Blog Archives

Sea turtle conservationists are hailing a federal lawsuit settlement reached Wednesday, which they say gives the endangered species more protection in light of increased coastal development.

The settlement comes as a report released Wednesday by the Sea Turtles Conservancy in Gainesville outlines additional moves to safeguard turtles from further harm.

Under the agreement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which grants flood insurance subsidies to coastal properties and developments that can

An Adelaide chiropractor has been named Australia’s deepest man – at least while he’s in the water.

And despite achieving two new records in breathhold diving, Michael Cheesman is still in pursuit of his perfect dive.

Cheesman, 44, broke two of three possible Australian records last week at Sharm el Sheikh, in the Red Sea, by diving more than 100m with only a single breath and a rope.

Based in Adelaide, Cheesman broke the previous records by one metre each.

He reached 106m in the No Limits category, and 101m in the Variable Weight category.

Cheesman was also hoping to break a record in the Free Immersion category, but black-outs on his two attempts held him back from the hat trick.

Free diving is diving under water with a single breath of air.

Cheesman first gave it a go at a course in Fl...

A new website set up by Scottish scientists to raise awareness of cold-water corals is to premiere a short film by Sir David Attenborough.

The naturalist has given his support to the website created by scientists at Heriot-Watt University.

They want to publicise the importance of the corals’ conservation in Scotland and around the world.

The team discovered the only known inshore coral reef in Scottish waters – the Mingulay reef complex – in 2003.

The reef was discovered in the Sea of the Hebrides when the area was mapped using modern mapping sonar techniques.

Heriot-Watt said the short film would focus on cold-water corals and the threats they face.

Dr Murray Roberts, from the university’s School of Life Sciences, said: “To have the backing of such a well-known and respected figure as Si...

Some Pacific Ocean corals have migrated north — and done it fast — possibly in response to rising ocean temperatures, Japanese researchers say.

Scientists of the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan, analyzed maps of corals from four time periods starting in the 1930s and found that of nine common species, four had moved northward, and two species even went so far as to move out of the tropics to temperate waters, ScienceNews.org reported Monday.

Marine biologists and fisherman have long suspected this northern migration was taking place.

“There were eyewitness accounts of the occurrence, but the data wasn’t so reliable,” geographer Hiroya Yamano says. “Now we can show very solid evidence.”

The speed of the migration surprised the researchers...

Facing a host of threats including fishery devastation and the destruction of coral reefs, conservationists have increasingly pinned their hopes on marine protected areas (MPAs).

More than 5,000 of these sanctuaries, where fishing is controlled to limit its effect on biodiversity, have been set up, mainly in coastal zones.

They range in size from less than 10,000 square metres to the vast Phoenix Islands area, part of the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, which tops 400,000 square kilometres.

But, in the rush to safeguard marine ecosystems, there has been little scientific assessment of how to create a successful MPA.

With a new wave of MPAs expected to be created in deep-ocean regions in the next few years, scientists are eager to understand how factors such as size and siting ...

A Bahraini architect is on a one-man mission to resurrect the country’s coral reefs by building an underwater aquarium.

Overfishing, pollution and reclamation are among the many human actions that have harmed the eco-system, according to MSCEB architects and engineers vice-president Thamer Salahuddin.

“The creation of artificial islands has covered the natural breeding grounds of fish and corals,” he said.

The expert explained corals depended on the oxygen from the water and filter-feed on small organisms that currents wash into their openings.

“In the process of reclamation, a stilt happens, like when we have the desert storms here, it covers the coral and it blocks its ‘breathing’, so it dies,” said Mr Salahuddin.

The death of the corals also means the destruction of the sanctuary and fo...

Eighteen popular diving sites in Thailand will be closed for up to 14 months to allow coral damaged by bleaching to recover.

Over 80% of the coral at each diving site had been damaged, National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department chief Sunan Arunnoparat said yesterday.

Bleaching, or a whitening of coral as it loses its natural pigment, is caused by a rise in sea temperatures which has been linked to global warming. The dive sites which have been closed are in seven marine national parks.

They are the Hat Chao Mai National Park in Trang, Mu Koh Petra and Tarutao national parks in Satun, Mu Koh Chumphon National Park in Chumphon, Hat Nopparat Thara-Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park in Krabi, and Mu Koh Surin and Mu Koh Similan national parks in Phangnga.

The coral bleaching, which ...

Researchers in Australia have discovered a secret weakness of one of the ocean’s most impressive predators.

Sharks, it seems, are completely colour blind.

The scientists, who examined retinas of 17 different species of shark, discovered that the creatures had only one type of colour-sensitive cell, known as a cone cell, in their eyes.

Human eyes have three cone cell types, with each type dedicated to receiving either blue, green or red light.

This allows most people to tell the difference between different coloured objects.

The study, carried out by Nathan Scott Hart and colleagues from the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland, Australia is published in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

Dr Hart said the research could help to prevent shark attacks on humans and...

After banning commercial purse seining from its waters in July, the Republic of Panama has taken further steps adding restrictions on longlining for the conservation of its marine life and its socio-economic growth.

In letters to Panamanian officials, Ellen Peel, President of The Billfish Foundation (TBF) and Chris Fischer founder of OCEARCH, applauded the government for becoming the first of the seven Central America nations to restrict pelagic longline gear within its waters.

The practice of commercial longlining in the region uses hundreds of baited hooks attached to short lengths of line spaced at intervals to main lines. The longliners target swordfish and tuna, but also hook bycatch species including sharks, turtles and recreational billfish such as marlin and sailfish.

Panama

The sight of a pointed dorsal fin slicing through the waves strikes many with a feeling of primal, blood-freezing fear. Sharks have a fearsome reputation stretching back much further than the iconic 1970s film Jaws but, for many of us, the reputation is undeserved.

In fact, sharks are actually under threat from man. Whether caught for their fins, to be served in fish and chip shops or as accidental bycatch it’s clear that shark numbers are falling. To help you understand the beauty of the sharks residing in UK waters, here are seven surprising facts.

1. Around 21 species live off the UK coast.

According to the Shark Trust you’re most likely to meet the basking shark. These plankton-eating gentle giants can grow up to 11 metres and are seen off Britain’s west coast throughout the summer...