» Marine Wildlife



Microplastics are moving up the ocean food chain

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Call for more protection of seagrass meadows

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Australian researchers explore carbon-storage potential of seaweeds

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

“Ghost nets” are an enduring hazard in 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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

700,000 tyres to be exhumed from seabed off Florida

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Drugs flushed down the toilet affect aquatic life, says US EPA

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Research suggests that the skin of the octopus is sensitive to light

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Legal challenge in US to deep-sea mineral mining

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Deep-sea mining for minerals : a personal view

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. […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Oxygen starved “dead zones” discovered in the Atlantic Ocean

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

China wants to increase its Antarctic krill catch by 7 fold

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Oceans are the world’s seventh largest economy, says WWF

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Deep sea fish showing adverse effects of pollution

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. […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Australia’s Marine Conservation Society acts to protect Great Barrier Reef

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

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Concern over China’s plan to increase Antarctic krill fishery

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Seismic Testing impact on Pilot Whales

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

“No take zones” could benefit marine wildlife and fishing industry

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

A third of future mineral production could come from beneath the oceans

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 […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Terramar’s The Daily Catch reports on Marinet publication, Conserving The Great Blue

Terramar reports, 23rd January 2015, in its online publication The Daily Catch on the Marinet publication Conserving The Great Blue authored by Deborah Wright. Conserving The Great Blue argues that the rapid deterioration of the world’s seas calls for a breakthrough in our reasoning and a fundamental change in our behaviour. Deborah Wright says: “The […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Ocean “dead zones” will worsen as global warming advances, suggests study

The Consortium for Ocean Leadership reports, 14th November 2014: “Nearly all ocean dead zones will increase by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a new Smithsonian-led study. Researchers have known that low-oxygen, or hypoxic, areas are on the rise. They have doubled in frequency every 10 years since the 1960s, […]

Please do share this

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS