Help the Victims of Typhoon Yutu

Posted on By Angelo Villagomez
Climate change

Photo credit: Nicole Cabrera

On Thursday, October 25, Super Typhoon Yutu slammed into my home islands of Saipan and Tinian packing sustained winds of 178 miles per hour.  The storm resulted in one fatality and widespread destruction.  Friends and family have lost everything.

Andrew Thaler and I would like to reach out to the Southern Fried Science community of readers to ask your support in helping our friends and family in the the islands with relief efforts (Andrew has conducted OpenROV workshops in the region and has helped with efforts to confer UNESCO World Heritage and National Marine Sanctuary status on the Mariana Trench).

You can help by:

SPREADING THE WORD

The easiest way for you to help, and it doesn’t cost anything, is to share this blog on social media so that more eyes are reading this call for help.  Please use the hashtags #SuperTyphoonYutu and #YutuRelief.  Also, please share other people’s photos and stories on social media (you can find them using the hashtags).  Finally, you can help spread the word by sharing news stories. Here are some from CNN, NPR, USA Today, Washington Post.  Civil Beat also has a post with lots of photos of the destruction.  Again, please use the hashtags.

DONATING

The Pacific Daily News, the newspaper of record on Guam, has a list of ways readers can help the victims.  There is also a website yuturelief.com, that looks like it is run by various members of our diaspora.  I encourage you to read both websites and see what method of donating works best for you.  Here are a few others:

Read More “Help the Victims of Typhoon Yutu” »

Youth v Gov, thinking about oysters, how to talk climate change to radicalized conservatives, delightful dumbo octopuses, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 29, 2018.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

A lava flow detected in the Mariana back-arc that’s evidence for the deepest historic eruption ever detected. Photo: Courtesy Bill Chadwick
A lava flow detected in the Mariana back-arc that’s evidence for the deepest historic eruption ever detected. Photo: Courtesy Bill Chadwick.

Read More “Youth v Gov, thinking about oysters, how to talk climate change to radicalized conservatives, delightful dumbo octopuses, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 29, 2018.” »

I made a ridiculous Glowing Wall Mount for my OpenROV Trident!

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 1 Comment on I made a ridiculous Glowing Wall Mount for my OpenROV Trident!
Open Science

Because OpenROV Trident is a work of art and should be displayed as such when not on deployment. This was my first big design project using the Glowforge and integrating LED strips If you have a Trident, you can download the plans and bill of materials right here: OpenROV Trident Glowing Wall Mount. More importantly, if … Read More “I made a ridiculous Glowing Wall Mount for my OpenROV Trident!” »

Canada announced new marine protected area standards. Here’s how science and conservation professionals reacted.

Posted on By David Shiffman
Science

Recently, the Canadian government released the Final Report of the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards. This report is a set of guidelines and goals for the creation of new marine protected areas in Canada, and comes as Canada is hoping to greatly increase the number and quality of MPAs. I reached out to MPA experts and environmental nonprofits to ask what they think.

Read More “Canada announced new marine protected area standards. Here’s how science and conservation professionals reacted.” »

I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k32nNIzWHog

Read More “I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.” »

Barndoor skates, once a textbook example of overfishing, have recovered enough to allow fishing

Posted on By David Shiffman
Science

Barndoor skates were once thought to be so overfished that a highly-publicized paper from 1998 noted that they had been “driven to near extinction without anyone noticing.” One of the largest skates, barndoor skates can reach over 5 feet in wingspan, which is large enough that their diet includes small sharks like spiny dogfish; for a skate, that’s about as close as it gets to charismatic megafauna!

Recently, NOAA Fisheries announced that Barndoor skate populations off the Northeastern United States had finally recovered enough that fishing for them could resume. This move comes after a 2009 NOAA Fisheries report showed that the species had begun to recover enough that they could be removed from the species of concern list, though they remained protected at the time. “This is good news,” Mike Ruccio, a Supervisory Fishery Policy Analyst for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, told me. “Rebuilding overfished stocks is one of the cornerstones of the US domestic policy on fisheries.”

Read More “Barndoor skates, once a textbook example of overfishing, have recovered enough to allow fishing” »

Ancient fish farming and popular invasive species: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 18th 2018

Posted on By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet): Follow everyone in this amazing thread of twitter wildlife biologists started by David Steen. Ancient Egyptians farmed fish thousands of years ago. By the New Arab. This is a neat story about a new archaeological study, which tells us about ancient humans’ relationship with the sea. Fun fish festivals around the … Read More “Ancient fish farming and popular invasive species: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 18th 2018” »

How goats got the bends, a new ship for VIMS, a new deep-sea submersible for all of us, our looming destruction, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 15, 2018.

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Bends in the foreleg of a goat after experiments performed by physiologist John S. Haldane, published in the Journal of Hygiene Vol. 8, 1908.
Bends in the foreleg of a goat after experiments performed by physiologist John S. Haldane, published in the Journal of Hygiene Vol. 8, 1908.

Submersible. Photo courtesy Discovery.
Photo courtesy Discovery.

Read More “How goats got the bends, a new ship for VIMS, a new deep-sea submersible for all of us, our looming destruction, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 15, 2018.” »

We haven’t earned the right to quit. Monday Morning Salvage: October 8, 2018

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!) The new IPCC Climate Change Report is out and it is grim. With very little time left to hold back the worst outcomes of global warming, we need a massive multi-national coordinated effort at a scale that we have never before even attempted. The clock is ticking and the time … Read More “We haven’t earned the right to quit. Monday Morning Salvage: October 8, 2018” »

Banning Arctic fishing and protecting public beach access: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 4th, 2018

Posted on By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet): Follow fisheries biologist Justin Rizzari on twitter! Commercial fishing banned across much of the Arctic. By Fiona Harvey, for the Guardian. Slavery with your seafood. By the Save Our Seas Foundation blog. The top fish books for kids. By Abigail Lynch, for the Fisheries Blog. Spoils (long reads and deep dives): … Read More “Banning Arctic fishing and protecting public beach access: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 4th, 2018” »