Vaquita
Deep-sea gator falls covered in isopods, more struggles for the Ocean Cleanup, a robot lost in the cold (but not the one you’re thinking of), and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 18, 2019
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
What do you do if you find yourself at the helm of a major Louisiana marine science institution? If you’re Dr. Craig McClain, you plant the first experimental Alligator falls in the deep Gulf of Mexico!
On the other hand, if you find yourself at the helm of a US Navy destroyer, you might want to review this incredible and exhaustive accounting of the USS Fitzgerald disaster and how training deficits, exhaustion, and poor decision making compounded to create a deadly situation.
I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots, protecting the oceans like national parks, songs of a ice and warming, cannibals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 22, 2018.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- I want you to have amazing adventures with underwater robots. That’s why Nat Geo and OpenROV are giving away 1000 robot submarines!
- National Geographic Announces Initiative to Donate 1,000 Underwater Drones to Explore the Ocean.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Get inspired with the latest TED Talk for OpenROV visionary David Lang.
Ancient fish farming and popular invasive species: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 18th 2018
Cuttings (short and sweet):
- Follow everyone in this amazing thread of twitter wildlife biologists started by David Steen.
- Ancient Egyptians farmed fish thousands of years ago. By the New Arab. This is a neat story about a new archaeological study, which tells us about ancient humans’ relationship with the sea.
- Fun fish festivals around the world. By Dana Sackett, for the Fisheries Blog.
- Drug trafficking at sea is devastating island states, ministers say. By Karen McVeigh, for the Guardian.
Spoils (long reads and deep dives):
- What Happens When Humans Fall In Love With An Invasive Species? By Maggie Koerth-Baker, for 538. This is a really excellent long read about the cultural impacts of invasive species, and how they’re not always considered to be bad.
- Herschel, the Very Hungry Sea Lion. By Katharine Gammon, for Hakai. This great story is all about how humans wrongly blame marine predators for our own overfishing.
- Will Americans Embrace A Zeal For Eel? This Maine Entrepreneur Hopes So. By Fred Bever, for NPR.
- Finding home, magnetically. From ScienceFriday.
- Scientists map the impact of trawling using satellite vessel tracking. By John Cannon, for MongaBay
- Scientists catch rare glimpses of endangered vaquita. By Elisabeth Malkin, for the New York Times.
- The internet of animals that could help to save vanishing wildlife. By Andrew Curry, for Nature
- And don’t forget to check out my first-ever op ed, about shark fishing in Florida
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!
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.
Eat hagfish, work at LUMCON, clone Vaquita, question floating trash collectors, and more! Monday Morning Mega-Salvage: August 13, 2018
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- It’s time for Africosh! The annual Africa Open Science and Hardware Summit Heads is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this year!
- LUMCON is hiring! They’re looking for two exceptional coastal and marine science faculty hires in any discipline. And they have the best “come work for us” video!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Hakai Magazine is my jam this month.
- How an Epidemic Exposed the Ecological Importance of Sea Stars: The near eradication of British Columbia’s sea stars demonstrated the dynamic role they play in regulating kelp forests.
- How to Dismantle a Blue Whale: In Chile, a team of volunteers confronts stench and gore to ensure a new life for a dead whale. [Warning: Link contains graphic pictures of whale evisceration]
- I’ve been following this project for almost 2 years. Awesome to see how far they’ve come. NinjaPCR is a WiFi enabled, Opensource DNA Amplifier and Thermocycler for Polymerase Chain Reaction developed by 2 hackers in Tokyo.
- Plastic wrap made from shellfish and plants is completely compostable.
Hagfish (just Hagfish)
- Yes, people do eat hagfish. Yum! Snake-like creature writhes, squirms on grill.
- Hagfish are the emissaries of love, not war. Stop it. Synthetic ‘Slime’ To Help US Navy Trap Enemy Ships.
#JacquesWeek returns! Falling glaciers, fish that don’t eat plastic, sharks and the women who study them, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 16, 2018
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Jacques Week is coming! Have no fear. Our annual answer to Shark Week’s ocean madness will be back for a forth season!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Saving the Vaquita was always about understanding human cultures and how social structures intersect with the ecosystem. Investigation reveals illegal trade cartels decimating vaquita porpoises.
Fishermen with an illegal haul of totoaba. Image courtesy of Elephant Action League.
- Keep beating this drum until it sinks in: Plastic Straw Bans Leave Out People With Disabilities.
- Climate change may be a boon for archaeology: Scorching Heat Wave Reveals Signs of Ancient Civilization in the UK.
Photo: Toby Driver (RCAHMW)
Farting oysters, bombing sea lions, and a new trash island? It must be the Monday Morning Salvage! November 20, 2017
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- It’s Native American History Month. Southern Fried Science recognizes that our servers are housed on the occupied land of the Timpanogos people while the majority of our writers live on unceded Powhatan territory. This November, Try Something New: Decolonize Your Mind.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Boaters stumble on massive Caribbean “gyre” of plastic garbage. “Gyre is in quotes because I’m almost certain that this is debris from the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season, rather than an accumulation of decades of plastic is a circulating ocean current. It’s still shocking to see.
- The ARA San Juan, one or Argentina’s two diesel-electric submarines, is missing. Search and rescue is mobilizing and there’s hints that the sailors tried to send out a signal Saturday.
- Without a Treaty to Share the Arctic, Greedy Countries Will Destroy It. Cosign.
Twitter Ocean Chess, lessons from the Vaquita, awe of the deep, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: November 13, 2017
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Ocean policy news breaking this week. We’ll have a comment template ready to go when it does. Please check back. We can’t announce until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.
- Still time to register for OceanDotComm! Science Communication folks! Are you ready for OceanDotComm? Register now!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- This is an amazing piece about the importance of awe in deep-sea conservation. Unless we regain our historic awe of the deep ocean, it will be plundered.
Wine bottle found in the deep North Atlantic. Laura Robinson, University of Bristol, and the Natural Environment Research Council. Expedition JC094 was funded by the European Research Council.
- The Vaquita are going extinct and with them comes an importance lesson on the value of social science to conservation research:
My wife, on the other hand, is a social scientist who works on development here in Mexico. When we first started dating, I used to tease her for being a soft little scientist in her soft little science. I now understand that helping a community pull itself out of poverty is more complex than brain surgery or quantum physics.
There is no magic equation for community organizing but she begins by understanding that “the community” isn’t some monolithic creature that thinks as a unit. There are complex politics and power dynamics at work that can either aid or destroy all her efforts.
I now understand why the vaquita is going extinct. They sent too many people like me into the region and not enough like her.
- Would you like to play a game? Last week David and I unleashed Twitter Ocean Chess upon the internet and the results are in: it’s the only valid use of 280 characters.
See a Great White Shark from the inside with OpenROV, Vaquita, Narwhals, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: November 6, 2017
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Science Communication folks! Are you ready for OceanDotComm? Register now!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Go shark diving with OpenROV Trident and maybe get a bit too close an personal with a great white shark.
- Yes, that is the esophagus of a great white shark, in the wild. No, you should not attempt to replicate this experience.