sea level rise
We Robot, a horrible hagfish massacre, deep, delicious sandwiches, fish slime harvests, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 10, 2018.
Foghorn (a call to action)
The U.S. is turning a significant portion of Micronesia into live fire and bombing ranges to train Marines. It has plans to completely take over one island for this purpose and has control of two-thirds of another island.
If people in the U.S. mainland understood the military’s plan for Micronesia they might be alarmed. But this is really happening to U.S. citizens living in America’s territories.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- How a team of amateur explorers and an underwater robot laid to rest the ‘Ghost of Baker Lake’.
- Jane Lubchenco: Science in a Post-Truth World. Hat tip: @EmmaJMcIntosh.
The Levee (news from LUMCON)
LUMCON’s DeFelice Marine Center, flooded, as seen from a dormitory balcony. (Photo: Courtesy of LUMCON)
Shrinking Islands, shrieking dolphins, little hobbit shrimp, boat knives, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 18, 2018
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- We owe the next generation a better world than we’re giving them. Call your representatives. Demand they stop separating children from their parents at the border. The ACLU has a script to use.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Dispatch from Tangier, the Sinking Island in the Chesapeake.
A combination of storm-driven erosion and sea-level rise, which are both increasing as climate change advances, may soon swallow the island entirely.Photograph by Gordon Campbell / At Altitude Gallery
- Scientists say they’re confident Chesapeake Bay health is ‘significantly improving’.
- This is the sound a dolphin might hear if it’s about to become dinner.
A normal call.
The call of a dolphin that would rather not get eaten.
The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)
Invisible squid and fish with glowing eye spikes: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, April 5th, 2018
Cuttings (short and sweet):
- Follow Louise Chavarie, an Arctic aquatic ecologist, on twitter!
- A squid-skin inspired invisibility cloak. From Nature News research updates.
- Underwater noise pollution disturbs fish, too. From CBC News.
- NOAA publishes list of global fisheries and their risks to marine mammals. By John Cannon, for MongaBay
- Antarctic ice melting faster than thought. By Jonathan Watts, for the Guardian.
Spoils (long reads and deep dives):
- Why did this fish evolve a glowing eye spike? By Troy Farah, for Smithsonian Magazine.
- Spying on whales to save them. By Marguerite Holloway, for the New Yorker.
- Why red coral lives 500 years. By Liz Langley, for National Geographic
- Rising CO2 levels could be messing with squid. By Maddie Stone, for Earther.
Please add your own cuttings and spoils in the comments!
If you appreciate my shark research and conservation outreach, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Any amount is appreciated, and supporters get exclusive rewards!
Snot Bots for whale health, critical dolphins, lobster considerations, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 15, 2018.
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- 2018 is almost certainly going to be a record year for FOIA requests. Learn how to do them right and get results thanks to Pro Publica: I’ve Sent Out 1,018 Open Records Requests, and This Is What I’ve Learned.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Dr. Michelle LaRue is off to Antarctica and you can follow along through the magic of Twitter. #AccioAntarctica!
- The Cinematic Legacy of Jacques Cousteau: The man, the myth, the legend, and his persistent influence on screen.
- Lake Michigan’s Latest Ice Ball Outbreak Was Incredible. Earther has the best GIF game in town.
Paul May via Storyful.
Thursday Afternoon Dredging: September 14th, 2017
Cuttings (short and sweet):
- Watch this bat ray at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Follow Marie Auger-Méthé, an Arctic ecologist, on twitter!
- How sea creatures change color. From Nature Research Highlights.
- Global fingerprints of sea level rise revealed by satellites. By Rachael Lallensack for Nature News.
Chasing Genius, aquatic brain blobs, hurricanes, bats, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 4, 2017
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Hurricane Harvey has passed, but its impacts will continue to be felt for years to come. There’s lots of great organizations to donate to, but in the immediate aftermath,it’s often best to donate to local relief programs that already have a ground team in place, rather than national groups that will take weeks to build up their infrastructure. I’m a fan of the Texas Diaper Bank and Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies, both of which serve communities that tend to be particularly vulnerable during natural disasters.
- Gratuitous self promotion! The OpenCTD and Oceanography for Everyone has been selected as a finalist in National Geographic’s Chasing Genius Challenge! Please help me win the People’s Choice award by voting for the OpenCTD. Visit http://www.natgeochasinggenius.com/video/776, create or sign into your Chasing Genius account, and click the yellow star to vote on my video. Thank you!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- It will take months, if not years, to fully understand the impacts of Hurricane Harvey, which already looks to be the costliest storm in US history. These drone videos give you some idea of the sheer scale of the damage. The Washington Post has an interactive map to help visualize what the equivalent deluge would look like around the world: What the Harvey deluge would look like where you live.
Tangier, an Island out of Time.
Tangier Island is sinking.
The last inhabited island on the Virginia side of the Chesapeake Bay covers barely 740 acres of marsh and sand, 1/3 of the area it had when it was first mapped in the 1850s. Tangier suffers from the dual onslaught of erosion and sea level rise. In a good year, the island loses 7 to 9 acres of land, while the westernmost beach recedes 4 meters, exposing homes, gardens, and even graves to the Chesapeake’s unrelenting waves. The town, situated on three sandy ridges, rises to a high point just 1.2 meters above sea level. As salt water incursion and erosion deplete trees and other vegetation, erosion will increase. With a conservative projection of mean sea level rise of 4.4 millimeters per year for the southern Chesapeake Bay, the highest point in town, if it manages to stave off the inexorable erosion, would be completely underwater in 270 years. Tangier will be uninhabitable centuries before that.
Crab shacks in the main harbor. Photo by author.
The Chesapeake Bay and mid-Atlantic coastlines are hot spots for climate change, expecting greater than average sea level rise and more frequent and intense storms. Though the residents of the conservative community on tangier are skeptical, the evidence for human-induced climate change’s impact on the island and the effect of sea level rise is undeniable. Intensifying storms and more dramatic temperature shifts have and will continue to exacerbate erosion. Many residents believe that, had Hurricane Sandy made landfall over the Chesapeake Bay, rather than further north, Tangier would already be largely abandoned. Even the glancing blow from Sandy left significant damage in its wake.
One big storm could spell the end for this 350-year-old community. Read More
June is National Ocean Month and the president’s proclamation needs some fact checking.
June is National Ocean Month! Take a moment to step back, breathe, and reflect on what the ocean means to you. Go to the beach. Read Moby Dick. Build an underwater robot. And then go remind you representative how critical science-based ocean policy is to the future of our country. It seems like our elected leaders may need a little refresher on that, since the presidential proclamation announcing National Ocean Month is a bit… inaccurate.
Fortunately, we’ve take the time to graciously provide some constructive corrections. You’re welcome.
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.