arctic | Southern Fried Science

Floridian flamingos and fishing in the twilight zone: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, March 1st, 2018

Posted on March 1, 2018 by David Shiffman

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Follow Kristina Tietjen, a marine conservation biologist working in Kiribati, on twitter!
A case for wild flamingos calling Florida their home. By Joann Klein, for the New York Times.
The underwater damage left behind by hurricanes. From NPR’s Weekend Edition.
Even corals have microbiomes. By Jason Goldman, for Hakai.
Life of an albatross. By Liza Lester, for the Ecological Society blog.
Senate Committee to consider updates to fish act. By Beth Beard, for the American Fisheries Society blog.

Spoils (long reads and deep dives):

The ocean’s twilight zone faces fishing threat. By Alistair Bland, for OceansDeeply
What we don’t know about the arctic: a remarkable ecosystem. By Henry Huntington, for the Ocean Conservancy blog.
Antarctica’s king penguins could disappear by the end of the century. By Matthew Taylor, for the Guardian.
Dams are fragmenting the Amazon. By Claire Asher, for MongaBay.
Saltwater lakes filled with jellyfish found in Indonesia. By Elaina Zachos, for National Geographic.

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!

Deep-sea mining goes to court, a year in climate reporting, oyster-adorned singers, and more! The Monday Morning Salvage: December 11, 2017.

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

2017 Year in Climate. It’s been a wild, woolly years of climate highs and policy lows.
Fossils of Congress, featuring real, non-elected fossils, found around DC, might be my new favorite thing.

https://fossilsofcongress.tumblr.com/post/168190045787/the-discs-are-pieces-of-crinoid-stem-crinoid-a

Farting oysters, bombing sea lions, and a new trash island? It must be the Monday Morning Salvage! November 20, 2017

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

It’s Native American History Month. Southern Fried Science recognizes that our servers are housed on the occupied land of the Timpanogos people while the majority of our writers live on unceded Powhatan territory. This November, Try Something New: Decolonize Your Mind.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Boaters stumble on massive Caribbean “gyre” of plastic garbage. “Gyre is in quotes because I’m almost certain that this is debris from the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season, rather than an accumulation of decades of plastic is a circulating ocean current. It’s still shocking to see.

The ARA San Juan, one or Argentina’s two diesel-electric submarines, is missing. Search and rescue is mobilizing and there’s hints that the sailors tried to send out a signal Saturday.
Without a Treaty to Share the Arctic, Greedy Countries Will Destroy It. Cosign.

Twitter Ocean Chess, lessons from the Vaquita, awe of the deep, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: November 13, 2017

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Ocean policy news breaking this week. We’ll have a comment template ready to go when it does. Please check back. We can’t announce until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.
Still time to register for OceanDotComm! Science Communication folks! Are you ready for OceanDotComm? Register now!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This is an amazing piece about the importance of awe in deep-sea conservation. Unless we regain our historic awe of the deep ocean, it will be plundered.

Wine bottle found in the deep North Atlantic. Laura Robinson, University of Bristol, and the Natural Environment Research Council. Expedition JC094 was funded by the European Research Council.

The Vaquita are going extinct and with them comes an importance lesson on the value of social science to conservation research:

My wife, on the other hand, is a social scientist who works on development here in Mexico. When we first started dating, I used to tease her for being a soft little scientist in her soft little science. I now understand that helping a community pull itself out of poverty is more complex than brain surgery or quantum physics.

There is no magic equation for community organizing but she begins by understanding that “the community” isn’t some monolithic creature that thinks as a unit. There are complex politics and power dynamics at work that can either aid or destroy all her efforts.

I now understand why the vaquita is going extinct. They sent too many people like me into the region and not enough like her.

source.

Would you like to play a game? Last week David and I unleashed Twitter Ocean Chess upon the internet and the results are in: it’s the only valid use of 280 characters.

Hurricane Irma, the Manatee Sheriff, climate change, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 11, 2017

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

One week left! The OpenCTD and Oceanography for Everyone has been selected as a finalist in National Geographic’s Chasing Genius Challenge! Please help me win the People’s Choice award by voting for the OpenCTD. Visit http://www.natgeochasinggenius.com/video/776, create or sign into your Chasing Genius account, and click the yellow star to vote on my video. You can vote once per day until September 15.
“Everyone is homeless. We can’t help each other because everyone needs help.” Ayana Johnson is working to raise funds (and the Waitt Foundation is matching donations, to help the people of Barbuda, where almost every structure on the island was leveled.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Yes, I would like to pet a giant isopod, thank you.

We have a new expedition planned to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Join us: Marine Ecology and Underwater Robotics in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Manatee Sheriff sends Manatee officers to rescue stranded manatees in Manatee County.

#JacquesWeek, Lionfish tax, coral that glows, accelerating climate change, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 10, 2017

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Protect the Outer Continental Shelf! Last week, the president announced a plan to open up significant portions of the outer continental shelf for oil and gas exploration. Call you representative! The public comment period opens today and runs through August 17. We’ll have a template script prepped for your use this week.
Today is the day to submit public comments to defend America’s National Monuments! More than 1 million comments have been submitted so far, and from my cursory survey, almost all of them are in favor of protecting these gems of American history and nature. Submit formal public comments on the DOI Monument Review and make your voice heard.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

#JacquesWeek! It’s coming! Only two weeks to go!

Tangier Island. I’m still thinking a lot about the Island out of Time.

Nerds of trust, deep-sea mining, ocean art, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 3, 2017

Posted on July 3, 2017 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Protect the Outer Continental Shelf! Last week, the president announced a plan to open up significant portions of the outer continental shelf for oil and gas exploration. Call you representative! The public comment period opens today and runs through August 17. We’ll have a template script prepped for your use by the end of the week.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Deep-sea mining. It’s closer to happening now than ever before, and scientists, conservationists, and ocean stakeholders are very concerned.

Image: James St. John/Flickr Creative Commons

Can deep-sea mining avoid the environmental mistakes of mining on land? As an industry, probably not.
Experts Warn that Seabed Mining Will Lead to ‘Unavoidable’ Loss of Biodiversity. And check below for the primary source, co-authored by several leaders in deep ocean science.

Climate Change Anecdotes Volume 1: Sea Ice and Nuclear Reactors

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Andrew Thaler

anecdote

noun.

1. a short account of a particular incident or event, especiallyof an interesting or amusing nature.

2. a short, obscure historical or biographical account.

Dictionary.com

Climate Change

noun.

A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Climate change is real and human activity is the cause. The theory that we are fundamentally altering our planet’s climate is supported by overwhelming evidence. Prominent global warming skeptics have, in the face of such evidence, acknowledged that climate change is happening, and that humans are the cause.

And still climate change denial continues to persist.

In the last decade, we have passed a threshold where the reality of climate change is no longer a hypothesis buried in bar graphs or something to be assessed by minute changes in careful measurements, but an observable phenomenon. Rather than anticipating the effects of human impacts on the climate, we must now live them. Thanks to a well-organized and well-funded climate denial industry, we missed our chance to change course. If the last decade was the hurricane warning, than this decade is landfall.