cmcclain | July 28, 2008Russ comments in our previous post
Au contrair. The record shows that Planktos was long advocating and involved in ecorestoration not merely recently. The Way Back machine easily proves this. The strawman of Planktos that was created and the ad hominem attacks that were and are the hallmark of those opposed to this work for selfish reasons continue here. For example the fact that the Planktos ship Weatherbird was staffed by top scientists from around the world seems not only missing but refused. That Weatherbird was equipped and maintained by the same academic organizations that equip and…
cmcclain | July 28, 2008Telegraph UK is running an amazing series of photos of great white attacking a seal.
That's going to leave a mark.
cmcclain | July 28, 2008Rick points out that Planktos is back. Planktos is one of those groups who wanted to fertilize the oceans with iron to sequester C02 out of the atmosphere. Both Rick and I were skeptical. Of course we weren't the only ones.
This group feels it is premature to sell carbon offsets from the first generation of commercial-scale OIF experiments unless there is better demonstration that OIF effectively removes CO2, retains that carbon in the ocean for a quantifiable amount of time, and has acceptable and predictable environmental impacts. As with any human manipulation of the environment, OIF…
petnoyer | July 28, 2008When Andrea Marshall began studying the manta rays of Mozambique for her dissertation five years ago, she never expected to discover a new species, let alone a globally cosmopolitan, highly migratory ocean wanderer. She was "awestruck by their beauty," studied the rays, and then gradually noticed subtle differences between them. Species can be cryptic; hard to recognize from others. Individuals are identified by their unique patterns of marking on the body and underside.
The clue to Marshall's discovery was lifestyle.
"The two species have mainly overlapping distributions, but their…
kevin z | July 26, 2008It was only 3 years ago when the northernmost vents were found in the Arctic Ocean at 71 degrees, just above Iceland. Dr. Rolf Pedersen is a geologist at the Centre for Geobiology at Norway's University of Bergen and led that expedition that discovered extensive vent fields with vibrant animal communities.
Just this month, Dr. Pedersen and his team has done it again. Only days before the expedition's end, researchers went speechless in the control room of the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) as the first trails of bacterial mats and black 'smoke' wafted across their monitors. In moments, an…
kevin z | July 25, 2008Earlier this year, I highlighted a post from the amazing dive blog The Right Blue. Their story about the "cave where turtles die" was one of their most popular. Now they bring us video from dutch diver Paul Vermuelen! Be sure to read the original, well-written and photo-laden turtle graveyard post.
kevin z | July 25, 2008Robotic sea bream from researchers at the University of Kitakyushu, Japan. Go to the Pink Tentacle to get the full story!
kevin z | July 25, 2008Thanks to Jives, frequent commenter who is embedded in the New England Aquarium, for relaying my love note to the rockhopper penguins there. I just received a message back from them this morning.
Long-time DSN readers may know, I have an affinity for penguins having volunteered at the Monterey Bay Aquarium long ago taking care of 15 blackfoots!
petnoyer | July 25, 2008
Deep Sea News' Friday edition has a new mission - to "restore" small black and white figures from obscure scientific journals to their original color, hoping to give these images a new life and audience online. The paper's citation will be included. Please contact us if you have something to share.
The image of Phakellia sponge is from the Johnson Sea Link submersible surveys of a Florida bioherm at 171 m depth in the west Atlantic. The sponge is about 2 ft tall.
I like it because it's a good example of convergent evolution. You have to ask yourself, is Phakellia a sea-fan imposter? Or vice…
petnoyer | July 25, 2008
This is an exterior shot of the submersible that collected and photographed the Phakellia sp. sponge from 170 m depth off Florida in the Friday deep-sea picture above. The video was lifted from the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration webpage for the Johnson Sea-link submersible. Go there to learn more.
petnoyer | July 23, 2008
In an alarming trend, the practice of "dynamite" or "bomb" fishing has spread recently to Central America. Reports are coming in that hawksbill turtles are being blasted to death by explosive fishermen working in the Biosphere Reserve of the Bahia de Jiquilisco, El Salvador. At least seven turtles have been found dead, according to Michael Liles, Sea Turtle Conservation Project Coordinator for Fundacion Zoologica de El Salvador (FUNZEL).
