cmcclain | February 18, 2008Some days are really good and today is one of them. Rick at MBSL&S informs us today that PLANKTOS is no longer.
Ah Planktos, we hardly knew ye. Last week, the board of directors for San Francisco-based Planktos, a company selling carbon credits through the dumping of iron filings into the ocean, indefinitely postponed activities. Which is press release-speak for it folded.
Their website is down, and one can only assume the Planktos team is selling their Aeron Chairs on eBay. But man, if the arrogant bastards at Planktos didn't get off one last salvo at the scientific community that didn'…
cmcclain | February 18, 2008
It was announced at the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston that another nine sharks will be added to the IUCN red list. Add this to the 126 elasmobranchs already listed as critical, endangered, or vulnerable.
The new additions include the scalloped hammerhead (vulnerable), short-fin mako shark (vulnerable), smooth hammerhead (vulnerable), big-eye thresher (vulnerable), common thresher (vulnerable), silky (near-threatened), tiger (vulnerable or endangered status), bull (vulnerable or endangered status), and dusky shark (vulnerable or endangered…
petnoyer | February 18, 2008Texas A&M University researcher Brendan Roark announced last week at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that age and growth studies of deep-sea gold corals (Geradia sp.) and black corals (Leiopathes glaberrima, pictured left) indicate these animals live between two and four millennia, repectively. Science Magazine covers the story here, the press release is here, and Discover Magazine reports here.
The new findings break all records previously claimed for marine invertebrates like the cold seep tubeworms (estimated 200 years old), quahog clams (estimated 400 years…
kevin z | February 17, 2008There a couple really cool pieces going around the intertubes recently. Basically, some people out there actually beat us to some stories but did such a great job I'd like to point you their way.
Grrlscientist at the blog Living the Scientific Life has an excellent post about the Oregon dead zone. Once a recurrent event, it looks like its here to stay. Forever! Go there to learn more about this recent paper published in Science that has some evidence to link the dead to global warming. Mark Powell at Blogfish has this story as well. Read the comment thread for a thriving discussion on the…
cmcclain | February 17, 2008
Did you send your letter and email last week? Did you get your friends to? This weeks is tougher still and will hit the old pocket book. Not all of them are going to be easy.
The request: When you buy your groceries this week, if the option presents itself buy organic. Looking at the canned pintos, splurge and buy the organic pintos for 50 cents more. Some of you will no doubt quaff at this week's request. You will say, as I would, but what about the extra money. I only ask you to do this week. Find out exactly how much it raises your grocery bill this week. Post that amount below…
kevin z | February 16, 2008Eminent marine biologist John Stuart Gray passed away last October, which I posted on at that time. He was a professor of marine biology at University of Oslo, Norway, studying the ecology of the meiobenthos and the effects of pollution on marine communities. The meiobenthos is the community of small animals ranging in size from roughly 0.05 to 2 mm in practice. I never knew him personally, but his and his colleague's research formed part of the foundation of experimental benthic ecology read by every deep sea (and hopefully shallow) biologist. In addition to his general ecology work and that…
kevin z | February 15, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
petnoyer | February 15, 2008Yesterday, February 14, the House passed HR 1834, the National Ocean Exploration Program Act (amended), by a vote of 352-49. The bill would authorize the National Ocean Exploration Program and the National Undersea Research Program, two extramural research programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The amended bill differs very little from the bill that was reported out of the House Science and Technology and the House Natural Resources committees a few months ago. The bill would charge the NOAA Administrator with developing, in coordination with NSF, a…
kevin z | February 14, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
kevin z | February 14, 2008Sometimes the sub just can't carry enough or you want to get more work done than you really have time to. Thats why some brilliant deep-sea scientist invented the elevator!
The yellow balls at the top are for floatation, which keeps the elevator neutrally bouyant. You can put all sorts of things on the basket of the elevator, including thermal insulated boxes for keeping animals cold on the ride up.
How does the elevator work? Well, we put weights on the bottom and hoist it overboard with a transponder. It sinks, hopefully close to where we want it to end up. When we arrive in the sub to do…
kevin z | February 13, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
kevin z | February 13, 2008My birthday is coming up in a couple months (Aries baby!) and I just want to let Peter and Craig know what I want for my birthday. I'm not an unrealistic man. I won't go for say, the Proteus or anything. But I sure wouldn't mind one of the Human-Propelled Submarines being built by the mechanical engineering students at the University of Washington. Its like the ultimate underwater bike! Its perfect for all the river and coastal commuters out there.
To propel the submarine, one person pedals, like on a bicycle. The other person navigates with the controls in the front, and the two sit back-to-…
kevin z | February 12, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
cmcclain | February 12, 2008I take off for the Windy City, aka the Big Cheesy, tomorrow to give a lecture at the University of Chicago. My schedule for the next few days includes meeting with some of the most exciting scientists stateside, a tour of the Shed Aquarium (thanks to the Zoologix brothers) and the Field Museum, some Wright Architecture, Museum of Science and Industry, discussions of all cephalopod and deep with Janet Voight, and freezing my southern-bred, corn-fed, butt off.
This means, due to Peter being busy with oral exams (wish him luck), that DSN is totally in the hands of Kevin (God help us all). Some…
kevin z | February 11, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
kevin z | February 11, 2008CNN.com reports this morning on "Fried dolphin on menu in japanese town". I do not want to bear on the ethical issues of harvesting dolphins. Every culture has their animals they eat that other cultures are disgusted by, as stated in the article:
"Locals know they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it's a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows."
In Sweden, some villages eat horse. In the U.S. we eat all sorts of…
kevin z | February 10, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.
cmcclain | 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 letter/email to your local Trader Joe's and the national chain urging them to remove Orange Roughy from their freezers. Get everyone you know to write a letter. Avoid eating Orange Roughy yourself. Address, email, and letter for your use or alteration are below the fold. If you don't have a Trader…
kevin z | February 9, 2008A coworker passed along 7 deep sea cartoons from the comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, who was gracious enough to grant us permission to use on our blog.
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
© 2008 Jim Toomey. Used with permission from the artist.