Shark Week Gets the “Mermaids” Treatment

So I’m settled in to enjoy this year’s Shark Week, my second favorite shark-related time of the year (AES having taken over at first), and notice with some trepidation that the week is kicking off with a “documentary” on modern day attacks by Carcharocles megalodon.  Megalodon…

Shark Week 2012 Preview

It’s getting to be that time of year again.  Shark Week, the seven-day Super Bowl for shark nerds and casual viewers alike, is celebrating its 25th year this summer.  This year it runs a little later than usual (probably to avoid conflicting with that little…

Happy Fishmas to All

Whatever your flavor of yuletide cheer, have yourself a quality Christmas Eve.  Here’s that most secular of winter holiday icons giving the gift of tasty fish to sand tiger sharks in Auckland, NZ.

Post-Halloween Horror: Hagfish Slime

Hagfish are awesomely disgusting creatures.  My first personal encounter was seeing their handiwork (and then seeing the fish themselves) while gillnetting off of Massachusetts.  The sheer amount of slime produced by these little monsters has long been thought to function as a sort of predator…

Apologies All Around

Apologies for the incredibly slowed pace of posting here.  Between travel, moving into a new apartment, and an academic week from hell I’ve been sadly neglecting Ya Like Dags? for a couple weeks.  I’m coming out of the busy times now, so keep checking in…

More on Squalamine

Tip o’ the hat to The Dorsal Fin for finding and posting video of Dr. Zasloff, lead author on the recent study showing how dogfish liver oil can fight viruses, explaining how this whole process works.  It works a little differently from how I interpreted…

Eventful Day

Today was my first day of classes as I embark on my journey to PhDdom (while finishing off my Masters thesis… yeesh…) but that was far from the most exciting thing that happened today.  North Carolina is likely about to get walloped by Hurricane Irene,…

Breaking Down Shark Week 2011

As you may have noticed, a little thing called Shark Week was on TV this week.  It’s long been something of a Super Bowl for shark fans, and has more recently become a pop culture phenomenon.  It can be said that with the increasing popularity…

Happy Shark Week

Love it or hate it, Shark Week is in its 24th year and starts tonight.  I’ve been watching since I was a small child, and though some seasons have certainly been better than others, this year’s line-up is looking good, with show about actual science…

Groupers and Sand Tigers, Oh My

Apologies for the lack of action here lately.  I’ve been out of town on a much-needed vacation and am gearing up for some summer field work that starts, oh, next week.  I’ll be trying to put up a more substantial post a little later, but…