dolphin | Southern Fried Science

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

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Andrew Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Some light, but useful, advice: Don’t Burn Driftwood at the Beach (or Anywhere).

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Good news everybody! Canada bans deep-sea mining, oil and gas drilling in marine protected areas.

The Tough Sell of Turtle-Saving Tech (and check out David’s article from… a very long time ago: Turtle excluder devices: analysis of resistance to a successful conservation policy).

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

Mud volcanoes, starfish wasting, the stinkiest fruit, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 4, 2019.

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Andrew Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Scientists demand military sonar ban to end mass whale strandings.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Mud volcanoes, the baby cousins for hydrothermal vents and methane seeps, don’t get nearly as much attention as they deserve. There she blows! Mud volcanoes in the Mediterranean.

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).

Starfish wasting disease continues to plague the Pacific: A Starfish-Killing Disease Is Remaking the Oceans.

Two photos of the same rock, 20 days apart (Neil McDaniel)

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

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.

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

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Andrew Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

We have a new National Ocean Policy and it is exactly as bad as you would expect. I’m at the International Marine Conservation Congress (the largest ocean conservation meeting in the world) and not a single ocean professional from anywhere on the political spectrum thinks this new Ocean Policy is a good idea.
Follow along with the International Marine Conservation Congress on Instagram, Oceansocial.us, and Twitter.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Smoking Ocean Vents Found in Surprisingly Shallow Water.

How Does a German Chemical Company Have a Patent on Sperm Whales?

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

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Denies Insider Trading in Short Sale of Russia-Linked Shipping Company. And then: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Short Sale of Kremlin-Linked Shipping Firm Navigator Holdings Wins Ethics Approval. This seems fine and normal and on the level.

Hagfish, chill Puffins, swamp monsters, the mining boat floats, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 2, 2018

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Andrew Thaler

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

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

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Andrew Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

The US Government is shut down. This is not great news for science (at the moment, my project to train ROV technicians and deliver 5 – 10 observation-class underwater robots to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is on hold pending resolution). Call you congressperson and give them an earful. Call you senator and give them an earful.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Women Writing About the Wild: 25 Essential Authors: A primer on who to start reading and who you’ve been overlooking for too long.

Nan Shepherd. (Wikimedia Commons)

This paper: Managing marine socio-ecological systems: picturing the future, which, holy mola, is written in graphic novel format!

Managing marine socio-ecological systems: picturing the future.

Pushing back against technological puritanism in ocean conservation.

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Andrew Thaler

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 selfies, A Baby Dolphin Died Because Tourists Wanted Selfies With Her, A 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

Posted on April 8, 2010 by David Shiffman

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.