Blog Archives

Almost all of the methane released in the Gulf of Mexico oil leak was quickly swallowed by bacteria – which may give clues to climate change in the Arctic.

Writing in journal Science, US researchers report that methane-absorbing bacteria multiplied in the Gulf following the April accident.

The Arctic contains vast stores of methane, and its release could quickly accelerate warming around the world.

But scientists caution that the regions are very different.

The research ship Pisces, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), made several voyages into the Gulf in the months following the leak.

“There were thousands of different types of molecule coming out of the well, and by far the most abundant was methane,” said research leader John Kessler, from Texas A and...

When countless numbers of Australians cast their fishing lines into coastal waters this summer and bring home a catch, it must seem inconceivable that Australia has a problem with the stock of fish in its surrounding seas and oceans.

After all, the marine area controlled by Australia covers 14 million sq km – almost twice the size of its land mass.

This vast empire is one of the biggest in the world, but efforts are now being made to turn more of it into conservation zones where fishing would be banned entirely or restricted.

Marine parks have been created off the coast of Tasmania and Victoria, and a series of no-take or mixed-use marine reserves is proposed all along the east coast, covering 2.4 million sq km.

They would stretch from Torres Strait north of Queensland to southern NSW, an...

The companies involved in the BP oil spill had made decisions to cut costs and save time that contributed to the disaster, a US panel has found.

In a 48-page report, the presidential commission wrote that the failures were “systemic” and likely to recur without industry and government reform.

But it said BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure safety.

The April blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and caused one of the worst oil spills in history.

The Macondo well, about a mile under the sea’s surface, eventually leaked millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, damaging hundreds of miles of coastline before it was capped in July.

BP said in a statement that the report, like its own investigation, had found the accident was the result of multiple c...

Leatherback turtles swim for thousands of miles across the South Atlantic to get to their feeding grounds, a trip that takes some of them 150 days to complete, researchers said Wednesday.

The findings are important for conservationists looking to protect the turtles from threats such as fishing nets and hooks, which have been blamed for the dramatically depleted population of leatherbacks in the Pacific Ocean, researchers said.

“All of the routes we’ve identified take the leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there’s a very real danger to the Atlantic population,” said Brendan Godley, a professor in conservation biology at the University of Exeter.

The five-year study followed the movement of female turtles from the world’s largest breeding colony in Gabon, central Afr...

Palau

South Korea says it is tightening rules to combat illegal whaling.

Although commercial whale hunting is banned in the country, the trading of whales that are found dead is still legal.

The new rules will require fisherman to report to police immediately if they discover dead whales in their nets or washed ashore.

The move comes after critics said some fishermen were exploiting a loophole in the law.

The new regulations mean that, from Monday, samples from all dead whales must be given to the authorities for testing, and their meat can only be sold after a full investigation into how the animal died.

Those who catch dead whales will also only be allowed to process and sell them at state-designated facilities, South Korea’s agricultural ministry said.

The new law aims to tackle a “growing a...

Two Japanese Greenpeace activists known as the Tokyo Two say they have been vindicated in their efforts to expose corruption in the country’s whaling industry.

The powerful Japanese Fisheries Agency has admitted that some of its officials took kickbacks of whale meat.

For Toru Suzuki, this confession by the Fisheries Agency could help overturn his criminal conviction.

Together with fellow Greenpeace activist Junichi Sato, he was handed a one-year suspended sentence for stealing whale meat.

He says he was merely intercepting public property stolen by the whalers and exposing this corruption in the public interest.

“This is a big victory for us,” Mr Suzuki said.

“This is a very important step for us to tell the Japanese public about what we’ve been doing.”

Six months ago the ABC broadcast al...

In the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s coast, at 1,500 feet and deeper, the water is 45 degrees and pitch-black.

Yet life thrives there. Scientists are just beginning to explore this vast secret of the deep sea: extensive coral reefs and the marine creatures that live there because of them.

A scientific mission last month explored more than 800 square miles of ocean, from Jacksonville to the Keys, confirming the existence of several deep-water reefs and charting new sites.

Like the corals found in shallow, tropical reefs, deep-sea corals help form habitat for crabs, shrimp, fish and other marine life. Growing from the seafloor, the corals have produced massive cliffs through the centuries as new generations of coral grow atop the old.

Scientists already know that deep-water corals attract co...

An estimated 18,000 gray whales have begun their southern migration from the Bering Sea to their breeding grounds around Baja, Mexico and can be sighted from shore over the next week or two.

Winter Whale Watch week began Saturday and runs through Jan.1.

About 450 volunteers at 26 sites along the Pacific coast will be on hand that week to educate people about gray whales and help them spot a whale spouting, or perhaps even breaching the surface.

During last winter’s whale watch week, more than 13,000 people visited a whale watching site, and volunteers recorded 832 whale sightings.

The sites are part of Whale Watching Spoken Here, one of largest onshore whale watching programs in the nation.

With public beaches and an easily accessible coastline, Oregon offers some of the best opportunity...

Problems with how scientists communicate with the media and in how reefs’ health is assessed have created a skewed public understanding of coral bleaching, according to a new study.

Coral bleaching is a widespread phenomenon in which corals lose their vivid colours. It’s a major concern to conservationists, as it can be triggered by rapid environmental change and sometimes presages the death of whole reefs, along with the complex ecosystems they support.

But the researchers suggest we need to take a more complex view of the matter – bleaching isn’t always a bad thing...