Craig is away at a workshop but emailed me this message to relay. Remember to visit and bookmark our new site!-------------------------------------------------------When I was much, much younger, I joined Jacques Cousteau's Calypso Club (named affectionately after his beloved ship). Was anyone else club members? Is there still a Calypso Club? The rights and privileges of this elite club were endless. Entry was limited to any child with a few bucks to their name and a few cereal box tops. My membership packet came in with all kinds of information, patches, stickers, and certificates.…
Farewell, Scienceblogs. This will be my last post at SB's DSN. It's a little sad for me, because I kinda feel like I grew up here. Since I started blogging, I had two little girls, moved from Los Angeles to Texas, bought a house, and enrolled in a PhD program. Since moving to ScienceBlogs, I completed my coursework, passed qualifiers, and started writing my dissertation. So, it can be done! Don't let that cranky luddite professor discourage you. There's always time for ScienceBlogs. To ScienceBlogs, thank you for inviting us and nurturing us here. This is a unique gathering. The community…
Our time here with Seed is at an end. One chapter closed, another one is opened. Right now it is a time a great changes for me. As many readers know, I recently moved to North Carolina to take up a position a research technician at Duke's Marine Lab on the coast. Thankfully we did not get the full brunt of Hanna, just a bucket load of rain and 30 mph winds. Unfortunately, my U-Haul truck broke down on the interstate and I was stranded a day and half in Ashland, Virginia with truckloads of drunken racing fans. But I am here now in Cateret County getting settled in and enjoying being back in…
If art is the universal language, how do you say "don't eat orange roughy"? We'll have to ask electronic artist Don Relyea, who generated the image above. "Orange Roughy" was inspired by his wife's cooking, which, unfortunately, includes the fish formerly known as "slimehead". Orange roughy are long lived and quickly depleted. They come from seamounts around New Zealand, generally. The fishery works like a clear cutting operation. Take it all and move on. It's not sustainable. On the bright side, the New Zealand government is one of 69 countries to take part in a new international…
Eric has the latest edition of the taxonomy and biodiversity blog carnival up, Linneaus' Legacy. Go there and learn some stuff!
GrrlScientist is having a sailfish appreciation day over at Living the Scientific Life. She's posting hot links to the online story at National Geographic about their cooperative fish herding techniques. Its really amazing. I trolled a "maori-style" sailfish image that could make a nice tattoo. It's shown here on a t-shirt from Google images. Sailfish are "oceanodromous", which means they occur widely throughout the world's oceans, live and migrate wholly in the sea. As opposed to anadromous fish, like salmon, which migrate to freshwater to spawn; or catadromous eels, like Anguilla sp.,…
Naturally, one of the favorite pastimes here in the Cone of Probability is to monitor as many websites as possible for different forecasts and projections of Hurricane Ike. The more the models stray away from Corpus Christi the less anxious you feel. Currently three models veer to the north before landfall, so CC has a small chance of escaping the storm. The image above is from my favorite hurricane web interface so far, called Stormpulse. It's full screen, and very interactive, almost like a video game. If you're looking for in-depth analysis, grab a cup a' joe and dig in to Jeff Masters…
Corpus Christi is in the center of Hurricane Ike's projected trajectory. He's coming at us like a fastball over home plate. This is a bit scarier than being on the periphery of the strike zone. TAMU-CC started issuing updates yesterday. One scientific expedition is recalled. If there's anything good that came out of Katrina it's better hurricane preparedness in the Gulf of Mexico. Should the storm bear down on us, we'll shutter up the house, pack up the car, and head for hill country in Austin, TX. My wife can drive while I crunch data and the kids fall asleep in the back. Right. I wonder…
"Flow velocities of ocean-ending outlet glaciers would have to be about 49 km/yr, 70 times faster than those glaciers move today" for Greenland to raise sea level 2 m, says Tad Pfeffer about his new research in Science. That's three times faster than he and his colleagues have ever observed an outlet glacier to move. This doesn't mean sea level isn't rising due to glacier melt. Actually, the oceans could rise more and faster than International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists believed possible. Image from Free Geography Tools There is a nice write-up on the latest and greatest…
Shrimp fisherman and environmental activist Diane Wilson gave a talk today at the Harte Research Institute. She speaks without script or slides. That's probably what makes her such a great speaker. Stories of her life as a fisherwoman turned activist invoke depressing, humorous, and inspiring emotions all at the same time. Diane's best known for sinking her own shrimp boat in protest of toxic discharge at a Formosa Plastic industrial plant here in South Texas, but she's taken on Union Carbide and others like a One Woman Army. She is the author of An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of…
You can't say farewell to Summer 2008 without a loving look back at... the Italian Spiderman. This viral video came on the scene like a Jersey girl on the boardwalk, sweeping Philly boys off their feet. We're showing Episode 6, in which our hero seeks remnants of the the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub Crater off the coast of the Yucatan Penninsula. Check out YouTube for the full series from Alrugo Entertainment if you haven't seen it. Special shout out to the 2-1-5. Miss you guys. Congrats Bill and Kika, welcome baby Alexa Capozzoli!
