Ponderings of a Scientist

Thanks to a shared feed from Zipy I’ve learned about a really neat Whale discovery.  A bowhead whale was caught last month off the coast of Alaska with an embedded human weapon in its bubber; the weapon dates to the 1890’s and was likely fashioned in the armpit of Mass. - the former Whaling epicenter - New Bedford.  This means the whale was over 115 years old, older than cetacean scientists believed whales to live.  Once again human detritous helps scientists to learn a new truth about the ocean and its creatures.
Oh and a new baby video 

The, unfortunate sound tracks of my life:  Fresh Prince of Bel Air Theme Song and the theme song to some 70’s sitcom I don’t know the name of, the only line that repeats over and over in my head: ” movin’ on up, movin’ on up, to the East Side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky”.  Now I call these the sound tracks of my life, because they are the songs that have been stuck in my head for years - no joke - on random occasions I will catch myself silently “singing” these songs in my head.  Why these songs and why are they so ingrained in my brain?  No idea!  I’m eager to blame the “deluxe apartment” jingle on my Dad’s incessent viewing of “Nick at Nite”, while I was in high school.  Perhaps hearing this song, while asleep, blasting from the family TV in the middle of the night, created an especially strong axon-dendrite pathway in my brain - but this is just a hypothesis.  As for the Fresh Prince - I’m at a loss, and actually rather annoyed and a bit embarrassed to have my brain jamming out to both of these tunes.   Am I the only one with this problem?

Charting the course for ocean research into the next decade.  This is the white house press release.  There are some great thoughts here.  Any bets on whether they will be funded or implemented? orppis_factsheet.pdf

Last week G.W. signed into law the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson Steven’s Act.  This act, originally written in the 1970s, is what created the U.S. economic exclusive zone. The new authorization has stricter limits on overfishing (which must be stopped in all fisheries by 2011), creates (what else) a commerce, business incentive based system for many fisheries (basically get rid of the small guy, consolidate the fisheries to large corporate interests, give them each a share of the industry, if they f**k it up, their loss), and has some international level legislation for highly migratory species.  Overall the bill isn’t bad in my opinion, but its not great either.  Essentially, we have just set NOAA up to fail, yet again, and be sued, yet again, by everyone and their brother (NOAA is tasked with ending overfishing by 2011, without causing unreasonable harm to the economy!) and it will create a quota system for many fisheries (essentially you own x% of the industry, you are guareenteed x% for the year, so no race for the fish, however this severely limits the number of people in the industry).  New Zealand is the most famous example of quota fisheries, which have worked to save many species, but caused much economic hardship for small fishing communities.

And of course the White House is spinning this signing in such a way as to present the Pres. as a ocean conservationist and hero to the environment.  Yeah right!

So I’m back to being a teacher - sort of, well at least informally.  I’m a Science Learning Specialist and today was the first day we had students visit our (very cool, high tech, razzle-dazzle-em) center.

Another interesting link from my colleagues:  Sturgeon attacks jet skier! Hum, nature fighting back?

Check out the whale poop sniffing dogs! - (Fixed the link!)

Why are oceans important? We modern day Homo sapiens are products of the ocean. Most obviously, we are distant descendants of ocean dwelling organisms. Single celled organisms originally developed (3.7 bya) from inorganic molecules in (or above) the ocean over the course of billions of years. These prokaryotes evolved and branched into bacteria, fungus, plants, fish and amphibians. During this time terrestrial Earth lay barren. Not until 200-400 million years ago did life climb out of the oceans and onto land. Although humans are terrestrial beings, we keep inside of us relics of our wet evolutionary history. First, our blood is a mix of chemicals very similar in composition and salinity to that of the ocean. This is likely because the first organisms to develop circulatory systems had open systems that circulated ocean water in, through, and out their bodies. Eventually our ancestor closed off its circulatory system trapping in the ocean water. That fluid has hence evolved into our blood. Second, “Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny” (the embryonic development of an organism repeats the evolutionary history of it’s species). Embryonic and fetal humans develop in their own personal oceans and as they develop they pass through stages that are very similar to the embryonic and adult bodies of our aquatic ancestors.

I just re-examined the Northeast Seafood Watch pocket guide and I would like to add the following:

I think its fine to eat Sea Scallops and Haddock (both on the avoid list). The scallop fishery is booming right now, just expect high prices as demand is high. Haddock stocks have recovered much better than Cod and new gear devices that specifically select Haddock (avoiding Cod and the flatfish - flounder, sole, plaice, etc.) have increased the viability of the fishery. Shrimp fishers caught tons of Gulf of Maine shrimp this spring (the season is now over), the stock appears healthy and the fishery will likely improve in years to come. This year the industry had a hard time selling product because all of the onshore infrastructure disappeared when shrimp disappeared in the 1990s. However, if you can find frozen northeast caught shrimp go for it.

Check it out, two of my favorite things come together, the ocean and renewable energy.