cmcclain | June 14, 2008
In 1964 S.B. Mirsa, a graduate student at Memorial University in Newfoundland, discovered a group of well-preserved fossilized soft-body animals. Subsequent research revealed the fauna were from the Ediacaran Period 635-542 million years ago.
Ediacaran was not officially recognized as a geological period until 2004, the first new period in over 120 years. The period is named after the Ediacaran Hills in Southern Australia, which take their name from aborigine Idiyakra, "water is present", the type locality for the fauna. Over the globe 25 localities have been discovered that possess…
kevin z | June 14, 2008From WearScience.com. Hat tip to Ed "rocket boy" Yong.
I am partial to the cowboy scientist riding the wild microbe, but I'll probably get the guitar playing robot.
kevin z | June 13, 2008I like Miriam, she is a lady that gets it. Go there now and read her excellent post on the story behind the 6:1 ratio of plastic to plankton that is often touted in the media and why it is flawed."Though I admire Algalita's work, the 6:1 plastic:plankton ratio is deeply flawed. Worse, it is flawed in a direction that undermines Algalita's credibility: It may vastly underestimate plankton and overestimate plastic. Here's why, based off the methodology published in Moore et al's 2001 paper in Marine Pollution Bulletin."
petnoyer | June 12, 2008
The Bush administration has outlined plans for a "blue legacy" that would use Presidential authority to establish new national monuments, along the lines of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. This is something Deep-Sea News reported on two years ago as a case of "sanctuary envy" not to be outdone, but due to new developments, the story has caught the attention of National Public Radio and The Intersection. Five new national marine monuments are being proposed (see map above, and story at NPR). The question I have is this: why would we establish these huge new monuments in the…
cmcclain | June 11, 2008People are freaking out about the recent outbreak of shark attacks. This recent massive increase in shark attacks has media outlets claiming that a shark is "seeking human targets", "sharks are hunting humans", and maybe even developing a taste for human fish. O' my god grab the children and run for the hills!
Maybe it was just a matter of time before sharks went on the hunt as a matter of retribution. So how many shark attacks have there been in Mexico in the last month? 3
Sharks have attacked three surfers in less than a month, two fatally, near the southwestern resort of Ixtapa-…
petnoyer | June 10, 2008You would think that deep-sea squid could hide from human pollution like dichlorodiphenyl- trichloroethane (DDT) and tributyltin (TBT), but these and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are accumulating in our cephalopod brethren, according to a new study about to be released in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin by Michael Vecchione of NOAA Fisheries' National Systematics Laboratory and colleagues Michael Unger, Ellen Harvey and George Vadas at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of The College of William and Mary.
Science Daily reports
"The cephalopod species we analyzed span…
petnoyer | June 10, 2008Deep-sea corals bring people together. Geologists, ecologists, taxonomists, managers and climatologists all get a kick out of our heartless, brainless, colonial friends. So, we get together once every two years to kick back and share stories at the International Deep-Sea Coral Symposium. The first was in Halifax, Canada; the second in Erlangen, Germany, the third in Ft. Lauderdale, USA, and the fourth is in... oh yeah... Wellington, New Zealand, December 1-5, 2008. Abstracts are now being accepted. The website is here.
Themes include:
1. Systematics and Biogeography (genetics, taxonomy,…
petnoyer | June 7, 2008A group of five European recreational divers separated from their dive boat in Komodo National Park, Indonesia later came ashore on a nearby island only to find themselves fending off a Komodo dragon and scraping mussels from the rocks for food. The group was rescued two days later. Read more here at CNN Asia.
The currents can rip in the Flores Sea, so when diving Indonesia, stay close to your dive buddy, and stay close to the boat. Oh, and pack a lunch. Failing that, prepare to do battle with dragons and pirates.
petnoyer | June 6, 2008The Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) has a webpage of favorite deep-sea videos from the Japanese Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) with cool names like "Milky Way floats on the abyss" and "Unusual atmosphere". What better way to whittle away the hours AND do your research at the same time?