Image courtesy Dr. Erik Cordes, Expedition to the Deep Slope, NOAA/MMS The deep-sea gorgonian genus Iridogorgia sp. is characterized by a partially calcareous axis with an open, upright spiral or helix arrangement (Verrill, 1883) used to strain food from the water column. Three new species were described last year (Watling 2007). According to Dr. Steve Cairns at Smithsonian NMNH, this is Iridogorgia pourtalesii Verrill, 1883. It's the type species for the genus. Picture from 1410 m depth in Green Canyon 854 on the 2007 Expedition to the Deep Slope in the Gulf of Mexico. AE Verrill (1883)…
When a sailor misses a chance to go to sea, he tends to wander around his garden, paying special attention to the clouds and the weather, as if he were walking on the ship's deck in fresh sea air. He circles his home like it were a shipyard, looking for repairs. Today I noticed some rotting wood on the gable in a corner of the garden. A bee crawled out. The adjacent firebush (Fig. 1) buzzes every morning with dozens of bees of a few different species. Two species are bumblebees, big, black, and loud; the other is small, like a honeybee, yellow and black. Hummingbirds also frequent the bush.…
Zach at When Pigs Fly Returns has the latest edition of the paleo-carnival, The Boneyard! Keep an eye out for preserved naughty bits...
Well, we are mostly packed up and the family is ready for our big move to coastal North Carolina to start my new job at the Duke University Marine Lab! And it seems like we might be greeted with southern hospitality by Hannah. My first time living in the south and we are immediately confronted by Storm World. That's just Faaaaaaaaaantastic... Since I will be temporarily living on one of the barrier islands, I may not even be able to get to our new home to unpack and hunker down. They shut the bridge down if winds exceed 60 mph. I even need to get a "hurricane pass" which allows me onto the…
Over at The Saipan Blog. Excellent Collection of ocean-related articles. Learn about the proposed Mariana Trench National Monument and how Bush supports it! Kudos to Angelo for this edition of the Carnival of the Blue and all his hard work promoting the creation of the monument. Extra: Just read this letter to editor regarding the NY Times article on the new alvin:" Re "New Sphere in Exploring the Abyss" (Aug. 26): I am heartened by the push to deeper ocean frontiers promised by the development of the new subs. Every such exploration yields unimagined life forms and provides us astronomers a…
While Deep Sea News is still preparing our new home, spackling the cracks, painting the walls, sanitizing the fridge, throwing out the empties form the last tenant's going away party, unpacking the boxes and otherwise getting settled in, other people are keeping on top of things in our ocean world! Toxel has sexy designs for both a collapsible surfboard AND the Volitan Futuristic Lightweight Boat!! Check out the concept video: Mike Haubrich follows an awesome expedition to the Cayman Trench. The North and South American continents joined up just three million years ago, but before then…
Sheril reports that Barack Obama has taken up the challenge and answered the 14 questions posed by the ScienceDebate08 coalition. These 14 issues run the gamut from space to health to security and education. In particular to myself and you the reader, there was one very important question about the ocean's health: 9. Ocean Health. Scientists estimate that some 75 percent of the world's fisheries are in serious decline and habitats around the world like coral reefs are seriously threatened. What steps, if any, should the United States take during your presidency to protect ocean health? "…
I couldn't resist. FAILBlog has the original entry, a screenshot from a forum by someone who has a plan to stop sea level rise, an outcome of global warming. Here is what the text says: "I was watching inconvenient truth the other day and theres the bit where it shows the sea level rising really high and flooding most of the world. Well i live near the sea, and don't want to drown, so i got to thinking. Maybe if we lower the sea level a bit, when the water level rises then it won't rise high enough to flood. Anyway, heres the plan. Everyone who can should take a bucket of sea water and pour…
Just another lazy friday afternoon. I don't know about you, but i felt more relaxed after listening to that, almost sleepy. Maybe you need a little sting to wake you up after that? (below the fold)