How Life Thrives Under the Ocean’s Crushing Pressure
Like most deep-sea biologists, I have a large collection of decorated Styrofoam cups. A couple dozen line the bookshelf of my office, each displaying a…
Essential Marine Readings
Everyone is always asking the DSN crew what are favorite books are. Well just in time for the holidays we are unleashing The Essential DSNL…
View More Essential Marine ReadingsComb jellies, not sponges, may be your most distant animal relative
For over a hundred years scientists have assumed that sponges (yep, the animal that inspired your kitchen sponge), are our most distant animal relative. And why…
View More Comb jellies, not sponges, may be your most distant animal relative
The Ocean’s Gelantinous Christmas Tinsel
The above photo is of Apolemia lanosa a type of siphonophore belonging to phylum Cnidaria that also includes corals and jellies. It’s basically the ocean’s…
View More The Ocean’s Gelantinous Christmas TinselWhere The Wild Things Are
“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.” That’s my honest reaction after reading news of Western Australia’s plan to reduce fatal shark attacks through the…
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Whale Shark and Manta Ray Gif Roundup
Dr. Simon Pierce (@simonpierce) is a marine biologist extraordinaire focusing on whale sharks. He is the Principal Scientist at the Marine Megafauna Foundation and Science Coordinator of the Global Whale Shark…
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An Oceanic Ode
This guest post is brought to you by Sheanna Steingass. Shea is a graduate student at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute studying the behavioral…
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The Tiny Swimming Pigs of Pig Beach
On a largely uninhabited island (a cay) in Bahamas, the chief residents are less than a two-dozen feral pigs. The island is now more lovingly…
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Pygmy Squids Females Favor Small Males and Fast Copulation
Females of some species in the wild may not be able to prevent unwanted sex with males. In many crustaceans, males forcibly mate with females…
View More Pygmy Squids Females Favor Small Males and Fast Copulation
The Majestic Plastic Bag
Like the lovely PGP (Pacific Garbage Patch), this has just been a plastic filled week… and it’s only Tuesday! To join in on all the…
View More The Majestic Plastic BagGuest post: The invisible consequences of mistaking plastic for dinner
The long and windy path to a Ph.D. is lined with blood, sweat and tears. Like a roller coaster, it can be filled with joy, anxiety, fear and even nausea. This story is regarding one chapter of my dissertation, one that filled me with all these emotions and lead me to the conclusion that even in science, sh%* happens. But in this story, what we could not control lead us to better scientific conclusions with greater environmental realism. Due to what may seem like an experimental shortcoming, we were able to answer an important “so what?” question related to plastic marine debris.
View More Guest post: The invisible consequences of mistaking plastic for dinner