cmcclain
Posts by this author
June 23, 2007
The Crevices at 708 meters (2,323 feet) of a hydrothermal vent site are occupied by thriving aggregations of cutthroat (synaphobranchid) eels. These eels, which have now been identified as Dysommina rugosa, are known from trawl samples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but have never before…
June 22, 2007
This map depicts a hypothetical Mars with oceans. The view could represent a stage of terraforming (not an early Mars, since the ocean areas do not correspond to such hypotheses). The base map is from the USGS Flagstaff web site, with oceans added based on elevation data from a USGS map at…
June 21, 2007
I am out to sea this week exploring deep-sea life on seamounts. A cruise in 2004 to the San Juan yielded this photo. Brisingid and basket stars, white trumpet and frilled sponges, and a bamboo coral (in the background) are living attached to a lava flow. Copyright MBARI
June 21, 2007
So any wine is good, great wine is better, and great wine from the murky depths is the best.. Great wine aged on the ocean floor in perfect humidity, absence of UV rays, stable temperature of 9-12 C , and a ever so gentle massaging of the bottles by the currents and tides is the best.
June 21, 2007
Our second day at sea was brought to close on much calmer seas. We again dove on Pioneer
Seamount, the northernmost station during our cruise and approximately parallel with San
Fran Cheezy. We continued to explore the volcanic cones. In contrast to the deeper
habitats on day 1 where corals…
June 20, 2007
if I look pretty. Whenever I travel, inevitably I come across a shop or two selling red coral jewelry. I know what the red coral means...pillaging of the oceans. My first thought however is who wheres this tacky stuff. Are there people who think this stuff is beautiful. Luckily, Convention on…
June 19, 2007
Most tales of the open sea begin with some classic line about the
seas being as rough as scorned lover or a furious ocean goddess
unleashing her fury. Both the scorned lover and furious goddess in
unison at sea welcomed our first full day out. Swells were at 20
providing a rough first night of…
June 18, 2007
Behind the scenes Kevin and I are making fun of Peter which now that he is out of town I will do online. See Peter is a bit of traitor toward our invertebrate cousins. You think somebody who studies corals would perhaps name them after some such species. But no...Peter named his computer after a…
June 18, 2007
BP's Statistical Review of World Energy published last week boldly stated we have enough oil. Specifically, there is enough proven oil reserves to last us 40 years. The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre in London disagrees as you might expected from their name. They say we are doomed that peak oil…
June 18, 2007
Chinese police recovered 21 pieces of porcelain from a fishing boat and another 117 pieces from others. When asked where the porcelain came from, the owner claimed that divers recovered the relics "by accident". Apparently, they just fell into their wetsuits. Happens to me all the time.
In…
June 15, 2007
This blog is a considerable amount of hard work on our part requiring dedication and time. Sometimes people recognize this spreading the link love. Other times someone outright thieves our content. This time it is New York Articles that proudly claims "This site collects content from another sites…
June 15, 2007
...glance at a tide chart.
Taking photographs of a wedding is a pleasant memory for new couples. But six happy pairs were left stranded for six hours on Wednesday while snapping away on reefs, 50 meters away from the bank of the Badaguan in Qingdao in Shandong province. The Hebei…
June 15, 2007
From the 17th-27th I will b out to sea aboard the Western Flyer, technology and time permitting I will try to get post a couple entries here at DSN. You can read all about the cruise, check the updated logbook about daily activities, view pictures of the seafloor, and meet the people…
June 14, 2007
I am a really amateur photographer. I took a few classes a couple years ago and got the basics down. The kid in me, or maybe the scientist who works on body size, loves miniatures. Every since I heard of tilt-frame photography, I new I wanted to give it a try because of its surreal…
June 12, 2007
Today Oceana published a report showing that three trawl fisheries, calico scallops, rock shrimp and royal red shrimp, pose an increased threat to South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico deep-sea habitat.
Calico scallops are smaller and less expensive than bay scallops. Because calico scallops are…
June 11, 2007
It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to reveal everything it knows about a massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign…
June 11, 2007
For those in the area, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute will hold its annual open house from noon to 5 p.m. June 30 at 7700 Sandholdt Road in Moss Landing.
We will all be there, staff, scientists, and engineers, explaining our deep-sea research and discoveries. You will be able to see…
June 7, 2007
An undescribed species of Lamellibrachia, some with their red plumes extended out of their tubes. Image from NOAA Ocean Explorer and courtesy of AquaPix, Erik Cordes, Expedition to the Deep Slope 2006.
June 7, 2007
Welcome to our blog entry for the Carnival of the Blue on World Ocean Day, wherein we contemplate the question of the ocean as a glass half-empty or a glass half-full. Together, we see our modern culture as a blind man wandering down a forking path with a divining rod, flipping a Ying-Yang coin…
June 7, 2007
Not exactly deep-sea or even marine but worth posting. Below is a picture of man picking through the rubbish in the Citarum, the most polluted river in the world, near Jakarta. More can be read here. In some places the oceans and shores are not any better.
June 7, 2007
Tomorrow is World Ocean Day, and to celebrate, The Nature Conservancy is featuring an article on a haven for sea turtle and shark breeding on Andros Island in the Bahamas. This area, discovered last summer, could help influence Bahamian officials to establish more marine protected areas around the…
June 5, 2007
If you live anywhere near the Southern California coast, you are aware they are being invaded by the Humboldt squid. In Ventura County they are hauling in boat loads. Two things bug me about these posts.
1. Most of the articles refer to the Humboldt Squid as the Giant Squid, a common name…
June 5, 2007
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) will be switching hands. HBOI was found by Seward Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, in the mid 1970's. The campus is located a couple hours north of Ft. Lauderdale. A colleague of mine from Alabama referred to HBOI as the Woods Hole…
June 5, 2007
The Haida Indian nation and the Canadian government have signed an agreement to set up BC's Quenn Charlotte Islands as a marine protected area (MPA). The MPA will allow for protection of Bowie Seamount or in the Haida tongue as Sgaan Kinghlas (Supernatural Being Looking Outward), by far a better…
June 4, 2007
This Friday is World Ocean Day and to get the week going I thought I would start with a practical "what can I do post". Peter already discussed why plastic is a bad thing for the ocean. I will focus on what you can do to reduce your plastic waste and consumption. Let's face it...you and I my…
June 1, 2007
Schematic diagram of the DSV Alvin from the Ocean Explorer (NOAA) website.
May 31, 2007
Over at National Geographic you can read all about Fish Trap! a great piece of equipment designed right here at MBARI.
If that is not enough for you then head over to NPR where you can catch an listen to NPR's On Point discussing Deep Ocean Ecology with Katrin Linse (part of the recent expedition…
May 30, 2007
I perhaps spoke too soon and in doing so invited Murphy's wrath.
We completed deployment of the respirometer and accomplished 3/4 of the video transects we planned. During our bottom time we saw high densities of flat fish, asteroids, and the jellyfish Benthocodon. We also spotted a rather large…
May 30, 2007
Sometimes you just luck out. Today so far is one of those days. The bay is like glass and steaming out to the site has been smooth. We just arrived on station (8:30am) and deployed the ROV. First operation is to deploy the benthic respirometer. Wish us luck!