cmcclain
Posts by this author
May 30, 2007
It is very early in the morning. Yes I know its only a little after 7am but I really am not a morning person. Like most mornings leaving the dock in Moss Landing it is foggy and relatively cold. I'm not whining its just cold for a southern boy. I will be on the Pt. Lobos today, affectionately…
May 29, 2007
Tomorrow, I will be blogging from sunny Monterey Bay. Actually, I will be blogging from foggy Monterey Bay but it will still be outrageous. You can tune in here at 7:00 am (Pacific Time) tomorrow for the first post. Hopefully, halfway through the day the antenna will be working and I will beam back…
May 29, 2007
Yesterday in Part I, I noted that a Spanish newspaper published a picture allegedly from a port employee showing a coin with a bust of King Charles III, ruler of Spain in the 18th century, suggesting the Black Swan was indeed Spanish. Greg Stemm, co-founder of Odysssey Marine Exploration…
May 28, 2007
Last week I reported on the potential $500 million dollar haul of coins pulled by Odyssey Marine Exploration of a wreck referred to the "Black Swan". Several papers are reporting on the possible identity of the wreck and the potential ownership of the wreck by Spain. Spain has claimed that the…
May 28, 2007
Kathleen Hardy from the Darling Marine Center will be blogging from sea aboard the R/V Thompson. The month long cruise will take place in the North Pacific and Kathleen provides an excellent mix of the at sea experience and science tales. The post titles are imaginative and should peak your…
May 23, 2007
You may be asking yourself how these two fit together. I would like to say something like "every box of Cheerios contains a model Alvin in it." That would be great but totally fictional. The connection is actually more interesting and involves Bud Froehlich.
You may have heard of a little…
May 22, 2007
For some reason the work of Deanna Molinaro just speaks to me. I wonder what it could be?
May 22, 2007
And a virgin shall be with pup, and shall bring forth a hammerhead, and they shall call his name Elasmobranch which being interpreted is, to beat the gill...
Three female hammerheads in a tank in Nebraska and no males in site for three years. Poof! A pup is born. Realizing that the important part…
May 21, 2007
From Yahoo News...
An Indonesian fisherman hooked a rare coelacanth...and briefly kept the "living fossil" alive in a quarantined pool. Justinus Lahama caught the four-foot, 110-pound fish early Saturday off Sulawesi island near Bunaken National Marine Park, which has some of the highest marine…
May 20, 2007
Via Neatorama..
Jellyfish Lake is an isolated saltwater lake in the Pacific island of Palau. In the geologic past it was tied to the ocean acquring jellyfish. These jellyfish have become an isolated population lossing thier nematocysts (stinging cells). They thrive in the lake at high…
May 18, 2007
If marine biologist are the rock stars of science then marine archaeologists may be the millionaires.
Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have mined what could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, bringing home 17 tons of colonial-era silver and gold coins from an undisclosed site in the…
May 17, 2007
These beautiful illustrations are from the Challenger Reports available online. The first is of the very large, deep water, pycnogonid sea spider, Colossendeis gigas. The second (below the fold) contains Octopus levis and Octopus bermudensis both new species described on the expedition. The last…
May 17, 2007
David over at the World's Fair poses
1. Can you show us your coffee cup?
2. Can you comment on it? Do you think it reflects on your personality?
3. Do you have any interesting anecdotes resulting from coffee cup commentary?
4. Can you try to get others to comment on it?
Well judge…
May 17, 2007
The Mineral Management Service under the Bush Administration is running wild on the PR campaign about the benefits of deep-sea oil platforms. Thanks to Scientific American and Reuters the MMS and big oil are getting some good press.
Deep-sea oil platforms may aid sea life: study HOUSTON (Reuters…
May 16, 2007
Orlean's The Orchid Thief delves in to the psychosis for some that is orchid collecting. In this example, she covers John Laroche's arrest for poaching rare orchids in a Florida state preserve and his obsession to find and clone the uber rare Ghost Orchid. The mindset of a collector is not limited…
May 16, 2007
At the beginning of March, DSN reported on DEPTHX.
The picture is of DEPTHX. It weighs about 1.2 tons, shaped like a mushroom, and can navigate itself into your bedroom. Just kidding. Not really. It can swim through a water-filled cavern creating its own map. It has already explored La Pilita, a…
May 15, 2007
The answer is still no but read below if you care to know why you cannot eat monkfish (maybe better known as anglerfish).
In January, DSN praised the move by Wal-Mart owned ADSA to drop monkfish from their stores. Last week however several media outlets claimed Monkfish back on the menu &…
May 14, 2007
For the ultra rich in the next decade the Waldorf-Astoria is probably going to be a bit passe. "My pomeranians and I had spent every spring in the Waldorf, but now will it has become ever so cliche!" Luckily, this swath of society simply need to bookmark bornrich.org. whose "sole aim is to help…
May 11, 2007
Kick 'em Jenny is a 1300m submerged volcano residing about 8km off the Grenada coast and the only live submarine volcano in the West Indies. In 1939 an eruption here rose 275m above the ocean surface (see image below fold). Eruptions have been both explosive and simply lava flows and domes…
May 10, 2007
One of the benefits of my office being on the shore is seeing this some mornings. The behavior of sticking one fin out of the water is called jug handling.
May 10, 2007
Each of these gastropods are from the deep sea in the North Atlantic near 1500m. Each is is a few mm in height.
May 9, 2007
I once had a corn chip that looked like Sammy Davis Jr. Unfortunately I was hungry and consumed it. I stumbled across this in my surfing around the web. Allah Fish!
Last year, in the U.K. an Oscar was found at a pet shop that resembled the Arabic Script for Allah. However, this is not the…
May 9, 2007
In The Flamingo's Smile, a compilation of Gould's articles for Natural History, there is a lengthy discussion of the principle of decreasing variation within established patterns and the disappearance of .400 hitters in baseball. According to Gould the loss of .400 batting average reflects…
May 8, 2007
In case you missed the link for the mp3 of A Marine Biologist. Here it is. Make sure you visit Darkest of the Hillside Thickets myspace page as well. You can beat these lyrics. Hopefully they will post the full set of them soon!
May 8, 2007
Let's face it Marine Biologists are the rock stars of science not gene jocks , chem nerds, math geeks* but marine biologist. Finally, someone is going to give us our due credit.
*all who I rely on weekly
Marine biologist footage needed for rock video
Are you a marine biologist? Do you want to be…
May 8, 2007
When I was a kid I had the best set of Return of the Jedi bed linens and curtains. I had a matching waste basket even. I loved those. As an adult I find it hard to get excited about bed linens. However, I really wish this set came in king. Maybe my wife and I get separate single beds so I…
May 7, 2007
Rick Macpherson over at the unusually named Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets has an excellent post on why you should think twice about stepping aboard for fun and sun on a cruise ship. He details the new uber cruise ships, the Genesis Class and thier/your potential to kill off the places…
May 7, 2007
The Challenger expedition of 1872-76 marks the transition form Victorian to modern science: from the world of the gentleman naturalist to the of Big Science, with its requisite institutional, collaborative and multidisciplinary framework and national funding support
-Koslow in The Silent Deep…
May 7, 2007
At the end of May, I will be out to sea! But alas never fear, because my dedication to the DSN reader is great! I will be blogging from sea about my daily exploits and pictures from the cruise. Stay tuned for the dates and link to the MBARI website.
May 5, 2007
From ABCNews...
The 20 countries meeting in Chile agreed to impose the restrictions from October until a full scientific study can be undertaken on the effects of bottom trawling.China, the United States, France, Japan, Chile and South Korea were among the countries signing the agreement. Russia…