Friday of Interesting News: 4th Jan 2013

Happy New Year everybody and welcome to your first news roundup of 2013! As you might expect there are a lot of reviews of 2012 and 'best of -' lists kicking around on the internet at the moment, so here are a few of the better ones.

2012 Reviews
2012's most viral science videos
Top news stories from the London Natural History Museum
Animals that went extinct
Top 11 Ocean Stories of 2012
The top five posts from Deep-Sea News

Photography
TED-Ed: How Photography Connects Us
BBC's latest Attenborough Series 'Africa' started on Wednesday. Check out iPlayer if you missed it!

Marine Science News
Still looking for a New Year's Resolution? National Geographic has 10 for you!
Shell oil rig runs aground in Alaska
Record numbers of seal pups born in Norfolk this winter
Five organisms with real superpowers to rival their comic book counterparts
Deepest corals in the Great Barrier Reef discovered at 125m depth
Are jellyfish numbers really on the rise?
Poor weather washing Oceanic Sunfish ashore in the UK
Roman shipwreck reveals more secrets
Scott of the Antarctic may not deserve his bad reputation

Art & Design
Who wouldn't want one of these beautiful laser-cut wooden charts?
Ever wonder what a Narwhal really is? Ed Yong reveals all via twitter
Are your children not terrified enough of bathtime? Try these!
Must learn to knit one of these!
Enjoy!

New Zealand and the 13th International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium

This has probably been one of the coolest and geekiest weeks of my entire professional life. Actually, possibly just of my entire life (star trek conventions don't count do they?). Anyway, before I forget too much of the last week in the whirlwind of jetlag, coffee, science, beer and giant squid that it's been, I thought I'd better do a wee recap of the last week in Wellington, New Zealand and of some of the highlights of the 13th International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium.

A long flight for science!

As any of you who've made the trip before will know, the direct flights from the UK to New Zealand are epic. Mine went from Glasgow - (1.5 hours) - Heathrow - (15 hours) - Singapore - (7 hours) - Melbourne - (2.5 hours) - Wellington with a couple of breaks, adding up to a glorious total of 30 hours in transit and which I'm pretty sure landed me well and truly in tomorrow. It was confusing. I'm not sure if it's the best way to start a meeting with a load of new-found colleagues and potential future employers either, but at least most people were in the same boat! Still, attempting to stay awake all day until a reasonable bedtime meant I got to see a fair chunk of the city the day before the conference started (if you're walking near traffic you're probably not going to be sleeping!).

A blurry 36 hours after landing, on what was apparently Monday morning, the symposium began with an address from the Wellington Mayor (who is cool) and a Maori (sing-along) blessing before launching straight into the science. And man was it awesome!

Some of my highlights (in no particular order):

James Cameron presenting his one-man submersible at the plenary session on Tuesday. 

• I gave my my very first presentation as a deep-sea fish ecologist on the work we've been doing on the DELOS project! Go me!
• James Cameron (yes, the guy who directed The Abyss and some other less-cool films) gave a plenary talk on Tuesday about his solo dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in Deepsea Challenger
• Hadal research (>6000m) is all set to move forward with a brand new three-year project (HADES) to compare trenches to surrounding abyssal and bathyal regions to see just how different they really are. 
• A new iPad app (iDeep) is in development through the INDEEP project to aid identification of deep-sea species.
• Drs. Bhavani Narayanaswamy and Craig McLean are proposing the establishment of a brand new Deep Sea Society! Please contact them directly if you're interested in becoming part of the steering committee.
• Thanks to my meeting Dr. Craig McLean I discovered that I'm only two degrees of freedom away from Joss Wheedon (via his Deep-Sea News connection)!
• Work by Dr. Melanie Bergmann at the HAUSGARDEN arctic observatory suggests that the deep-sea may be a sink for litter as the amount of human garbage and plastics continues to rapidly increase at the seabed.
• The value of predictive modelling in assessing species distribution patterns and figuring out how different populations may connect together over large distances was highlighted by several fascinating talks including by Dr. Kerry Howell and Dr. Ana Hilario.
• According to Dr. Chuck Fisher's plenary presentation, the impacts of the DeepWater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 has impacted coral communities at least 11km away from the well, and possibly up to 25km, which is further than they thought the oil would reach...
• Deep-water phosphate mining is a real and somewhat terrifying thing which involves dredging up the top c. 3m (1-6m) of seabed and taking it back to shore for processing.
• According to modelling work presented by Dr. Dan Jones (NOC), the NE Atlantic (all around the UK coasts) could face massive declines in biomass of most taxa by the end of the century if global warming continues at predicted rates.
• However, on the positive side, many countries and organisations are making real progress in establishing areas of ecological interest as a first step leading towards marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas.

And finally: An underwater volcano erupting around a survey ROV

There was loads more going on that I can't possibly hope to cover, but these were some of the things that I thought were particularly interesting. I'm sure I'll probably add to that list as all the information I've absorbed slowly filters into my brain! Anyway, I've got to repack all the stuff that has exploded out my suitcase before I check out and head to the South Island tomorrow for some wildlife spotting and a bit of relaxation before I have to face the flight home again for Christmas. Proper photographic updates will resume soon I promise!

Finally, thanks to everyone at the Deep-Sea Conference who made it such a good laugh, and I look forward to meeting all of you again in Portugal at DSBS 2015 if not before.

Dahab and Red Sea Snorkelling

After what has probably been the busiest month ever, I am currently sat in the Open Ocean science centre in Dahab (Sinai peninsula, Egypt) where it is a bright and sunny 29C! Since people are starting to drop like flies with a dodgy stomach bug, I've got a bit of free time today (courtesy of sore feet and a lack of students though thankfully, not my stomach!) before we head down to the sea for some more surveying practice.

Anyway, the reason I'm all the way out here is because I'm assisting with Glasgow University's Tropical Marine Biology field course, which is run every year either in the Red Sea or occasionally in Tobago (Caribbean) if the political situation gets too bad in Egypt. The aim of the course is essentially to build on their coursework and give them experience of working in the field and conducting various types of underwater surveys while snorkeling. It's a course I did myself while I was an undergraduate at Glasgow Uni, although we went to Tobago instead. Overall, it's not changed too much, except that my identification skills are considerably rustier now than they once were and it's been as much of a crash course in Red Sea ID for me as it is for the students!

Still, the water out here is stunning and it's given me a chance to really try out my new Canon G12 & housing. It's challenging trying to get decent pictures while snorkeling compared to diving because it's so much harder to stay down and remain still for any length of time before you run out of air (I'm still very much an amateur when it comes to breath-hold diving!), but I've had a few successes! Before I disappear off again for the afternoon, here are a few that I've taken so far...

An anemonefish in its anemone

Crown squirrelfish

Humbug dascyllus

A porcupinefish hanging out under a reef 

A snorkeler heading back to the surface

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to get back online for another update as we're heading to a new location tomorrow for a couple of days, then we're into the week of student projects so it might be pretty busy... I'll see what I can manage though and hopefully will get something up before I come back!