hagfish – Southern Fried Science

Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions

February 27, 2024February 27, 2024 Andrew Thaler

Science

This Southern Fried Classic was first published July 13, 2017 and is one of Andrew’s all-time favorite articles. Wait, what? In 2017, Oregon State Police reported that a truck carrying a shipment of live hagfish overturned, spilling its slimy cargo all over the highway and damaging at least one vehicle. What’s a hagfish? Hagfish are … Read More “Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions” »

After mining a seabed is forever changed, divers do good and bad, eating plastic, a Musk mystery sub, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 17, 2019

June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

What Makes Things Slimy? Now, I’m just a humble country deep-sea ecologist, but I reckon it’s probably the slime.
I’m not not considering this: I Live Alone in an Island Paradise.

Hong Kong diver, 66, wages marine war against ocean’s silent killers – ghost nets.

Mr Harry Chan (in blue t-shirt) with divers who have joined his cause from Today Online.

Hagfish nom-nommers, Trample-gramming, boring clams, I’m still in love with these giant isopods, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 8, 2019.

April 8, 2019April 8, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Good job, everyone! NOAA Budget Proposal Hits Rough Waters in Congress.
Tool Foundry expands access to science by promoting tools for discovery: Luminary Labs initiative launches four-month accelerator to help inventors bring better scientific tools to more communities

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Cambodia’s endangered river dolphins at highest population in 20 years.

Dick-Shaped, Wood-Munching Clams Are More Diverse Than We Thought, Study Finds.

A wood-boring clam inside a piece of wood
Photo: Jenna Judge

How Miami’s realtors lie to themselves, each other, and you about climate change in America’s largest sinking city: Heaven or High Water: Selling Miami’s last 50 years.
The Video of Giant Isopods Eating an Alligator in the Deep Sea You Must Watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54YezX7HeSI

Deep-sea gator bait, a mining company’s continued decline, why are there so many Garfield phones on French beaches, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 1, 2019.

April 1, 2019April 1, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Shameless plug for my Patreon! This month, subscribers who sign up for the Ocean Pun Sticker reward will get this glorious squat lobster in high quality vinyl. Suitable for dive gear, laptops, field equipment, or anywhere luxuriously goofy stickers are displayed.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Gator falls!
- Scientists Dropped Dead Gators to the Seafloor to See What Bites.
- Why A Scientist Dropped Dead Alligators In The Gulf Of Mexico.

Each giant isopod is around the size of a football. LOUISIANA UNIVERSITIES MARINE CONSORTIUM

Researchers beginning to uncover the mystery of hagfish’s zombie hearts.

Hagfish, hagfish, hagfish, hagfish, the social value of a hydrothermal vent, more ways plastic booms could kill the ocean, and hagfish. Monday Morning Salvage: January 28, 2019.

January 28, 2019January 27, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

It’s all hagfish today, baby!

Hagfish appear to use slime to avoid predators like sharks (top) and large fish (bottom). The images above are from videos showing fish eating a hagfish, which then produces slime and is able to escape (Images from wikimediacommons).

The ongoing wonder of hagfish, deep-sea mining’s race to the bottom, saving whales with lineless lobster traps, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 21, 2019

January 21, 2019January 22, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

It’s month two of the longest shutdown in US history and there’s only one party who won’t allow a vote to reopen the government proceed. Have you called you senator today?

The Shutdown Is Making the U.S. Less Prepared for Hurricane Season

And while I have your attention, FYI:

Thousands of Scientists Endorse Study Proclaiming Trump’s Border Wall a Disaster for Wildlife

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)3-D Printing the Ulitmate Deep-Sea Christmas Tree

Oceans Warming Faster Than Predicted, Scientists Say and Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds.
Ministry hints Putin’s Arctic ambitions are not realistic. There is unease in several Russian government ministries as officials start to understand that the President’s objectives for the Northern Sea Route can not be reached. The only way to please the president might be to expand the sea route itself.
Hagfish are so good. We don’t deserve hagfish.
- How hagfish launch slime missiles that swell 10,000 times in size.
- How hagfish can make enough slime to clog a shark’s jaws in seconds

All the slime that sticks, we print: 2018 in Hagfish Research

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Science

Hagfish. You love them. I love them. Of all the fish in all the seas, none are more magnificent than the hagfish. Across the world, children celebrate the hagfish by making slime from Elmer’s glue, their own mucous, or just, like, something. Seriously, how is is that toddler hands are always coated in some strange, unidentifiable slime?

