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Social networks operate in the same way across all species, including humans, according to a 10-year study into the way animals behave.

Scientists found that the sharing of information through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook actually reflects the mechanisms animals have always used to gather information about their social environment.

Experts found evidence of animals forming cliques and gathering information to help make group decisions.

The study was conducted by Dr David Lusseau, of the University of Aberdeen’s School of Biological Sciences, who examined communities of dolphins, whales, primates, and ungulates.

He said: “Social networks are the same across all species and, whilst details of their structure may differ, some properties remain the same whether we are l...

The far north of Queensland’s reef shark populations are dropping at an alarming rate and a marine biologist says the decline of the apex predators could pose a serious risk to the ecology of the Great Barrier Reef.

Research has found that reef shark populations are decreasing by up to 17 per cent each year, Dr Ashley Frisch, of James Cook University

Whale sharks begging for food in the central Philippines have sparked a debate on whether feeding the giant fish may ultimately be hurting the creatures, officials said on Saturday.

While the mayor of the coastal town of Oslob insists that the practice of feeding the whale sharks does no harm and is good for tourism, environmentalists have recommended that it be halted.

Fishermen in Oslob in the central resort island of Cebu have been feeding whale sharks with baby shrimp since the 1980s and now use this feeding to make the creatures rise to the surface of the water for the amusement of tourists.

“This has been practised for a long time. When tourists come in, they want to see the whale sharks...

A bluefin tuna has been sold for three quarters of a million dollars in Tokyo – a price almost double last year’s record sale.

The bluefin tuna, prized for making the finest sushi, fetched 56.49m yen ($736,000,

The Great Barrier Reef, like most other coral reefs around the world’s oceans, is under threat from a number of sources, from the steadily acidifying waters of the sea to the impact of commercial fishing.

But a new effort to collect samples from the reef has established the first frozen repository of Great Barrier Reef corals that could one day be used to restore coral populations.

Coral reefs are dynamic ecosystems made up of coral polyps, the hard skeletons they live in, the symbiotic algae that feed them and the myriad fish and other plants and animals that support and are supported by the corals.

Corals are under severe pressure due to pollution from industrial waste, sewage, chemicals, oil spills, fertilizer, runoff and sedimentation from land; climate change; acidification; and dest...

A low-level electric current running through domed-shaped metallic structures in the waters off Bali is giving a jolt to coral reef survival there, according to news reports.

The Biorock technology is seen by some conservationists as a means to repair coral reefs damaged by years of destructive cyanide and dynamite fishing practices, as well as steadily warming oceans.

Warming oceans are a threat to the reefs since they result in more frequent episodes of coral bleaching, a phenomenon when higher temperatures cause photosynthetic algae that provide corals with food and color to leave, turning the corals white.

Without food for a sustained period of time, the corals will die. A coral bleaching event in 1998 killed one sixth of the world’s tropical reefs.

Biorock technology builds from the ...

Two eminent tropical marine scientists have urged Australians to get behind a plan by the Federal Government to transform nearly a million square kilometres of the Coral Sea into the world’s largest marine park.

Professors Terry Hughes and Bob Pressey, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, said the Coral Sea was one of a just a handful of places in the world where a large oceanic no-take park could be created and monitored in a single national jurisdiction.

“Public comment on the proposal is now open – and it is time for all Australians to have their say,” they said.

Prof Hughes said t was vital the Coral Sea’s immense environmental and heritage values were protected from the rapidly escalating threats of overfishing and climate change while th...

A rogue wave has damaged an anti-whaling boat in the Southern Ocean, breaking a hole in its hull.

The Brigitte Bardot was chasing the Japanese whaling fleet and is currently about 1,500 miles southwest of Fremantle, Australia.

The Sea Shepherd flagship, the Steve Irwin, is on its way to help the damaged boat.

It could take about 20 hours to get there, said Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson.

“Right now the safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend to reach the crew and then do what we can to save our ship,” he said.

It would be returned to Australia while another boat continued to chase the whaling fleet, he added.

The ship was chasing the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru in six-metre (20-foot) waves when a swell slammed into its port side.

One of its ...

Cocos Island is perhaps best known for an abundance of large marine animals, sharks in particular. Most iconic of these are the vast schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks, which can be found by the hundreds at various sites in the waters around the island.

Equally striking is the abundance of white-tip reef sharks. At any given moment during a typical dive here, one can look around and count at least half a dozen, and at certain times

Sea Shepherd is using drones to monitor a Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said in a news release Saturday that it deployed one of the drones to intercept the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru about 800 kilometres off Western Australia’s southwest coast.

Canadian Captain Paul Watson who is onboard the ship, Steve Irwin, said the drones also allow the conservationists to keep track of the whalers when they try to escape.

“What they do is they put these harpoon vessels on our tail and they relay our position to them (the Nisshin Maru) and it keeps the Nisshin Maru away,” said Watson during a telephone interview. “So with the drone we’re able to, you know, keep abreast of where the Nisshin Maru is.”

He said as of Christmas Day, two Japanese...