arctic
Walrus Attacks, Windships, Wild Oysters, and More! Weekly Salvage: September 30, 2019
Deep-sea gator bait, a mining company’s continued decline, why are there so many Garfield phones on French beaches, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 1, 2019.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Shameless plug for my Patreon! This month, subscribers who sign up for the Ocean Pun Sticker reward will get this glorious squat lobster in high quality vinyl. Suitable for dive gear, laptops, field equipment, or anywhere luxuriously goofy stickers are displayed.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Gator falls!
The ongoing wonder of hagfish, deep-sea mining’s race to the bottom, saving whales with lineless lobster traps, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 21, 2019
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
It’s month two of the longest shutdown in US history and there’s only one party who won’t allow a vote to reopen the government proceed. Have you called you senator today?
And while I have your attention, FYI:
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)3-D Printing the Ulitmate Deep-Sea Christmas Tree
- Oceans Warming Faster Than Predicted, Scientists Say and Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds.
- Ministry hints Putin’s Arctic ambitions are not realistic. There is unease in several Russian government ministries as officials start to understand that the President’s objectives for the Northern Sea Route can not be reached. The only way to please the president might be to expand the sea route itself.
- Hagfish are so good. We don’t deserve hagfish.
5000 dives under the sea, plastic nomming fungi, scanning Belize’s Blue Hole, the thawing Northwest Passage, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: December 3, 2018.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- With ice melting in Canada’s Northwest Passage, the area will soon be a new route for international shipping. Follow Life Under the Ice on OpenExplorer!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Legendary submarine pilot Erika Bergman is exploring Belize’s Blue Hole using state-of-the-art SONAR scanning tools and ROVs. A couple floppy-haired dudes are going too.
- DSV Alvin made its 5000th dive. Way to go, little submarine!
- A boon to ocean conservation? Certain fungi can degrade marine plastics.
- I missed this over the summer, but Nash was an incredible guide and touring ancient Chamorro caves with him was the highlight of my time in Guam. He will be missed by many: Traditional seafarer Ignacio ‘Nash’ Camacho dies.
Ignacio R. “Nash” Camacho, a Traditions About Seafaring Islands member, and codesigner of the Chamoru Sakman outrigger replica canoe “Tasi,” talks about his creation during a ceremony at the Guam Museum on June 29, 2017.
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.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- It ain’t going to be easy, but it isn’t over yet and none of us have earned the right to quit. What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Goats are magnificent. We don’t deserve goats. The Dark Story of How Scientists Used Goats to Solve the Bends.
Bends in the foreleg of a goat after experiments performed by physiologist John S. Haldane, published in the Journal of Hygiene Vol. 8, 1908.
- There’s a new full-ocean capable submarine in town, and for $50 million, you could buy it! Discovery and Science Channel to Document the Five Deeps Expedition in Limited Series.
Photo courtesy Discovery.
Banning Arctic fishing and protecting public beach access: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 4th, 2018
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):
- Supreme Court refuses to take up Martins Beach case. Surfers, beachgoers relieved. By Peter Fimrite, for the San Francisco Chronicle. This case is important for the right of public access to beaches, and involved a wealthy Californian who tried to keep people off of “his” stretch of beach.
- Indonesian Tsunami Was Powered by a Deadly Combo of Tectonics and Geography. By Andrea Thompson, for Scientific American. A fascinating (but scary) look at what made this tsunami so powerful and deadly.
- Largely banned industrial chemicals could wipe out killer whales, study warns. By Shreya Dasgupta, for MongaBay. Harmful chemicals can continue to wreak environmental havoc even years after they’ve been banned.
Please add your own cuttings and spoils in the comments!
If you appreciate my shark research and conservation outreach, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Any amount is appreciated, and supporters get exclusive rewards!
Plastic Eating Worms and Scientists Running for Office: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, August 16th, 2018
Cuttings (short and sweet):
- Follow underwater engineer Amy Kukulya, as seen on Shark Week, on twitter! (And have you seen my review of Shark Week 2018?)
- Marine worms are eating plastic now. By Michael Allen, for Hakai Magazine.
- Predatory coral bring down jellyfish by working together. From MongaBay news updates.
Spoils (long reads and deep dives):
- Canada is flying blind into Arctic Conservation. By Cody Dey, for the Narwhal, about research I’m a coauthor on (Cody is lead author). We’re excited about this paper, which, among other things, shows major gaps in the research and understanding of many Arctic fishes. This is a big problem as Arctic fishing is only going to increase in frequency.
- Are narwhals starting to go extinct? By Matt K. Smith, for the Daily Beast
- Tax havens shield companies responsible for deforestation and overfishing. By Fiona Harvey, for the Guardian.
- Shifting baselines: another threat to coral reefs. By Todd Woody, for OceansDeeply.
- Florida’s gulf coast battles smelly, deadly red tide. By Greg Allen, for NPR.
Plumbing the depths (discussion):
- An unprecedented number of scientists are running for elected office in the United States this year… but is that a good thing? I do not see how an elected official who is a trained scientist will be a stronger advocate for science than an elected official who has a good scientific advisor that they listen to, and the latter has many advantages over a scientist. (Obviously a scientist in office is better for science than an anti-science idealogue). What do you think? Let us know in the comments! And check out Maggie Koerth-Baker‘s excellent in-depth article about this for 538.
Please add your own cuttings and spoils in the comments!
If you appreciate my shark research and conservation outreach, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Any amount is appreciated, and supporters get exclusive rewards!
Saturation diving, destroying the world with Bitcoin mining, deep-sea mining, Arctic shrinkage, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: May 21, 2018
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Yale study: Newspaper op-eds change minds and The Long-lasting Effects of Newspaper Op-Eds on Public Opinion. Scientists and conservationists, this May, make an effort to publish a Letter to the Editor or OpEd in your local paper. If you’ve done so, please leave a link to it in the comments.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Immediately after college, my backup plan if I didn’t get into grad school was to go to work as an underwater welder doing saturation diving. After reading this, I’m pretty glad I didn’t go that route. The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver.
- Walking the talk in Vanuatu, the first country in the world to ban plastic straws.
- We’ve been saying this for a awhile now. Cryptocurrencies that rely on ever increasing processing power to resolve transaction are an environmental disaster. Alarming Study Suggests Bitcoin Consumes an Astonishing Amount of Energy and It’s Only Getting Worse.
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
- Stitching Hope for the Coast is still accepting contributions from knitters around the world. Join the fun!
Hagfish, chill Puffins, swamp monsters, the mining boat floats, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 2, 2018
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Want to help stem the tide of misinformation online and off? Do you have it all figured out and just need resources to implement your world-saving solution? The Rita Allen Foundation is looking for Solutions to Curb the Spread of Misinformation.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Hagfish. Tough. Lovable. Slimy. But not too slimy. Hagfish Take Weeks to Recover from Sliming Someone.
- Kevin D’Angelo integrated the OpenCTD with a new protocol for detecting salinity using the gold pins of a microUSB controller and I am blown away! Outstanding work.
- This is a puffin wearing sunglasses for science.
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
- Installed as a beacon of hope for a hurricane-racked island, the statue had to be moved multiple times due to the eroding coast: Our Lady of the Sea by Russel Arnott.
- Russell also created these outstanding posters to warn us away from Louisiana’s famed and fearsome swamp ghosts:
Beware the Feu Follet, by Russell Arnott