Southern Fried Science

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: January 5th, 2017

January 5, 2017January 9, 2017 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Here’s NOAA Okeanos video of a “ghost shark” from 2013.

Follow Dr. Brooke Flammang, a functional ecologist who works with sharks, robots, and lasers, on twitter!
Here are the 9 species named after President Obama, a new record. By Jessica Boddy, for Science

Bonnethead sharks, one of the smallest hammerheads, may actually be more than one species

January 5, 2017January 5, 2017 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Science

Bonnethead sharks, one of the smallest members of the hammerhead shark family Sphyrnidae, have a special place in my heart. For many years, the avatar I used for science communication efforts, including posts on this blog, was a picture of me with a bonnethead.

Remember this avatar? That’s a bonnethead (on the left).

These sharks, which can grow up to about 5 feet long, are found throughout North, Central, and South America. However, new research by Fields and friends suggests that they may actually be a species complex, not a true species. “A species complex is a group of distinct species that are incorrectly classified as one species because they look very similar to one another,” explained Dr. Demian Chapman, an Associate Professor of Biology at Florida International University and a co-author on this new study. “A great example is the white spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) that was once thought to be one, globally distributed species, but now has been shown to be a group of very similar-looking species, each of which lives in a particular region.”

When I talk about Climate Change, I don’t talk about science.

January 3, 2017January 6, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

Climate Change is real. It’s happening now. And the best available data points to us as the cause.

That the foundational science is settled is a point of unending frustration to scientists, science writers, and policy advocates who face continuous partisan push back, from whitewashing government websites to threatening scientists with legal repercussions for reporting the data. During my International Marine Conservation Congress keynote last year, I argued that Climate Change denial is not a science literacy problem, but rather a product of increasing political bifurcation. Political ideology is a much stronger predictor of Climate Change understanding than science literacy.

The term “Climate Change” is now loaded with so much political baggage that it becomes almost impossible to hold a discussion across political lines. In stakeholder interviews, people generally understand and acknowledge the impacts of climate change on local and regional scales, as long as you don’t call it “Climate Change”. This has been my experience working in rural coastal communities, which tend to be strongly conservative and intimately connected to the changing ocean.

Which is why, when I talk about Climate Change, I don’t talk about science.

Bachelor contestant wears a shark costume and calls it a dolphin costume

January 3, 2017March 7, 2017 David Shiffman 1 Comment

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Last night was the premiere of the Bachelor, which is just about the only reality TV show that I do not watch. However, an incident occured on last night’s episode that several of you brought to my attention. Apparently, one of the contestants wore a shark costume for the entire episode…but kept referring to it as a dolphin costume. (While not everyone can reasonably be expected to know the difference between a shark and a dolphin, this contestant stated that she wants to be a dolphin trainer.)

Here is a screenshot:

Screenshot from the Bachelor season 21 premiere, H/T Buzzfeed

Monday Morning Salvage: January 2, 2017

January 2, 2017January 1, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Welcome to 2017 and the ninth year of marine science and conservation at Southern Fried Science!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Alex Warneke knows exactly how to push all of my ocean outreach buttons: Low-cost teaching tools? Check! Hands on student engagement? Check! Open-source materials and datasets? Check! 3D Printing? Check! Meet 3D Cabrillo:

Learn more about this awesome project from the National Park Service: How to Build a Better Biomodel.

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

Fun Science Holidays – The World’s Smallest Snowman

December 31, 2016 Kersey Sturdivant

Uncategorized

As 2016 winds to a close, and in the spirit of the holiday season behold the world’s smallest snowman, measuring in at 3 microns. To put that into perspective, the smallest grains of sands are approximately 60 microns. This creation is the work of Canadian nanotechnologists from the Western Nanofabrication Facility. The snowman is made from … Read More “Fun Science Holidays – The World’s Smallest Snowman” »

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: December 29th, 2016

December 29, 2016December 29, 2016 David Shiffman

Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet): Watch how slowly this Greenland shark swims, from a NOAA Okeanos video. These sharks have the slowest swimming speed ever measured in a fish. Follow sawfish conservation expert Dr. Tonya Wiley-Lescher @TonyaRWileyL on twitter! A Florida State research team, with help from our friends at Field School, became the first people … Read More “Thursday Afternoon Dredging: December 29th, 2016” »

Deep-sea Researchers Support Nomination of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

December 28, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Conservation

Early this December, the National Park Service announced that the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument made the short list for UNESCO World Heritage designation. Though hidden beneath the water’s surface, the Mariana Trench, a unique geologic and ecologic landmark and a natural treasure, dwarfs the Grand Canyon in scale and scope.

The Mariana Trench is more than a mile deeper than Mt. Everest is high and hosts Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth. It is also home to numerous sites of exceptional scientific value, including submerged volcanoes that host deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the largest documented mud volcanoes, coral atolls and fringing reef ecosystems that support apex predators like sharks and whales, as well as habitat-forming stony corals.

Monday Morning Salvage: December 26, 2016

December 26, 2016December 25, 2016 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Welcome back! We missed a week while I was traveling across the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands and Guam, so dig in and enjoy!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

The Mariana Trench!

The Mariana Trench Monument

It’s the deepest place on the planet and we’ve been all hands on deck sharing the latest science from the bottom of the ocean with our friends in Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam. Check out our expedition on OpenExplorer for a blow by blow of the 12-day adventure. Visit the Friends of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument Facebook page for more exciting stories from the field. We even got some nice coverage in the local press: Marine scientists talks about Marianas Trench at Rotary and Marianas Trench Marine National Monument to be discussed on ‘Your Humanities Half-Hour’.
The Guam Daily Post has my favorite coverage of this adventure: With the help of a tiny robot, scientists deepen support for a Mariana Trench sanctuary.

Here’s what top science news stories of the year listicles said are the top marine science news stories of the year

December 23, 2016 David Shiffman

Blogging

Year-in-review news roundups are one of my favorite parts of December. I really enjoy remembering all of the interesting and inspiring things that happened over the past year, especially after a rough year like this one. I especially enjoy “top science news of the year” roundups, and I was pleased to see marine science stories make the cut on many of them. For your “but why is this considered a top story but that isn’t” debating pleasure, here are the marine science news stories that made top science news stories of the year listicles!