Category: Environment

Environment, Life, Marine Biology, Philosophy, Science

Ocean Movies you Love to Hate: Endless Descent (aka The Rift) (1989)

by Dr Abalone • June 26, 2018 • 0 Comments

Most science fiction movies are based loosely on science. Usually, this means they make a few technical or impossible leaps to move the plot forward but generally adhere to the basic laws of science. But in most cases, filmmakers are forgiven for their science-defying sins as long as the story makes up for it. In contrast, Endless Descent (aka The Rift) seems to delight in making so many impossible and incredulous scientific leaps, that they grow to a level of absurdity that transcends the believable.

Animal ethics, Environment, Life, Philosophy

Songs of the Trees

by Dr Abalone • June 20, 2018 • 5 Comments

For if time truly is the fire in which our lives burn, shouldn’t we slow life down? Isn’t it prudent to seek solace as the seconds’ tick by? Most of us, myself included, are content to pack our daily lives full of activity. Rushing hither and yon chasing a dream that is perpetually beyond our grasp. After all, there’s so much to do in the world, so much to see, so much to accomplish, so who has time to be idle? But then, what are we missing as life rushes by?

Animal ethics, Environment, Marine Biology, Science

Legend of the Killer Abalone

by Dr Abalone • May 31, 2018 • 0 Comments

There is a legend, spawned deep in the mysterious kelp forests of southern California, of the killer abalone. On extremely rare occasions, conditions align with a violation of the abalone code that triggers the rare spawn of the trio of terror in the abalone universe: the red, the black, and their offspring, the pink abalone. So it was during the El Niño of the early 1980s that such an event occurred, much to the detriment of all those involved and future world peace.

Environment, Life, Marine Biology, Philosophy, Science, Surfing, Surfing Ecology

Reflections on Blogging for Science and Surfing

by Dr Abalone • February 10, 2018 • 2 Comments

Blogging had made me a better writer, created new opportunities and expanded my creative directions. Above all, it’s fun and I enjoy it.

Environment, Surfing

Lessons from Killer Dana

by Dr Abalone • January 15, 2018 • 1 Comment

Among the powerful slogans used in the battles to protect surf spots along the coast of California, that of “Killer Dana” still resonates among the surf community. The loss of Dana Point, and it’s renown right point break, should serve a stark reminder of what could happen without the protections we currently have in place.…

Animal ethics, Environment, Life, Marine Biology, Surfing

Our Environmental Past Can’t Become Our Future…

by Dr Abalone • May 24, 2017 • 2 Comments

Forty-eight years ago millions of people in 192 countries across the globe created Earth Day on April 22, 1970. The first celebration took place in 2,000 colleges and universities, 10,000 primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the US involving over 20 million Americans. That day changed the world. Lately, it seems like we are forgetting what…

Environment, Marine Biology, Science

Crush Depth: Adventures with Scientific Submersibles

by Dr Abalone • September 10, 2016 • 2 Comments

“What’s your depth?” echoed down from the surface radio, unanswered for the third time in a row and sounding increasingly desperate. It was 2002 and I was riding inside the scientific submersible Delta, heading towards the seafloor off Anacapa island in an area known simply as the “footprint,” a deep-water fish, coral and sponge hot spot…

Environment, Marine Biology, Science

Find the Kraken! The Search for Giant Squid

by Dr Abalone • June 28, 2016 • 0 Comments

The idea of the Kraken appears in Melville’s Moby Dick in 1851; played a major role in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in 1870; and appeared as the Watcher in the Water in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, lurking in a lake beneath the western walls of Moria. The truth is that the giant squid, which may have been the basis for most of these myths and legends, has a real-life story almost as mysterious as unicorns and dragons.

Environment, Marine Biology

Chasing the Wild Abalone: Confessions of a Field Biologist

by Dr Abalone • May 18, 2016 • 2 Comments

To be honest, I love abalone and have always been fascinated by this most unusual of snails. In college I truly began to “chase the abalone” which led me to become a field biologist. So these are my confessions; some of my adventures while chasing abalone. Things I normally wouldn’t admit to but looking back were just part of the lore of being a field biologist.

Environment, Life

A Walk in The Clouds on the Oregon Coast

by Dr Abalone • May 8, 2016 • 0 Comments

On our first date we walked the beaches of Oregon. In was Valentine’s Day 1987 and we both instantly knew we had something special. I still remember the feel of the brisk salt air on my face, the sand blowing down the beach, the call of the gulls, and the smell of the sea that day. But most of all I remember her smile. It was like a walk in the clouds.

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