This little bit of pseudoscience is a perfect example of how popular culture can distort our view of how nature works. Most people are familiar with Flipper, whether it’s the old TV show from the 60’s, the short-lived 90’s reboot featuring Jessica Alba, or the…
I’ll write my first epic Ocean of Pseudoscience post by touching on a subject near and dear to my small shark-loving heart, and in fact it’s the focus of my thesis research. Ask any commercial fisherman (and even some scientists) if spiny dogfish are devouring…
One of the most contentious topics on modern fisheries management and elasmobranch ecology has been the supposed “explosion” of skates and dogfish in Georges Bank. The fact that this coincided with the crash in commercially important groundfish populations (cod, haddock, flounder, and other delicious bottom-dwellers)…
It’s amazing what you’ll catch in the letters to the editor sometimes. In the latest issue of Fisheries Magazine is a classic back-and-forth editorial origination from an article by researcher John. C. Briggs. At first my interest was piqued simply by the fact that there…
In my last post about the things I’m finding in shark puke, I discussed the presence of menhaden in the diet of spiny dogfish. These fat, oil-rich fish make quite a nutritious meal, and it usually only takes a handful of them (or chunks of…
I can never get enough of this picture. Photo by Andy Murch. As always, I have spiny dogfish and what they’re eating on the brain, and the Menhaden of History post over at Southern Fried Science and Kevin Z’s challenge to the marine blogosphere got…
This week I finally got to start diving into my dogfish stomach contents, and the results so far have been nice and gory. The post up at Southern Fried Science about the Menhaden of History really brought home the importance of these humble oily fish…