Southern Fried Science

Dear Shark Man, do sharks fart?

January 10, 2018January 10, 2018 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Welcome to Dear Shark Man, an advice column inspired by a ridiculous e-mail I received. You can send your questions to me via twitter (@WhySharksMatter) or e-mail (WhySharksMatter at gmail).

Dear Shark Man,

Do sharks fart?

Sincerely,
Restless in Raleigh

OceansOnline is now accepting abstracts! Lead a discussion, teach a skill, and join us!

January 9, 2018 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

OceansOnline is now accepting abstracts! OceansOnline is an optional one-day add-on to the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC5).This year’s IMCC (including OceansOnline) will take place in Kuching, Malaysia. IMCC5 is June 22-29th, 2018 with OceansOnline on the 2018.

OceansOnline focuses on using online tools for marine science and conservation, including advocacy, public education, research, and collaboration! Anyone is welcome, including scientists, conservation advocates, educators, natural resource managers, journalists, and communicators. OceansOnline content is suitable for beginners or professionals.

Fish feel pain, mining feels the pressure, sea lions feel excluded, and science publishing feels like an old boys club. It’s the Monday Morning Salvage: January 8, 2018!

January 8, 2018January 7, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Abstract submission open for the 2018 International Marine Conservation Congress in Kuching, Sarawak this summer! Get your abstracts in early!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This is a pretty big deal: The Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control. The loop is closing fast and if we don’t break the cycle, things will get much worse much faster.

Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)

Fish Feel Pain. Now What? New research raises big questions about humane treatment of sea life.
The final first-of-year Bluefin Tuna auction at the Tsukiji Fish Market marks the end of an era. It sold for $323,000, far below historic highs.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2018/01/7d362d3cdd9b-tsukiji-fish-market-holds-final-new-year-auction.html

Join us as we read and discuss a research paper every week! Introducing #SharkScienceMonday

January 2, 2018 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Be sure to follow #SharkScienceMonday on twitter every Monday morning of 2018 (starting January 8th)! Each week, a team of researchers* will be discussing a different scientific paper related to shark and ray biology, behavior, ecology, or management.

Some papers will be new and cutting edge, while others will be classics. They’ll all have one thing in common: a member of the Dulvy lab thought that they had an interesting or important result that significantly contributed to our various areas of expertise. Whenever possible, we will share a link to an open access copy of the paper so everyone can read along.

After we summarize the key takeaways from each paper, we’ll take questions. We’ll also start a discussion about that specific paper and the discipline that it is a part of, including suggesting various experts you can follow on twitter.

We hope that you’ll follow along with us, and that you’ll learn some interesting and important things about elasmobranch research and management!

How to support your favorite Southern Fried Science writers in 2018

January 2, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

Southern Fried Science is growing! Thanks to Patreon and a few passive income streams, for the first time in almost a decade, we’re able to begin paying our volunteer writers for their outreach efforts. This year, we’ve established the Southern Fried Science Writers’ Fund to begin paying out compensation for all the incredible work that … Read More “How to support your favorite Southern Fried Science writers in 2018” »

Bone-eating zombie worms, octopus overlords, old wooden ships and new woes for deep-sea mining. It’s the Monday Morning Salvage! January 1, 2018.

January 1, 2018January 6, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Stop. Breathe. Take a step back. This can all be incredibly overwhelming. Pick the fight that matters most to you and take a few days deciding what success looks like, what strategies will work, and what tactics are available to you. And then hoist your flag and get to work.

And when you meet someone fighting a different fight, remember to support them. There are already enough fronts to advance without taking friendly fire from our flanks.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Maybe it’s time to seriously consider just giving control of the world to the cephalopods. A New Species of Giant Octopus Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight.

The frilled giant Pacific octopus. Photo Courtesy D. Scheel

The most depressing annual run-down on the environmental science web: The Animals That Went Extinct in 2017.

A year of snot-oozing, carcass-scavenging, slime eels: Hagfish Science in 2017.

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Science

Hagfish. You love them. I love them. The owner of this sedan has no choice but to love them:

2017 was a big year for hagfish science.

Big Ideas (the ecologic paradigms that hagfish shifted)

Heincke’s law is one of those ecologic principles that more often acts as a foil for rejecting the null hypothesis than as a consistent pattern in ecology. It’s most basic summary is: The further from shore and the deeper dwelling a fish is, the bigger it grows. Heincke’s law does not appear to be true for hagfish, whose size appear to have no relation to the depth at which they occur. On the other hand, phylogenetic relationships do seem to play some role in regulating body size in hagfish.

Schumacher and friends (2017) No support for Heincke’s law in hagfish (Myxinidae): lack of an association between body size and the depth of species occurrence. DOI: 10.1111/jfb.13361.

Defense and Behavior (how hagfish do the things that they do)

Hagfish are master escape artists, capable of squeezing in and out of tight spaces barely half the width of their body. This great for getting in an out of rotting whale carcasses on the sea floor, creeping into crevices, and avoiding predators. But how do they accomplish this incredible feat? Hagfish have a flaccid sinus under their skin which allows them to control the distribution of venous blood and alter their body width as they wriggle through narrow passages. Freedman and Fudge identified 9 distinct behaviors which take advantage of this adaptation, including anchoring, forming tight loops to push the body through an opening, and bending the hagfish head 90 degrees to force it through a slit. And there are videos!

Freedman and Fudge (2017) Hagfish Houdinis: biomechanics and behavior of squeezing through small openings. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.151233.

The Fudge lab has been busy this year, cranking out some of the most noteworthy work on the incredible behavior of hagfish. In addition to examining hagfish motility, Boggett and friends looked into how those flaccid sinuses aid predator avoidance. The team build wee little guillotines loaded with shark teeth to see how hagfish skin protects the animal from vicious bites. In a year when a truckload of hagfish spectacularly crushed a car, the fact that this research was the biggest breakout sensation in hagfish pop culture says everything you need to know about the compelling results of this study. You can read more about this study at The Verge, Futurity, Popular Science, and plenty of other outlets.

Boggett and friends (2017) Flaccid skin protects hagfishes from shark bites. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0765.