cmcclain
Posts by this author
February 10, 2008
It warms me to see that we are close to 30 in our numbers this week. If you think you can handle the challenge then sign up below! Some people complained last week that the task wasn't hard enough...others moaned I already do this. So this week we kick it up a notch with #3.
The request: Write a…
February 8, 2008
We asked Jeff Drazen, the exuberant doctor in the video, to pass along his comments about the encounter. The video is credit to Eric Vetter, Craig Smith, and HURL.
From Drazen: This video of a 16-18 ft long six-gill shark, Hexanchus griseus, was filmed from the PICES submersible (operated by HURL…
February 7, 2008
...it looks like I could put my knowledge to use sneaking drugs out of Colombia. In the annals of the drug trade, traffickers have swallowed cocaine pellets, dissolved the powder into ceramics and flown the drug as far as Africa on flimsy planes -- anything to elude detection and get a lucrative…
February 6, 2008
Beginning with Victorian science and progressing through the onset of modern deep-sea biology, the dominant paradigm was that the deep sea was a stable ecosystem. Organisms, and the communities that contained them, were unchanging because the deep ocean was buffered against climatic variability.…
February 5, 2008
I have to admit after being down in a sub and spending time looking at video feeds from ROV's, the crazy animals I see from the deep start to become commonplace. That is why the below video is absolutely off the freakin' hook! Drs. Eric Vetter and Jeff Drazen was in a submersible off the coast of…
February 5, 2008
How does fear drive a marine food web? That's right I said fear, as in blood-curdling-scream-I-think-I-just-wet-my-pants fear. Sharks just swim around and intimidate the hell out of other animals. What if a utopia state existed where sharks weren't invited and a society developed of peace, love…
February 4, 2008
From CNN...The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that opponents argue harms whales, despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday..."We disagree with the (exemption) judge's decision," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "…
February 3, 2008
This is a tale of how a singular event can lead to two simultaneous outcomes, one absurd and one enlightening. Recently, I've needed to have a medical procedure to keep my body functioning. The first procedure over two years ago worked great till last fall. In December, I needed to have this…
February 3, 2008
Now were off with #2:
The request: Use no plastic grocery and shopping bags for the next week. Use, and purchase if necessary, reusable bags. Recycle all plastic bags around the house at a participating location.
The reason: In the North Pacific gyre plastic outnumbers plankton by 6:1. The…
February 1, 2008
A specially set-up and cleverly named company, CrabCo began an "experimental expedition" to test the feasibility of commercially harvesting two deep water crabs, the king crab and the red, or chaceon, crab. The aptly-named trawler Perseverance has pursuing these crabs for the past five days. But…
January 31, 2008
Here's a wonderful clip of Nancy Knowlton discussing her coral research in the tropics. Nancy is one of the world's premier marine biologist with an accomplished scientific career. Courtesy of Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego, "Endangered Oceans" Explorations DVD, Volume 10 No. 3
January 31, 2008
Recently scored a used copy of a book by Jacques Cousteau. Inside its covers lies a wonderful narrative and the pictures I present for this Friday's Pictures. As a fan of both Cousteau and the Life Aquatic, I can begin to see Anderson's inspiration.
January 30, 2008
...and put on my makeup I won't have to feel guilty about it*. At the continued pestering of Oceana both Unilever and L'Oreal have promised to stop using shark liver oil, also known as squalene, in their cosmetic products.
*You can figure out if I am joking or not
January 29, 2008
This Sunday comes the second challenge! Do you remember what the first one was?
