Its inspiring to work as a small cog with a team who have such ambitions for big science. If this corner of the Antarctic ice sheet goes, our planet will become a different place. Despite it being due south of Hobart and quite far north it is stubbornly shielded by sea ice so that even our biggest icebreakers (of which NZ has... zero) can't get in there.
Remote
Oceans Craig
@wavygk@mastodon.nz
mastodon 4.7.2Living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. An ocean scientist by day (and night). #Science advocacy with NZ Assoc Scientists. The rest of the time is #guitars #ArtSci #swimming #music and #ebikes. He/him. Thoughts my own. #oceanography #Antarctica #Turbulence #oceans #climate #TransMultiCrossDisciplinary
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Joined November 05, 2022
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We've lost quite simply a legend in Antarctic science both in Aotearoa and internationally.
Peter Barrett left us over the weekend - and in keeping with his way of doing things - left us with a list of tasks and challenges.
#PeterBarrett #Antarctica #Climate
img from Linkd%in
here's something I've supported in the past... gorgeous art-science magazine about #Antarctica #scicom #climate
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antarktikos/antarktikos-journal-3-rock-paper-ice
Boosted by @troberts@theblower.au
I wrote another thing for The Conversation... this one is a bit of a TLDR for a new paper on a pretty extreme corner of the oceans.
We spent a month drilling thru 500 m of ice to install some sensors that would then talk back to us via satellite - pretty strange to be watching data come in from beneath an ice shelf when sat at your desk. 🙂
It's probably the fanciest paper I'll ever write so its a bit nerve wracking seeing it out (the journal article that is - not the Convo article). #Antarctica #Oceans #climate #SeaLevelRise
Also some dissonance to have this good thing and then everything else, as we know, is basically on fire.
Work is off-loading old #oceanography books (no space, no money, not our job etc etc 😞 ). I'm not the worst book-hoarder in the house so I didn't feel too bad taking in a couple of waifs. (I may have to block the Library email tho in case there are more). This one is 150 yrs old and it is oceanography at a similar scale to what I do now. It is written very conversationally... "we did the thing and the results seemed sensible, then we did another thing and those results.. well who knows?" And some lovely coloured plots - would they have been printed or hand coloured? And we still use drifters like the 2nd image - but I wouldn't use a long line like that, and we have GPS plus temperature & pressure sensors aboard. I wonder what they would have thought of our modern kit? Oh and it's the #Dardanelles - so 42 years later it was the scene of so much pointless loss. #ocean #science #history
Excellent commentary from the also excellent Nicola Gaston on #science and how we benefit… turns out it is complicated and no amount of ministry wordsalad will change that… what is certain is less resources for knowledge generation will make us all poorer. An equivalent story is needed now for #environment #climate research.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/30/luxon-wants-to-brutally-commercialise-science-but-cuts-threaten-its-foundation/
Just back from seeing #BrianCox talk #physics #universe #snowflakes #life - amazing AV and had 2500? people in the palm of his hand for 2 hrs talking about some pretty heavy stuff. So clearly spoken… im not sure i heard a single um…ahhh. He stuck mostly to the physics but the fact that the audience was there in such numbers made a case for the human side to it. Plus its hard to go wrong when you have the #Voyager mission to talk about. 🛰️🛰️
Unfortunate timing having a not-terrible but still no fun cold/sniffle on a long weekend. Been a good excuse to get into some submissions.
I would like to take the time to dig into the depths of all the issues but there is just so much going down that you gotta fight back with whatever energy level you got.
arrived #Shanghai yesterday evening. The scale of the place and humanity is humbling. The lab I work with here is in an area built by the French in the early 1900s - it is pretty lovely if maybe not representative. I've visited a few times before but never when the weather was this nice. And the lab doesn't stop just because it is sunday so I am told!
awesome riding around Evans Bay yesterday in the sunshine on the every lengthening bike path - people everywhere on foot/scooter/bike etc... and to think all we needed was for a few people to forego free parking.
we're heading backwards... 15 years ago we were all excited about what systems we could come up with for the 67% of the planet covered in ocean (even more at the NZ EEZ scale)... then NZ #OOI (Ocean Observatories Initiative) efforts in this regard stopped about a decade back ... and now this.
Fancy #Antarctic mini-doco on our 2024 #RossSea voyage with the Italian team aboard their Laura Bassi icebreaker who have worked the region for decades. The younger scientists aboard built collaborations that will last years -IF- we can support these young researchers and all their energy and ideas. See if you can spot who was interviewed after nearly 2 months at sea vs those back on shore 🤔 #climate #science #ECR The majority of the vid was by the wonderful #LanaYoung who is now in the UK.
