Oceans Like Us reading list

Research Blog | December 11, 2018

Toxic Progeny, Heather Davis Becoming Mineral, Una Chaudhuri How Forests Think, Eduardo Kohn Anthrobscene, Jussi Parikka Geontologies, Elizabeth Povinelli Exposed: Environmental Politics & Pleasures in Post-Human Times, Stacy Alaimo Alien Oceans, Stefan Helmreich Mel Y Chen (video keynote from Future Genders conference here)

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Jelly Cam and jelly info

Research Blog | March 23, 2016

I’ve been more disorganized than I thought I’d be on my residency in Houston! That’s by way of saying, I don’t have any extensive reports, but more generally, I’ve been working two prongs: one, learning more about port operations and sidling up close to big ships and black boxes; two, jellyfish – learning about them,…

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fishery collapses

Research Blog | June 24, 2014

As part of SSC’s inaugural tasting and brainstorm event, I made a new version of a jellyfish granita that Lucullan Foods and I developed at Rice U in March. We decided to top the granita with a sweet sashimi – we wanted local geoduck clam, but couldn’t get any, so went with  Kampachi (“boutique yellowtail) which…

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Put pressure on dolphin slaughter in japan

Research Blog | March 17, 2010

Just watched The Cove. Besides its effectively genius simple mediation techniques (TVs strapped to protesting bodies in public spaces jihad-style; happy dolphin balloons armed with covert spycams), the fundamental argument is… unarguable. Dolphin slaughter should become an embarrassing harpoon in Japan’s public image. – as top-of-the-food-chain eaters (like us), dolphin meat contains toxic levels of…

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Chinese Mitten Crabs

Research Blog | June 13, 2009

From the Non-Native Species site: The Chinese mitten crab is a native of East Asia, introduced into Europe in the 1930s. It is thought to have been transported to Britain in ships’ ballast water (juvenile crabs and larvae) or perhaps by adult crabs clinging to ships’ hulls. The species has six larval development stages and…

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cyanobacteria is burning

Research Blog | May 22, 2009

A nasty sea weed,  Lyngbya majuscula is thriving from Tampa Bay to Sidney. It’s not a weed – though it’s known as fireweed; it’s actually a “a benthic filamentous marine cyanobacterium” (National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology) that grows on seagrass, and it does very well in low-oxygen environments, ripe for a bloom when there…

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Charismatic megafauna: you can’t live without ’em.

Research Blog | April 12, 2009

“Giant pandas are ‘charismatic megafauna,’ a category that includes whales and other sea mammals, salmon and other inspirational fish, eagles and other flashy raptors. In each instance, the creatures help spotlight the hundreds of humbler but equally endangered species: the black-spored quillwort, the longhorn fairy shrimp.” —”Birth and Rebirth,” USA Today, August 23, 1999 Usually…

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Jellyfish/Plankton/Plastics tangle continues

Research Blog | April 12, 2009

Animals that eat jellyfish also eat plastic bags Animals that eat plankton or fish eggs also eat plastic pellets Animals that eat fish also eat plastic. MSNBC  posted a story  on April 9, about leatherback turtles’ diet of plastic bags. A new study looked at necropsy reports of more than 400 leatherbacks that have died…

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Jellyfish Gone Wild

Research Blog | April 12, 2009

It’s spring break the oceans over. Australia’s beaches regularly host many types of toxic gelatinous animals, including the notorious Portuguese Man-of-War and Chironex fleckeri, a type of box jellyfish that is the world’s most venomous animal; a Chironex can kill a person in under three minutes. In addition, some species of potentially deadly box jellyfish…

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Jellyfish + Sci Fi Rhetoric

Research Blog | April 12, 2009

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Jellyfish Fantasy Hall or The Rise of Slime?

Research Blog | April 12, 2009

Enter the Jellyfish Fantasy Hall at Enoshima Aquarium south of Tokyo and you will find yourself surrounded by dazzling swarms of gently pulsating creatures… Jellyfish, which have inhabited the world’s oceans in one form or another for over one billion years, come in a dizzying array of shapes, sizes and colors. – from Pink Tentacle…

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The Humboldt Squid

Research Blog | April 8, 2009

The Humboldt squid has 36,000 teeth in total. Moves fast. Eats dirty. Is big. Gorgeous, graceful, and alien creature. “The Humboldt squid is a voracious predator that will eat anything it can get its tentacles on.”  – livescience.com Creatures of a new mythology. Moving up and down the water columns. Ecosystem parasites. Opportunists. Formidable monsters….

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Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic | Video on TED.com

Research Blog | April 7, 2009

Charles Moore is founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, one of the first to trawl the Garbage Patch. He captains the foundation’s research vessel, the Alguita, documenting the largest “landfills” of plastic waste that litter the oceans. “A yachting competition across the Pacific led veteran seafarer Charles Moore to discover what some have since…

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Souvenirs from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Research Blog | April 7, 2009

When I was digging around  for Paradoxical Sleep, I wanted to find out what happened after San Jose’s Guadalupe River, after the South Bay of Northern California.  The whirling gyre of nasty pollution information literally culminated in this vortex: The North Pacific Garbage Patch, an area the size of Texas that’s a confluence of ocean…

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