The use of explosives is exterminating all species of larvae, juvenile and adult fish, as well as crustaceous, mollusks, sea turtles, and other species of…
kevin z | July 23, 2008Nature News reports:
"Many of the research projects launched as part of the International Polar Year (IPY), which runs from March 2007 to March 2009, are under threat because of the steep rise in marine-fuel costs. Hundreds of Arctic and Antarctic scientists face uncertainty as polar science programmes worldwide are curtailed, postponed or cancelled.
The price of a barrel of oil has more than doubled since March 2007, from US$60 to $140 now. High energy costs are a problem for research in most fields, but logistically complicated research operations in remote polar regions are more affected…
petnoyer | July 23, 2008We can't joke around too much about this Hurricane Dolly, I'm afraid. The weather is not terrible here in Corpus, but conditions are rapidly deteriorating in Brownsville. We now have reports of tornado warnings in nearby counties, and confirmed power outages for more than 9000 people.
News reports are forecasting an incredible amount of rain (up to 15 inches). If i remember right, that would be the equivalent of a 5 foot snowstorm in the Northeast.
From the Associated Press:
Dolly, upgraded from a tropical storm Tuesday, had sustained winds of 95 mph, just short of becoming a Category 2…
petnoyer | July 22, 2008I am liveblogging Hurricane Dolly from Corpus Christi, Texas. It's raining here in the Coastal Bend. Not too much wind. Thanks to the storm we have a "snow day" at school. Plus, I don't have to water the lawn for a week. Things are looking up, but flooding is forecast for the region, so there could still be trouble.
My wife brought a camera to the supermarket last night to document the supermarket's reaction to the storm here in South Texas. We expected large pallets of drinking water, but there's no evidence of profiteering. Rather, it seems there was a run on sliced bread and tuna fish.…
petnoyer | July 22, 2008
Newsflash! This just in from the Weather Channel:
Dolly has strengthened to become the second hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph; a category one hurricane.
Hurricane Dolly may continue to strengthen tonight and tomorrow morning before landfall. It is expected to make landfall along the northern Mexico or southern Texas Gulf Coast by Wednesday morning or during the midday hours.
Join me for a warm cup of coffee as I evaluate local conditions, and decide whether or not its safe for my family to leave the house tomorrow morning. To go…
petnoyer | July 22, 2008
Clouds can be a sailor's best friend. Given, you'd have to be an awfully lonely sailor, and probably have to scratch a half dozen unmentionables off the list before you ever got to "clouds", but, ... hey, some modern sailors keep a nice cloud book with them in the navigation room. OK? It helps to whiddle away the hours on a quiet sea spent waiting for the research submersible team to break the surface. Really. Ask anybody.
Anyways, in anticipation of the approaching Tropical Storm Dolly, I trekked down to Corpus Christi Bay around 2pm to see how the cloud cover had changed with the…
cmcclain | July 22, 2008BrianR at Clastic Detritus brought my attention to a new wonderful bathymetric map of the globe. Despite his questionable loyalty to volcanoes, Brian knows a good map when he sees one and I agree that this one is indeed beautiful. GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) is an initiative joining the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and International Hydrographic Organization. You can get the high res version of the above here.
kevin z | July 22, 2008
I wrote this Sunday evening playing my baritone ukelele. I overlayed the guitar and a small banjo solo (with effects). Its fun to overlay instruments in separate tracks and play around with them. I don't very often because it is time-consuming.
I am happy to take requests, suggestions for parodies (I'm working on Every Whale Has A Bone set to Every Rose Has A Thorn...), or put life into your own lyrics. Just send me an email!
Drowning
Chorus:
(I Sing tonight and I'll sing it out loud
For those depths will not let me go
A song for the dark, no echo and how
Do I stop from sinking below)
Kissed…
cmcclain | July 22, 2008Maria over at Green Gabbro feels that I have printed a false and malicious post for the purpose of defaming volcanoes. I cannot be held liable if the accusations are true. Maria thinks that printing a list of "all the good things volcanoes do" will be more than sufficient to make up for their previous indiscretions. But perhaps we need a bit of perspective on the role of volcanoes in the history of life.
According toWignall's excellent review in 2001 on why and how volcanoes are evil, 6 of the 15 major extinctions in the history of life coincide with major episodes of volcanicity. In the…