Are the oceans a limitless resource? No. Clearly not, but we still have policies intact that treat them as such. We are overfishing down the food chain. Blue fin tuna is worth a small fortune and we dredge the deep sea to catch a fish called the Patagonian Toothfish to sell at market. Perhaps you … Continue reading
It was a bright and cheerful morning, with birds chirping outside and a hint of spring in the air. But inside my cubicle, things weren’t looking nearly as sunny. In front of me was a scientific journal article, hot off the presses, which supposedly held the answer to the biggest murder mystery in the history of … Continue reading
The new Game of Thrones season is right around the corner, and I know one UndertheC blogger who is really excited! It’s me. I’m really excited. One of the driving plot points through the entire series is the season differential that George Martin’s world has to deal with. Unlike the annual cycle that our Earth … Continue reading
Ocean 180 is an NSF funded initiative run by COSEE Florida (Florida Center for Ocean Science Excellence). You may know COSEE as the group who graded and recorded every student presentation at the Benthic Ecology Meeting this year (read my post about Benthics here). In short, these guys are awesome. They promote science communication and … Continue reading
[audio http://cpa.ds.npr.org/pre/audio/2014/03/BUOYWINDENERGY-FINAL.mp3] Our department’s chair and my adviser, Harvey Seim, talks to NPR’s Jared Brumbaugh about our research into the offshore wind energy potential in North Carolina. In the next few days, we will be able to launch two buoys that have been down for repairs for almost a year or so. Harvey describes some of … Continue reading
This past weekend I traveled to the 43rd Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. This years event was hosted by the University of North Florida. If you haven’t heard of them before, check them out. They have a nice new biological sciences building and they are doing some cool research! This was my first … Continue reading
“Training” wild sharks to eat lionfish might sound like a good idea. But what happens if they are actually being “trained” to attack divers? Since the lionfish invasion hit the news, people have suggested that native predators will eat and control invasive lionfish. For more information check out our previous posts The Great Debate: Predators … Continue reading
I’m first and foremost a marine scientist, but I’m going to admit something to you all–I’ve kind of got a thing going on the side with astronomy. I’ve been furtively watching the revamped Cosmos (Haven’t seen the show yet? Screw reading this post–head over here and watch it!) and reading about new Big Bang breakthroughs … Continue reading
Written by UNC Graduate Student JP Balmonte. This is Juno, an 11-year-old male Beluga whale at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut! I got to meet him as part of my training as a Science Communications Fellow through the Ocean Exploration Trust at the University of Rhode Island. Tune in next week for more details … Continue reading
On Monday night a group of U.S. Senators took to the chamber floor to give short speeches about climate change. The event, dubbed #up4climate, lasted all night. Who was in attendance? 30 Democratic senators and 2 Independent senators showed up to participate. Of the 45 Republican senators, a total of zero joined this movement. However, … Continue reading
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