Science – Page 68 – Southern Fried Science

Shark reporting fail in my hometown newspaper

July 16, 2010July 19, 2010 David Shiffman 7 Comments

I was excited to see that today’s Charleston Post and Courier has a shark on the front page. The content of the article, entitled “Sharks Swarming“, inspired entirely different emotions. Much of the information it contains is either exaggerated to make the situation appear scarier than it is or is simply wrong. Here are some examples:

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Shark Week video contest

July 15, 2010July 15, 2010 David Shiffman 3 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

The Discovery Channel needs your help! They are hosting an online contest to help promote Shark Week. Film yourself singing about sharks to the tune of their wildly successful “Boom de ya deh” ads , and you could find yourself on the air during Shark Week! Let’s get some conservation-friendly humiliating singing on there! I’ll … Read More “Shark Week video contest” »

Charlie and the Adventure: July 12, 2010

July 12, 2010July 2, 2010 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Science

At Alligator Adventure, Charlie visits the albino alligator exhibit. He and WhySharksMatter were pleasantly surprised by the volunteer’s accurate description of mutations and deleterious alleles.

Visiting Bonehenge

July 8, 2010June 16, 2010 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Science

The following is a repost from the old Southern Fried Science WordPress blog. The original can be found here.

bonehenge02 — Keith Rittmaster presenting spermaceti oil to my Southern Fried Students

I finally had the chance to visit the the legendary Bonehenge. For those of you who aren’t longtime followers of this blog, Bonehenge is Keith Rittmaster’s vision to rearticulate a Sperm Whale skeleton and put it on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. We blogged about Bonehenge last year, and raised $200 for the project this summer.

Wading Through a Sea of Eco-Certification

July 8, 2010December 20, 2011 Amy Freitag

Science

With seafood season in full swing, I thought I’d repost this review of certification programs. I’ve learned lots since writing this article, most notably that the compiled data from the EDF study comes from a huge database of government sources. This gives me more confidence in their truth, but the areas tested are still light on estuaries. Everything else still stands. Please check back at the old site for comments.

Another thought process to add to the many considerations of food ethics: if you choose to eat seafood, which fisheries are sustainable and eco-friendly? For those of us who live on the coast, seafood confused fish represents local food that supports local businesses and helps make the connection between producer and consumer. So step one, deciding to eat seafood, has been taken. But then what? A number of nonprofits have taken on that burden and created seafood guides and certification to help you as an informed consumer. Only problem is, they sometimes differ in their listings based on what criteria they use and how they weight those criteria.

Swine Lagoons in NC

July 6, 2010July 5, 2010 Amy Freitag 6 Comments

Conservation, Science

Just some food for thought – a picture really says 1000 words here. What you may not be able to see is the conservation areas completely covered up by the dots representing hog lagoons.

Bonehenge – Community action in science outreach

July 5, 2010June 15, 2010 Andrew Thaler

Science

The following is a repost from the old Southern Fried Science WordPress blog. The original can be found here.

spermwhalelyd501-135

If a 33.5 foot Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) stranded on your beach, what would you do with it? Leave it to rot? Drag it out to sea? Blow it up? Keith Rittmaster of the North Carolina Maritime Museum decided to do one better.

This blog has never been known for heaping praise on marine mammals, but these creatures are the exception. Sperm whales are extremely strange animals. There are some fantastic online resources available that do a great job covering basic sperm whale biology, so I’d like to skip the intro and talk about some sperm whale features I find fascinating.

Louis Agassiz and a brief history of early United States marine biology

July 4, 2010December 31, 2011 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Science

Happy birthday, America, and happy Fourth of July to all of our readers! Today marks the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and many in the media are spending the day talking about life in the early United States. I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss an aspect of early American life that’s near and dear to my heart- marine biology.

Introducing the Summer SharkTakular photo contest!

July 2, 2010July 4, 2010 David Shiffman

Conservation, Science

I am pleased to announce that I will be working with Cindy and Alexa of Oceans 4 Ever during their Summer Sharktakular! The week of July 19th will be dedicated to shark conservation education. As with most things involving Oceans 4 Ever, a major component of the SharkTakular is a contest- specifically a shark conservation photo contest. Here are the rules:

Whale Quotas and Sea Shepherd

June 30, 2010June 30, 2010 Andrew Thaler 37 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

We sparked a good debate over the effectiveness of direct action conservation movements over at the post “Is Sea Shepherd really saving whales?” One of the most difficult questions raised was if Sea Shepherd wasn’t there, would the Japanese make their full quota? The data presented in that post was inconclusive, because the quota increase corresponded to the beginning of SSCS’s Southern Ocean campaign, so we have no time period in which the Japanese quota was increased while Sea Shepherd was absent.