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A few days ago, Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii signed the recently passed shark fin bill into law. Starting on July 1 of 2011 it will be illegal to possess or sell shark fins within the state of Hawaii. Though this law, the strongest shark protection law in North America, is a huge success, we … Read More “Hawaii shark fin bill signed into law!” »
Charlie checks out some pitcher plants in the Asheville Arboretum.
With half a year of 365 days of Darwin pictures behind us, the time has come to select your favorite six from the first six months. At the end of the year, we will produce a calendar of the twelve best Charlie pictures, as selected by the Southern Fried Science readership.
Read More “Choose your favorite Charlie pictures and help support the Beagle Project” »
Charlie hangs out in a Dawn Redwood at the Asheville Arboretum.
Update: we’ve promoted this post to a full page on the blog. Please go here for the most up-to-date version. The comment thread will remain active here.
My day began with a balancing contest on the stern deck – who could stand on one foot the longest? It was an official welcoming to the world of those with sea legs. The rest of the day blended in with yesterday, when we ran our second diel experiment – nothing new there from the science end.
We pulled up our incubation/grazing experiment to look at the effect of grazers. We had dropped 96 bottles, each a different manipulated community, overboard. Turns out something got hungry and took a bite of the net bag that was holding the bottles underwater. We’d like to think shark, but that’s entirely our imaginations run wild. We spent the entirety of the day after lunch filling up large plastic carboys with water from the Sargasso – a prized medium for phytoplankton researchers. The water out here, though a classic mix of sea elements is very “clean”, meaning it has extremely low levels of organic matter, trace metals, or really any nutrients at all. It’s what makes the waters out here such a beautiful blue and is the reason we haven’t seen much life outside of the phytoplankton in our tubes the entire trip.
Charlie and William hang out after dinner.
A stormy beginning makes for a busy end. We spent the day prepping for a couple of experiments that will happen tomorrow while we’re all awake for the second round of the diel experiment. We sent a go-flow, typically used to collect data on trace minerals in the water, overboard to gracefully collect and filter seawater to be used for growth medium in an incubation experiment. It’s hard to think about treating seawater nicely, but apparently the go-flow apparatus is designed to not split any cells upon entry or exit. This ensures that the phytoplankton we’re trying to grow and measure will have the most realistic experience in their little containers as possible tomorrow.
Charlie helps cook dinner in Asheville, North Carolina.
