Blog Archives

Hammered by a monster cyclone just weeks after flooding spewed toxic waste into its pristine waters, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could face a slow recovery due to climate change, experts warn.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a top-category storm, ripped through Australia’s northeast tourist coast Thursday, levelling houses and decimating crops as it hit land near the city of Cairns, gateway to the Reef.

Though it is too early to assess the extent of the damage, marine experts said the sprawling coral structure was bound to have been harmed by Yasi’s blistering 290 kilometre (180 mile) per hour winds.

“Cyclones do damage reefs,” Nick Graham, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, told AFP.

“They tend to be be particularly damaging in shallow waters, so they can break corals and...

A new study links the contamination of a giant aquifer under Mexico’s Riviera Maya to the loss of up to 50 percent of coral reefs in the Caribbean since 1990.

The Journal of Environmental Pollution released a study stating that pharmaceutical, pesticide, and other chemical run-off from highways have infiltrated the region’s giant aquifer network, AFP reported.

Existing sinkholes — depressed areas allowing the transfer of surface water to the underground passages — have likely provided routes for the contaminated water to enter the sea.

Oysters are “functionally extinct” in my locations around the globe due to disease and overharvesting, a new study has found.

The wide-ranging survey, published in BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, compares the past and present condition of oyster reefs around the globe.

The international team of researchers led by Michael Beck of the Nature Conservancy and the University of California found that more than 90 percent of former reefs have been lost in most of the “bays” and ecoregions where the prized mollusks were formerly abundant.

In many places, such as the Wadden Sea in Europe and Narragansett Bay, oysters are rated “functionally extinct,” with fewer than 1 percent of former reefs persisting.

The declines are in most cases a result of over-har...

US marine archaeologists have found the sunken whaling ship belonging to the captain who inspired Herman Melville’s classic 19th Century novel, Moby Dick.

The remains of the vessel, the Two Brothers, was found in shallow waters off Hawaii.

Captain George Pollard was the skipper when the ship hit a coral reef and sank in 1823.

His previous ship, the Essex, had been rammed by a whale and also sank, providing the narrative for the book.

‘Pretty amazing’

The remains of the Two Brothers were found by researchers from America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), about 600 miles (965 km) north-west of Honolulu in the remote chain of islands and atolls.

The wooden vessel has disintegrated in the warm waters, but the researchers found harpoons, a hook for stripping whales of th...

Sunrise is still a good hour away when the first batch of limp, lifeless sharks are winched ashore and dumped on to the portside at Kesennuma.

As daylight throws its first shadows on to the loading bay, fishery workers begin gutting the sharks before removing their fins with razor-sharp knives. It is a messy, blood-spattered business, and a study in industrial efficiency.

The fins are hurled into plastic buckets, and what’s left of the animals is scooped up by a forklift and loaded on to a truck. In contrast, the marlin, swordfish and bluefin tuna that share the port’s 1,000 metre-long bay are afforded almost reverential treatment.

Kesennuma, a fishing town on Japan’s north-east Pacific coast, does a lucrative business in the staples of Japanese cuisine: tuna, flounder, octopus, crab, boni...

The booming tourist industry along Mexico’s Caribbean coast, particularly in the area of Canc

Sharks launched 79 unprovoked attacks on humans in 2010, the highest number in a decade, US researchers have found.

Six people died from unprovoked attacks, up from an average of 4.3 over the past 10 years, University of Florida scientists said.

Thirty-two attacks occurred in North American waters, 14 off Australia and eight in South African waters.

Scientists say reported attacks have risen over the past century as humans spend more leisure time in the water.

The 2010 figure was up from 63 in 2009, and above the yearly average over the past decade of 63.5.

“But the rate of attacks is not necessarily going up – population is rising and the interest in aquatic recreation grows,” University of Florida ichthyologist George Burgess said in a statement announcing the university’s international ...

The big cleanup continues with over 400,000 pounds of marine debris removed from Alaska’s beaches in 2010.

The Marine Conservation Alliance says that means that since 2003 over 2 million pounds of marine debris has been removed from Alaska coastlines.

Ocean currents bring debris from Asia to Alaska’s shores.

There also are domestic sources for marine debris, as well as debris from international shipping.

Common items include pieces of high seas drift nets, trawl nets and floats and plastics, including water bottles.

One of the bigger projects last year was removing a derelict fishing vessel from the northern fur seal rookery on St. Paul Island.

Whale sharks, the world’s biggest fish, could be even bigger than previously recorded, a new study reveals.

Scientists working in Mozambique have developed a new method of measurement using a camera mounted with lasers.

Although previously estimated at up to 20 metres in length, accurate details of the giant fish have been difficult to obtain in the past.

Researchers believe regular measurements will reveal more about the lifecycles of these sea giants.

Scientists studying whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) describe a technological breakthrough in understanding the plankton-eating giants.

Working with the University of Queensland, the Marine Megafauna Foundation and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, the team’s findings are published in the Journal of Fish Biology.

“Our paper is the first ...

Three huge marine reserves will be created in the subantarctic, the Government has announced today.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said the 435,000 hectares of reserve will surround Antipodes Island, the Bounty Islands and Campbell Island.

“The subantarctic islands are renowned globally and are a huge attraction for the burgeoning eco-tourism industry.

“Protecting the surrounding waters is sure to add to the prestige of this remote area.”

Ironically, the minister made her announcement at the National Party’s Bluegreens advisory group conference in Akaroa.

Last year, Wilkinson rejected a proposed marine reserve for Akaroa Harbour after two decades of debate, involving five different environment ministers.

Delegates of the conference will tomorrow cruise the harbour, near the proposed...