Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- One week left! The deadline for comments on Marine National Monuments and National Marine Sanctuaries has been extended due to overwhelming responses. You now have until August 14, 2017 to leave a comment. Scientists, researchers, explorers, and conservationists with particular ties to the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument can sign on the this letter co-authored by me, James Cameron, and numerous researchers who’s worked has benefited from the Mariana Trench.
- Chasing Genius: Andrew has applied for a National Geographic Chasing Genius Award to fund more development for the OpenCTD and Oceangraphy for Everyone. Please share and like the video over at NatGeo!
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- A Maine Lobsterman catching a one-eyed bald eagle struggling to swim has got to be a metaphor for something, right?
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- The deepest coral reef in Irish water was found at 1600 meters. That’s as deep as my favorite hydrothermal vent system!
- Universal reminder that “garbage patch the size of Texas” does not mean “island of trash as big as Texas”. Garbage patches are big, but they aren’t very dense: Second garbage patch the size of Texas discovered in Pacific Ocean.
- Crispy Jellyfish Are The Next Weird Food Source Proposed by Danish Scientists. Sure.
- What the demise of a small Mexican porpoise tells us about extinction in the 21st century: Goodbye, Vaquita: How Corruption and Poverty Doom Endangered Species.
- Hakai Magazine continues to have the best headline game in the ocean. Ocean Racket Makes for Rascally Wrasses: Motorboat noise spurs rise in fish-on-fish crime.
- Hakai Magazine also has the best “woops, we broke an embargo” gif game in town (and the article on the Hunley was great. You should read it when it’s back online).
- This is probably an opportune moment to remind publishers that we think embargoes are bad. Southern Fried Science never consents to receiving embargoed material and if you send us unsolicited embargoed content (why in the world would you do that if we’ve never agreed to your embargo?) we will publish it early out of spite.
- Squid neurons are the best neurons. The humble squid’s extraordinary service to neuroscience.
- Climate inaction will leave our kids a trillion dollar debt, but we’ll probably still complain about how entitled they are, what with their fancy phones and free, government-subsidized respirators, anyway.
- Shark Sanctuaries: Are They Enough to Save Sharks? from oceanbites.
- Activists sound alarm over Russia’s whale trade.
- Remember when thousands of bags of Doritos washed up on a Carolina beach? Atlas Obscura remembers.
- I will never not run an article about collecting snot. ‘Snot for science’: How blow-hole goop could help track stress in Manitoba belugas.
- The US Coast Guard “will not break faith” and will stand up for its transgender service members.
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Smith and friends (2017) Diversity and Inclusion in Conservation: A Proposal for a Marine Diversity Network. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00234.
- Ellis and friends (2017) Environmental management frameworks for offshore mining: the New Zealand approach. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2017.07.004.
- Campbell and friends (2017) Fishing-gear restrictions and biomass gains for coral reef fishes in marine protected areas. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12996.
- Robertson and friends (2017) Feeding in deep-sea demosponges: influence of abiotic and biotic factors. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2017.07.006.
- Gollner and friends (2017) Resilience of benthic deep-sea fauna to mining activities. DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2017.04.010.
Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)
- I’ll take things that are obvious but can never be repeated enough for 100: Not all PhD supervisors are natural mentors – some need training.
- This is fairly unprecedented. Let’s hope it signifies a sea change in the way universities handle serial sexual harassers: The University Of Washington Just Fired A Tenured Professor For The First Time.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
- I’m still working my way through the excellent The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Doug Mack. If you can’t tell from this subheading, I read too many books at once.
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
- Six reasons why Menhaden are the greatest fish we ever fished.
- There is 10,000 times more plastic in the deep sea than in surface waters.
- Establishing Best Practices to Minimize Waste in a Conservation Genetics Lab.
- What does a day of discarded plastic from a molecular lab look like?
- Weekly dose of TED – Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic
Feel free to share your own Foghorns, Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Driftwood, and Derelicts in the comments below. And, of as always, if you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to my Patreon campaign to help us keep the servers humming. Andrew is on vacation next week so tune in August 14 for a special Guest Salvager.