And never, ever forget:

Your car has just been crushed by hagfish: Frequently Asked Questions.

2018 was a big year in hagfish science. Below are just a few of my favorite studies.

Biogeography

A hagfish in the high Antarctic? Hagfish have previously never been observed in the shallow waters around Antarctic, but a photograph from 1988 was determined this year to be a hagfish feeding on a large pile of clam sperm in shallow water. Neat!

Possible hagfish at 30 m in Salmon Bay in 1988. The white patch is *Laternula elliptica* sperm.

Incidentally, the reason the photo languished for so long is that it was originally though to be a Nemertean. Because Antarctic Nemertean worms are huge and horrifying.

Dayton and Hammerstrom (2018) A hagfish at Salmon Bay, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica? DOI: 10.1017/S0954102018000202.

We Robot, a horrible hagfish massacre, deep, delicious sandwiches, fish slime harvests, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 10, 2018.

September 10, 2018September 9, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (a call to action)

The pending U.S. destruction of Pagan and Tinian islands.

The U.S. is turning a significant portion of Micronesia into live fire and bombing ranges to train Marines. It has plans to completely take over one island for this purpose and has control of two-thirds of another island.

If people in the U.S. mainland understood the military’s plan for Micronesia they might be alarmed. But this is really happening to U.S. citizens living in America’s territories.

(source)

We Robot 2019: sign up for one of the best conferences I’ve ever participated in!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

‘Slime eel’ massacre caused by Washington man’s boat accident, lawsuit says.

The Levee (news from LUMCON)

Floodwaters are plaguing a lab where scientists study … coastal flooding.

LUMCON’s DeFelice Marine Center, flooded, as seen from a dormitory balcony. (Photo: Courtesy of LUMCON)

Lost shipwrecks, weaponized hagfish, plastivorous worms, deep-sea mining, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: August 20, 2018.

August 20, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Did you know that oceanbites also published in Spanish? Go check it out!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Marine Worms Are Eating Plastic Now. I’m sure this will be fine [Ed: I’m not sure. It won’t be fine.]
Are you following Diva Amon’s latest expedition: My Deep Sea, My Backyard in Trinidad and Tobago? Join the adventure!

Dr. Amon shows off a deep-sea dropcam. Courtesy OpenExplorer.

Researchers just found a WWII shipwreck that was lost for over 75 years off the coast of an Alaskan island.

Members of the expedition take time to examine a Japanese mini submarine that remains in the historic sub pens on Kiska Island. Image courtesy of Kiska: Alaska's Underwater Battlefield expedition. — Members of the expedition take time to examine a Japanese mini submarine that remains in the historic sub pens on Kiska Island. Image courtesy of Kiska: Alaska’s Underwater Battlefield expedition.

Eat hagfish, work at LUMCON, clone Vaquita, question floating trash collectors, and more! Monday Morning Mega-Salvage: August 13, 2018

August 13, 2018August 12, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

It’s time for Africosh! The annual Africa Open Science and Hardware Summit Heads is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this year!
LUMCON is hiring! They’re looking for two exceptional coastal and marine science faculty hires in any discipline. And they have the best “come work for us” video!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Hakai Magazine is my jam this month.
- How an Epidemic Exposed the Ecological Importance of Sea Stars: The near eradication of British Columbia’s sea stars demonstrated the dynamic role they play in regulating kelp forests.
- How to Dismantle a Blue Whale: In Chile, a team of volunteers confronts stench and gore to ensure a new life for a dead whale. [Warning: Link contains graphic pictures of whale evisceration]
I’ve been following this project for almost 2 years. Awesome to see how far they’ve come. NinjaPCR is a WiFi enabled, Opensource DNA Amplifier and Thermocycler for Polymerase Chain Reaction developed by 2 hackers in Tokyo.
Plastic wrap made from shellfish and plants is completely compostable.

Hagfish (just Hagfish)

Yes, people do eat hagfish. Yum! Snake-like creature writhes, squirms on grill.

Hagfish are the emissaries of love, not war. Stop it. Synthetic ‘Slime’ To Help US Navy Trap Enemy Ships.