Andrew Thaler

Andrew Thaler

Blackbeard Biologic: Science and Environmental Advisors

CEO

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Published on Sep 11, 2023

First major assay

All summer we've been working on nailing down the right protocol and performing a cursory scan of our samples to identify the first sample cluster to really dive into. After finding a single shrimp...

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Published on Aug 02, 2023

The next set of samples is cooking.

Now that I have the extraction process dialed in, it's time to start looking more broadly at the deep-sea samples. For this next pass, I'm looking at shrimp, squat lobsters, and barnacles from a hy...

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Published on Jul 31, 2023

First report of microplastics in the bodies of deep-sea hydrothermal vent organisms.

Over the last week I have been refining my extraction and staining technique. The first results are in.This is the filtered remains of five limpets from the deep sea that were digested in KOH, filt...

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Published on Jul 18, 2023

Prepping the first samples.

They don't look like much, but our first ten samples are on the slow march towards microplastic analysis. These limpets are Olgasolaris tollmannii, a deep-sea species that lives on the shells of la...

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Published on Jun 21, 2023

Update and Summer Plan

We're about to start cruising here! Last month I got a surprise grant awarded for a different project that needed to be fulfilled by June 15, so apologies for the silence here but we got that done ...

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Published on May 03, 2023

We are funded!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this campaign! I look forward to keeping you updated as the project develops over the next six months. And for those wondering, Blackbeard Biologic (my comp...

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Published on Apr 11, 2023

Microplastic Extraction

So how are we actually getting microplastic out of the tissue of deep-sea animals?The short answer is that we're going to dissolve whole organisms in a strong base and then filter out the remaining...

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Published on Mar 20, 2023

First report of microplastics in cold seep organisms

Within a week of submitting this experiment proposal for review, the first reports of microplastics isolated from within cold seep organisms was published: Microplastic sink that cannot be ignored ...

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Amazing. This is so exciting!
Sep 08, 2023
Can we use a smartwatch for coastal monitoring and research?
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Hooray! Congratulations!
Apr 24, 2023
Improving the Knowledge of Skates and Rays in Trinidad and Tobago
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