Sea Monster

Category: Blog

  • Monbiot on paper parks

    UK’s George Monbiot wrote about the absurdity that is the UK’s marine reserve system in his column in the Guardian recently (HT to Helen). It is great to see George join a tiny but growing number of voices criticizing “MPAs” (AKA Marine Protected Areas) as a solution to overfishing and other ocean problems. The UK’s marine reserves…

  • Goodbye to Belize

    [The final post in our Belize series from the New York Times Scientist at Work blog]: Tuesday, July 10 As the days tick away, so do our last hopes of finding social shrimp. We came to Carrie Bow to collect two types of eusocial shrimp, each living in colonies with a single queen and dozens…

  • Demise of reefs in Belize? Coda

    [I was happy to receive a lot of comments on our most recent blog post from the field in the New York Times. Since the space available to respond to those comments on the NYT site is limited, I’ve elected to do so here.] Thanks to all for your comments. I have always considered myself…

  • Reef Reminiscences: The way coral reefs were

    What was the world like back in the day? Are the fantastic stories all just legends? With the notable exception of Jacques Cousteau, few people were taking pictures of the undersea world a few decades ago, not only because the technology was more difficult and expensive and less available, but also because we tend to…

  • Belize field log 2012: Witness to a murder

    [The fourth installment, and I’ll confess my favorite, in our New York Times “Scientist at Work” field log.] Sunday, July 8 As the sun breaks the horizon, I sit in a wooden chair at the edge of the backreef, an eye on the weather horizon, gratefully sipping the first strong coffee and gauging what the…

  • Ghost trap and shark feeding frenzy in the Bahamas

    There are thousands of “ghost” traps around the Caribbean that are fishing constantly without being checked by fisherman. There were three cubera snappers and one black grouper in this one. Approximately 100 pounds worth of fish. Only one snapper was dead and was the meal for half a dozen of reef sharks that have been…

  • Belize field log 3: Journey to the center of the reef

    [The third installment in our New York Times “Scientist at Work” field log.] Collecting shrimp is a complicated business. I am not as seasoned as my colleagues, but I quickly learn how tedious it can be. After taking a photograph and estimating the volume of a sponge, we have to locate every shrimp inside. Synalpheus…

  • Belize field log 2: Social breakdown on the reef

    [The second installment in our New York Times “Scientist at Work” field log.] Wednesday, July 4 Our hunt yesterday produced a good haul of shrimp species, but, alas, none of the social ones we’re searching for. I worked with my former Ph.D. student, Tripp McDonald, long into the night identifying the shrimp. Though little known…

  • Belize 2012 field log 1: Snapping Shrimps and Hidden Sponges

    [Our team has just returned from a 10-day research trip to the Belize Barrier Reef, searching for social sponge-dwelling shrimp in a long-term study of these curious animals as models for understanding the evolution of altruism and cooperation. The New York Times “Scientist at Work” feature is posting updates from our field log. We reprint…

  • Jeremy Jackson & Zombie Ecology

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdUxcLmNs4&feature=plcp[/youtube] I can’t help but think of Dr. Jeremy Jackson amidst this blogosphere frenzy in response to the The New York Times’  Zombie Ecology op-ed (aka. “A World without Coral Reefs”). In Friday’s paper, Roger Bradbury proclaimed coral reefs as unequivocally doomed. In his words, “there is no hope to saving coral reefs.”  The op-ed’s stinging declaration of ‘zombie ecology’ has stoked…