An interview I did a few months ago for Quarks and Quirks on CBC radio recently aired. Yes, of course, it is more about fish pee, but I thought I would post it all the same. It is pretty funny. Scroll down a bit for the actual interview.
A recent study found that corals influence the microbial community surrounding them by both consuming them and facilitating microbial growth. See popular news articles here and here and a brief summary below.
The researchers used a lab experiment to test how the presence and absence of corals affected microbial communities present in seawater. When corals were placed […]
Big news: within the past few weeks world leaders from 24 nations and the European Union have established the largest marine reserve ever (1,550,00o square km). This reserve will be divided between no-take and scientific research zones where fishing will be permitted for scientific purposes. Many are in favor of large no-take reserves, but others have differing opinions. Ray Hilborne, […]
Yes. That again. I gave a department seminar yesterday that compiles all we have been doing over the last couple of years, so thought I would throw it up (Link here). Might be hard to follow without my corny verbal commentary, but at least some good pictures and figures. Thanks to all of you who have helped make this […]
Cool video from Harbour Branch Oceanographic Institute on the life history of queen conch. The best video is on the early life history – starting around 4:00.
A couple of weeks ago we deployed 3 Platform Terminal Transmitters (PTTs) onto 3 hawksbill sea turtle females after they nested (we discussed planning for this in a previous post). The process could not have been fun for the 3 turtles, but we tried to minimize our impacts while setting us up to get some invaluable information.
First, we did standard measurements […]
A recent study showed that the greenland shark, an animal that scientists had previously suspected was long-lived, can reach ages of nearly 400 years. Previous research in the 1930s had shown that these fish, which can grow up to 5 meters in length, only grow about 1 centimeter per year. This is a surprisingly slow growth rate, even for the extreme […]
Weather has always been hard to predict. One of the difficulties is developing enough weather stations throughout the world to compile the data needed for accurate predictions. Well, now scientists are starting to learn from the worlds expert travelers: birds. In a recent study, scientists placed small GPS trackers on these long-ranged fliers allowing them to accurately calculate wind speeds wherever […]
Last year I reported on hearing a chorus of narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne carolinensis) here on Abaco (link to original post). However without a specimen I couldn’t confirm its presence here. Almost exactly a year later a high school student, Donte Richard, remembered that post and called my attention to an adult in his backyard.
This new observation is about 850 […]
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