OceanDoctor’s blog

The Heart of the Bering Sea Beats with the Discovery of New Species

2008-04-28T17:49:49Z

It's hard to get a big smile out of Ken Lowyck, Greenpeace's capable Action Unit Coordinator (and sub pilot) based in Toronto. I snapped the photo to the right and captured Ken's pre-dive excitement last summer on August 1, just minutes befo...

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Attacked by the Giant Squid's Cousins

2007-08-10T20:17:01Z

It's the fantasy of many a marine biologist and explorer. To catch a glimpse of the giant squid, alive, and in its natural habitat: The deep ocean. Giant squid have been scientifically documented at a size of up to an incredible 43 feet long ba...

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Where Condos Fall from the Sky

2007-08-06T02:14:15Z

They look strange, out of place…and they are. Because they're not from around here. The odd-shaped stones and boulders that pepper the flat, dark, silty bottom here at nearly 1,800 feet look like meteorites, each surrounded by a wide, shallow cra...

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Alone in the dark with a pen light

2007-08-04T06:51:58Z

Yesterday (Thursday) morning, Michelle Ridgway and I descended in the twin subs for our expedition's penultimate dive on Pribilof Canyon. Michelle's lights shone as tiny pinpoints in the distant green as the light from above slowly vanished an...

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Choose Nausea or Sleepiness. Or Perhaps You'd Like Both?

2007-08-01T19:38:15Z

Earlier in this blog I've confessed my darkest secret as a marine scientist: I get seasick. So my biggest fear of the Bering Sea is what the Bering Sea is fond of doing often -- getting rough with the boats that dare to ply its waters. Yesterda...

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I Go First

2007-07-29T06:20:15Z

When I used to teach marine science at Seacamp, a wonderful marine science camp in the Florida Keys, I always tried to impress upon my students (especially the ones reluctant to get into the water) that I always saw something new every time I w...

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The Journey West, North, West, North...

2007-07-27T20:17:35Z

At 5:15 am, the rear suspension of the taxi to Washington, DC's National Airport groaned alarmingly under the weight of my five heavy pieces of luggage: A duffel of dive gear, a pelican case with an underwater video housing, a duffel of warm cl...

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When Everything Goes Wrong....and It's a Good Thing

2007-07-22T12:59:30Z

As a young teenager, I finally got my wish: Scuba lessons for my 15th birthday! My lessons were in a moldy YMCA pool in suburban Philadelphia, and my first open water dive -- my checkout dive -- was in a quarry in Reading, Pennsylvania in the balm...

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Ginormous is a Word, and Just in Time

2007-07-16T16:15:37Z

Last week, Mirriam-Webster' announced that it was adding the word, "ginormous," to its 2007 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. This is great news and comes as a great relief, just in time for next week's kickoff ...

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Beneath a British Columbian Waterfall...

2007-06-13T00:33:34Z

Greetings from aboard the Greenpeace ship, M/V "Esperanza"! We're anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall in one of British Columbia's magnificent "fjords" to prepare for this summer's intensive expedition to the Bering Sea. Greenpeace's largest...

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