Conor Ryan
@whalenerd.bsky.social
Here for whale/fungi/sea kayaking/queer 🏳️🌈/marine science chat. 🇮🇪living in🏴
Newly arrived Black-tailed Godwits at Caldy (thanks Richard Smith). Check out the sites these birds might also visit ⤵️ Blog about connectivity contains link to Shiny App, where you can make a Black-tailed Godwit map for your site: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h... #ornithology
Meteorologists say that in the next decade, summer daytime temperatures above 28°C could persist for more than a month in the UK, with spikes as high as 46.6°C possible under today’s climate conditions.
UK should expect summers above 40°C in next decade, warns Met Office
Meteorologists say that in the next decade, summer daytime temperatures above 28°C could persist for more than a month, with spikes as high as 46.6°C possible under today’s climate conditions
newscientist.com
Bubble-trail encounters from #krill #fishing vessels show that #Antarctic Voluntary Restriction Zones for the #krillfishing industry has displaced fishing into areas where the penguin encounter rate is higher/the same #CCAMLR www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Harbour seal population on the west coast of Scotland was thought to have been stable, but fell by 20% between 2018 and 2023 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Significant decline among seals on Scotland's west coast
The population fell by 20% over five years, in a region considered a stronghold for the marine mammal.
bbc.co.uk
From the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Apart from the overwhelmingly largest cause of population declines - habitat loss and destruction - what are the other big killers of birds? A reason to consider keeping cats inside.🪶🌎
Some critters found while gardening today: European common frog, palmate newt, wood mouse
Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪 www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific
A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.
richmondscientific.com
Based on interviews and archive work (Bergen/Oslo, April 2024), Peter Wilson, @sbenjamins.bsky.social and I reviewed minke #whaling around Ireland in @injournal.bsky.social Vol 41. Funded by Percey Sladen Memorial Fund & Society for Nautical Research www.researchgate.net/publication/...
BREAKING: At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza this morning, sources at local hospitals tell our team. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/m4ewkf
If your dog will jump in the nearest river, pond or lake given half a chance, don't use spot-on treatments for fleas and ticks, say researchers.
Dogs pollute water with pesticides even weeks after flea treatment
When dogs given spot treatments for fleas go swimming, they release levels of pesticides dangerous to aquatic life for at least a month after the treatment
newscientist.com
Can tropical corals find refuge at higher latitudes under future warming? In our new paper in Science Advances, we argue that coral range expansion will be *far too slow* for most coral species to outpace climate change. 🪸🌊 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... A short 🧵 (1/16)
In the latest Irish Naturalists Journal issue, @andyfoote.bsky.social and I reported that "#DopeyDick" the killer whale that swam into #Derry City (Nov 1977) was a West Coast Community whale; probably "Comet". Minimum age 53y, but last documented 10y ago. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Wonderful example of non-invasive research from land, showing that harbour porpoises have a strong preference for coastal waters (<500m from the shore) in parts of Northern Ireland onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Spatial Dynamics of Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena Relative to Local Hydrodynamics and Environmental Conditions
This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to model the habitat use and site occurrence of harbour porpoises, identifying areas where they were seen spending most time in the Skerries and Causeway ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
BREAKING: At least 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since the early hours of this morning, medical sources tell our team on the ground. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/pe4duy
This is phenomenal. Sea surface temperatures are >5C above average to the west of the UK and around Iceland. It's the strongest area of anomalous warmth on the planet at the moment. It's the warmest in recorded history for northwest Europe.
MEP Lynn Boylan has been speaking out about Gaza from the start, including about the lack of Irish government and EU actions and what was needed of both. She gave this powerful speech today in the European Parliament. 💔
Lynn Boylan MEP@lnbdublin.bsky.social · last yr.To the people of Palestine, Im sorry you have been utterly failed by the EU. Never Again means Never Again for anyone. #FreePalestine #StopIsraeliGenocide
Departing Aberdeen Harbour is always fun for the bottlenose dolphin action. This afternoon we saw them eating salmon. A grey seal also had a fine lunch of salmon!
It has been such an honour to sail around Ireland with U.N. Elder, Mary Robinson. Quoting Archbishop Desmund Tutu, she said she is "Not an optimist, but a prisoner of hope" #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityCrisis
Here are some macaroni penguins (and a lone gentoo) with a humpback whale bearing down on them off Cooper Island, South Georgia... for #SuperSeabirdSunday
Whimbrel watchers in Ireland and UK ... Recent paper by Icelandic researchers show that breeding numbers in the South Iceland heartland are falling. Not as rapidly as Dunlin but still a worry. More here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i... Paper by Aldís Pálsdóttir et al #ornithology
I had no idea that we have water shrews in #Mull. Neighbour's cat killed two in under an hour. #shrew #watershrew
plot twist 😂 watch my comedy special BIOLOGY! at the link in bio
On Compost. "...what matters is not the individual ingredients but the fertile new thing they can become." A beautiful article on why we should cherish our 'waste' @frasermacdonald.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fraser MacDonald · On Compost
I sometimes wonder whether my love of compost is a response to the dispiriting cleanness of modern life – the spray’...
lrb.co.uk
New #seabird paper by @gannetguy.bsky.social et al. finds "...discrete areas of co-occurring prey consumption by seabirds and fishing effort..." academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...
Spatial distribution of seabird biomass removal and overlap with fisheries in a large marine ecosystem
Abstract. Globally, seabirds remove a prey biomass equivalent to commercial fishery landings, suggesting likely competition for resources that will vary sp
academic.oup.com
10 years ago today, my work was cited by an expert IWC panel to demonstrate that Japan's proposed new scientific whaling program was not scientifically justified because non-lethal alternatives had been proven to work. Proud moment (which I'd forgotten about until FB reminded me) #whaling
Finally found a reference for the population control attempts on killer whales by the US military, at the request of the Icelandic Government in the 1950s (Naval Aviation News, 1956). #whaling
