Blogging – Page 7 – Southern Fried Science

Frequently asked questions about sharks (and about me)

October 27, 2015 David Shiffman

Blogging

Every week on twitter (and every few weeks on my Facebook fan page,) I host a one hour “ask me anything” session. I also give lots of interviews to the press, and occasionally answer high school students’ questions about what my job is like for class projects. Some of the same questions tend to come up over and over. Here are some frequently asked questions and my answers to them. Feel free to quote anything on this page for a class project or media article and attribute it to me.

1. What is your job?

A: I am a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at the University of Miami. “Candidate” vs. “student” means that I passed my qualifying exams, an important test for graduate students. Research assistant means that my funding comes from doing research and not teaching. Depending on my audience, I’ve also described myself as a marine biologist, a shark researcher, an ecologist, a conservation biologist, a science communicator, or simply a scientist.

What the Farm?! A podcast about agriculture by two wanna-be farmers who have no idea what they’re doing.

October 21, 2015 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Blogging

What the Farm?! is a completely unrelated side-project that I’ve been developing with Andrew Middleton (@EcoAndrewTRC). It has nothing to do with Marine Science and Conservation, so if you want further updates, subscribe to our SoundCloud stream. RSS feed is here. Enjoy the first two episodes, right here: [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/229414322″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] … Read More “What the Farm?! A podcast about agriculture by two wanna-be farmers who have no idea what they’re doing.” »

OceansOnline: How can internet tools help marine scientists and conservationists?

October 20, 2015 David Shiffman

Blogging

IMCC Next summer’s 4th International Marine Conservation Congress will include an optional full day add-on called OceansOnline. This add-on day, inspired by 2013’s successful ScienceOnline Oceans, will focus on how social media and other internet tools can help ocean scientists and conservation professionals with research, collaboration, and public outreach.

OceansOnline is suitable for total beginners who want to learn how to use these tools as well as advanced users who want to learn much more about their applications. Scientists and professionals who are advanced users of internet tools are encouraged to attend this meeting even if ocean conservation biology is not your primary research specialty.

OceansOnline will consist of three types of events: workshops, presentations, and facilitated discussions:

Politely optimistic: What do the Canadian election results mean for ocean science and conservation?

October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 Guest Writer 2 Comments

Blogging

Julia Whidden completed her Masters in Biology with a focus on marine conservation from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2015. Her project evaluated population demographics and species identification of two at-risk species of skate in the inner Bay of Fundy. She joins Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s lab at the University of Miami for the year as a Fulbright Student and shark research intern. Follow her on twitter!

Rachel Skubel graduated with an M.Sc. in Environmental Science from McMaster University where she studied climate impacts on water cycling in temperate forests, and a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario. Her current research interests revolve around how oceanic predators will be impacted by anthropogenic environmental changes. She is a currently a shark research intern with Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s lab at the University of Miami. Follow her on twitter!

Up until this past year, the thought of Canadian politics had probably never crossed your mind. For some of you, your introduction to the topic may have been via the astute criticisms of John Oliver published this past weekend. His YouTube video currently skyrocketing at just under 3 million views in less than 48 hours, may have even been the introduction to Canadian politics for some Canadians. Let’s face it: in comparison to the flashy and sometimes trashy race of our neighbors to the south (ahem, you Americans), Canadian politics are usually tame, boring, and dry. In 2011, our last major election, 61.1% of Canadians voted (14.8 million), but up until the election last night, at least 68.5% have actively contributed to changing the dire political and environmental landscape formed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative cronies over the past 10 years. This voter turnout is the highest since 1993, and certainly demonstrates that – not unlike your defeat of Republicans following the Bush years – Canadians were ready for change.

To our newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we say welcome and we’re ready for action.

How to pitch an Ocean Kickstarter for us to review

October 12, 2015October 12, 2015 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

I put this up as a closer on our last Ocean Kickstarter selection, and am posting here as a standalone for anyone who may have missed it.

Email me at southernfriedscientist@gmail.com with the subject heading: Ocean Kickstarter: Your Project. This isn’t limited to Kickstarter, projects on IndieGoGo, RocketHub, GoFundMe, or any other site are eligible for an Ocean Kickstarter of the month. We will review based on three criteria:

1. Is it sound, reasonable, and informed by science?

2. Is there a clear goal, timeline, and budget; and are they partnering with the people who have experience hitting those marks?

3. Do some of the parties involved have a successful record with other crowdfunding projects and experience delivering on rewards.

Three ways to support Southern Fried Science and Ocean Outreach

August 24, 2015August 23, 2015 Administrator

Blogging

Every year, Southern Fried Science and our related outreach campaigns churn out hundreds of articles about marine science and conservation, coordinate innovative, multimedia outreach campaigns, and produce both educational tools and actual open-source hardware to help protect the ocean. These efforts aren’t free and our authors volunteer their time and expertise to help make Southern Fried Science one of the most visited marine science and conservation websites on the internet. Server costs run in excess of $3,000 per year, and that not including tech support and website development, all of which are voluntary and occasionally offset by funding campaigns. We don’t run ads. We don’t charge for access to our content.

