Posts

June 07, 2013

+

12:00 AM | the-science-llama: Rare footage of an Oarfish in the WildVideo...

Rare footage of an Oarfish in the Wild (Regalecus glesne) // posted by The-Science-Llama Rare footage of an Oarfish in the Wild (Regalecus glesne) // posted by The-Science-Llama the-science-llama: Rare footage of an Oarfish in the WildVideo — Via DeepSeaNews Of all bony fish, the oarfish, Regalecus glesne, is the longest. It is suggested that oarfish can reach up to 15 meters (49 feet) in length but actual recorded lengths put them at still impressive 8 meters (26 feet). Oarfish […]

June 06, 2013

+

9:38 PM | Speed restrictions for protection of right whales in perpetuity!

A proposed rule put forward by the National Marine Fisheries Service was posted today in the Federal Register. The proposed rule would extend, in perpetuity, speed restrictions implemented in December of 2008, due to expire in December 2013. This is exciting news for right whales! We'll provide more details about this story soon. But the bottom line is that the shipping industry is to be

+

5:54 PM | Unusual Offshore Octopods: Great Glowing Octopus! [Video]

What has eight arms, no bones and hundreds of bright, twinkly lights? The glowing sucker octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis), of course. This flashy octopod is one of the few of its kind to have true bioluminescence, a trait much more common in two other cephalopod relatives, squid and cuttlefish. Even so, this bold octopus species holds [...]

+

5:23 PM | funfrom4chan: wat

funfrom4chan: wat

+

2:35 PM | First Video of an Oarfish in the Wild

Of all bony fish, the oarfish, Regalecus glesne, is the longest. It is suggested that oarfish can reach up to 15 meters (49 feet) in length but actual recorded lengths put them at still impressive 8 meters (26 feet). Oarfish will often was ashore or caught by fishermen. Yet, much like the giant squid, . . . → Read More: First Video of an Oarfish in the Wild

+

2:35 PM | Video of an Oarfish in the Wild

Of all bony fish, the oarfish, Regalecus glesne, is the longest. It is suggested that oarfish can reach up to 15 meters (49 feet) in length but actual recorded lengths put them at still impressive 8 meters (26 feet). Oarfish will often was ashore or caught by fishermen. Yet, much like the giant squid, . . . → Read More: Video of an Oarfish in the Wild

+

12:10 PM | #RaysTheRoof : Research symposium will focus on the biology and conservation of stingrays

July 10-15th in Albuquerque! I hope to see you there! The upcoming Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists will include a research symposium focusing on the biology and conservation of durophagous (shell-eating) stingrays. Organized by Dr.’s Matt Ajemian (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi) and Julie Neer (Southeast Data Assessment and Review), this symposium aims [...]

+

10:12 AM | 14th Argo Data Management Team Meeting

We are pleased to announce that the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) will host the 14th International Argo Data Management Team Meeting (ADMT14). The meeting will be held in Liverpool's Foresight Centre on 14th - 18th October 2013. ADMT14 logo © The 14th and 15th October are reserved for a delayed-mode quality control workshop, and the plenary data management meeting will be held on 16 – 18 October. The meeting will offer a chance for Argo data managers to […]

+

9:22 AM | The sea cow with super-sensing hairs

Manatees make up for their lousy sight with super sensitive hairs!

+

2:40 AM | griseus: FEMALE SQUID EAT SPERM TO BOOST FERTILIZATION Kristen...

griseus: FEMALE SQUID EAT SPERM TO BOOST FERTILIZATION Kristen Butler / UPI Female southern bottletail squid (Sepiadarium austrinum) have been observed eating the sperm and ejaculate of males, for their own health, and to improve egg production. Females store the sperm packages, called spermatophores, for up to three weeks in an external pouch near the mouth, called the buccal cavity. A female extracts mature eggs from her own body and passes them over the spermatophores to fertilize them […]

June 05, 2013

+

6:12 PM | Trash In The Deep Sea

Out of sight out of mind is the typical culture with regard to the deep seas. How can something so far away and so isolated be impacted by humans? New work out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute demonstrates the futility in such thinking. The researchers focused on seafloor debris in and around . . . → Read More: Trash In The Deep Sea

+

5:14 PM | A Father's Day Family Tree

As Father's Day approaches, we've been thinking about one of our more successful whale fathers: Misstip (Catalog #1156). While it is very difficult with right whales to distinguish social actions from actual mating, we have been able to make some major advances in our ability to determine paternities among the whale population in the North Atlantic, like Misstip. Misstip (foreground) has a

+

9:46 AM | June Badger Culls

The first of June marked the start of two pilot studies in Gloucestershire and Somerset to cull 70% of all of the wild badgers in those areas. The study is being conducted in an attempt to control the spread of bovine TB, which has caused the loss of cattle to farmers across Britain.

