Category: Blog
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Those damned jellyfish!
A jellyfish sting has ended Diana Nyad’s final attempt to swim from Cuba to Miami. I can’t believe her run of bad luck. I still remember her first try. From the AP: Her face and lips swollen from Portuguese man o’war stings, marathon swimmer Diana Nyad tried to remain positive about all she had accomplished in two…
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Smackdown: bear meets squid
Now, I have truly seen everything. We all know the inspiring images from nature shows of majestic bears whacking big salmon out of the water as they make their grueling and intrepid homing migrations upstream (the salmon, that is). But squid? Unlike the photo of the shark in the streets of Puerto Rico (mea culpa)…
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Live blog: World Conference on Marine Biodiversity 2011
The second triennial World Conference on Marine Biodiversity begins next week in Aberdeen, Scotland, and your dedicated SeaMonster reporter will be on the scene. We will be trying something new and experimental (for us, at least) — pseudo-live blogging from the Conference site, covering late-breaking news on marine research advances, marine conservation, fantastic new animals,…
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Courtney Cox – forensic fisheries sleuth
While researching the health of coral reefs and the fate of the parrotfish, Carolina grad student Courtney Cox uncovered a conspiracy at Belize fish markets and restaurants. Mark Derewicz covered the fishy mystery here in Endevors magazine: Let’s face it. A lot of fish fillets look the same and taste the same. But when you buy, say, snapper…
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The blob, deconstructed
I tell ya. You spend your days toiling away doing clever experiments, discovering new species, burning the midnight oil to prepare inspiring lectures for skeptical college students, crafting compelling grant proposals, solving the world’s environmental problems, pushing back the frontiers generally. Typical professor stuff. But what do people want to hear about? Blobs. No, not…
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The coolest animal in the world
As a marine biologist it’s my job to understand the complex workings of our mysterious ocean planet, and to wrestle with the great questions of our time. One that has been exercising me lately is this: What is the coolest animal on earth? After considerable deliberation, I’ve made my decision. And I don’t say this…
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The Erie Canal as Civil War Catalyst
For centuries, most trade west of the Atlantic coast was limited to passive passage along the Mississippi, sending products downstream merrily, merrily, merrily on a lazy river ride from the Great Lakes region to ports like New Orleans. That is, until we had the bright idea to forge our own passageway east. The Erie Canal,…
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Ten years
Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; The gentle overcomes the rigid Everyone knows this is true, But few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil…
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Fish – a good idea on paper
During a visit to the Suma Aqualife Park in Japan a few months ago, I came across a captivating display of little origami sea creatures arrayed across an entire wall. The lighting was not right for photos at the time but I’ve since found a great collection of these online, most notably — and…
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Let us eat…lionfish
Ray Hilborn famously urged Americans to eat more fish in his recent NYT op-ed Let us eat fish. I explained why this is a bad idea here, but one fish it would be good to start eating more of is invasive lionfish. Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote a great piece on the fledgling lionfish fishery Answer for Invasive…