So how can you help support Southern Fried Science?

Read, discuss, and share our blog posts, videos, articles, tweets, and other projects. That’s why we do this.
Contribute to Andrew’s Patreon. Website Overlord Andrew David Thaler runs a Patreon page to help offset the bulk of the cost of running Southern Fried Science, cover his tech support time, and fund new and interesting projects. The big stuff – keeping the website running, developing open-source hardware, buying capital equipment – all happens through support from his Patrons. This year, two peer-reviewed publications are slated to come out acknowledging financial support from Patreon.
Use our Amazon Affiliate links. On some projects that involve buying hardware (or book reviews), we provide links to the parts we use. These links are Amazon Affiliate links, a small percentage of you purchase through that link goes back to us. It’s a simple, no fuss way to show you support.

You could also buy one of Andrew’s books – which are outreach efforts in their own rights, but those profits aren’t directly earmarked for Southern Fried Science.

Oarfish: The true tale of the fish we can’t seem to get enough of

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015 Guest Writer 4 Comments

Blogging

Dr. Misty Paig-Tran is Assistant Professor at California State University Fullerton. Her laboratory (Functional Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Biomaterials) studies how animals feed and move, among other things. Her research is focused on big filter-feeding animals (Sharks and Manta rays) and mid-deep water fishes – you know, the scary looking ones. You can learn about her research here, and you can follow her on twitter.

Today I sit at my computer totally aghast that the media seems to have gone into a frenzy once again about the latest oarfish that washed up on Catalina yesterday. I get it. I too, as a marine biologist and self-admitted fish nerd, get totally excited any time a cool fish washes up. And I get extra excited about the oarfish in particular. Of course I do, I am currently studying the fish in my lab at Cal State. What’s not to like? It’s huge, silvery, and looks like a dragon. Myths about this fish are old and salty. However, there has been a ton of misinformation printed about this fish and now it’s my chance to set some things straight. So I will try to rectify this now. Ahem.

How I am fixing the internet

August 11, 2015 Guest Writer 1 Comment

Blogging

Alex Zrenner is a 2015 Kenan Summer Fellow and rising junior at Duke University. She is from St. Louis, Missouri and is pursuing a major in economics with a math minor. Each summer, the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University supports undergraduate Kenan Summer Fellows, a program meant to help students explore what it means to live an ethical life. Portions of this post were originally published on the Kenan Institute for Ethics’ website. Alex has written weekly updates about her project here, and is also creating video blogs for the project that can be seen here.

My name is Alex Zrenner, and I am fixing the Internet. Well actually, I am researching the Internet. I have spent the past six weeks studying the ethics of cyber harassment and free speech as one of this year’s Kenan Summer Fellows.

11 thoughts about Cecil the lion

July 30, 2015July 31, 2015 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Blogging

This is not Cecil the lion. I shot this lioness in 2000 in Tanzania... with a digital camera. — This is not Cecil the lion. I shot this lioness in 2000 in Tanzania… with a digital camera.

1) The manner in which Cecil the lion was killed (he slowly bled to death over nearly 2 days after being shot with an arrow before eventually being shot with a rifle) is strikingly inhumane and atypical of hunting. Lots of people seem to be fixating on the fact that he was skinned and beheaded after he was killed, but that’s pretty typical for hunting.

2) If the hunter who shot and killed Cecil the lion broke the law in doing so (this seems to be not entirely resolved, he had a permit to kill a lion but seems to have lured Cecil out of a protected area) he should absolutely be held responsible for it. In a court.

3) The hunter’s excuse of “I should not be responsible for anything that happened during the hunt because I hired guides to plan everything” is complete bullshit, both legally and morally.

Geese, snakeheads, and the ones that got away: Southern Fried Science Book Club, week 5

July 27, 2015 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Blogging

Fortunately, it turns out last week’s chapter was a fluke, and we come down the home stretch of Eating Aliens with some of the strongest sections since the beginning. Canadian Geese was particularly fascinating, as it’s clear this is the species Landers has the most experience talking about. Te chapter is rich with the details, backstory, and information that I was hoping to find throughout the book, with less cynicism about the role of local and national government than we’ve seen previous. If you haven’t caught up yet, I recommend just skipping Nutria and going straight to Canadian Geese.

Then we’re back in the water with numerous marine and freshwater invasives, many from the aquarium trade. Plecos and armored catfish, released by amateur aquarists, are booming in Florida’s warm, protected waters, while tilapia is a holdover from the aquaculture industry. Frankly, there wasn’t much new in these chapters, other than the species–at this point introduced fish are old news, and while the details of each animal are slightly different, the causes and consequences are often the same. Personally, I don’t think I’d eat a pleco, but it doesn’t sound particularly unpalatable. Even though the story is pretty much the same–Landers struggles to catch anything, hijinks ensues, they finally eat it–this was a fun part of the book.