read More “A brief comment on advertising” »
For this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, check out this video of a presentation I gave at the 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress last May. My talk focused on how social media technology can benefit (and has already benefited) the shark conservation movement. It was part of a symposium organized by the IUCN Shark Specialist … Read More “Shark Science Monday: WhySharksMatter discusses social media and shark conservation” »
Later today, the annual meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) begins in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The marine conservation world should pay close attention. NAFO made history in 2004 by becoming the first regional fisheries management organization to set a shared quota for a shark, skate, or ray fishery, but the future of that legacy is in question.
In response to new analyses estimating that greater numbers of some skate species can be safely fished, the National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed an “emergency” increase in the catch limit for the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery. While its good news that some skate populations may be doing well enough to support increased fishing, this doesn’t tell the whole story of the Northeast Skate Complex.
Read More “Proposed fishery increase could harm critically endangered thorny skates” »
The Census of Marine Life is undoubtedly one of the most amazing scientific collaborative efforts of all time. All told, thousands of scientists from more than 80 countries participated in the decade-long project. They discovered thousands of new species, published thousands of papers, created and perfected new research techniques, and added countless datapoints to important databases- many of which are free and accessible online. The story of the COML is nothing short of incredible, and it is told wonderfully in the new book “Discoveries of the Census of Marine Life: Making Ocean Life Count.”
Read More “Book review: Discoveries of the Census of Marine Life” »
The deep sea is worth saving!
The A-frame shuddered as the box core, heavy with mud and reeking of sulfur, emerged from the water. We knew that it had found its mark 2300 meters below. Soft sediment from the seafloor oozed out the sides as I slid the safety pins into the spade arm. There was nothing visibly special about this mud. No ancient arthropods or primeval polychaetes crawled through this muck. It was a cubic meter of sticky, stinking glop. My first sample.
We were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, aboard the R/V Cape Hatteras. Our cruise objectives were to characterize the pelagic and benthic fauna associated with deep-sea methane seeps. For me, it was a ship of opportunity. In exchange for and extra set of hands to work the gear and process samples, I could add my own small research project to the cruise objectives. My goal was to collect sediment cores from multiple sites and survey the diversity of fungi associated with these methane seeps.
The 12 hour shifts rarely left me enough time to eat meals. Though I had never seen the equipment before we left port I became the acoustic tracking technician, out of necessity. Things consistently went wrong. Nets tore, gear broke, a misfired box core almost crushed my leg. Two hurricanes, one a category 5, hit the Gulf of Mexico while we were at sea. Work was exhausting and rest was brief, when existent. I loved every minute of it.
The end of that cruise was the high point of a 4 year project that began with unbridled optimism and early, exciting results, only to decay into drudgery, failure, desperation, and collapse. In the end, it would rise from the past for one small victory. In hindsight, so much of those four years seems painfully trivial, but this story is really about how much of a human being is poured into a scientific manuscript.
Read More “The importance of failure in graduate student training” »
