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Tag: deep-sea mining

I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.

Posted on October 22, 2018October 21, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots. That’s why Nat Geo and OpenROV are giving away 1000 robot submarines!
  • National Geographic Announces Initiative to Donate 1,000 Underwater Drones to Explore the Ocean.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Get inspired with the latest TED Talk for OpenROV visionary David Lang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k32nNIzWHog

  • Teen scientists went looking for meteorites in the Great Lakes. They found another type of alien.
    • And follow these kids’ incredible expedition on Open Explorer.

Read More “I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.” »

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.

Posted on October 15, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

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.
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.
Submersible. Photo courtesy Discovery.
Photo courtesy Discovery.

Read More “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.” »

SeaWorld versus OSHA versus Brett Kavanaugh, sea lions and sucker punches, this dumpster whale is all of us, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 1, 2018.

Posted on October 1, 2018September 30, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • Irrational, unhinged, and belligerent, Sweaty Brett Kavanaugh has no place on the Supreme Court. Call your Senators and let them know. And, because all drains lead to the ocean, read his inscrutable dissent on the SeaWorld v. OSHA case.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • This kayaker got sucker punched. Sorry, I’ll show myself out.

  • It was a banner week for ocean gifs. Dead whale spends night in Rye parking lot after movers realize they’re going to need a bigger tote.

  • I’m pretty jazzed by the idea of a transparent canoe.

Read More “SeaWorld versus OSHA versus Brett Kavanaugh, sea lions and sucker punches, this dumpster whale is all of us, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 1, 2018.” »

High octopuses don’t love you back, sextants in space, protect our ocean monuments, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 24, 2018

Posted on September 24, 2018September 23, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Logo for Monday Morning Salvage.

Foghorn (a call to action)

  • After a decade spent expanding marine protection throughout the US EEZ, the federal government is going to war on healthy oceans: The Trump Administration’s New Attack on Marine Monuments.
  • Want to work for COMPASS in DC? One of the nation’s preeminent science communications institutions is hiring, and trust me, DC needs you.
  • If fleeing to Canada is more your style (David (¬_¬) ), Ocean Watch is hiring a manager to plan, manage and execute the Coastal Ocean Health Initiative.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Gulper Eels are amazing. Amazing.
  • This is an amazing series of visualizations from the Guardian. Seven endangered species that could (almost) fit in a single train carriage.
There are approximately 30 vaquitas left in the world Illustration: Mona Chalabi
There are approximately 30 vaquitas left in the world
Illustration: Mona Chalabi
  • There are sextants on the International Space Station and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Read More “High octopuses don’t love you back, sextants in space, protect our ocean monuments, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 24, 2018” »

The rise of low-cost ROVs and community submersibles

Posted on September 20, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Open Science, Science

The following appeared this Monday on the DSM Observer, the only trade journal committed to covering all aspects of the emerging deep-sea mining industry. Though written for the deep-sea mining community, the subject is broadly relevant to a host of ocean industries, so we reprint it below. 


The submarine Noctiluca cruises across the surface. Photo Courtesy Shanee Stopnitzky.
The submarine Noctiluca cruises across the surface. Photo Courtesy Shanee Stopnitzky.

As a community, we discuss mining, management, and monitoring, as well as the regulations that shape them, in terms of governments, major corporations, and research institutions. The deep-sea mining community is small and the complexities of working at abyssal depths engenders collaboration, cooperation, and, in the case of exploitation, compromise. While there are many stakeholders potentially affected by deep-sea mining, only a small proportion of them will ever directly engage with the deep seafloor.

A few extremely wealthy individuals have access to private submersibles and ROVs and have on occasion made them available for research and exploration, but they are the exception. The tools necessary to reach the depths of a hydrothermal vent or polymetallic nodule field are simply too expensive.

That may soon change.

Read More “The rise of low-cost ROVs and community submersibles” »

The real deep reefs of South Carolina, dolphin chatter, autonomous starfish killing robots, an exciting submarine discovery, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 3, 2018

Posted on September 3, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Robots versus Aliens is my favorite genre of conservation technology. Sea-Star Murdering Robots Are Deployed in the Great Barrier Reef.
  • Fish Bombardment is my other. Video: Utah Officials Restock Remote Lakes by Plane.

The Gam (conversations from the ocean-podcasting world)

Speak Up for the Blue with two great recent episodes.

Read More “The real deep reefs of South Carolina, dolphin chatter, autonomous starfish killing robots, an exciting submarine discovery, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 3, 2018” »

Saving the Great Barrier Reef, bolt cutters, bulk cutters, beak scars, and more! Monday Morning Salvage, August 27, 2018.

Posted on August 27, 2018August 26, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • Do you have a novel idea that could help save the world’s reefs? Sign up for the Out of the Blue Box Reef Innovation Challenge!