The JAMSTEC video database at GODAC....
...provides streaming of the valuable deep-sea research videos maintained by JAMSTEC, along with various detailed information (metadata) including research location, purpose, video content (organism names and phenomena recorded), and…
petnoyer | June 6, 2008
The deep-sea cup coral Flabellum deludens Marenzeller 1904, from the Philippines between 200 - 700 m depth. More here at the Ocean Biogeographic Information System.
kevin z | June 5, 2008
Being a marine biologist is a tough occupation. Long stretches out at sea, weeks at end, with nothing but memories to accompany you.
This song is about trying to forget what you left behind at the docks. Being hundreds of miles from land. Its a hard feeling to describe.
There are times when you snuggle up to the swells holding her tight. Hours looking at the horizon for something, whatever that is. Perhaps watching the coconuts and palm leaves drift by the ship. Other times are spent alone at the bow watching the midnight bioluminescence sparkle the crest of the waves.
During these times…
petnoyer | June 5, 2008Ship strikes are a common source of mortality for right whales and humpbacks in the North Atlantic. CNN runs a story on how a plan to save critically endangered right whales is muddled in bureaucracy thanks to...
The World Shipping Council, an industry group representing more than two dozen global shipping companies, filed documents with the U.S. federal government opposing the speed limits [to protect 300 remaining right whales] saying the change would cause "significant economic costs".
The group even suggested that if large ships went faster through the whales' habitat, the chance of a…
cmcclain | June 4, 2008I believe the mighty Mark Powell is to blame for this. But what can you do but join them?
petnoyer | June 4, 2008
You have to respect The Nature Conservancy (TNC) because they put their money where there mouth is. While some other organizations have a tendency to turn "conservation" into "conversation", TNC has a tendency to purchase property and throw up a no trespassing sign. Sure, it gets them into trouble sometimes, but privatizing a resource is a great way to avoid the Tragedy of the Commons. Eventually, these properties are absorbed into state of federal park lands, often in better shape than they would have been otherwise.
But what to do about the oceans? In some states, submerged lands in bays…
cmcclain | June 3, 2008All the writing about the Big 3, fueled an appetite for salmon. I thought what better way to start off every day this week with a little smoked salmon on bagel. Not two hours after I wrote the Big 3 post, I was purchasing smoke salmon from a grocer in my area who promotes their green image.
O' but I was taken in by Green Washing. Specifically number 6...fibbing. Using my own criteria for purchasing salmon, I bought Pacific Supreme Smoke Salmon. I thought I was going home with wild caught Pacific salmon. But no...I WAS DUPED!
This morning as I noticed the salmon was paler than I…
kevin z | June 2, 2008Congratulations to I'm a Chordata, Urochordata man, Dr. Byrnes!! He just turned in his signed PhD dissertation. Thats really awesome and I can't wait for him to get a job and hire me! Oh wait, he already has a postdoc lined up in an awesome lab.
As an undergrad I academically "grew up" in the lab next to Jarrett's lab and got to know several of the grad students and undergrads. Everyone out of both labs have gone on to great things, so we expect none the less of you newly-minted-doctor-byrnes!
kevin z | June 2, 2008If you haven't read the FAIL Blog yet, you are missing out one of life's great pleasures: laughing at other's failures! It was imperative I share this video from the FAIL Blog with Deep Sea News readers, to serve as a warning if nothing else. You MUST get the FAIL Blog into your RSS feed, it fits nice and snugly next to LOLcats, LOLscience and LOLinverts.
kevin z | June 2, 2008The first Carnival of the Blue of its 2nd year. Carnie creator Mark Powell posts edition #13 and brings it all full circle with the most massive, packed ocean blogging. Its great to see so many diverse bloggers contributing to this carnival. Well, what are waiting for, go learn something!
Is that still the logo? Or have I revealed my age?