Burning driftwood, new protections for Canada’s oceans, dolphin errant, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: May 13, 2019

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Good news everybody! Canada bans deep-sea mining, oil and gas drilling in marine protected areas.
Nicolas Pilcher (left), from Malaysia’s Marine Research Foundation, shows a fisherman how to install a turtle excluder device (TED). Photo courtesy of Marine Research Foundation Asia
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Mud volcanoes, starfish wasting, the stinkiest fruit, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 4, 2019.

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Underwater mud volcanoes in the Flower Garden National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico. Escaping gas can be seen rising from the mud volcano. PC: Sea Research Foundation (SRF) and the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET).
Two photos of the same rock, 20 days apart (Neil McDaniel)
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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

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

The Gam (conversations from the ocean-podcasting world)

Speak Up for the Blue with two great recent episodes.

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A new disaster in Ocean Policy, follow the International Marine Conservation Congress at #IMCC5, shallow vents, deep mining, cotton candy lobsters, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 25, 2018

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

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

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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)

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

Beware the Feu Follet, by Russell Arnott

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Science as graphic novel, baby eels, anglerfish emoji, drone ocean rescue, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 22, 2018.

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Nan Shepherd. (Wikimedia Commons)

Nan Shepherd. (Wikimedia Commons)

Managing marine socio-ecological systems: picturing the future

Managing marine socio-ecological systems: picturing the future.

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Pushing back against technological puritanism in ocean conservation.

By now, you’ve almost certainly seen this photograph, making the viral rounds, of a Franciscana dolphin in South America, attached to headlines like the following: Endangered baby dolphin dies after swimmers pass it around for selfiesA Baby Dolphin Died Because Tourists Wanted Selfies With HerA selfie mob in Argentina may have killed a dolphin.

seflie

I hate these news stories, but not for the reasons you might think.

These stories represent a kind of technological puritanism in ocean outreach, where we draw weirdly unfounded conclusions about the way humans relate to their tools to somehow absolve us of social responsibility. It’s not people mistreating a dolphin, it’s a selfie-crazed mob. We chuckle and move on, because we don’t take aggressive selfies. We’re better than that.

This is not correct. Read More

10 reasons why marine mammals aren’t as cute as you think they are

Image from PrettyFabulous.com

When people learn that I’m a marine biologist, they often assume I got into this career because I want to be a dolphin trainer. The general public seems to believe that marine mammals are cute and cuddly and innocent, but sharks are cruel and evil and bad. In reality, nature is an amoral place- our morality is, by necessity, anthropocentric and doesn’t really relate to the wild behavior of animals. If this wasn’t the case, though, here are ten reasons why marine mammals aren’t as cute and cuddly and innocent as people sometimes think they are.

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