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Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned.

Researchers traced the “microplastic” back to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed.

Earlier research showed plastic smaller than 1mm were being eaten by animals and getting into the food chain.

The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“Research we had done before… showed that when we looked at all the bits of plastic in the environment, about 80% was made up from smaller bits of plastic,” said co-author Mark Browne, an ecologist now based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“This really led us to the idea of what sorts of plastic are there...

A group of 90 pilot whales have beached on a spit at the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island – the second incident in the area this month.

The whales in Farewell Spit, Golden Bay, are being kept cool by conservation staff.

Officials are hoping that the whales will be able to refloat themselves when the tide rises in the evening.

Seven whales died in the same area earlier this month when 25 of them were stranded.

“We generally get one stranding a summer and we occasionally get two, but since I’ve been here in the past 10 years, we’ve never had three,” regional conservation area manager John Mason was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying.

The whales were spotted by an aircraft pilot while flying over Farewell Spit, he added.

In November, 47 whales also died in the same area whe...

An international team of scientists has demonstrated the first soap that responds to magnets.

This means the soap and the materials that it dissolves can be removed easily by applying a magnetic field.

Experts say that with further development, it could find applications in cleaning up oil spills and waste water.

Details of the new soap, which contains iron atoms, are reported in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.

It is similar to ordinary soap, but the atoms of iron help form tiny particles that are easily removed magnetically.

“If you’d have said about 10 years ago to a chemist: ‘Let’s have some soap that responds to magnets’, they’d have looked at you with a very blank face,” said co-author Julian Eastoe of the University of Bristol.

He told BBC News: “We were interested to see, ...

UK scientists have detected a huge dome of freshwater that is developing in the western Arctic Ocean.

The bulge is some 8,000 cubic km in size and has risen by about 15cm since 2002.

The team thinks it may be the result of strong winds whipping up a great clockwise current in the northern polar region called the Beaufort Gyre.

This would force the water together, raising sea surface height, the group tells the journal Nature Geoscience.

“In the western Arctic, the Beaufort Gyre is driven by a permanent anti-cyclonic wind circulation. It drives the water, forcing it to pile up in the centre of gyre, and this domes the sea surface,” explained lead author Dr Katharine Giles from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at University College London.

“In our data, we see the trend...

Killer whales and other ocean predators are targeting and killing the pups of a threatened northern sea lion species at an increasingly high rate, scientists warned this week.

Without a reduction in predators, the sea lion population will have difficulty recovering, the researchers added.

The researchers focused on the endangered western population of the Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), which is the largest member of the eared seals family. The population has declined by 80 percent from its peak about four decades ago.

They monitored 36 juveniles in the Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound region of the Gulf of Alaska from 2005 to 2011...

You’ve heard of Easter Island, but you may not be familiar with its uninhabited neighbor. Salas y G

Rising carbon dioxide emissions threaten the survival of some fish species by sending their central nervous systems haywire.

Researchers from the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University say concentrations of carbon dioxide are predicted to reach between 700 and 900 microatmospheres before the end of the century, interfering with the fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators.

“It is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,” Professor Phillip Munday said yesterday.

“We’ve found that elevated carbon dioxide in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life.”

Th...

Scientists have found the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters. Leading researchers in marine biology discovered 57 animals along a 2000 km stretch from Queensland to NSW.

The predators are a cross between the common blacktip shark and Australian blacktip shark, two related but genetically distinct species.

The scientists say interbreeding between the two shark species is a sign the animals are adapting to climate change.

They also warn that hybridisation could make the sharks stronger.

Dr Jennifer Ovenden, of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, said: “Hybridization could enable the sharks to adapt to environmental change as the smaller Australian black tip currently favours tropical waters in the north while the larger common black tip is more abunda...

Scientists are calling for volunteer divers to help survey the health of a remote corner of the Great Barrier Reef.

Earthwatch Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences are planning a detailed study of the coral reefs surrounding Orpheus Island to assess the extent of coral disease.

Scientists fear the reef around the small island, located around 1200km northwest of Brisbane, is at risk from rising sea temperatures.

Earthwatch Executive Director Richard Gilmore said the study was a unique opportunity for divers to give hands-on help to the scientific community.

“Volunteers will get to experience this unique marine park filled with an unusually wide variety of reef habitats, clam gardens as well as submerged indigenous sites and recent shipwrecks,” he said.

“(The study will...

The great white shark is lurking in cyberspace, in the form of an iPhone application launched this week that allows users to track a dozen of the predators as they roam around the Pacific Ocean.

The California-based Marine Conservation Science Institute launched the app, which the nonprofit describes as the first shark tracker of its kind, to raise funds for its research.

Great white sharks have scared and fascinated the public going back at least to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film “Jaws,” and the animals’ pop culture stardom continues in such television programming as the Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week.”

Michael Domeier and the Marine Conservation Science Institute he heads have also been featured on TV, through a National Geographic series called “Expedition Great White” that debute...