fishing
Unprecedented destruction in the deep Gulf of Mexico, The Ocean Cleanup’s River Pivot, and More! Weekly Salvage: October 28, 2019.
Space whales. Space. Whales. SPAAAAACE WHAAAAALES! Weekly Salvage: October 21, 2019
Dead whales, glass sponges, 3D-printing for the ocean, and more! Weekly Salvage: October 14, 2019
Small Shark Tagging Day
I am in Saba in the Dutch Caribbean with the Dutch Elasmobranch Society, St. Maarten Nature Foundation, and the Saba Conservation Foundation serving as a research assistant to an international team of shark scientists participating in the Save Our Sharks Expedition 2019. Today was our first day out on the water and our objective was to catch, measure, and tag small sharks on the Saba Bank.
We caught three Caribbean reef sharks and a silky shark – the first time I’ve ever seen a silky shark (check that one off the list). Each shark was worked up by the scientists, with data collected to serve their respective research areas. When each shark was brought to the boat, the first observation was for sex, which we determined from the presence or absence of claspers. And then measurements were taken for total length, fork length, caudal length, and girth. We also took a fin clip, a muscle sample, and a blood sample. Each shark was handled for only a few minutes, and then released back into the water. Every shark today quickly swam away.
Our island hosts Ayumi and Walter from the Saba Conservation Foundation were eseential in making today a success. Walter drove the boat all day and Ayumi served as our expert fisher, helping us with the gear to target the species we were after.
We also trolled for bonito to and from the Saba Bank. We didn’t catch any, but I handlined this barracuda, and we also caught a beautiful green mahi mahi.
Stay tuned for a few more blogs where I introduce some of the researchers and conservation practitioners participating in the expedition. You can also follow the expedition on social media using the hashtag #SabaShark2019, or by following the Save Our Sharks social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Japan returns to commercial whaling, octopuses are probably smarter than you, oil companies are burning oil to refreeze permafrost, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 8, 2019.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- The women fish sellers of West Africa, a great video from China Dialogue.
- How smart are octopuses? So smart! For Smart Animals, Octopuses Are Very Weird.
High octopuses don’t love you back, sextants in space, protect our ocean monuments, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 24, 2018
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 sextants on the International Space Station and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Alvin dives for early-career scientists, join me in the Marianas Islands, stump a scientist, embraces MPAs, and more! Tuesday (?) Morning Salvage: April 17, 2018
We’re late because Andrew doesn’t understand time zones.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- This is an incredible oportunity for an early career researcher to get their feet wet leading a deep-sea science cruise: Announcing a NSF-UNOLS Early Career Training Cruise Opportunity to the East Pacific Rise 9° 50’N – December 2018
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- We have a new writer! Please welcome the Original Saipan Blogger, Bucky Villagomez!
- Hafa Adai from the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands! Are you following along with our adventure on OpenExplorer? Yesterday was one of the highlights of my career: Marine Ecology and Underwater Robotics in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Okeanos Marianas. Our research vessel for the day.
- Add this to the list of things that are really not good: Atlantic Ocean Current Slows Down To 1,000-Year Low, Studies Show.
- Look, if anyone could actually pull this off, it’s Phil Nuytten, but I. Have. Questions: Who’d like to live under the sea? H/T to Dr. Diva Amon.
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
- Behold, the interactive Salt Marsh!
- David S. and S. David did a thing!
Terraforming Mars on Earth, giant larvaceans, conservation jobs, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: May 8, 2017
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- The time to save the EPA is now! The EPA is seeking public input on the new administrations approach to environmental regulations. They are required to seek public input. They are required to respond to public input. Go tell them how you feel. Public comments close May 15. Here’s the docket with instructions on how to comment: Evaluation of Existing Regulations. We’ve even prepared a script for you.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- On a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic, a terraforming project a century-and-a-half in the making is underway. A 150-year-old experiment on the remote Ascension Island may help us green Mars. Can it also help us save Earth?
Seabirds on Ascension Island. Photo by Clare Fieseler.
- It also happens to be longtime friend of Southern Fried Science Clare Fieseler’s first major story for National Geographic, so go follow her on twitter.
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- Women have a crucial—yet often overlooked—role in fisheries. The Invisible Fishing Fleet by Ilima Loomis at Hakai Magazine.
- “What do you do when you’re a graduate student and you’ve been sexually assaulted by the PI of a very exciting paleoanthropological site?” An incredibly powerful piece by Holly Dunsworth: In case this helps you: This happened to me while I was trying to become a paleoanthropologist.
- The general theme of this site appears to be ‘humans are terrible, robots are awesome’. Staying on brand: In a first, deep sea robots get a close look at giant larvaceans, a key player in the biological carbon pump.
- Deep-sea mining is really heating up. Locals threaten armed campaign against PNG seabed mine.
- In the Pacific Northwest, the diligence of citizen scientists is shedding light on the lives, and deaths, of seabirds. Drawing Meaning from Death, One Seabird at a Time by Larry Pynn at Hakai.
- This is a pretty great demonstration of how statistics can be used to mislead: Generating Datasets with Varied Appearance and Identical Statistics through Simulated Annealing.
When I talk about Climate Change, I don’t talk about science.
Climate Change is real. It’s happening now. And the best available data points to us as the cause.
That the foundational science is settled is a point of unending frustration to scientists, science writers, and policy advocates who face continuous partisan push back, from whitewashing government websites to threatening scientists with legal repercussions for reporting the data. During my International Marine Conservation Congress keynote last year, I argued that Climate Change denial is not a science literacy problem, but rather a product of increasing political bifurcation. Political ideology is a much stronger predictor of Climate Change understanding than science literacy.
The term “Climate Change” is now loaded with so much political baggage that it becomes almost impossible to hold a discussion across political lines. In stakeholder interviews, people generally understand and acknowledge the impacts of climate change on local and regional scales, as long as you don’t call it “Climate Change”. This has been my experience working in rural coastal communities, which tend to be strongly conservative and intimately connected to the changing ocean.
Which is why, when I talk about Climate Change, I don’t talk about science. Read More