cmcclain | February 27, 2008At Wired you can read about the saving of the 14-deck, 55,000 ton Cougar Ace carrying 4,700 new Mazdas. As water was being replaced in ballast tanks, a malfunction occurred preventing the starboard ballasts from refilling. What ensues is a dramatic 60 degree port list, a broken leg bone puncturing the skin, the arrival of a crew of salty dogs of Titan Salvage, and a beautiful illustration of geometry's importance. The story covers members of the crew that reads like the character list for Ocean's 11 (the original and better) or Armageddon. Make sure you watch the video on the first page.
cmcclain | February 27, 2008...maybe as retaliation for killing them off. The last estimate of 71 in 2007 compared to 63 in 2006, continues a four year increase. One of those 71 occurred not 5 minutes from my house. The latest in 2008
An Austrian tourist died on Monday after a shark attack in the waters between Fort Lauderdale and the Bahamas. Markus Groh was out on a shark-spotting trip with Scuba Adventures, which sails seven-day live-aboard cruises out of Riviera Beach, Florida. Unlike some tour operators, Scuba Adventures doesn't send its divers under in a cage.
From the dive community the reaction is mixed…
petnoyer | February 26, 2008You are a giant swarm of Antarctic krill migrating daily from sunlit surface waters down to the 4500m in the abyss. Some portion of your population is bound to get hungry by the time you reach the bottom. Whattya gonna do? Wait for food to rain down from above?
Not according to a new article in Current Biology, that illustrates the behavior of Euphausia superba krill that dive into the sediment in deep-water, kick up particles, and scavenge a meal of fallen algae from the seafloor. Secondary production occurs within the benthic boundary layer, in this case, rather than raining down from…
kevin z | February 26, 2008
Thanks to Rick MacPherson, Program Director for the Coral Reef Alliance (and fin-tastic blogger!), for this shirt. We met a few weeks ago at the N.C. Science Blogging Conference where we co-moderated a session (along with Peter, Karen and Jason) on Real Time Blogging in the Marine Sciences. It was a great experience. Go over to CORAL today and check out the website and see what awesome projects they have going on. Such as, providing over $350,000 in microgrants for local efforts to preserve and protect coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean. A truely noble effort empowering local…
cmcclain | February 25, 2008Fig. 1 from Halpern et al. Global map (A) of cumulative human impact across 20 ocean ecosystem types. (Insets) Highly impacted regions in the Eastern Caribbean (B), the North Sea (C), and the Japanese waters (D) and one of the least impacted regions, in northern Australia and the Torres Strait (E).
Some readers dialed into the news might wonder why we have not blogged on a recent paper in Science by Halpren et al. In the paper the authors set out to provide a "synthesis of spatial data on the distribution and intensity of human activities and the overlap of their impacts on marine…
cmcclain | February 24, 2008
So how did going organic affect your pocketbook? I imagine for many of you it didn't add as much as you thought it would. This weeks will be a little easier and that is why I will ask you to continue it through the year.
The request:Go to the Seafood Watch and download a chart for your wallet or purse. Carry it everywhere you go from now on. Adhere to it and harass others to to the same.
The reason:Again, I could lay out a well-reasoned argument for why you should do this, but you know all the reasons. The good news is that I've moaned about all this before, again, and again, and again…
cmcclain | February 22, 2008Currently a biodiversity crisis is underway, which many have termed the sixth extinction. E.O. Wilson in 1993 suggested 30,000 species extinctions occur per year, roughly three per hour. How many species are there on earth? That is a tough nut to crack. An extremely conservative estimate would be 3-5 million, but it's likely closer to 30-50 million. In the deep sea there may be as many as 10 million.
The other side of this crisis reflects our lack of knowledge of biodiversity on earth. Less than 2 million species have been described. By E.O.'s estimate we are losing species faster than…
cmcclain | February 21, 2008In this detail from a Landsat satellite image from 1999, individual vessels in the Gulf of Mexico can be seen as bright spots at end of sediment trails. Other bright spots are fixed oil and gas production platforms. More here. Hat tip to A. Creekmore
petnoyer | February 21, 2008
Leonardo Solaas is an artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina who invented a way for you to generate your own original digital art pieces based upon your input of a few keywords. Kevin generated the image above using the words "giant squid". It's one of a kind. Check it out, the software description follows.
Dreamlines is a generative drawing machine that creates a unique, ever-flowing painting based on words you choose. Related images are gathered from the Net and used as raw material for the construction of your "personal dream".
You can input words like "wandering albatross" or "talking fish…
kevin z | February 21, 2008Rhizocephalan overlord,Peltogaster paguri (tubular thing sticking up on the right), infecting hermit crab. Photo courtesy of Jens Hoeg, used with permission.
