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New research suggests that soft coral might be vital for the health of our oceans. Scientists in Tel Aviv and Taiwan have found that, like stony corals, soft corals are an essential building block in all reefs.

Previously it had been thought that these corals were only minor contributors to coral reefs but a major study of reefs in the South China Sea has found that in fact massive parts of the reefs are formed by tiny parts of the soft coral called sclerites

The Colombian Foreign Ministry has contacted its Costa Rican counterpart so that together they can clear up the slaughter of thousands of sharks in Colombian territorial waters in the Pacific Ocean, officials said.

“We have already contacted the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry to inform them of the investigation and keep them up to date on its progress, so that together we can clear up what happened as soon as possible,” the ministry said.

“The appropriate inquiries” are being conducted, the ministry said, adding that the navy is attempting to reach Malpelo Island, an offshore territory in whose waters the massive killing took place.

About 2,000 sharks died after their fins were cut off by fishermen, presumably Costa Ricans who entered the area, presidential biodiversity adviser Sandra Bessud...

The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) says it will investigate what killed two turtles found north of Bundaberg on the south-east Queensland coast.

A mud crabber discovered the dead turtles and a dark mass of slick mucus two kilometres off Turkey Beach yesterday.

The crabber said he noticed a shine on top of the ocean which looked like an oil slick and discovered the dead turtles floating on the surface.

DERM has issued a statement saying it has taken samples of the water but weather conditions are hampering efforts to retrieve the turtles.

The discovery of dead marine life comes just four days after the Government lifted a net fishing ban in Gladstone Harbour after fish were diagnosed with red spot disease.

Source: ABC News

While whaling is said to have started in the 12th century and the Japanese continue to fearlessly ply the trade (much to the consternation of activists around the globe) it isn

Diving with Riaans Scuba

The European Commission is warning Italy that it risks heavy court fines for its alleged failure to stop large-scale illegal fishing with driftnets that were banned from European waters two decades ago.

The opening of infringement procedures against Italy is expected to be announced in Brussels on Thursday after undercover European Union inspectors reported that the Italian authorities were turning a blind eye to the use of illegal driftnets in the Mediterranean by Italian fishing vessels.

Italy was condemned in 2009 by the European Court of Justice for not complying with the 1992 driftnet ban, which limits their length to 2,5 kilometres and prohibits catches of Atlantic blue-fin tuna, an endangered species, and swordfish.

Italy risks

One World One Ocean (OWOO) is a new campaign from MacGillivray Freeman Films, and it is all set to blow your mind when it comes to seeing and understanding the ocean in new ways.

The ocean is the beating heart of this planet, from controlling climate and weather to providing food and rain water.

Yet we grasp how important the health of the ocean is to the health of the planet.

We need stronger conservation efforts, and to drive those efforts, OWOO is providing us with an outstanding visual campaign to be released in segments over the next five years.

OWOO, in collaboration with MFF, is sending its film crews to all five oceans.

They will document the most compelling stories — from marine protected areas to sustainable seafood to plastic pollution — from each area and create three 3D I...

Out on Carysfort, Molasses, Hens and Chickens reefs off the Keys, the boulder, brain and fire corals are starting to rebound from the latest bout of bleaching after a summer simmering in an Atlantic once again running hotter than normal.

Damage this time appears moderate

Bluefin tuna boats in the Mediterranean Sea continue to catch many more fish than they report, a study concludes.

Commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, it finds that last year 140% more bluefin meat from the Med entered the market than was reported as caught.

The fishery’s regulator, Iccat, put new measures in place two years ago aimed at stopping over-fishing, but Pew found there were still holes in the system.

The Atlantic bluefin is so depleted as to qualify as a threatened species.

In 2008, member governments of Iccat – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas – agreed to implement a system of paper-based catch records, in principle allowing fish to be tracked from the sea to their final destination.

This was intended to remedy severe flaws in the system...

Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, second only to tropical rain forests.

Bird’s nest coral (Seriatopora hystrix) is common throughout the Indo-Pacific and is able to live across a range of depths.

However, there is little gene flow between the coral populations at each depth and even the algal endosymbionts (Symbiodinium), which provide energy for the corals to survive, are genetically different across habitats.

New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology used genetic and photosynthetic analyses to demonstrate that these genetic differences reflect adaptations to the different environmental conditions encountered at different depths.

A team of researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies an...