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Researchers are embarking on an

A sea slug that is able to detach, re-grow and then re-use its penis has surprised scientists. Japanese researchers observed the bizarre mating behaviour in a species called Chromodoris reticulata, which is found in the Pacific Ocean.

They believe this is the first creature known that can repeatedly copulate with what they describe as a “disposable penis”.

The study is published in the Royal Society’s journal Biology Letters.

Male and female

The sex life of the sea slug is complicated even before detachable organs come into play.

Almost all of these creatures, which are also known as nudibranchs, are thought to be “simultaneous hermaphrodites”. This means they have both male and female sexual organs and can use them both at the same time.

Bernard Picton, curator of marine invertebrates at ...

A team developing anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs from research based on the immune systems of sharks has received a

They may not know it yet, but a few hundred great white sharks off the California coast can breathe a little easier today. After months of pressure from conservation groups, the state’s Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to consider listing the unique shark population as an endangered species.

The vote kicks off a one-year scientific review to determine if the sharks qualify for state protection, and also immediately grants them temporary protection pending a final decision in spring 2014. While California has outlawed commercial fishing of great white sharks since 1994, they still often wind up as “bycatch” in gillnets, which target halibut, sea bass and swordfish off the coasts of California and western Mexico.

According to an array of scientists and conservationists wh...

The Caribbean region

Environmental campaigners say that a draft plan to respond to an oil spill in the Arctic ocean is inadequate and vague.

The proposal has been in preparation for two years as oil companies look to increase exploration in the region.

Greenpeace says it fails to get to grip with the risks of an accident in an extremely sensitive location.

Ministers from the eight nation Arctic Council are due to discuss the plan at a meeting in Sweden tomorrow.

As summer ice in the Arctic has declined in recent years, the area has become the subject of intense interest from oil and gas companies. Estimates from the US Geological Survey indicated that there could be 60 billion barrels of oil in the region.

Glaring hole

In 2011 The Arctic Council members signed the Nuuk Declaration that committed them to devel...

A man from the UK believes his dog has found a rare piece of whale vomit while walking on the beach.

Ken Wilman said when Madge the dog “started poking at a rather large stone” he realised it was unusual.

He left the ambergris on the beach but “something triggered in my mind” and, after doing some research, he went back to get it.

The substance, which is found in the digestive system of sperm whales, is valuable and used in perfume.

Mr Wilman said: “When I picked it up and smelled it I put it back down again and I thought ‘urgh’.

“It has a musky smell, but the more you smell it the nicer the smell becomes.”

He is now waiting to get the 3kg (7lb) piece tested and said he had been offered 50,000 euros (

Last summer, when filming for a series to be broadcast next year, a team from the BBC’s Natural History Unit saw first-hand how discarded plastic can end up thousands of miles away from where people live when they visited French Frigate Shoals, an island north west of Hawaii.

There they found turtles nesting amongst plastic bottles, cigarette lighters and toys. And they discovered dead and dying albatross chicks, unwittingly killed when their parents fed them plastic carried in as they foraged for food in the sea.

Some of the chicks die when sharp edges puncture their bodies, others from starvation as their stomachs fill with plastic they cannot digest.

We have known for a while that plastic is a threat to the albatross, but how dangerous is discarded plastic for other wildlife and could i...

Common dolphins have been seen gathering to aid a dying companion, trying to support it in the water and help it breathe.

This is the first time that a group of dolphins has been recorded trying to help or save another dying dolphin.

Korean-based scientists witnessed the event in the East Sea off the coast of Ulsan, in South Korea.

Five individual dolphins formed a raft with their bodies in an attempt to keep the stricken dolphin afloat.

Details of the behaviour are reported in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Healthy cetaceans, the group of animals that includes whales and dolphins, have been seen attempting to provide supportive care to individuals before.

For example, in the mid-20th Century, a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in captivity was seen lifting her stillborn calf t...

Coral reefs are one of the world