+

8:10 AM | ‘Battery’ PhD students to increase UK university productivity by ‘up to 75%’

By Jeff Hawkes New plans to rejuvenate working conditions for Ph.D. students in the UK were revealed today, receiving a poor reception. The plans are being introduced due to an explosion in PhD student recruitment over the past few decades. … Continue reading →

+

5:08 AM | Bluefish Escabeche

Today after work, I left Stony Brook’s Southampton campus (where the ALES Lab is headquartered) and drove 15 minutes to the end of the eastern spit separating Shinnecock Bay from the ocean, to go fishing. This is one of the … Continue reading →

June 04, 2013

+

3:41 PM | The Secret Life of Kelp

Normal 0 0 1 485 2765 UCSD/SIO 23 5 ...

+

9:34 AM | Research Suggests White Tigers Could Be Reintroduced To Wild

A Peking University study of captive white tigers has found no evidence that their genetic makeup is unsuited to life in the wild, meaning there is a prospect for their reintroduction, 55 years since the last one was shot in India.

June 03, 2013

+

4:44 PM | We’re talking about lion fish and turtle tales tonight on Blue Pints! See you at 8 PM EST.

Tonight on Blue Pints we’ll be joined by science writer and marine biologist Christie Wilcox to talk about lion fish, the invasive species that’s terrorizing the Atlantic coast. Afterwards, we’ll be sharing our favorite sea turtle stories. Join us via Google+ Hangouts tonight at 8PM EST. We’ll post the links via twitter or through my [...]

+

4:35 PM | "The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast..."

“The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a...

+

4:27 PM | Plodding progress on Field Guide to SE Beached Birds

I’m certain you’ve all been desperate for an update on the Field Guide to Beached Birds of the Southeastern United States. I, for one, have had the southeast on my mind more than usual, between working on the guide and preparing for a training session in South Carolina later this month. Since you are all […]

+

2:53 PM | Preprint servers: what are they good for?

Philippe Desjardins-Proulx and colleagues have a nice paper up in PLOS Biology (yes, it is PLOS now and no longer PLoS) The Case for Open Preprints in Biology. See their Box 1 - Preprint Server Roundup – for an excellent overview of the most popular preprint servers. Public preprint servers allow authors to make manuscripts publicly available [...]

+

12:00 PM | What can we do with an OpenCTD – high resolution hurricane monitoring

Last Friday we launched Oceanography for Everyone–The OpenCTD, a crowdfunding project to develop a low-cost, open-source CTD. This project won’t succeed without your help. To demonstrate how valuable a device like the OpenCTD is, for the next several weeks I’ll be presenting various projects that could be accomplished with access to low-cost CTD’s. First up [...]

+

11:38 AM | Where greenhouse gases come from

Ecofys released a new, nice graphic depicting where greenhouse gases come from: It generally seems accurate and they say it is based on 2010 data, although I have not been able to find their methodology. This chart updates an important, earlier one from WRI here. In 2000 18.2 % of emissions were attributed to land use [...]

+

11:35 AM | What can fish tell us about ecosystem health?

Chances are if you’re reading this post, I don’t have to convince you that clean water is important. We’re responsible to ourselves to maintain enough clean water to support our society. Most obviously, we must maintain water quality for human consumption. In addition, agencies are required to manage water quality to protect imperiled species and fishery resources.So exactly how do we do that?When it was passed in the early 1970s, the Clean Water Act required states to establish numeric […]

+

9:48 AM | Apes throw tantrums when gambling

A behavioural study in PLOS ONE this week showed that Chimpanzees and Bonobo’s will display high bouts of emotion if they lose at simple risk based games.

June 02, 2013

+

10:15 PM | An overfishing story told by bird collagen

Hawaiian Petrel. Photo from Jim Denny on Flickr. Meet The Hawaiian Petrel (or ʻUaʻu or Pterodroma sandwichensis) a bird species endemic to the Hawaiian Islands but with an appetite causing it to dine on squids, fish, and crustaceans from around the Pacific. A single individual may take off on a 10,000 kilometer (>6,000 mile) trip . . . → Read More: An overfishing story told by bird collagen

+

8:31 PM | June’s foggy gloom

Yesterday, the sky was bright blue and the breezes gentle. It was a warm spring day. But that was yesterday. Today, sadly, June gloom arrived — that gray blanket of wet summer fog. Although this may not sound like a downer, … Continue reading →

+

6:23 PM | Cormorant hatchlings

I started watching the Brandt’s cormorants on the breakwater in February when they evicted sea lions from the upper rocks. In April and May they worked ceaselessly building nests and tending them. I’ve watched the nest mounds grow, the rocks … Continue reading →

+

6:13 PM | amnhnyc: Epic Encounter: Giant Squid and Sperm Whale In what is...

amnhnyc: Epic Encounter: Giant Squid and Sperm Whale In what is one of the most dramatic dioramas in the Museum, a giant squid is caught in the sperm whale’s mouth, its tentacles grasping at the whale’s head, which is actually an oversized snout. The sperm whale and giant squid diorama in the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life is now celebrating the 10th anniversary of a masterful renovation. Learn more about this scene.

+

7:19 AM | Turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval found murdered on...

Turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval found murdered on Playa Moín in Costa Rica At around 6 a.m. on Friday, the body of 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval, a young Costa Rican conservationist who monitored and protected turtle nests, was found on Moín Beach, on the northern Caribbean coast. According to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ), Mora had been badly beaten and shot in the head, and his hands were tied behind his back. The OIJ released conflicting statements saying that […]