New Research:
If you look at the Mediterranean Sea on a globe, you may get the impression that its just one contiguous water mass, but really its not. There are thirteen seas in the Mediterranean Sea.
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Posted on April 24, 2008 12:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Researchers have been very concerned about the paucity of females of Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis, an octopus inhabiting the hydrothermal vent community of the Eastern Pacific Rise. One senior, conservative squid researcher even went so far as to comment that this octopus...
Posted on April 13, 2008 1:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
For many years, the Japanese were accused of exploiting the 'scientific whaling' loophole at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for the purposes of commercial harvest to satisfy a seemingly insatiable appetite for seafood. But, until now, there was little...
Posted on April 5, 2008 4:42 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A species of holothurian, Pannychia, swarms a whale fecal mound in the abyssal Pacific. When Miriam visited me last week at MBARI, we discussed over lunch my current "great" hypothesis. Every scientist has them...these are the hypotheses that are high...
Posted on April 1, 2008 4:01 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't study hydrothermal vents. I rather enjoy the deep muddy ooze, and its organisms, that comprise much of the earth's surface. Not that I don't like vents, I just like the soft bottoms better. I have been often...
Posted on March 30, 2008 12:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sometimes we just need a little help to get by in life. A nudge, some encouragement or a simple pat on the back will suffice. Being stuck to a rock is not a real good way to avoid predators, unless...
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Posted on March 29, 2008 9:33 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've already addressed the difficulty of doing experiments in the deep sea which ultimately leads to their rarity. I also mentioned given the costs and risks of doing something so crazy like an experiment in the deep sea makes...
Posted on March 26, 2008 4:29 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You read the title of this post, and the original paper, correctly. Brian H. sent this little gem of a paper to me today. Using SeaWiFS data from the last nine years, Polovina et al. show that in the North...
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Posted on March 13, 2008 4:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Experiments in the deep sea are a novelty, like a healthy Southern breakfast. Mmm...biscuits...but I digress. If you want to run a experiment in the intertidal it usually requires $100 of pvc and $100 of a graduate students time (about...
Posted on March 12, 2008 10:48 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ten years ago Fred Grassle, a marine biologist with deep-sea tendencies, and Jesse Ausubel, program director for Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, started conversing on an initiative to document the biodiversity of the oceans. That program, the Census of Marine Life,...
Posted on March 6, 2008 12:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks