Blog Archives

Images from the Great Barrier Reef will soon be coming to Google Maps as the Catlin Seaview Survey maps the world’s largest coral reef system.

“The idea is to test the project on the Great Barrier Reef in 2012, and beyond that to roll the project out globally,” Richard Vevers, founder of Underwater Earth and director for the project.

The project aims to educate the public about the marine ecosystem which has many puzzles for scientists and threatened by global warming.

The Catlin Seaview Survey aims to carry out a comprehensive survey on the health of the reef and educate the public about the importance of the marine ecosystem.

“Our mission is to reveal our oceans to the world and we want to go across iconic locations all over the world...

Male bottlenose dolphins organise gang-like alliances – guarding females against other groups and occasionally “changing sides”.

A team studying dolphins in Shark Bay, western Australia, say the animals roam hundreds of square kilometres, often encountering other dolphin groups.

The researchers observed the dolphins there over a five-year period, recording their movements.

They report their findings in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.

Dr Richard Connor, a researcher from the US who took part in this study, first began his studies of the Shark Bay dolphins in the early 1980s.

This latest study reveals that these highly intelligent marine mammals live in an “open society”...

Oil giant BP has been given consent to drill a controversial deep-water well west of Shetland.

The North Uist well is about 125km (78 miles) to the north west of the islands, at a depth of nearly 1,300m.

The UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it had thoroughly examined BP’s environmental impact and emergency response plans.

Environmental organisations have expressed concern at the news.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: “Oil and gas plays an important role in our economy and makes a significant contribution to our energy security, but exploration should not come at a cost to the environment.

“That is why, before giving consent, my department has very carefully scrutinised BP’s plans and their emergency response measures to ensure their operations are co...

Hollywood director James Cameron has returned to the surface after plunging nearly 11km (seven miles) down to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

He made the solo descent in a submarine called “Deepsea Challenger”, taking over two hours to reach the bottom.

He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, before a speedy ascent back to the surface.

His craft was kitted out with cameras and lights so he could film the deep.

This is only the second manned expedition to the ocean’s deepest depths – the first took place in 1960.

The earlier descent was made by US Navy Lt Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard.

They spent about 20 minutes on the ocean floor but their landing kicked up silt, meaning their view was obscured.

Before the di...

Tiny shrimp-like creatures called copepods break through the ocean’s surface and leap through the air to escape predators, US scientists say.

They have been investigating how the brightly-coloured Pontellid copepods, which live close to the surface, are so abundant yet so conspicuous to fish.

Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists say copepods travel further in air than in water.

Predators are also left confused about where they will land, they say.

Almost all commercially important fish, including cod, pollock and whiting, feed on copepods.

There are reports from the late-19th Century of copepods breaking through the water surface but observers at the time thought this was to allow them to moult.

A later report proposed jumping was part of an escape from predators ...

Hollywood director James Cameron may be close to making a dive to the deepest place on Earth.

In a one-man submarine, he plans to dive 11km (seven miles) down beneath the waves to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific.

There has only ever been one dive there, and that was half a century ago.

Mr Cameron and his team have set sail to reach the trench and are now waiting for a clear stretch of weather to begin the dive.

The BBC met up with the director in Guam, just before he set out for the high seas. This tiny tropical island is the nearest major landmass to the Mariana Trench – the focus of Mr Cameron’s ambition.

In the balmy heat, the team was making last-minute preparations for this journey to the deepest depth in the seas.

The Abyss and Titanic director has had a lon...

Volunteer divers have completed months of work to remove a 100m fishing net from the Scylla wreck.

Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium, which has been involved with managing the Whitsand Bay reef since it was first sunk in 2004, headed up the team of volunteers.

Aquarium bosses praised the work of those who have worked to make the conservation site safe for marine wildlife and recreational divers.

Divers have spent months cutting free the net by hand.

Volunteers included local firm Diving Marine Solutions, and Peter Fergus, who carries out the annual survey of the Scylla site.

Dr David Gibson, National Marine Aquarium managing director, said: “We are very pleased to see the site free from the net, and remain hugely grateful for the support that we have received from everyone during this a...

The world’s biggest squid species have developed huge eyes to give early warning of approaching sperm whales.

Colossal and giant squid both have eyes that can measure 27cm (11in) across – much bigger than any fish.

Scientists found that huge eyes offer no advantages in the murky ocean depths other than making it easier to spot enormous shapes – such as sperm whales.

Writing in Current Biology journal, they say this could explain the equally huge eyes of fossil ichthyosaurs.

Lead scientist Dan Nilsson from Lund University in Sweden was present at the unique dissection of a colossal squid performed four years ago in New Zealand.

There, he examined and handled the eyes – in particular, the hard parts of the lens.

These alone are bigger than an entire human eye.

“We were puzzled initially, be...

An eminent UK engineer is suggesting building cloud-whitening towers in the Faroe Islands as a “technical fix” for warming across the Arctic.

Scientists told UK MPs this week that the possibility of a major methane release triggered by melting Arctic ice constitutes a “planetary emergency”.

The Arctic could be sea-ice free each September within a few years.

Wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter has shown that pumping seawater sprays into the atmosphere could cool the planet.

The Edinburgh University academic has previously suggested whitening clouds using specially-built ships.

At a meeting in Westminster organised by the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (Ameg), Prof Salter told MPs that the situation in the Arctic was so serious that ships might take too long.

“I don’t think there’s time to d...

Next Monday, fisheries ministers from the 27 EU Member States will gather in Brussels to discuss the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and in particular the discard ban proposed by the European Commission.

Because discarding unwanted catches poses both ethical and environmental problems, Oceana (the largest international organization working solely to protect the world’s oceans), strongly supports a ban that includes the obligation to land all catches accompanied by technical measures to reduce and eliminate unwanted catches, as the best way to stop this waste of resources.

Despite years of policies aimed at improving the selectivity of fishing techniques in Europe, discards still represent 13% of European catches, amounting to 1, 3 million tonnes thrown overboard dead or dying each y...