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Tag: sperm whales

This Rum Protects the Ocean: the world’s first conservation distillery is open for business.

Posted on November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 By Andrew Thaler
This Rum Protects the Ocean: the world’s first conservation distillery is open for business.
Conservation, Featured

Five years ago, a small team of ocean scientists, conservationists, sea turtle patrollers, and distillers came up with a radical idea to create a sustainable, long-term funding model for Dominica’s Sea Turtle Conservation Organization and Ocean’s Forward. From dozens of meetings, market analyses, and viability assessments, the Rosalie Bay Distillery was born. The distillery would … Read More “This Rum Protects the Ocean: the world’s first conservation distillery is open for business.” »

5000 dives under the sea, plastic nomming fungi, scanning Belize’s Blue Hole, the thawing Northwest Passage, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: December 3, 2018.

Posted on December 3, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • With ice melting in Canada’s Northwest Passage, the area will soon be a new route for international shipping. Follow Life Under the Ice on OpenExplorer!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Legendary submarine pilot Erika Bergman is exploring Belize’s Blue Hole using state-of-the-art SONAR scanning tools and ROVs. A couple floppy-haired dudes are going too.
  • DSV Alvin made its 5000th dive. Way to go, little submarine!
  • A boon to ocean conservation? Certain fungi can degrade marine plastics.
  • I missed this over the summer, but Nash was an incredible guide and touring ancient Chamorro caves with him was the highlight of my time in Guam. He will be missed by many: Traditional seafarer Ignacio ‘Nash’ Camacho dies.
Ignacio R. "Nash" Camacho, a Traditions About Seafaring Islands member, and codesigner of the Chamoru Sakman outrigger replica canoe "Tasi," talks about his creation during a ceremony at the Guam Museum on June 29, 2017.
Ignacio R. “Nash” Camacho, a Traditions About Seafaring Islands member, and codesigner of the Chamoru Sakman outrigger replica canoe “Tasi,” talks about his creation during a ceremony at the Guam Museum on June 29, 2017.

Read More “5000 dives under the sea, plastic nomming fungi, scanning Belize’s Blue Hole, the thawing Northwest Passage, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: December 3, 2018.” »

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, 2018June 24, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

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.

https://vimeo.com/276100766

  • 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.

Read More “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” »

Cinnamon-flavored hagfish, how to open a coconut, hunted by sperm whales, speaking up for the blue, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 11, 2018.

Posted on June 11, 2018June 10, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • Great ocean outreach webinar: Bless your coast: communicating acidification with lessons learned in the Southeast. Tune in June 13th at 1 PM EDT!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Another entry into the “A Deeper Sea” keeps coming true file: Sperm whales are tracking fishing boats and stealing their fish.
  • I’m bummed to be missing Dinacon, but they’re putting out some awesome videos. Ever wonder how to crack open a coconut?
  • Join in on an oceanographic cruise already underway! Follow along with the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Observatory.
  • Introducing #OceanX and #Alucia2, a bold new initiative to explore the ocean and bring it back to the world! Yes please!

Read More “Cinnamon-flavored hagfish, how to open a coconut, hunted by sperm whales, speaking up for the blue, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 11, 2018.” »

The horrifying physiological and psychological consequences of being Aquaman

Posted on October 25, 2017 By Andrew Thaler
Popular Culture

This is an update and repost of our seminal article on the science of Aquaman, revised and expanded. 


Aquaman. DC Comics.
Aquaman. DC Comics. A rational response to seal poaching is to lob a polar bear at the aggressors.

Aquaman may not be everybody’s favorite superhero, but since his creation in 1941, he has been among DC’s most enduring icons. During the Golden Age of comics, he held his own against Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Silver Age Aquaman was a founding member and eventually leader of the Justice League. His powers, tied to the ocean, forced writers to create a compelling, complex hero with explicit limitations. In the early days, when Superman’s strength was practically infinite, and Batman’s brilliance was unmatched, Aquaman had to become more than just a superhero, he had to be a person.

If Superman existed to show us how high the human spirit could fly, and Batman to show us the darkness within even our most noble, Aquaman is here to show us the world that triumphs in our absence. The ocean is not ours, and no matter how great our technology, we will never master it as we have mastered land. Aquaman has. Through this lonely ocean wanderer, we can experience a world that we can never truly command. In many ways, Aquaman was stronger than the Man of Steel and darker than the Dark Knight. He knew loneliness that the orphan and the alien exile never could.

Even though Aquaman had to fight harder, endure the jokes of other, less interesting heroes, and find relevance in an ecosystem hostile to the humans that had to empathize with him, Aquaman was never forced to confront the truly horrifying consequences of life in the ocean.

The penetrating cold

Aquaman is, for all intents and purposes, a marine mammal. With the exception of a healthy mane in later incarnations, he is effectively hairless. As a human, we would expect his internal body temperature to hover around 99°F, or about 37°C. Even at its warmest points, the surface temperature of the ocean around the equator is only about 80°F/27°C. At the poles, ocean temperature can actually drop a few degrees below freezing. In the deep sea, ambient temperature levels out around 2 to 4°C. The ocean is cold, and water is a much better thermal conductor than air. Warm blooded species have evolved many different systems to manage these gradients, including countercurrent heat exchangers, insulating fur, and heavy layers of blubber. This is what a marine mammal that can handle cold waters look like:

Elephant Seal. NSF, photo by Mike Usher

Aquaman is not just a human, he is an atypically uninsulated human. If the man has more than 2% body fat, I’d be shocked. In contrast, warm-water bottlenose dolphins have at least 18 to 20% body fat. Anyone who SCUBA dives knows that, even with a 12 millimeter neoprene wet suit, after a few hours in 80°F water, you get cold. Aquaman, lacking any visible insulation, should have slipped into hypothermia sometime early in More Fun Comics #73. He is built for the beach rather than the frigid deep.

Jason Momoa is not a man blessed with an over-abundance of “bioprene”.

Read More “The horrifying physiological and psychological consequences of being Aquaman” »

The horrifying physiological and psychological consequences of being Aquaman

Posted on July 18, 2012December 27, 2012 By Andrew Thaler 20 Comments on The horrifying physiological and psychological consequences of being Aquaman
Popular Culture
Aquaman. DC Comics.
Aquaman. DC Comics. A rational response to seal poaching is to lob a polar bear at the aggressors.

Aquaman may not be everybody’s favorite superhero, but since his creation in 1941, he has been among DC’s most enduring icons. During the Golden Age of comic books, he held his own against Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Silver Age Aquaman was a founding member of the Justice League. His powers, tied to the ocean, forced writers to create a compelling, complex hero with explicit limitations. In the early days, when Superman’s strength was practically infinite, and Batman’s brilliance was unmatched, Aquaman had to become more than just a superhero, he had to be a person.

If Superman existed to show us how high the human spirit could fly, and Batman to show us the darkness within even our most noble, Aquaman is here to show us the world that triumphs in our absence. The ocean is not ours, and no matter how great our technology, we will never master it as we have mastered land, but Aquaman has. Through this lonely ocean wanderer, we can experience a world that we can never truly command. In many ways, Aquaman was stronger than the Man of Steel and darker than the Dark Knight. He knew loneliness that the orphan and the alien exile never could.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean – roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin – his control
Stops with the shore; — upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, not does remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.

Byron

Even though Aquaman had to fight harder, endure the jokes of other, less limited heroes, and find relevance in an ecosystem hostile to the humans that had to empathize with him, Aquaman was never forced to confront the truly horrifying consequences of life in the ocean.

Read More “The horrifying physiological and psychological consequences of being Aquaman” »

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