Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
Cuttings (short and sweet): Follow Erin Meyer, the director of conservation programs for the Seattle Aquarium, on twitter! Piracy Incident Reported in First Half of 2018 at Lowest Level in 10 Years. From GCaptain news alerts. She said she didn’t know it was illegal to take conchs. She’s heading to jail anyway. By Gwen Filosa, for … Read More “Pirates, conch, and surfing scientists: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, July 19th, 2018” »
Jacques Week begins this Sunday, July 22, 2018! Join us for a week-long celebration of the ocean documentarian who started it all! Without Jacques there would be no Blue Planet, no Mission Blue, and no Shark Week. All next week we’re watching classic Jacques Cousteau Documentaries, discussing ocean science and conservation, and celebrating all things Ocean!
Most of these films will available online. Some will require purchase. We’ve provided links to the for-purchase options and offer alternates if you can’t find them. It’s become nearly impossible to find copies of the Jacques Cousteau Odyssey collection, so, though this series includes some of my all time favorites, we’re going to phase them out this year and instead lean more heavily on River Explorations for more recent Cousteau work. Links to all available films can be found at the JacquesWeek2017 YouTube playlist.
Jacques Week is a collective viewing experience. We’ll provide links to each piece of media, due a countdown on Twitter, and then everyone hits play at the same(ish) time and we watch these incredible documentaries together.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
Cuttings (short and sweet): Follow environmental social scientist Angela Dean on twitter! Ice free passage for ships could cause problems for marine mammals. From MongaBay Bone scraps hint at whale harvest by ancient Romans. From Nature News. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and and Transportation is holding a hearing entitled “SHARKS!” “We don’t see many … Read More “Ice-free Arctic and salmon symphonies: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, July 12 2018” »
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
Atlas Obscura is on a roll this week with some seriously fabulous ocean coverage, including my new favs:
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
https://vimeo.com/276100766
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
I recently unveiled a new tier of Patreon rewards: 3D printed shark and ray models!For $17 per month, you will get a monthly 3D printed educational model of different shark or ray parts in the mail, and you’ll be supporting my efforts to provide these models to schools for free.
This month’s reward is a tooth from Hexanchus griseus, the bluntnose sixgill shark, a member of the cowshark family!This particular specimen was scanned by Dr. Lisa Whitenack as part of her Ph.D. dissertation work on comparative evolution and biomechanics of shark teeth.
Learn more about the bluntnose sixgill shark and it’s unusual shaped teeth below!
Read More “5 things to know about sixgill shark teeth, this month’s 3D printed reward!” »
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
A normal call.
The call of a dolphin that would rather not get eaten.
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
The online ocean science community has been vocally skeptical about the Ocean Cleanup, a device that aims to physically remove plastic pollution from the ocean. Drs. Kim Martini and Miriam Goldstein published a technical review of its feasibility over at Deep Sea News, and Andrew asked some important questions that have yet to be answered. Also, be sure to read environmental journalist Chris Clarke’s thorough overview of these concerns.
Overall concerns include a lack of understanding of the problem (including but not limited to the fact that much of the harmful ocean plastic is small and well-dispersed), insufficient structural integrity for a large object that will be deployed in the open ocean (which would result in the object breaking and creating even more ocean garbage), and the fact that this device is designed to aggregate objects of a certain size to remove them from the water but cannot distinguish between plastic and living things.
Mainstream media coverage has been noticeably less critical of the Ocean Cleanup, often presenting the idea as revolutionary and it’s creator as a genius.
I am not an expert in ocean plastic pollution. However, the uncritical tone of most mainstream media coverage of the Ocean Cleanup does not seem to correspond with my impression of expert opinion on this matter from speaking with expert colleagues who study this.
Through professional contacts, I developed a list of 51 ocean plastic pollution experts who work in academia, government, and the environmental non-profit sector, and I sent them some questions about the Ocean Cleanup. 15 (4 in academia, 5 each in government and the non-profit sector, and 1 in industry) agreed to participate in an anonymous survey. While this is not (and not intended to be) an exhaustive survey of the entire field of ocean plastic pollution, the broad agreement among a diverse group of experts is telling. Below, please see what they had to say through some representative quotes. Some respondents chose to provide an on-the-record quote, while many chose to remain anonymous out of concerns about reprisal.
I also asked Lonneke Holierhoek, COO of the Ocean Cleanup, to respond to these concerns. Her comments are included in each section.