1a. Sign up at this post
1b. Keep reading DSN and participating in the Just One Thing Challenge
A quick additional request...please help spread the word on your blogs and websites (feel free to use the logo above…
January 28, 2008
Much deliberation has occurred here behind the scenes at DSN about whether to air the following clip. After much debate we have decided to educate the public but let the viewers do so at their own risk. Note below the fold is the video and it is definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK, because it includes…
January 28, 2008
With three biologist on staff now our coverage tends to lean toward the biological. We do cover geology, technology, and the such but from our warped biological view. What we need around this joint is some more geology! Over at Clastic Detritus a graduate students pontificates about all rock…
January 27, 2008
George Bush this week declared war on sea mammals, officially adding whales to the dreaded Axis of Evil. The Bush administration stated whales are a threat to the American way of life, democracy, and of course freedom. Joking aside, Bush this week gave the official go ahead for the Navy to…
January 26, 2008
A trip to my local book store this morning was rewarded with an exceptional find, The Universe Below by Broad. I cannot wait to delve into this tasty treat. Broad reminds me of an often too forgotten concept, the deep sea is the largest of habitat on earth. Randomly place a point on our planet…
January 25, 2008
We are the onlyhottest blog on the deep sea! The saltiest marine blog! Nobody can top our skillz. But I told you before in 2008 we were going to be bigger and badder. Now the time has come. cue maniacal laughter
Some of the more observant of you will notice that we've added a new banner in…
January 24, 2008
This picture seems timely as I long to return to the Big Island. It's a photo I took of a green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas that I latter snorkeled with. Punaluu Beach Park on the east side of the island is popular beaching spot for C. mydas. Currently the species is listed by the IUCN and CITES…
January 24, 2008
I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and predictably this is my favorite episode. The second clip is a wonderful animated version of the same episode.
January 23, 2008
1960: The diving submersible Trieste descends to the floor of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known place on earth. via Wired
Some pictures from Kevin sent along awhile ago from a "old" submersible chapter from Hill's The Sea from 1963. The chapter itself is authored by Dietz and covers…
January 22, 2008
Fig. 1 from Miya et al.
It's easy to be a new species, even easy to be a new genus. You got to be just a little different. Yes...yes...we are all unique and special snowflakes. But to get your own order, you got to be really different. If you are the taxonomist erecting a new order, you got…
January 21, 2008
You may remember Peter's sobering post on the Plastic Expanding Inevitable, a wonderful part of the Pacific where plastic particles outnumber plankton. According to a post at the Oyster's Garter, a great joint blog between a journalist and a marine biologist, the ORV Alguita has set off on a new…
January 20, 2008
From the Telegraph via Neatorama...
Inventor Stephan Warge has devised a 160 sq meter kite, based on kitesurfing rigs, that can be attached to commercial ships to reduce diesel consumption. Warge figures the SkySail can reduce fuel consumption by 20% ($1600 a day). The new sail will be tested…
January 17, 2008
At 00:48, video of the Japanese Spider Crab, or the Dead Man's Crab*, occurs and touted as the world's largest. But is it? Sure its big with a leg span that can reach several meters but it is all leg. Weight or mass wise, I would argue that the world's largest crab and modern arthropod is the…
January 17, 2008
A two-coloured lobster caught by Digby County (Nova Scotia) fisherman Edward Pothier. Tina Comeau photo
Lobster color derives from the presence of three different pigments: red, yellow, and blue. These colors typically mix to form a greenish-brown color. It is not uncommon to get a…
January 17, 2008
This weeks Science offers commentary on the use of Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) to mitigate rising carbon dioxide levels. The author list is a dream team of ocean productivity experts who know what they are talking about. The 1 page commentary is chock-o-block full of great quotes.
The efficacy…
January 15, 2008
New research by Bornemann et al. in Science this week indicates that warming periods might actually promote ice growth. Using forams from core samples taken on the deep ocean floor off South America, the researchers reconstructed temperature records for the Turonian (93.5 to 89.3 millions years…
January 14, 2008
I am very excited that the new year brings an exciting opportunity for me. I was solicited, and I accepted an Academic Editor position with the open-access journal PLoS One. PLoS one invited me to join to increase the presence of ecological and marine biological studies at the journal. Many of…