Dr. Drew harvell
drewharvell.bsky.social
Dr. Drew harvell
@drewharvell.bsky.social
Scientist, Author, speaker with a fondness for invertebrates. Books:
🦑 A Sea of Glass
👩‍🔬 Ocean Outbreak
🐙The Ocean's Menagerie
Pinned
Galleys for The Ocean’s Menagerie! The #OceansMenagerie, about #SpinelessSuperpowers, releases Earthday 2025. #sponges, #corals, #nudibranchs, #seastars, #giantclams and #octopus! Andrea Dingeldein diagrams for coral chapters.

#marinelife #invertebrates #tidepools #diving #scicom #artandscience
What a sensational science story about an almost mythical beast from @carlzimmer.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...
How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout
www.nytimes.com
August 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Scientists monitor the loss of vital eelgrass plants in Salish Sea www.cascadepbs.org/environment/...
Scientists monitor the loss of vital eelgrass plants in Salish Sea
The marine vegetation helps mitigate climate change impacts and serves as vital habitat. But a study finds the species is at risk in the San Juans.
www.cascadepbs.org
August 15, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Here is the story in our words of the experiments Melanie and Alyssa @rhizalyssa.bsky.social and Grace ran to discover the Vibrio bacterium causing sea star wasting. And Amy Chan's work to get it in culture, so we essentially fulfilled Koch's postulates...

theconversation.com/the-bacteria...
The bacteria killing sea stars in the Pacific: How our team uncovered a decade-long mystery
Sea stars are vital to ocean ecosystems; however, a pathogen has been killing them in large numbers, rendering some species critically endangered.
theconversation.com
August 12, 2025 at 12:29 AM
We don't get color photos and articles in Newsweek very often; we sure appreciate this good science coverage.
www.newsweek.com/starfish-sea...
Death of 5 billion starfish baffled scientists—until now
The mass die-off, which began in 2013, saw sea star populations plunge and reshaped vital marine ecosystems in the U.S. and Canada.
www.newsweek.com
August 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
great article in NYT about our discovery of the bacterium causing sea star wasting. This is also a chapter in my new book The Oceans Menagerie. @vikingbooks.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/s...
Scientists Finally Identify Killer Microbe Behind ‘Terrifying’ Sea Star Disease
www.nytimes.com
August 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
We are so proud of our sea star wasting work that came out today. This interactive article is very complete and includes beautiful videos.
Unmasking the Sea Star Killer www.biographic.com/unmasking-th...
Unmasking the Sea Star Killer
After a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?
www.biographic.com
August 4, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Delighted that Nature included #OceansMenagerie in their Top 5 Science picks. The #OceansMenagerie
Drew Harvell Viking (2025). #Marinelife #intertidal #scuba #nudibranchs #octopus #seastars
@vikingbooks.bsky.social To the Moon and quack: Books in brief www.nature.com/articles/d41...
To the Moon and quack: Books in brief
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.
www.nature.com
July 18, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Delighted that #OceansMenagerie @vikingbooks.bsky.social made the top 25. Takes corals, starfish and octopus to the beach with you! sustainability.stanford.edu/news/25-book...
25 books for summer on sustainability and life on Earth
Discover thought-provoking reads on climate, culture, and the planet – handpicked by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability faculty.
sustainability.stanford.edu
June 29, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Dr. Drew harvell
Meet the Ocean’s cutest assassin, the shag rug sea slug or Aeolidia Papillosa.

Known for their bunny like appearance, the slug actually preys upon sea anemone. But not only as a food source, they also absorb their stinging nematocysts and use them as a method of defense!
@drewharvell.bsky.social
June 15, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Dr. Drew harvell
Chapter one of “Ocean’s Menagerie: How Earth’s Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life” is now available on our substack! Chapter one explores all of the amazing abilities of sea slugs!
@drewharvell.bsky.social
June 19, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Loved this trivia game around our upcoming @bigbiology.bsky.social podcast. I'll add some of these trivia questions to the ones in my talks... yep, got 'em all right...
Are you ready for our newest episode?

Test your knowledge with a pop quiz!

Tune into our next episode with Dr. Drew Harvell to hear about her time in marine research at NSF and all about her new book, “The Ocean’s Menagerie: How the Earth’s Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life”!
June 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Next week my podcast with @bigbiology.bsky.social airs about my new book The #OceansMenagerie. This clip is about my hobbies and Cornell University #Blaschka #glass #invertebrate.

#marinelife #SciCom #artandscience

Meet the scientist: Drew Harvell (bonus) open.substack.com/pub/bigbiolo...
Meet the scientist: Drew Harvell (bonus)
Meet next episode’s guest, Drew Harvell! Drew is a Professor Emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, Affiliate Faculty at the University of Washington, former Science Envoy ...
open.substack.com
June 6, 2025 at 9:53 PM
It's an honor to be part of the @bigbiology.bsky.social. I listen to all their episodes (including the key current one #SaveNSF, link below)and excited to be up next week in a 50 minute podcast chatting about #Ocean'sMenagerie.
June 3, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Dr. Drew harvell
Have you listened to our episode on National Science Foundation funding and the future of science?

Tune into our #SaveNSF episode to get learn the importance of NSF funding and the detrimental impacts of recent budget cuts.

#science #scicomm #sciencecommunication #biology #sciencepodcast
June 2, 2025 at 9:42 PM
My friends love the audible version of The Ocean's Menagerie as podcasts when they are hiking, cooking or enjoying #marinelife at the #beach. try this sample chapter, The Sea Slug's Sting soundcloud.com/penguin-audi...
Listen to an excerpt from
An elegantly written exploration of the cutting-edge science of the strangest and most remarkable creatures on our planet by a leading marine biologist Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms th
soundcloud.com
June 1, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Can't wait to join the panel for Spineless!
Join us for Lightning Talks: Spineless on May 22! We'll be diving into the world of spineless creatures, aka invertebrates! 🪱⭐

This free, virtual science education program includes the chance for live Q&A with our expert speakers! Register: www.seattleaquarium.org/events/light...
May 8, 2025 at 2:37 PM
SPINELESS! Looking forward to Spineless lightening talks panel with @seattleaquarium.bsky.social. Its an online evening, so all are welcome! There will be nudibranchs and seastars and octopus!

#marinelife #invertebrates #nudibranchs #seastars #octopus #spineless
May 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
“...with very long-lived, slow-growing sharks, you can decimate 100 years of conservation in 15 minutes of fishing because it takes so long for those sharks to rebound and regrow their populations,” McCauley said.
#marinelife #MPA #PacificIslands #KIngmanReef

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Trump order to loosen fishing regulations poses major risks, experts warn
Conservationists fear fallout from president’s proclamation on fishing in federally protected area of Pacific Ocean
www.theguardian.com
April 27, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Come join my son and I on a dive to look for sponges on Yucatan Reefs, at our old seafan ecology site. drewharvell.com/2025/04/23/f...

#marinelife #sponges #coralreefs #mexico #yucatan #scuba #invertebrates
Finding Sponges on Yucatan Dives – DREW HARVELL
drewharvell.com
April 26, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Love the write up for Ocean's Menagerie in Yale Climate Connections Top 12 Earth Month Books @vikingbooks.bsky.social
yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/04/12-b...
April 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Thanks LitHub for publishing an extract of The #Octopus's Shape Shift from The #OceansMenagerie, just released on Earthday! See event schedule at DrewHarvell.com

#marinelife #cephalopod #scuba @vikingbooks.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/lite...
April 23, 2025 at 6:30 PM