SeaMonster blog
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It’s not climate change, it’s ocean change!
Redrawn by John Cook with data from Murphy et al 2009. The oceans are choking on greenhouse gases. Our emissions are changing ocean temperature, pH and circulation with wide-ranging effects on biological productivity and ecosystem health. These are among the conclusions of five review articles published in a special feature on the oceans in…
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Life and death of a real sea monster
No, this is not Nessie, or any of the other dubious beasts reported by sailors who got a bit too deep into the grog. This is a real live Sea Monster — well, OK it’s a real dead one. And has been for 150 million years. But it may be the biggest marine predator that…
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The Dirty South: Ben Wilson in Oz
This is one of my favorite kiting movies. Filmed largely by Ben’s father, Ben and Ian explore some of Australia’s killer kitesurf spots. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/15655596[/vimeo]
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Teaching sharks to eat lionfish
Lionfish are an exotic fish now found throughout the Greater Caribbean and eastern Atlantic that have become incredibly abundant on many reefs, especially in the Bahamas and off North Carolina. Lionfish are a piscivore (a fish that eats other fish) and were introduced from the Indo-Pacific by the aquarium trade in the late 1990s off…
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Science and Entertainment: A Much Needed Hybrid
Below is a guest post by my colleague Dr. Ellen Prager of Earth2Ocean, Inc. Ellen was the Director and Lead Scientist of the NOAA Aquarius Reef Base in Key Largo Florida when I first met her about five years ago. Like me, she has become increasingly concerned about the degradation of the ocean and the general…
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Under The Sea, Sex Is Slimy Business
Dr. Ellen Prager was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross today talking about her awesome new book “Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime – The Oceans Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter”. Ellen is a scientist, science communicator and author of a series of excellent fiction and non-fiction books about the ocean. Her new book is about the…
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Mavericks jet ski debate flares up following the death of another big wave surfer
Santa Cruz surfer Josh Loya screams down a wave face in front of two rescue craft waiting to offer assistance if needed during last year’s Maverick’s contest. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel file ) The recent drowning of legendary big wave surfer Sion Milosky at Mavericks has renewed the debate in California over whether jet skis should be allowed…
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Hard men of marine ecology
Professor Paul Dayton of Scripps getting ready for a dive under the ice in Antarctica a really long time ago!
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2010 tied as the warmest year on record
Despite what a certain dishonest and corrupted scientist testified to the US congress last Monday (under oath) the earth has continued to warm over the last decade. NOAA and NASA found that 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record (yeah, that NASA, the one that brought us to the moon, sends robots to…
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The fish that launched a thousand ships, then disappeared
A recent analysis clinches the growing evidence that the North Atlantic is a unique region of the world ocean, and helps explain both its special vulnerability to fishing, and perhaps also its fundamental importance in the historical expansion of European influence around the globe. This is a big fish tale. Scientifically speaking, the body size…
Got any book recommendations?