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New research from the University of North Carolina concludes that most marine life in marine protected areas will not be able to tolerate warming ocean temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

There are 8,236 marine protected areas around the world covering about four percent of the surface of the ocean. They have been established as a haven to protect threatened marine life, like polar bears, penguins and coral reefs, from the effects of fishing and other activities such as oil and gas extraction.

The study found that with continued “business-as-usual” emissions, the protections currently in place won’t matter, because by 2100, warming and reduced oxygen concentration will make marine protected areas uninhabitable by most species currently residing in those areas.

The study ...

Alisa Schulman-Janiger was observing gray whales off Mexico in 1985 when, instead of a majestic fluke rising from the water, she saw an ugly stump.

It was a whale without a tail. “My jaw literally dropped,” she recalls.

Since then, there have been occasional sightings of tailless whales in western North America. But so far this year, at least three flukeless gray whales have been spotted migrating northward along California’s coast—a spike that has Schulman-Janiger concerned for their well-being.

There are no signs these animals have suffered a killer whale attack, or a collision with a ship, she says; instead, the injuries are likely due to entanglement in fishing gear.

When the marine mammals feed in areas with lots of fishing gear, debris, and other human-made objects, ropes and nets ...

Australia has pledged A$500 million ($379 million) in an effort to rescue the ailing Great Barrier Reef in the country’s largest-ever investment in coral reef conservation.

The landmark plan includes funds for improving water quality by reducing pollution from farm fertilizer runoff, and encourage reef restoration by experimenting with laboratory-grown coral that is more durable at higher temperatures, the New YorkTimes reports. The proposal also includes A$58 million ($43.8 million) to stem the spread of crown-of-thorn starfish, a poisonous coral-eating predator.

“We’ll be improving the monitoring of the reef’s health and the measurement of its impacts,” Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said at the plan’s announcement on Sunday...

A new poll commissioned by members of the Make Stewardship Count coalition indicates that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) could face a significant erosion of consumer confidence as a result of the certification body’s inattention to a number of critical issues, including the bycatch of endangered and threatened species, the deliberate encirclement of dolphins, shark finning and habitat destruction.

YouGov Deutschland GmbH polled 5,574 people in France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK from April 12 to 19, 2018; the weighted results represent the adult (+18) population in each country. The Make Stewardship Count coalition is releasing the poll during the 2018 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global event currently underway in Brussels.

While opinions vary slightly between the co...

The powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 is taking the scientific world by storm. It gives researchers unprecedented power and precision in making tweaks to practically any gene in a plant or animal — and coral reefs could become its next beneficiary.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Phillip Cleves at Stanford University used CRISPR to edit three genes in corals growing in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Cleves manipulated the genes very early in the coral’s life cycle — just after fertilization of egg and sperm, when the coral is just one cell. That ensured that the genetic change was as widespread in the resulting coral’s genome as possible...

As Earth Day rolls around again, whether we have seen Blue Planet II, or photos of whales and other sea life that have starved on a diet of ingested plastics, we are increasingly aware that ocean plastics are a menacing – and worsening – problem. China’s role in the issue is critical, particularly since an estimated five million tons of the eight million tons of plastic entering the sea each year comes via China. But there are hopeful signs that stricter environmental regulation by Beijing will have a positive impact on ocean plastics.

I should say upfront that my interest in the subject was piqued by Marcy Trent-Long’s terrific podcast, The Eight Million...

Prolonged ocean warming events, known as marine heatwaves, take a significant toll on the complex ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. This is according to a new study on the impacts of the 2016 marine heatwave, published in Nature. In surveying the 3,863 individual reefs that make up the system off Australia’s north-east coast, scientists found that 29% of communities were affected. In some cases up to 90% of coral died, in a process known as bleaching.

This occurs when the stress of elevated temperatures causes a breakdown of the coral’s symbiotic relationship with its algae, which provide the coral with energy to survive, and give the reef its distinctive colours.

Certain coral species are more susceptible to this heat-induced stress, and the 2016 marine heatwave saw the death of man...

I have spent my entire life pushing for new protected areas in the world’s oceans. But a disturbing trend has convinced me that we’re protecting very little of real importance with our current approach.

From Hawaii to Brazil to Britain, the establishment of large marine protected areas, thousands of square miles in size, is on the rise. These areas are set aside by governments to protect fisheries and ecosystems; human activities within them generally are managed or restricted. While these vast expanses of open ocean are important, their protection should not come before coastal waters are secured. But in some cases, that’s what is happening.

Near-shore waters have a greater diversity of species and face more immediate threats from energy extraction, tourism, development, habitat deg...

They found the first ones in Japan. Hidden in the soil at a plastics recycling plant, researchers unearthed a microbe that had evolved to eat the soda bottles dominating its habitat, after you and I throw them away. That discovery was announced in 2016, and scientists have now gone one better. While examining how the Japanese bug breaks down plastic, they accidentally created a mutant enzyme that outperforms the natural bacteria, and further tweaks could offer a vital solution to humanity’s colossal plastics problem.

“Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception,” says structural biologist John McGeehan from the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

“This unanticipated discovery suggests that there is room to further im...