I’m about to start a much-needed two-week vacation and I’m so excited for it. I’m maxing out my free time visiting family and friends who I don’t see nearly often enough. And to get in some much needed (active) rest before our summer fieldwork begins with a bang. I’m spending the month of June almost completely submerged, first in St. Croix and then in Panama. I’m excited for it! So many fish to count and corals to measure and temperature sensors to swap. This is the part of my job that I love.
Let’s get on to the science!
Turning the Tide
Well-written popular articles in marine science
When the Malpelo Sanctuary was established, the only data available on the marine biological community were from 1972. The area is over 300 miles off Colombia’s Pacific coast, a 36-hour boat ride. It requires long, intensive expeditions to catalogue properly, including 9 species so far which are endemic, meaning found nowhere else on earth. Malpelo is a gathering area for migratory species like scalloped hammerhead sharks, which need better protection from fishing. In order to accomplish this, managers need better data on their movement patterns, and scientists have risen to the challenge.
Tatiana Rojas Hernández, Mongabay
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Algal blooms can be a good thing, providing a short-lived feast for marine creatures. But when they become supercharged by light and nutrients, toxic cyanobacteria can cause large fish kills. In places like Kotzebue Sound in Alaska, the local community relies on these fish as a main food source. As these blooms become more frequent as the global climate changes, they become an existential threat that needs to be understood.
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The nonprofit organization The Ocean Cleanup, which works to remove floating plastic from the ocean, has been controversial among marine scientists since its inception. A couple recent studies have shown it lives up to its name too well. TOC is cleaning up everything in the ocean—not just plastic, but also living things. TOC maintains that they are doing their best and redesigning their collection method as they get feedback like this, but scientists remain skeptical that they will be able to collect plastic this way without major consequences to these surface communities. Instead they encourage preventing plastic from getting into the ocean in the first place.
Some Science
Fresh discoveries and peer-reviewed papers
When my colleagues’ work is reported by Ed Yong, I have to share it. In January 2022, sea urchins in St. Thomas began mysteriously dying off. The event unnervingly paralleled a mass die-off in the 1980s that had compounding ecological consequences lasting decades. This time, thanks to rapid action by scientists recognizing the risk, a team of 48 scientists from 12 countries collected samples and quickly identified the culprit: a previously unknown species of ciliate. They are unsure if this is the same pathogen from the previous die-off, but their success is promising in the face of future epidemics, which are likely to increase with warming waters and other stressors.
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I need a full 8.5 hours of sleep every night to feel like myself; sometimes more. I would not do well as an elephant seal. According to a new study, Northern elephant seals can get by on two hours of sleep. And, that sleep happens hundreds of feet underwater, presumably where they are safe from predators. They dive downward, gliding deeper as their brain activity slows and the sleep while continuing to slowly descend. Ever get those dreams where you fall and then jolt awake? I wonder if that ever happens to these seals.
Annie Roth, The New York Times
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Have you ever thought about what happens to the fish near a volcano when it erupts? Me neither, even though I’m a fish ecologist. Maybe I was happy in my delusion that they would hear a rumbling and swim away to safety, but that turns out to very much not be the case. After an underwater eruption, fish suffered from rapidly heated and acidified water and barotrauma from trying to escape to the surface. After a land-based eruption, lava falling into the ocean cooled into rock, clogging gills and impacting digestion.
Chris Baraniuk, Hakai Magazine
Fun and Fascinating
Thanks for reading! Remember to drink water, eat plants, and don’t be too salty.
Til next time,
Sarah
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