Friend Of Sirens

Cassiel. Her/Him/They Hi, I’m a super queer marine biology major who loves the ocean and wants to save the world. 🐋

[segamascott]

lmaooo

[diamondshapedcat]

[reasonsforhope]

20,000 Pounds of Trash Removed From Pacific Garbage Patch: ‘Holy mother of god. It worked!’

The man who won't rest until the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is cleaned up has successfully tested his system for doing so.

““The Great Pacific Garbage Patch can now be cleaned,” announced Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat, the wonderkid inventor who’s spent a decade inventing systems for waterborne litter collection.

Recent tests on his Ocean Cleanup rig called System 002, invented to tackle the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic pollution, were a success, leading Slat to predict that most of the oceanic garbage patches could be removed by 2040.

Intersections of ocean currents have created the massive floating islands of plastic trash—five slow-moving whirlpools that pull litter from thousands of miles away into a single radius.

The largest one sits between California and Hawaii, and 27-year-old Slat has been designing and testing his systems out there, launching from San Francisco since 2013.

GNN has reported on his original design for the floating device, but his engineering team improved upon it. System 002, nicknamed “Jenny,” successfully netted 9,000 kilograms, or around 20,000 pounds in its first trial.

It’s carbon-neutral, able to capture microplastics as small as 1 millimeter in diameter, and was designed to pose absolutely no threat to wildlife thanks to its wide capture area, slow motion, alerts, and camera monitors that allow operators to spy any overly-curious marine life…

Slat estimates ten Jennies could clean half the garbage patch in five years, and if 10 Jennies were deployed to the five major ocean gyres, then 90% of all floating plastic could be removed by 2040.” -via Good News Network, 10/19/21

[spectroscopic-binary]

Recent update from this org: they’ve launched System 03 (in 2023) and have gone on over 100 expeditions and collected over 1 million pounds of trash! They also are working on cleaning up rivers :)

Oceans | The Ocean Cleanup

We are cleaning up ocean plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Learn more about the technology used and the cleanup progress here.

[quicksilvermad]

SOUND ON.

[montereybayaquarium]

 If you’re local to the Monterey Bay area, check out these organizations that are engaged in climate action to get involved!

1️⃣ Regeneración Pajaro Valley 

2️⃣ Communities for a Sustainable Monterey County

3️⃣ Watsonville Wetlands Watch

4️⃣ Monterey Bay Climate Justice Collaborative

5️⃣ Central Coast Climate Collaborative (C4)

6️⃣ MILPA Collective

7️⃣ Puentes

Climate change | What you can do | Monterey Bay Aquarium

Wondering what you can do for climate change? The number one thing you can do is to support a renewable energy future.

[laurelnose]

did you know that the well-known factoid that male anglerfishes degenerate after attachment until they’re basically just a pair of testes is false? i knew of course that they don’t just become “growths” on the female because I’ve handled dozens of attached pairs and every male I’ve ever seen has been very much obviously a whole and complete second fish, but I sort of assumed there was internal degeneration, perhaps muscle atrophy, etc. i can’t believe no one ever corrected me on this but this just doesn’t happen. in obligatorily parasitic species, the male actually continues to grow and increases considerably in size after he attaches to the female, because the two of them can only reach sexual maturity together. me, an octavia butler fan: is this the height of romance??

what is true is that attached males do have hugely enlarged testes proportionate to the rest of their bodies & organs, and that they receive all nutrition from the female’s bloodstream so their stomachs are always empty, though their own gills seem to still be functional, as are their fins and muscles—you can even induce movement and swimming motions on recently dead attached males. I can only assume that at some point someone said that basically the only biological function a male anglerfish needs to perform is sperm production and this got taken out of context and luridly exaggerated over time. he’s not just a pair of testicles! he’s her forever partner! one flesh one end!

[laurelnose]

there’s a type of creature that lives six miles underwater in the sunless void and it’s hatched in two bodies and unless they find each other and fuse into a single chimaeric whole they can never grow up properly. hello? hello??

[savouryduck]

That's extremely cool! also, distracted and enraptured by the writing style at the second link.

[149panda149]

hello??? deep sea scherzo fishes??

[endophagia-moved]

this winter's hottest trend is eating properly

[wizardarchetypes]

thinking about Salmon

[fishstims]

tannerunderwater on instagram

[fishstims]

alexsharks_ on instagram

[talos-stims]

harbor seal | source

[talos-stims]

leopard shark | source

[catboybiologist]

Being a fish in highly oxygenated water must feel so fucking good

[catboybiologist]

I see the waves swirling around the intertidal zone, leaving behind trails of dissolved bubbles and I'm like fuck yeah some blenny in there is just going hnnnggg

[catboybiologist]

What if you were a golden trout in a mountain stream. What if you faced the flow of the water and the swirling bubbles, like crystalline drops, ran against your gills. What if you took the deepest, cleanest, most pure breathes by running in place. Imagine.

[the-42nd-fish]

You wanna be a fish so bad don't you

[catboybiologist]

Is there space for a 43rd 🥺

[montereybayaquarium]

Today we released a statement opposing the Trump Administration’s newly proposed leasing plan for offshore oil and gas drilling. The plan would open up our backyard and the entire California coast for consideration for drilling that we and many communities have long fought. 

Healthy, intact ecosystems support thriving wildlife, clean air, and stable weather—all essential for people and nature to flourish. Our ocean and our communities are better off without the threat of devastating oil spills from drilling activity lurking off of the California coast.

In the face of this challenge, our commitments remain clear:

💡Centering science in the fight against climate change. Preventing opportunities for new oil and gas development will help the U.S. limit greenhouse gas emissions, improving the health and resilience of humans and nature. 

📢 Giving a voice to marine wildlife that depend on a clean, thriving ocean. On behalf of important ocean species—”NO” to offshore drilling! 

🤝 Building on restoration efforts still underway after past oil spill catastrophes and keeping up the critical work to protect all of us and our communities in the future. We all have a right to a healthy ocean, and our ecosystems, coastal economy, and livelihoods depend on it.

Join our ocean action email list to stay up-to-date on this issue.

[evies-grace]

[seawaterdreams]

drawing the reference for the ribbon seal plushie rn and obviously i have to look at images to match it properly but i cant stop laughing. ribbon seals have no jawlines whatsoever. where did they go. why are their snouts so short. they're like the incel seals of the sea i love them so much

[heartnosekid]

the venus girdle (cestum veneris) | aquatilis_expedition on ig

[escapemymortality]

I found this funky guy during a diversity survey today so I guess everything’s okay and the world is actually beautiful and whimsical and we should all embrace individuality in these incredibly trying times???