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The amount of oil spilled from the Japanese-owned ship nearby the lagoons and coastal areas of south-east Mauritius is relatively low compared to the big oil spills the world has seen in the past, but the damage it will do is going to be huge and long-lasting, experts say.

Unlike most previous offshore spills, this has taken place near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve, which is a wetland of international importance.

So, it’s the location rather than the size of the spill which is causing greatest concern about its potentially serious environmental impact.

The stunning turquoise waters of the blue lagoon outside the coastal village of Mahébourg in Mauritius, the backdrop for numerous Bollywood movies, are now stained black and brown.

The ...

The island nation of Mauritius has declared a “state of environmental emergency” after a vessel offshore began leaking oil into the ocean. MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on 25 July and its crew was evacuated. But the large bulk carrier has since begun leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters.

France has pledged support and the ship’s owner said it was working to combat the spill.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth declared the state of emergency late on Friday.

He said the nation did not have “the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships” as he appealed to France for help.

The French island of Reunion lies near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean...

Belize has announced another major milestone in its efforts to protect its marine resources and ocean ecosystems. Signed by Belize’s minister of fisheries, forestry, environment and sustainable development, Omar Figueroa, a new statutory instrument authorizes the expansion of the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve and protects an important reef ecosystem known as the Corona Reef or Cayman Crown, one of the best preserved reefs in the region.

The newly expanded Sapodilla Cayes reserve now totals an area covering more than 500 square miles, with a strictly protected area in Belize’s deep-sea totaling more than 350 square miles. Found south of the Sapodilla Cayes, the Corona Reef complex is considered one of the most underrepresented habitats in Belize’s marine protected areas system...

An underwater webcam in the port of Miami has become a lockdown sensation.

Marine biologist and artist Colin Foord set up a webcam in the industrial port of Miami, in the city’s busiest shipping canal. Since February the Coral City Camera has documented more than 100 fish species. Foord calls it an “underwater campfire that we can all sit around”. It became a sensation during lockdown, thanks in part to its undisputed star, a tailless doctorfish called Oval.

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“We are truly living in a time of giants.” Lofty language like this doesn’t happen often in scientific literature. But the person who wrote them, biologist Jeremy Goldbogen, understands: When it comes to writing about whales, the scale and mystery of their lives can be difficult to overstate.

For the past two decades, Goldbogen and his network of collaborators have been piecing together a puzzle: Whales are the largest animals to have ever lived—but why? The puzzle pieces were out of reach until the turn of the current century, and in only the last few years have there been enough in place to grasp the bigger picture.

We now understand that whale gigantism is tied closely to two things: one, their choice of prey, and two, the coincidence of their evolution with a global increase i...

On a 24-hour boat trip off the coast of Western Australia, Dr. Taryn Foster was seeking out a coral reef treasure known as Scott Reef. It was a familiar place for her, as the research associate at the California Academy of Sciences had gone on dives and conducted coral surveys there as part of her postdoctoral work studying coral.

“There’s no tourists out there,” Foster said. “It’s as untouched as you can get these days.”

But Foster found the condition of Scott Reef had changed wildly from years past. She was about to dive into the coral reefs during the worlds’ 2016 mass bleaching event — one of the longest and most severe coral bleaching events on record.

“In a way, it’s actually quite beautiful...

Scientists have discovered kelp off the coast of Scotland, Ireland and France that has survived since the last ice age, around 16,000 years ago. Experts from Heriot-Watt University’s Orkney campus analysed the genetic composition of oarweed from 14 areas across the northern Atlantic ocean. The team found three distinct genetic clusters.

It is hoped the discovery could help show how marine plant life survives extreme changes in climate.

Dr Andrew Want collected samples from Kirkwall Bay, near his home.

The marine ecologist said the “refugee populations” managed to hang on and survive “amid dramatic changes”.

‘Critical role’

Dr Want, who is based at Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Island Technology in Orkney, said: “Oarweed in Scotland and Ireland is more closely related to populati...

Sharks are rarely seen at almost one in five of the world’s coral reefs, a major study has found. The crash in shark numbers, caused largely by over-fishing, could have dire consequences for corals struggling to survive in a changing climate, researchers have said. Sharks are top predators, playing a key role in marine ecosystems.

They did best in places where shark fishing was controlled, or where marine sanctuaries had been created.

Dr Mike Heithaus of Florida International University, US, said: “At a time when corals are struggling to survive in a changing climate, losing reef sharks could have dire long-term consequences for entire reef systems.”

The research, published in the journal Nature, and part of the Global FinPrint study, reveals widespread loss of reef sharks across much of...

The River Thames has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics for any river in the world. Scientists have estimated that 94,000 microplastics per second flow down the river in places. The quantity exceeds that measured in other European rivers, such as the Danube and Rhine. Tiny bits of plastic have been found inside the bodies of crabs living in the Thames. And wet wipes flushed down the toilet are accumulating in large numbers on the shoreline.

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London, are calling for stricter regulations on the labelling and disposal of plastic products.

They warn that careless disposal of plastic gloves and masks during the coronavirus pandemic might make the problem of plastic pollution worse.

“Taken together these studies show how many diff...