Sea Monster

Author: Emmett Duffy

  • Great Decision 2012: The future of the ocean

    How can we save the world?  What can an average Joe Blow on the street like us, without a colossal wad of cash to pay nefarious lobbyists, do to nudge the ship of state in the right direction? One answer, not very sexy but  more effective than just changing your light bulbs, is active participation…

  • Money and the root of all climate change denial

    [I started writing this as an addition to a string of interesting and thoughtful comments on John’s excellent post, which questions whether it is really the incompetence of scientists that’s responsible for the failure of this country to recognize climate change. But decided to post it up here  instead.] There are a host of factors…

  • Fish, Sustainability, and Used Cars: Guest post by Dr. Martin Smith

    [Editor’s preface: Yesterday, we opened our discussion of seafood eco-labeling with a guest post by Dr. Tim Essington of the University of Washington. Today we present the second perspective on the Marine Seafood Council’s report on environmental certification of seafood products. Dr. Marty Smith is the Dan and Bunny Gabel Associate Professor of Environmental Economics…

  • Is seafood certification the answer to sustainability? SeaMonster asks Dr. Tim Essington

    [Editor’s preface: How should the conscientious piscivore forage in the complex ecosystem of the modern market? Those of us who love seafood but want to do the right thing are confronted with a blizzard of information and advice  — often conflicting — on the status of marine fish populations and the various management measures intended…

  • Occupy Jamaica, Part 2: The lay of the reef

     Discovery Bay, Jamaica.  8:23 PM.  End of my second full (long) day since arriving Friday afternoon. Kristin, James, and Solomon had arrived Tuesday — three days ahead of me – and made good progress reconnoitering and sampling at the sites we’d worked in 2008. By this evening we had collected and processed over 100 samples…

  • Best invertebrate porn I’ve seen all week

    I mean, not that I go looking for it or anything . . . but you will see from the video why they call it (no I am not making this up) penis fencing. And watch carefully: they each have two. Not sure exactly where they put them but, well, let’s not go there. Truth,…

  • Occupy Jamaica, Part 1: Prelude

    [Part 1 in the SeaMonster Expedition series: Jamaica. the team finalizes preparations for a 10-day research trip to Jamaica to solve the mystery of large, cooperative societies in lowly shrimp.] As ice skins over Timberneck Creek among the bare trees of Virginia, we are eagerly staging gear and making preparations for our first expedition of…

  • On this day in 1642 . . .

    . . . the great physicist, applied mathematician, and astronomer Galileo Galilei passed from this world into the annals of history, having spent the last ten of his 77 years on Earth under house arrest for the crime of telling the truth. More specifically, for asserting that the movements of heavenly bodies he had deduced…

  • Newly evolved for 2012’s climate: world’s first hybrid shark

    The changing climate that increasingly dominates the news is beginning to play its hand in some strange and unexpected ways. Creatures from algae to fishes are busting out of their old geographic ranges and striking out into new territories. A case in point: the microscopic phytoplankton species Neodenticula seminae, a dominant primary producer in North…

  • The blogging professor manifesto: A morning-after perspective

    Have social media seeded a communications renaissance in science and if so, what is limiting its growth? My colleagues Kevin Zelnio of SciAm’s EvoEcoLab (and Deep-Sea News), and John Bruno right here at SeaMonster, recently started a fascinating conversation on these topics. Kevin’s excellent essay noted that scientists have many reasons for going online, but…