Out of the Blue Box is a global search for new ideas to strengthen the recovery of our iconic Great Barrier Reef. We are calling for solutions to the challenges facing the Great Barrier Reef, and reefs all over the world, to fast-track projects that will have an immediate and lasting impact.

source

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • oceanbites has great three part series on undergraduate research.
    • Growing a Scientist: Undergraduate Research 2018, part 1.
    • Growing a Scientist: Undergraduate Research 2018, part 2.
    • Growing a Scientist: Undergraduate Research 2018, part 3.
  • Conservation and climate change needs fewer aisle-crossing compromisers and more Haydukes. Courage and Bolt Cutters: Meet the next generation of climate activists.

  • I’ve been excited about these observations for years. Really ecited to finally see them in the peer-reviewed literature: Beaked whales may frequent a seabed spot marked for mining.
L. MARSH, V. HUVENNE AND D. JONES/ROY. SOC. OPEN SCIENCE 2018
L. MARSH, V. HUVENNE AND D. JONES/ROY. SOC. OPEN SCIENCE 2018

Read More “Saving the Great Barrier Reef, bolt cutters, bulk cutters, beak scars, and more! Monday Morning Salvage, August 27, 2018.” »

Lost shipwrecks, weaponized hagfish, plastivorous worms, deep-sea mining, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: August 20, 2018.

Posted on August 20, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • Did you know that oceanbites also published in Spanish? Go check it out!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Marine Worms Are Eating Plastic Now. I’m sure this will be fine [Ed: I’m not sure. It won’t be fine.]
  • Are you following Diva Amon’s latest expedition: My Deep Sea, My Backyard in Trinidad and Tobago? Join the adventure!
Dr. Amon shows off a deep-sea dropcam. Courtesy OpenExplorer.
Dr. Amon shows off a deep-sea dropcam. Courtesy OpenExplorer.
  • Researchers just found a WWII shipwreck that was lost for over 75 years off the coast of an Alaskan island.
Members of the expedition take time to examine a Japanese mini submarine that remains in the historic sub pens on Kiska Island. Image courtesy of Kiska: Alaska's Underwater Battlefield expedition.
Members of the expedition take time to examine a Japanese mini submarine that remains in the historic sub pens on Kiska Island. Image courtesy of Kiska: Alaska’s Underwater Battlefield expedition.

Read More “Lost shipwrecks, weaponized hagfish, plastivorous worms, deep-sea mining, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: August 20, 2018.” »

Eat hagfish, work at LUMCON, clone Vaquita, question floating trash collectors, and more! Monday Morning Mega-Salvage: August 13, 2018

Posted on August 13, 2018August 12, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • It’s time for Africosh! The annual Africa Open Science and Hardware Summit Heads is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this year!
  • LUMCON is hiring! They’re looking for two exceptional coastal and marine science faculty hires in any discipline. And they have the best “come work for us” video!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Hakai Magazine is my jam this month.
    • How an Epidemic Exposed the Ecological Importance of Sea Stars: The near eradication of British Columbia’s sea stars demonstrated the dynamic role they play in regulating kelp forests.
    • How to Dismantle a Blue Whale: In Chile, a team of volunteers confronts stench and gore to ensure a new life for a dead whale. [Warning: Link contains graphic pictures of whale evisceration]
  • I’ve been following this project for almost 2 years. Awesome to see how far they’ve come. NinjaPCR is a WiFi enabled, Opensource DNA Amplifier and Thermocycler for Polymerase Chain Reaction developed by 2 hackers in Tokyo.
  • Plastic wrap made from shellfish and plants is completely compostable.

Hagfish (just Hagfish)

  • Yes, people do eat hagfish. Yum! Snake-like creature writhes, squirms on grill.
  • Hagfish are the emissaries of love, not war. Stop it. Synthetic ‘Slime’ To Help US Navy Trap Enemy Ships.

Read More “Eat hagfish, work at LUMCON, clone Vaquita, question floating trash collectors, and more! Monday Morning Mega-Salvage: August 13, 2018” »

Gregarious gars, surprising crocs, mustachioed monkeys, ocean wilderness, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 30, 2018

Posted on July 30, 2018July 29, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Logo for Monday Morning Salvage.

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • Completely shameless Patreon Plug! Today marks the 1-year anniversary of our Jaunty Ocean Critter Stickers campaign. We’re going to continue making new red-capped sticker until the end of the year, then the theme will change! Sign up now if you want to support Southern Fried Science and get a very Gregarious Gar!

A gar wearing a red cap.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Did you see marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez on Shark Week this week? Read more about her experience here: Marine Biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez Was Bitten and Dragged by a Crocodile…and Lived to Tell Her Story. And, of course, follow her on Twitter.
 marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez
Marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez

The Gam (conversations from the ocean-podcasting world)

  • I swung by the Speak Up for the Blue Podcast to celebrate their 500th episode with a reflection on 10 years of online ocean outreach.

Read More “Gregarious gars, surprising crocs, mustachioed monkeys, ocean wilderness, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 30, 2018” »

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