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“The internet may be a series of tubes, but those tubes are mostly underwater” – Weekly Salvage: September 23, 2019

Posted on September 23 by Andrew David Thaler

Transcript provided below.

Are we finally going to lead with deep-sea mining? We’re going to lead with deep-sea mining. Welcome to the Weekly Salvage.

Coral reefs lose their champion, which laptop is really the greenest, new sea slugs, and an octopuses garden in the sea. Monday Morning Salvage: November 5, 2018.

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Andrew David Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Help the Victims of Typhoon Yutu.
Ruth Gates dedicated her life to saving the world’s reefs and training the next generation of reef scientists. The Fight for Corals Loses Its Great Champion.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Scientists Have Just Named 17 New Sea Slug Species, and They’re All Fabulous.

The newest members of the nudibranch family. (H. iba comes in 2 color morphs.)
Photo: California Academy of Sciences

A close-up photo of the sponge that is being studied. NHM.

Gently jelly-nabbing bots, deep-coral under threat, albino stingrays, #JacquesWeek, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 23, 2018

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Andrew David Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

All Hands on Deck! You’re got one week left to apply to join the MIT Media Lab and NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research for this year’s National Ocean Exploration Forum as an Ocean Discovery Fellow!
Jacques Week 2018 is here!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

What just happened? Everyone is going wild for the deep-sea fish attack video.

A gentle jellyfish-grabbing claw for collecting squishies without squishing them!

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

Stitching Hope for the Coast – communicating coastal optimism for Louisiana. Deadline for submissions has been extended to October!

Frisky Anglerfish, Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors, Make for the Planet Borneo, Sea Cucumber Mafia, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: March 26, 2018

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Andrew David Thaler

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Sign up for Make for the Planet Borneo and help push forward the next generation of conservation technology!
Announcing the Con X Tech Prize for Hacking Extinction! Apply for funding to create a working hardware prototype and win up to $20,000 in awards.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This is a totally ordinary, not at all alarming, call for government bidders on a contract to build “new systems that employ natural or engineered marine organisms as sensor elements to amplify signals related to the presence, movement, and classification of manned or unmanned underwater vehicles.” They even adorably call these Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors PALS. Normal!
Here’s a video of anglerfish mating, because anglerfish are beauty.

This week in science and conservation slowly, awkwardly coming to terms with their racist history: For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It and Environmentalism’s Racist History.
Scientists in Survival Mode: After a disastrous hurricane season, scientists in the storms’ pathways struggle to return to work.

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

Marine lab has ‘front row seat’ to Louisiana coastal loss.

Photo by Melissa Miller

Jellyfish sleep, shark-sucking bots, mole crab parasites, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 25, 2017

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Andrew David Thaler

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

The fight for our Marine National Monuments isn’t over. We now know of the contents of Zincke’s monument review memo, and it is not good. The DOI wants to see commercial fishing return to the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments. Longline fishing in these regions has historically been conducted by foreign fishing fleets which have been documented using slave labor. Many ecologists believe that maintaining these protected zones serve as a refuge that boost populations of many important commercial fish and improve the overall health of the fishery. Any change to monuments created under the Antiquities Act must be approved by congress. You’ve got a lot of reason to call you representatives this week, so why not add “I opposed the reintroduction of ecologically and economically destructive commercial fishing to the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll Marine National Monument.” to your script?

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Jellyfish sleep. Mind. Blown.

Our Pacific Monuments are also extremely important scientific sites. Commercial fishing could jeopardize decades of research efforts in the remote Pacific. Scientists pan proposal to open pristine Pacific islands to fishing.

Palmyra Atoll. Erik Oberg/Island Conservation/Flickr

The Ocean Adventure: mud, robots, and ecosystems

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Andrew David Thaler

We traveled to Cape Lookout Bight aboard the R/V Susan Hudson to sample sediment and test our homemade ROV. Along the way, we asked the research team to talk about their favorite marine ecosystems.

Let us know what your favorite marine ecosystems are in the comments below.