Posts

May 17, 2013

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7:28 PM | The 97% consensus on human-caused climate change

If you believe the climate is changing and that human activties are the cause, then you can probably go back over to clearning your house of whatever you were doing when you took a break to check in with SeaMonster. But, if you are one of the hundred million of so Americans that still don't [...]

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3:08 PM | 10 Endangered Ocean Animals: Happy Endangered Species Day!

10 Endangered Marine Animals 1. Maui’s Dolphin: found off of New Zealand, only 55 individuals remain 2. Northern Right Whale: found in Atlantic Ocean, only 350 individuals remain 3. Vaquita: small dolphin found off of Baja Peninsula, Mexico, 500-600 remain 4. Mediterranean (less than 400 remain) and Hawaiian Monk Seals (approximately 1100 remain) 5. Sea [...]

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1:59 AM | Keeping out of trouble on Appledore

I may be focused on the study of live gulls this week, but I never forget my roots, dear Seanetters. I have found more than 10 dead birds while here. Some were mere fragments of Northern Flickers or other smallish sorts of birds, but we also found a freshly dead female eider. Common Eiders nest […]

May 16, 2013

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11:00 AM | You want mustard with that clam?

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report put out by the Centers for Disease Control makes for fascinating reading sometimes. One came out recently that contains three startling case reports linked to clam beds on the US east coast, but they do not involve, as you might expect, infectious diseases. In the first case a member . . . → Read More: You want mustard with that clam?

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10:10 AM | Keep calm and drill on: fracking debate gets heated

Around the world, citizens are divided on the issue of fracking: will it be an answer to the need for renewable energy or will extracting shale gas do more harm to the environment than good?

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12:00 AM | livinginchaosbeauty: My final project in scientific...

livinginchaosbeauty: My final project in scientific illustration! I wanted to draw some of the forms of the mimic octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus, one of the coolest organisms I know of.[Much better scans to come in the far-off future]

May 15, 2013

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9:20 PM | marine-science:

marine-science:

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6:40 PM | scinerds: Colorful phytoplankton blooms off the coast of...

scinerds: Colorful phytoplankton blooms off the coast of France. Nasa writes: Blooms can be a blessing to other marine species, as these tiny floating plants often feed everything from zooplankton to fish to whales. But some algae and plankton blooms can turn dangerous, either through the production of chemical toxins or by severely depleting the oxygen supply in the ocean and creating “dead zones” that suffocate marine creatures.

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5:53 PM | scientificillustration: Die Kreidefauna des Peterwardeiner...

scientificillustration: Die Kreidefauna des Peterwardeiner Gebirges Palaeontographica 52 (1905-6)

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1:56 PM | Weddell seals found to be born with abnormally large brains

Weddell seals are born with brains which are 70% the size of their parents, but a body mass of only 6-7%.

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1:53 PM | On endlings and singletons

There can be few words as poignant as ‘endling’, the name given to the last surviving individual of a species. Tell me you don’t find this image of Benjamin, the last Thylacine, heartbreaking? Or that you weren’t moved by the plight of Lonesome George? And what about Martha, the passenger pigeon? Doesn't her story make you weep at our limitless environmental profligacy? But what links all of these endlings is that we know they were once members of a thriving... Read more

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1:20 PM | colchrishadfield: Dr. Seuss-inspired swirls in the Black Sea.

colchrishadfield: Dr. Seuss-inspired swirls in the Black Sea.

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10:40 AM | astronomy-to-zoology: A Flame Scallop (Lima scabra) showcasing...

astronomy-to-zoology: A Flame Scallop (Lima scabra) showcasing its ‘electric’ bioluminescence. Video Source

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8:20 AM | heythereuniverse: Ascidian embryos | wellcome images

heythereuniverse: Ascidian embryos | wellcome images

May 14, 2013

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6:34 PM | Ocean Treasures Film Festival

This Saturday, May 18 2013 is a FREE Ocean Film Festival at Stanford University. It is called the “Ocean Treasures Film Festival.” “We may not be able to bring the Stanford community to the ocean en masse, but through the spring Ocean Treasures Film Festival we can create an experience that brings the power of [...]

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11:00 AM | It’s not uterUS, it’s uterME

Dear Abby, It’s just not fair. There I was, a freshly produced sand tiger shark embryo, developing nicely and making my way down the ovarian ducts to one horn of the uterus. I had blastulated like a boss, totally owned gastrulation and even did a half decent impersonation of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny. Things were looking . . . → Read More: It’s not uterUS, it’s uterME

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10:58 AM | Barrier reef at risk from Australia’s export industry

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s natural wonders. It is a place where people from all over the world flock to, in order to dive or snorkel in the waters that surround it and marvel at the vast array of colours and sea life that live there. One would expect a place as diverse and important as this to be protected, however the Great Barrier Reef is in danger from rapid industrialisation and under threat from the building of large ports, dredging, dumping and a 7,000 carrier ship

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7:43 AM | Are dolphins conscious?

