invasive | Southern Fried Science

Skate saunas, clone armies, deep news from deep-sea mining, an ocean of plastic, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 12, 2018.

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Andrew Thaler

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Attack of the clones! A Pet Crayfish Can Clone Itself, and It’s Spreading Around the World!

Ranja Andriantsoa/The Atlantic

One of the take-home points in the talk I gave last Friday is that we barely know anything about the services hydrothermal vents provide to the rest of the ocean ecosystems. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are nurseries for skates.

ROV framegrab of Pacific white skate egg sacs near a black smoker in the Galapagos. Photo Courtesy Ocean Exploration Trust

Misunderstood Marine Life # 5 – Lionfish

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Amy Freitag

Thank You Joel Rotunda, ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu

Last time you went to an aquarium, you probably saw a lionfish swimming happily in a tank filled with a bit of coral or rocky bottom, calmly flipping its fins about in the slight current created by the water pump. Now think back to the interpretive sign next to the tank – did it say that the exhibit displayed an invader or an awesome, weird aquarium fish? Depending on which part of the world you’re in, you might get a different answer. Along the east coast of the United States, though, it should say the former. Lionfish have spread from south Florida throughout the Caribbean and up to North Carolina, where they can be found on reef habitat (either natural or manmade via the sinking of ships) at a concentration of 400 fish per square meter. And they eat everything in sight.

Biodiversity Wednesday: South Carolina’s Santee Cooper Lake System

Posted on March 23, 2011 by David Shiffman

As part of our Biodiversity Wednesday series, we’ve discussed amazing ecosystems all over the world. This week’s post will focus on an area a little closer to home (at least a little closer to my home). The Santee Cooper lake system, home to unique fish and a fascinating history, is less than an hour from Charleston. If you’ve ever driven on I-95 through South Carolina, you’ve gone right over it.

The Santee-Cooper system is marked with a white arrow. Image created with Google Earth