SeaMonster blog
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A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9o4VnfHJU[/youtube]
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World without fish
Another book on my to-read list (so no, this isn’t a review, just a suggestion). Mark Kurlansky has written lots of books about fish (Cod is still a bestseller after more than a decade – quite rightly) but this is the first one aimed at getting the message across to the younger generation that we…
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One reason I blog: no peer review
Science ain’t easy. I know being a marine biologist must sound really glamorous but it is 90% email and less than 1% swimming with dolphins (or seahorses in Helen’s case). Case in point: peer review. Here’s how it works: (1) submit manuscript to a journal, (2) wait a few months, (3) get a rejection email…
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Everything you ever wanted to know about climate change denial
John Cook, creator of the wildly popular web site Skeptical Science, published a new book today with Haydn Washington. The book is titled Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand and is available here and here at Amazon for less than $25. In John’s words: “In late 2009, I was approached by environmental scientist Haydn…
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Are farm-raised salmon “good” to eat?
While working on a response to Ray Hilborn’s silly and misleading op-ed in the NYT urging American’s to eat more fish, I ran across a great article about the complex issue of choosing farmed versus wild-caught salmon (and other fish). The article “The Wild Salmon Debate” is superbly written and the author, David Dobbs, is…
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How to measure a shark
Q. How do you measure a live, free-swimming shark? A. From a distance. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? You can’t easily swim up and lay out a tape measure alongside them from snout to tail. But with all the tricks of light bending on its way through water and air and the inevitable BIG FISH tales,…
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Fluffy Penguins
Penguins are atop most folks’ AWW (Adorable Waterfowl of the World) lists. Well listen, y’all, I’m here to set the record straight. I’ve come nose-to-beak with more than a few penguins during my time in the Antarctic, and I want the northern hemisphere to know that these waterbirds are a force to be reckoned with.…
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Sea angels
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmBIDinJUr8&feature=related[/youtube] Sea angels. They sound kind of made up, don’t they? But they are real animals – a type of seashell that have lost their shells and spend their lives flitting about in the open ocean, propelled by a pair of little fairy wings. We chatted to Rob Jennings from the University of Massachusetts about…
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Marshes, Sills, and Fish
A nice article by Mark Derewicz (excerpted below) about UNC PhD student Rachel Gitman and her work to understand the implications of “armoring” our shorelines to reduce coastal erosion. Sea level is rising in North Carolina at a rate of about 2-3 mm per year. Combined in some locations with boat traffic, sea level rise is…
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Jumping the shark
I love this phrase. My favourite definition from Urban Dictionary goes “when something stops getting better and starts getting worse”. It comes from a Happy Days episode where the Fonz goes waterskiing and jumps over a shark (presumably in a desperate attempt to boost ratings). Everyone agrees it was the lowest point of the show. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4[/youtube]…
Got any book recommendations?