Voyage to the Ross Sea, Antarctica
my partner's birthday a few days back involved some vinyl... much air-guitar and throwing of shapes... the grownup kid was somewhere between bemused and horrified. #BatOutOfHell
“Same as it ever was”
I snuck in a Talking Heads quote 🤓. Gotta do something to not sound stuck on repeat. Marine Energy will always be niche in our present global energyscape but we sure have a lot of ocean.
#Australia is reducing its #climate #science capabilities... I guess you need a professional spokesperson to say the following with a straight face --- "The proposed changes sharpen our effort by reducing activity in selected areas including atmospheric chemistry modelling, Indo-Pacific ocean dynamics and some operational support so we can better align our climate portfolio with our future science priorities, and deliver the strongest possible outcomes for Australia" #AusPol
waves rolling in on the Welly south coast - stay safe folks https://worldcam.eu/liveview/37088
for over three decades NZ #MarsdenFund supported investigator-led research. It enabled ideas to flourish AND motivate applied results in a way that I don't think you see in bigger systems. And certainly in ways that I don't think decision-makers understood.
Well not anymore... I guess we'll see how it actually plays out. It certainly has all the words - bold, towards, ambitious, long-term, and of course.... "focus on delivering impact for New Zealand". This stuff is so great I should think we'd invest more rather than less?
Wonderful show from #MarlonWilliams at the fab #MFC - lots of audience choice for the setlist which made it more like a house party. Notably almost no phones out so u have to make do with the pre show empty stage 🤘🤣 (it got better when the curtain came down). Wellington had a good night.
Replying to
Plus my (grown up) kid happily came along. They don’t get out much and i was worried they would find it too loud but a good time was had by all.
Part two of Nicola Gaston's deconstruction of the #NZPOL view of #research and wealth generation... especially note the comment from Mark Bregman down the page... https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/31/govt-science-reform-uproots-the-tree-it-needs-to-bear-fruit/
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@rwmtinkywinky@mastodon.nz this is awesome - and useful 😃 :-) - we are working on a study right now on the flow and eddies around Fishermans Rock in Cook Strait - so, an oceanic equivalent. 🏔️ 🌀
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@withaveeay@mastodon.scot Portugal had Pelamis which was like a sea snake. It all seemed quite mysterious why that foundered. I visited EMEC maybe 15 years ago - I think they’ve had spinoff developments since then. the Orbital tech seems pretty workable tho maybe not for Cook Strait and its wave.
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@withaveeay@mastodon.scot @drnoble@mastodon.scot yes - that CorPower approach seems “next generation” in that it is an active approach that is beyond basic “bobbing” and a signal that if we keep working it will eventually find a niche. I have a memory from the 1980s of a rusty broken wind turbine on Rottnest Island and someone laughing about how misguided some people were… 💨💨💨
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@PatrickHerd@aus.social @withaveeay@mastodon.scot indeed - i always thought projects that had an element of biomimicry were a good way to go.
epic news - a colleague from way back is part of a team that has just won a very fancy #Eureka science prize in Australia. Good one Claire! We've tried to spin up something similar here in Aotearoa but fallen some way short due to general lack of interest/funding.
They forecast #marineheatwaves and provide advice to coastal communities and industries on what to do to prepare...
the video is pretty good!
Marine Heatwave Forecasts – Winner, 2026 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research
The Auckland CRL construction took one more year than the Wellington Evans Bay Cycle path… 😐 #cycle #infrastructure https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=117853
it was a bit breezy this afternoon! shout-out to the tradie in his van who slowed down and asked if I was ok as I struggled to push my ebike into the gale around Pt Jerningham*! People are good. Probably only the 5th time I've had to do that with the ebike in 6 years. Just after I shouted "yes thanks" and he'd headed off - I got hit in the face by some airborne detritus 😃. #Wellington #cycling #wind (*I thought I was doing fine but in hindsight I probably looked a bit desperate 😃 ).
we've had a Kororā Little Blue Penguin reserve outside our lab for years now... just today I found out there are web cams... a little intrusive I know, but still.... #penguin
Kororā Nest Cam
If you are in the Miramar area keep an eye out for Bootsy. I’ve occasionally catsat him and his sibling.
#PhiladelphiaStory played last night at Wellington Film Soc #WFS. Dialogue and acting was laser sharp. (it was from 1940 - one had to park a few anachronisms and there were gasps 😲 at some casual domestic violence in the opening scene ). And a full house at the Embassy.
some good stuff in the latest #Cycle Wellington newsletter...
Petition for transform the road around Miramar Peninsula into a people and nature safe haven - I mean ...why not?
@ojala@mastodon.nz right and then comes the time when that takes longer than the actual haircut... 😐