We currently lack strong evidence for consciousness in dolphins suggests Professor Heidi Harley in her recently published review article appearing in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A. For some (perhaps most) cognitive scientists studying animals minds, this is not a particularly controversial conclusion – a borderline truism. For other scientists – and perhaps for nearly [...]

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7:08 AM | Seaweed passion leads to crowd-funding research

Followers of education writing and/or interested in crowdfunding stories may have noticed this one pop up this week: a university academic, Dr Alecia Bellgrove, who is raising money to fund research into edible seaweeds growing along the Victorian southwest coast. She happens to be one of my Deakin marine biology lecturers (who I plan to […]

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5:45 AM | The future of marine science in the UK: It’s all about the money money money…

Follow @D_Aldridge DEFRA report shows the massive pressure that is being put on UK marine science by commercial interests: from setting the research agenda, to running public services for profit, and the desire to dismantle public bodies such as CEFAS and … Continue reading →

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1:58 AM | Deep Divers

Found this rather interesting information while researching for deep diving animals. If you are interested, I did post an article related to this before (read more). So here is a pictorial depiction of our deep diving neighbours. Source:LiveScience

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12:09 AM | Appledore Island: Day One

First, and in brief, there was broad, almost universal consensus on the Dead Bird Quiz: Bird A is an immature Bonaparte’s Gull and Bird B is a Snowy Egret (and Mary Wright even went a step further saying it’s an after-second-year (ASY) bird “based on the broad outer primaries.”) I buy this entirely since Mary […]

May 13, 2013

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9:43 PM | Acupuncture returns.

After our last release we still have 14 turtles in our care. This is the time of year that the majority of turtles still in our hospital have many clinical concerns. Most of our followers are aware that we will do anything to get these animals back to good health so they can be released back into the wild. This includes the “non-traditional” treatments such as laser therapy and acupuncture.

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5:52 PM | Is this Polar Pod genius or just plain insanity?

People come up with all sorts of wacky ideas to explore the oceans. And here is another one of those ideas. Meet the Polar Pod, a manned research platform dreamed up by French Explorer/Physician Jean-Louis Etienne to drift around Antarctica in the Southern Ocean. My first thought when I saw this concept was WTF. . . . → Read More: Is this Polar Pod genius or just plain insanity?

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4:27 PM | Fiji fish – Emperor Angelfish

I'm stoked to be going to Fiji this June with Joshua Drew from Colombia University and his crew of PhDs and masters students. My main role on the expedition is going to be documenting the science and spreading the word to the rest of the world about reefs and conservation and all things fishy (I like to think of myself [...]

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12:56 PM | Hypoxia

"Currently, hypoxia and anoxia are among the most widespread deleterious anthropogenic influences on estuarine and marine environments, and now rank with overfishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems." Diaz et al. 2008Fish killed by hypoxic events. (Source: EPA)The Dead Zone. Fish kills. Hypoxia. We increasingly hear these terms on the news every summer—so […]

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9:58 AM | Jelly invaders from space?

There is nothing better than a vacation in a hot and sunny climate over summer, especially one which involves the beach and tanning lotion. However, this idyllic scene can become painfully interrupted by a sharp sting from an elusive marine culprit!

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12:47 AM | Unusual Offshore Octopods: More (Octopus) Suckers Born Every Minute in Cold Water

That octopuses can survive in the extreme, sunless environments around deep hydrothermal vents is surprising enough. But comparing octopuses that make their homes there has led to some even more interesting discoveries about animal development. The rarely seen Muusoctopus hydrothermalis live some 2,495 to 2,620 meters below the surface, along the East Pacific Rise. There, [...]

May 12, 2013

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5:42 PM | Good Conservation Policies Can Push Markets Towards Conservation

A lot of debate among conservationists centers on the conflict between the desire to see a species totally protected from human exploitation and the reality that market forces will continue to exist (see the latest on shark fin bans for a very good example). Ideally, a conservation plan should strike a balance, ensuring the continued [...]

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3:02 AM | jtotheizzoe: 400. For the first time in human history, carbon...

jtotheizzoe: 400. For the first time in human history, carbon dioxide levels reached an average daily level of 400 parts per million, as reported this week. The last time the atmosphere contained this much carbon dioxide was 3 million years ago. This new data comes from the Mauna Loa observatory and a set of data continuously collected since 1958: The Keeling curve. This represents almost a 50% increase since the beginning of the industrial age. Although there is some seasonal variability […]