Rhizocephala are curious creatures. They are actually in the Cirripedia, the group containing your friendly neighborhood penis-waving barnacle. They look nothing like a barnacle (in case you hadn't noticed). We know they are a barnacle because they share the same larval stages and characteristics only found in the barnacles: cyprid larvae. Below the fold are some pictures of a deep sea rhizocephalan from my own research.
This poor…
cmcclain | February 21, 2008Anoxic (extremely low or no oxygen) zones occur naturally in the oceans. Typically they occur below areas of upwelling such as off Chile. A naturally occurring anoxic zone also occurs off the western U.S. coast from around 600-1200m. The occurrence of this zone reflects ocean circulation in the Pacific that results in a very old and deoxygenated water mass circulated to the our coast. Coastal upwelling compounds this phenomenon. Anoxic conditions can also result from anthropogenic effects such as the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone, where nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from the Mississippi…
petnoyer | February 21, 2008Congratulations to the US Navy for skeet shooting a satellite from ships at sea. You have to admit, its an impressive feat. But will it become a trend? One candidate isn't even off the ground yet.
Satellites used to fly instruments designed to do one thing, like measure ocean color for instance, but nowadays instruments are multi-tasking like the rest of us. In the scientific space race, this means some instruments suffer the cost of others. Space veterans tell me we're sending the technical equivalent of a Swiss Army knife into space rather than a simply designed, nicely weighted piece of…
cmcclain | February 20, 2008
Since my posts about the Black Swan, I have somehow made it on the Odyssey email list. Once a month or so I get an email about buying goods and artifacts. Admittedly, I find these emails extremely irritating. Like I got nothing better to do with my time than weed through a lot of junk email. Moreover, I am a post doc with limited funds. I will absolutely never have an extra $2500 laying around to purchase a Cathedral 3 Berry Pickle Bottle. I don't even like pickles.
Today's email from Oydssey completely hooked the consumer. Yes, I am a mindless drone and here is my money. I am…
cmcclain | February 19, 2008I am now waiting on word form the Buying Department
Hello Craig,
Thank you for your product feedback and requests. We will forward your
concerns and comments to our Buying Department for review and
consideration.
Thank you for your inquiry and thank you for shopping at Trader Joe's.
K-----
Trader Joe's Customer Relations
cmcclain | February 19, 2008...on Trader Joe's
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As 99% of our people are working on bringing you the best experience out in our stores, the best way to get the answer you are looking for is to contact your local Trader Joe's directly.
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cmcclain | February 19, 2008 "Pet" Giant Pycnogonid attacking computer.
This morning my email was flooded with friends, family, and colleagues notifying me of this story. What's not to love about a story that combines gigantism, the deep, and Antarctica all in one? An Australian led expedition to the deep Southern Ocean aboard the Aurora Australis, in conjunction with France's L'Astrolabe and Japan's Umitaka Maru, is making news today. The highlights include giant deep-sea creatures, wonderful video footage, and evidence of of scarring of the seafloor by icebergs. On a side note, I've been aboard the Umitaka Maru, or…
cmcclain | February 19, 2008When I sent the original email to Rick enquiring about obtaining one of these, I thought I would have to send him multiple emails. Apparently, Rick is bit of push over because I received one in less than week of the email. As an exrucker myself (second and scrumhalf), I was obsessed with these jerseys from Rick's initial post. What better than a rugby jersey with sea turtle on it that represents the commitment of locals, rugby players, WWF, and the Coral Reef Alliance to conserve/protect a marine corridor in Fiji. I have been wearing mine with pride and maybe someday I will take it off to…
kevin z | February 18, 2008
"Around the world, the oceans are in trouble, with declining fish stocks, disappearing coral reefs, and changing water chemistry."
Last Friday's Science Friday podcast was going live from the AAAS meeting in Boston featuring an amazing panel composed of Larry Crowder, Ben Halpern, Jane Lubchenco and Carl Safina (blog). You can view more information about the episode, listen to the 46 minute long podcast and watch video of the pre-anoxia Oregon Coast by clicking here.
The discussion centers around the recent publication of a map highlighting the degree of human impact on the oceans from 17…
cmcclain | February 18, 2008
Back from Chicago and all I have to say is that one of these guys really knows how to show me a good time. Thanks go to David Jablonski and Sue Kidwell for hosting me, the cuter of the Bleimann brothers for drinks and entertainment, Janet Voight for conversation and entry into the Field Museum, and George Parsons for a tour around the Shedd. Pictures are below the fold.
Beluga at the SheddBoxfish at the SheddCentral atrium and coral reef tank at SheddOverlooking the Oceanarium toward the Adler PlanetariumU505 submarine at the Museum of Science and IndustryStoneware Cloud-Shaped Pillow with…