Pulling the Clathrate Trigger

The seafloor off Santa Barbara just burped up a huge eruption of methane – and scientists caught it on video. Now, at about 5,000 cubic feet at the surface, this methane cloud was huge by people-watching-with-videocameras standards. That’s not to say massive by vast-limitless-ocean standards. But still, it gave the scientists a chance to do [...]

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It’s a bad time to be an adolescent pelican

Earlier this summer, Californians were alarmed to find sick or dead pelicans washing ashore in unusually high numbers. More than a hundred were reported from beaches between Santa Cruz and Monterey and around Ventura. Granted, this is old news – even the New York Times covered it a month ago. But last week I was [...]

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The pirate gull

Heermann’s gulls are the coolest of all gulls. Sooty-bodied, creamy headed. Bright red beak. Completely mod. And where most immature gulls are a mess of brown mottles, adolescent Heermanns wear all sooty black, like they’ve been listening to the Cure. You could call them pirate gulls, perhaps, as if they’ve been off somewhere giving their [...]

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Tsunami claims hundreds in Java

By now you probably know that yet another underwater earthquake has kicked up yet another tsunami that has struck yet another Indonesian island. At surf.bird.scribble, our hearts go out to the 50,000 Javans displaced and several hundred killed by the six-foot wall of water. This latest disaster – and let’s not call it anything else, [...]

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Urchins uber abalone

Climate change is being felt in and around Tasmania, reports the Hobart Mercury. Among the noticeable effects, ocean temperatures along Tazzie’s east coast have warmed by a full degree Centigrade since 1940. A report commissioned by the Australian Greens party warns of impending damage to Tasmania’s fisheries and agriculture, including its Atlantic salmon farms (not [...]

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What’s next? Jellyfish and chips?

A swath of Namibian waters favored by fishing fleets seems to have been taken over by jellyfish – big ones, and lots of them. A new scientific survey found more than four times as much jellyfish (by mass) than fish in a 30,000 square mile stretch of once-prime fishing grounds. And 99% of the jellyfish [...]

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World-class carnitas discovered near San Jose

If you’re driving between the Bay Area and Monterey on US 101, try and do it during lunchtime. That way you’ll have a chance to order a carnitas burrito and a tamarindo jarrito (soda) at El Coyote Mexican Grill, less than 5 minutes off the Hellyer Ave. exit south of San Jose. Here’s Google Earth [...]

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Nature Conservancy buys trawling permits

And trawling boats, too. It’s no joke. The Nature Conservancy has turned its attention – at least partway – from buying up wildlands, and is now buying up fishing boats and fishing rights (listen to NPR). The environmental group worked with 5 of 6 trawling operations in Morro Bay, Calif., to pay the fishermen a [...]

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