whale
Bot meets Whale: making friends in the ocean; or how I learned to stop worrying and mitigate harmful interactions between recreational ROVs and marine mammals.

Today, there are more robots exploring the ocean than ever before. From autonomous ocean-crossing gliders to massive industrial remotely operated vehicles to new tools for science and exploration that open new windows into the abyss, underwater robots are giving people a change to experience the ocean like never before. The fastest growing sector of this new robotic frontier? Small, recreational, observation class ROVs.
Read MoreSeaWorld versus OSHA versus Brett Kavanaugh, sea lions and sucker punches, this dumpster whale is all of us, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: October 1, 2018.
Foghorn (A Call to Action!)
- Irrational, unhinged, and belligerent, Sweaty Brett Kavanaugh has no place on the Supreme Court. Call your Senators and let them know. And, because all drains lead to the ocean, read his inscrutable dissent on the SeaWorld v. OSHA case.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- This kayaker got sucker punched. Sorry, I’ll show myself out.
- It was a banner week for ocean gifs. Dead whale spends night in Rye parking lot after movers realize they’re going to need a bigger tote.
- I’m pretty jazzed by the idea of a transparent canoe.
It’s #JacquesWeek! Also, lots of other ocean things happened last week. Monday Morning Salvage: July 24, 2017
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- #JacquesWeek! It’s Jacques Week! Join us all week long as we watch and discuss classic Cousteau documentaries.
- This incredible interactive map of deep-sea mining sites, associated ecosystems, and the threats they face, from the Royal Society. And, while we’re on the topic of Deep-sea Mining, I am Wilderness just launched the DSM Observer to track all the latest developments in deep-sea mining.
- A whale making a rainbow. Share the love.
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Mast Head (Chapter 35)
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during our blog vacation. Our adventure into Moby Dick continues with chapter 35 – The Mast Head. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
The Mast Head
Upon his perch, one hundred feet above
the rolling pitch, deepest blue, a whaleman
loses himself to the sea, becomes her.Grasping the cross-bar, he sheds all meaning,
binding his body with the ships timbers,
joining in holy union with the wavesbeneath her hull. And from this vantage he
shall sight the monster rising from the deep
and call out to his shipmates, “Whale! Whale-ho!”Yet lost in revelry, a thoughtful man
may falter in his union with the ship
and find the sea an unforgiving fate.