BBC News, 13th January 2016, reports: Most seagrass meadows around the coast of the British Isles are in a “perilous state”, say scientists. Plants are being damaged by pollution and human disturbances such as mooring boats, according to researchers. Surveys of 11 sites in England, Wales and Ireland found high nitrogen levels in water were […]
» Marine Wildlife
- Seagrass meadows around the British Isles are in “perilous state”
- Sea bird populations on St Kilda are being profoundly affected by climate change
- Deep Sea Mining : the nature of the resource, and the threat to ocean integrity
- North Sea cod leaves the “endangered” Red List
- Marine populations have fallen by half since 1970, says study
- Seabird populations worldwide have declined 70% over the last 60 years, says study
- Pacific Bluefin Tuna has fallen 96% from its historic levels
- Mussels and their harvesting threatened by ocean acidification
- An encounter with a sperm whale
- Edible, biodegradable water bottle can be made from seaweed
- Walrus reflect changes in the Arctic’s climate
- The Importance of Plankton
- The oceans are the heart of our planet, but we know more about Venus
- UN considers a Treaty to protect biodiversity on the high seas
- Serious fall in the population of Puffins in Shetland
- Scientists debate whether Antarctic krill need greater protection
- Norway and the food retailer Spar are selling whale meat
- BP pay record fine for Gulf of Mexico oil spill
- Microplastics are moving up the ocean food chain
- Call for more protection of seagrass meadows
The Guardian reports, 4th December 2015: The survival of seabirds including puffins and kittiwakes on St Kilda — the island archipelago home to one of the world’s most important seabird populations — is being threatened by climate change, striking new evidence shows. Naturalists have discovered that the kittiwake, a small migratory gull with ink-black wing […]
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Prof. Richard Steiner writes in The Huffington Post, 20th October 2015: Adding to concerns about the disastrous decline in ocean ecosystems, now there is another emerging threat — deep sea mining. While shallow water mining for sand, gold, tin, and diamonds has been conducted for decades, commercial deep sea mining has yet to occur anywhere. […]
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The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) reports 24th September 2015: The iconic European cod fishery which collapsed in the 1980s and has been ailing ever since, has finally increased above dangerously low levels and hauled itself off the MCS Fish to Avoid list. As part of our autumn update to FishOnline (www.fishonline.org), North Sea cod is now rated 4 […]
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WWF and the Zoological Society London report, 16th September 2015: Marine species around the world, including populations of fish critical to human food security, are in potentially catastrophic decline according to new research. WWF’s Living Blue Planet report, an updated study of marine mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, shows a decline of 49 per cent […]
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PLoSONE reports, 9th June 2015: Seabird population changes are good indicators of long-term and large-scale change in marine ecosystems, and important because of their many impacts on marine ecosystems. We [see citation below] assessed the population trend of the world’s monitored seabirds (1950–2010) by compiling a global database of seabird population size records and applying […]
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The Pew Trust reports, 12th September 2015: The highly depleted population of Pacific bluefin tuna is one step closer to collapse after a meeting of fishery managers in Sapporo, Japan, concluded without agreement on any new conservation measures. Decimated by nearly a century of overfishing, the bluefin population has fallen 96 percent from un-fished levels […]
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The Guardian, 24th December 2014, reports: The world’s mussel population could be under threat as climate change causes the oceans to become more acidic, scientists have warned. Mussel shells become more brittle when they are formed in more acidic water, Glasgow University has reported in the Royal Society journal Interface. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere […]
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Robert Hoare relates an personal encounter with a sperm whale, The Guardian 10th September: I was born and brought up by the sea — indeed, my heavily pregnant mother nearly went into labour on a visit to a submarine in Portsmouth, and I was almost born underwater. Yet I never learned to swim. I was […]
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The Guardian reports, 10th September 2015: An edible alternative to plastic water bottles made from seaweed has topped the UK round of an EU competition for new, more sustainable products. The new spherical form of packaging, called Ooho and described by its makers as “water you can eat”, is biodegradable, hygienic and costs 1p per […]
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Associated Press and ctvnews.ca report, 28th August 2015: ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Pacific walrus have come ashore on the north-west coast of Alaska in what has become an annual sign of the effects of climate change. “There appears to be several thousand animals up there,” said Andrea Medeiros, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service […]
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Marine scientist, Dr. Richard Kirby, blogs on Blue Planet Society, March 2015: “In the sea, the planktonplankton Plankton is a generic term for a wide variety of the smallest yet most important organisms form that drift in our oceans. They can exist in larger forms of more than 20cm as the larval forms of jellyfish, […]
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The Guardian, in an Editorial on 7th August 2015, states: The tentative identification of a scrap of wing washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion as part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight M370 is a reminder of a paradox of scientific investment and capacity. Humans have identified and pinpointed the fabric of […]
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The New York Times reports, 31st July 2015: Suppose a group of scientists wanted to dump 100 tons of iron dust into the sea based on a controversial climate-change theory that the ore might spur the growth of planktonplankton Plankton is a generic term for a wide variety of the smallest yet most important organisms […]
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BBC News reports, 16th July 2015: Researchers believe young puffins have not been returning to Fair Isle to breed. A long-term study of a large puffin colony on Shetland suggests that numbers breeding there have halved from about 20,000 to 10,000 individuals. The study, published by the scientific journal PLOS ONE, covers a period of […]
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Elizabeth Grossman and Ensia.com report, 7th July 2015: Barely longer than your thumb, weighing under an ounce and nearly translucent, delicate crustaceans known as krill are vital to ocean ecosystems around the world. In the waters that encircle Antarctica, krill are an essential food source for penguins, baleen and blue whales (which can eat as […]
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The Guardian, 15th July 2015, reports: Last year, Norway killed more protected whales than any other country — all for the sake of a marginal and dying industry characterised by cruelty and exploitation of an internationally protected species. Its 2014 catch of 736 minke whales was more than the combined catch of Japan and Iceland […]
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The Guardian reports, 2nd July 2015: “BP has agreed to pay a record environmental fine of $18.7bn to settle legal actions brought by the US and several states over the fatal 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The US justice department, along with the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida, all sued BP […]
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The Vancouver Sun reports, 30th June 2015: “A new study from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre suggests microplastic particles could pose a serious risk of physical harm to the fish and marine animals that consume them. Plastic fibres and particles in West Coast waters are being consumed and passed up the food chain by […]
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BBC News reports, 27th June 2015: “Seagrasses — the underwater plants that act as nursery grounds for young fish — need more protection, say scientists. Monitoring of seagrass meadows off the North Wales coast found areas damaged by the likes of boat moorings, anchors and vehicles crossing at low tide had reduced value to the […]
