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The world’s most northerly resident population of bottlenose dolphins is “stable”, according to new research. Almost 200 dolphins are found in the North Sea and the animals are frequently seen in the Moray Firth.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) commissions a report on the health of the population every six years.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, drawing on about two decades of studies, have deemed the numbers to be stable, or increasing.

The latest research work was carried out in the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Wildlife spotters who come to the shores of the firth to see and photograph the bottlenose dolphins contribute an estimated

Marine experts are calling on the public to report sightings of basking sharks in UK waters this summer. The sharks are drawn to warm, plankton-rich surface waters off the west coast of Great Britain and Ireland.

These huge sharks are harmless, but experts are also asking people to “keep a respectful distance and enjoy the spectacle”.

Basking sharks are protected under European and UK law, so it is illegal to disturb or harass them.

“They’re here for most of the summer,” said Dr David Gibson, managing director of the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. “We’re asking people to let us know whenever they see one of these fantastic animals.

Basking sharks are the ocean’s second biggest fish, measuring up to seven metres in length.

A large adult male can have a dorsal fin up to 1...

Overfishing and pollution are among a raft of factors driving down the shark population around Bahrain, with some species on the verge of vanishing from the Arabian Gulf altogether as the sea reaches tipping point.

Experts have sounded the alarm over a massive decline in the number of sharks populating the waters around Bahrain – saying the Gulf was in danger of becoming a “marine desert”.

The UK-based Shark Conservation Society (SCS) has just completed a three-week survey of the country’s waters, which found that many larger species of the sea’s most famous predator were in danger of disappearing from the region altogether.

Unchecked construction, sedimentation, a lack of fresh water, overfishing and pollution have been cited as the key threats to the Gulf’s shark population.

Experts are ...

The recent discovery of three dead hawksbill turtles minus their shells and with their eyes gouged out at Mantanani Islands, off Kota Belud, has caused concern among tourists, conservationists and tourism authorities.

Although they agreed that the incident was an isolated one, all are in favour of more efforts to be taken to prevent a recurrence.

Marine conservation officer Lionel Aaron Lingam, who was among the first to spot one of the turtles, then barely alive at Mantanani Kecil on April 20, called the incident “shocking”.

Lionel was with 20 local and foreign divers and staff of Mari Mari Mantanani Dive Lodge where he works, preparing diving gear at the jetty when he spotted the turtle.

“I asked one of the staff to check on it.

“He told me that the shell was white.

“I then sensed someth...

Most of the ice being lost from Antarctica is going as a result of warm water eating the fringes of the continent, scientists say.

The researchers used a satellite laser to measure the thinning occurring on ice shelves – the floating tongues of ice that jut out from the land.

The team’s analysis found the shelves’ shrinkage could not be attributed simply to warmer air.

Rather, it is warm water getting under the floating ice to melt it from below.

This is leading to a weakening of the shelves, permitting more and more ice to drain from the continent’s interior through tributary glaciers.

Previous studies have already indicated that warmer waters are being driven towards the continent by stronger westerly winds in the Southern Ocean.

The researchers say the new understanding has major impli...

Coral gardens that were among Asia’s most spectacular, teeming with colorful sea life just a few months ago, have been transformed into desolate grey moonscapes by illegal fishermen who use explosives or cyanide to kill or stun their prey.

The site is among several to have been hit inside Komodo National Park, a 500,000-acre reserve in eastern Indonesia that spans several dusty, tan-colored volcanic islands. The area is most famous for its Komodo dragons — the world’s largest lizards — and its remote and hard-to-reach waters also burst with staggering levels of diversity, from corals in fluorescent reds and yellows to octopuses with lime-green banded eyes to black-and-blue sea snakes.

Dive operators and conservationists say Indonesia’s government is not doing enough to keep illegal fisherm...

In a matter of weeks, the Federal Government will unveil the final boundaries of one of the world’s most ambitious marine park projects.

Stretching from Kangaroo Island in South Australia to WA’s Abrolhos Islands, the South-West marine park plan will rival the Great Barrier Reef marine reserve system in its vastness.

Fishing and conservation groups, equally critical of the draft proposal but for completely different reasons, are waiting with bated breath.

For commercial and recreational fishers, the biggest question is whether the new park will compound the growing restrictions on when and where they can go fishing.

Last month, the WA Government revealed a long-awaited marine park in state waters between Geographe north of Busselton and Flinders Bay east of Augusta.

The park, known as Ngar...

Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.

The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg, was spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.

It appears to be healthy and leading a normal life in its pod.

White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.

The sightings were made during a research cruise off Kamchatka by a group of Russian scientists and students, co-led by Erich Hoyt, the long-time orca scientist, conservationist and author who is now a senior research fellow with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

“We’ve seen another two white orcas in Russia but th...

This month, the US coastguard sank the Japanese vessel Ryou-Un Maru in the gulf of Alaska after she spent nearly a year adrift at sea. She joins three million other shipwrecks on the ocean floor. But are shipwrecks good or bad for marine life?

In 1881, the Kingston set sail from London. The captain and crew believed they were heading for Aden, but the ship never made it past the Red Sea.

On the 22 February that year, she smashed into Shag Rock near the entrance to the Gulf of Suez. The crew were rescued, but the ship sank to the ocean floor.

More than a century on, colourful coral covers the Kingston. The same sponges, tunicates and anemones that live on the adjacent reef are on the wreck. Around 38 species of stony corals and ten soft corals adorn the ship’s surface...

Environmental groups have welcomed the announcement of a new marine park on the Kimberley coast, but warn that more needs to be done to ensure its protection from “runaway industrialisation”.

Premier Colin Barnett and Environment Minister Bill Marmion today announced the creation of Camden Sound Marine Park, about 300 kilometres north-east of Broome.

Camden Sound is internationally recognised as the biggest humpback whale calving area in the southern hemisphere with more than 1000 humpbacks found there during calving season, Mr Marmion said.

The park will cover nearly 7000 square kilometres and will be created by mid-2012.

WWF Australia spokesperson Paul Gamblin said the park was a great start, however further protection was still needed.

“The marine park can be even better if it protects ...