Transcript provided below.
Are we finally going to lead with deep-sea mining? We’re going to lead with deep-sea mining. Welcome to the Weekly Salvage.
Tag: oyster
Weekly Salvage
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- 2017 Year in Climate. It’s been a wild, woolly years of climate highs and policy lows.
- Fossils of Congress, featuring real, non-elected fossils, found around DC, might be my new favorite thing.
Weekly Salvage
Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Hakai Magazine want to hear from you! Dear Hakai Magazine Reader, Who Are You?
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Everything Tangier is utterly fascinating right now: Angry messages to the Trump-supporting mayor of Tangier Island illustrate a need to listen, not to shout.
- I’m still just dumbfounded by this: Did a Glowing Sea Creature Help Push the U.S. Into the Vietnam War? In other words, Ocean Literacy could save us all from annihilation.
- I really hope you’re not sick of hagfish yet. Because Hagfish!
- Best headline, ever: Sea Spiders Pump Blood With Their Guts, Not Their Hearts.
Science
Earlier this week, Fox News commentator and all-around terrific guy* Erick Erickson, while discussing a recent Pew Study that revealed that women were the sole breadwinners in 40% of US households that contain children, had this to say:
“I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology—when you look at the natural world—the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complementary role.”
I’m not sure where Erickson got his science education from, but it’s pretty clear he should have spent a little more time shopping around on the free market, because he sure is wrong. How wrong? I managed to assemble this list of 10 marine species with dwarf, parasitic, or otherwise reduced males (including an entire female-only class) while waiting for my toast**. So have a seat and let me show you how much weirder and more wonderful the world is than Erickson’s Disney-esque misinterpretation of biology.
1. Anglerfish
The deep-sea Anglerfish is among the most common examples of parasitic males in the marine world. Anglerfish comprise a variety of taxa in the order Lophiiformes. Almost all (females) possess a specialized appendage that acts as a lure to attract unwary prey. Life in the deep sea is rough–even though it is the largest and most diverse ecosystem on Earth, biomass is fairly low–so finding a mate is a struggle for these slow swimming fishes. The solution: carry your partner with you.
Male anglerfish are tiny, often less than 5% the size of the female, but they possess powerful olfactory receptors, allowing them to seek out females. Once a mate is located, the male anglerfish latches on to her abdomen, fuses his circulatory system with hers, and is then slowly digested until there’s nothing left but a sac of gonads surrounded by basic life-supporting tissues. Female anglerfish are not monogamous, either. At any given time she could be covered by a half-dozen parasitic males. Kinky.
Conservation
The winner of “Best Conservation Message” at the 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival came from Laura Hutchinson, a graduate student at Texas A and M’s Harte Research Institute. Sink Your Shucks explains the ecological importance of oysters and how people can help to restore oyster reefs.