The University of Technology (UTS), Sydney, reports May 2015: There are great hopes for the potential of coastal plants and seaweeds to store carbon and help counter the effects of climate change and a new study is backing that potential. Scientists from UTS and Deakin University have carried out the first investigation of how a […]
» Marine Wildlife
- Australian researchers explore carbon-storage potential of seaweeds
- “Ghost nets” are an enduring hazard in the oceans
- Iceland to ship whale meat to Japan
- 700,000 tyres to be exhumed from seabed off Florida
- Drugs flushed down the toilet affect aquatic life, says US EPA
- Research suggests that the skin of the octopus is sensitive to light
- Legal challenge in US to deep-sea mineral mining
- Deep-sea mining for minerals : a personal view
- Oxygen starved “dead zones” discovered in the Atlantic Ocean
- China wants to increase its Antarctic krill catch by 7 fold
- Oceans are the world’s seventh largest economy, says WWF
- Deep sea fish showing adverse effects of pollution
- Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling plans rejected
- Hundreds of Scottish seals being killed each year
- Seal mutilation investigation continues
- Australia’s Marine Conservation Society acts to protect Great Barrier Reef
- Concern over China’s plan to increase Antarctic krill fishery
- Seismic Testing impact on Pilot Whales
- “No take zones” could benefit marine wildlife and fishing industry
- A third of future mineral production could come from beneath the oceans
Deutsche Welle reports, 22nd May 2015: Ghost nets are fishing nets that have either been lost or discarded at sea. Small fish, which are usually the first to become trapped in their mesh, attract larger species and other marine predators including sharks, dolphins, sea turtles and even marine birds. When the weight of their incidental catch […]
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The Guardian reports, 19th May 2015: The Icelandic whaling company Hvalur HF plans to ship 1,700 tonnes of whale meat via Luanda in Angola, repeating a similar controversial delivery of 2,000 tonnes last year which sparked protests along its route. According to Icelandic daily newspaper Eyjan, the meat was loaded aboard a ship near the […]
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The Guardian reports, 22nd May 2015: Florida officials have resumed raising some of the hundreds of thousands of tyres dumped off its shores decades ago during an unsuccessful attempt to create an artificial reef. Between 1m and 2m tyres were piled in the waters around Florida in the 1970s, but coral and fish never took […]
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The Guardian reports, 20th May 2015: “Doctors should take into account the ‘downstream’ effects on the environment when they prescribe drugs, suggests a scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency Around 80% of aquatic pharmaceutical pollution comes from domestic medicines (those that we take at home rather than in hospital), and while unused drugs that […]
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The Guardian reports, 20th May 2015: “Octopus skin contains a light-sensitive pigment found in eyes, suggesting that these clever cephalopods can “see” without using their eyes. Octopuses are well known for changing the colour, patterning, and texture of their skin to blend into their surroundings and send signals to each other, an ability that makes […]
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The Centre for Biological Diversity reports, 13th May 2015: “The Centre for Biological Diversity has commenced a lawsuit which sues the U.S. government over its first-ever approval for large-scale deep-sea mining, a destructive project between Hawaii and Mexico that would damage important habitat for whales, sharks and sea turtles and wipe out seafloor ecosystems. The […]
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Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Director, Center for Biological Diversity, writes 14th May 2015: “Have you heard about the disastrous gold rush brewing in our oceans? “Not content with getting minerals from dry land, companies are now aiming to strip mine our ocean floors in search of nickel, copper, cobalt, gold and other valuable metals and minerals. […]
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The Independent reports, 3rd May, 2015: “Swathes of oxygen-deprived water up to 100 miles long, unable to sustain any form of animal life, have been found in the Atlantic, scientists have said. Researchers of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany discovered the unexpectedly low oxygen environments several hundred kilometres off the […]
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MercoPress reports, 30th April 2015: “Conservation groups and scientists worry that China’s push to boost its harvest of krill — a shrimp-like creature used for aquaculture feed and human supplements — may leave Antarctica’s whales, seals and penguins struggling to survive. China’s leaders say they want a seven-fold increase in krill production, according to a […]
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The Guardian reports, 22nd April 2015: “The monetary value of the world’s oceans has been estimated at US$24tn in a new report [WWF: Reviving The Ocean Economy: The Case For Action — 2015] that warns that overfishing, pollution and climate change are putting an unprecedented strain upon marine ecosystems. The report, commissioned by WWF, states […]
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Societyforscience.org reports, 19th April 2015: “Far below the ocean’s surface is a dark, mysterious world. There, it’s too deep for the sun’s rays to penetrate. Very few people have seen this world. Even fewer have studied the health of its inhabitants — oddly named fish such as the greater forkbeard, black scabbardfish and orange roughy. […]
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The Guardian reports, 14th April 2015: “Japan’s hopes of resuming its whale hunts in the Southern Ocean have suffered a setback after International Whaling Committee experts said its latest plan offered no scientific justification for the slaughter. “The IWC panel said Japan’s revised programme, known as Newrep-A, did not contain enough information for experts to […]
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The Dodo.com and The Seal Protection Group report, 11th April 2015: “Hundreds of seals are being killed every year in U.K. waters in secret seal cullings — and hardly anyone knows about it. “If people knew the price that was being paid by seals for salmon they wouldn’t be prepared to buy them,” Andy Ottaway […]
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Over four years ago, our website columns reported over 100 seals appearing as corpses strewn on our Scottish and East Anglian beaches. The victims had suffered ‘Corkscrew Deaths’, the term given to the deep evenly spaced lacerations running as a linear spiral down their bodies. Similar findings were reported later from the German sea coast. […]
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In a Petition launched 24th March 2014 the Australian Marine Conservation Society is petitioning the Australian Government to cease granting development licences which the Conservation Society believes create a serious threat to the integrity of the Great Barrier reef. To view and support this Petition, visit: https://reef.marineconservation.org.au/sign.html?utm_campaign=AMCSREEF
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Mcclatchydc.com reports, 19th March 2015: “Scientists studying the Antarctic’s marine life received some unexpected news this month: China plans to vastly increase fishing for Antarctic krill — small crustaceans that are a critical food for the continent’s penguins and other creatures. “China currently harvests about 32,000 metric tons of krill annually from Antarctica’s waters, topped […]
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Over 100 distressed pilot whales have been stranded to die on New Zealand’s beaches in recent weeks following seismic testing off the New Zealand coast. Seismic testing is the first exploratory step in under seabed oil detection, performed by a ship repetitively firing off high velocity sound blasts every few seconds, day and night and […]
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Authors in the Journal of Applied Ecology, March 2015, report: “The study showed that a network of ‘limited-take zones’, in which trawling and dredging is allowed, would have far fewer benefits for wildlife and fisheries than a network of fully protected ‘no-take zones’. However, the study also revealed that a compromise based on mixing no-take […]
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The Independent reports, 27th February 2015: “The world’s oceans are poised for a seabed mining frenzy amid a “marine industrial revolution” that threatens to destroy habitats and wipe out species, an expert has warned. “Some industry estimates claim as much as a third of future mineral production could come from beneath the oceans. “More than […]
