Blog Archives

On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a bill, called the “SECURE American Energy Act” (H.R. 4239), that can only be described as an oil industry wish-list. The bill’s purpose is to mow down environmental concerns that stand in the way of the complete exploitation of fossil fuels in this country. For the oceans, this would mean an end to national monument designation and to some of those pesky safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater spill, among other things. And although it hasn’t received much attention—yet—one late addition to the bill targets marine mammals in a very big way.

H.R...

Predictions of the death of the Great Barrier Reef are wide of the mark, according to one of the most prominent researchers in the field. Marine biologist David Bourne from James Cook University says global warming and other pressures will not end up destroying the reef – but will instead bring about major changes in biodiversity.

“There is always going to be winners and losers,” he says. “The reef is still going to be there, it just may be a very different reef to what we have today.”

And perhaps the key element in determining which species of coral thrive and which suffer in the reef’s future might be bacteria.

Bourne says the volcanic seeps in Papua New Guinea dramatically affect the diversity of coral reef species...

The Trump administration is considering rolling back federal protections for a number of national monuments. While most are on land and relatively accessible, three are deep below the ocean’s surface and many miles from the mainland: the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, both in the central Pacific Ocean, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England.

While most people will never explore the canyons and reefs of these watery realms, their value is hard to overestimate, according to Stanford scientists with years of experience exploring and studying these and adjacent areas.

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment spoke with marine experts Rob Dunbar, Fiorenza Micheli, Step...

Hawaii’s Institute of Marine Biology says it is hopeful state lawmakers will draft a meaningful bill to protect the marine environment but time is running out. An associate specialist, Malia Rivera, said scientists recently presented information on the escalation of coral bleaching and the decline in reef fish stocks due to over fishing and environmental stress.

Almost half of Hawaii’s coral reefs were bleached during heat waves in 2014 and 2015 and fisheries close to shore are declining, with about 40 percent of the species classified as overfished.

Ms Rivera said scientists had been briefing the State Legislature on the critical outlook for coral reefs and inshore fisheries.

“Under a business as usual strategy the outlook is not promising for coral reefs in the coming decades...

Scientists have used satellite tracking and a crime-scene technique to discover an important feeding ground for green turtles in the Mediterranean. University of Exeter researchers measured “stable isotope ratios” – a chemical signature also used by forensic scientists – to discover which foraging grounds turtles had come from to breed in Cyprus.

They discovered that Lake Bardawil, on Egypt’s north coast, is now the most important foraging ground for turtles which breed at Alagadi in Cyprus.

The researchers believe few breeding females came from the Lake Bardawil feeding ground until 2010. It is likely that changes to the ecosystem have made this shallow saline lake a top foraging site.

“Our satellite tracking of turtles breeding in Cyprus has been going on for some years,” said senior au...

Europe’s killer whales wowed in the BBC’s Blue Planet II series but these animals face extinction. It was one of those television moments. The sight of killer whales herding shoals of herring into tighter and tighter balls to trap the prey near the surface of the water. The killer whales work as a pack of skilful hunters before deploying their secret weapon – tail-slapping the fish so hard they are either dazed or die. The story behind those shots is even more remarkable.

They were filmed in the majestic Norwegian fjords. These long, narrow inlets are now among the few places in Europe you can see a pod of killer whales.

Across Europe, these cetaceans are declining rapidly.

In the Mediterranean and the North Sea, they have vanished.

Elsewhere, there are now only eight killer whales in th...

The researchers from UWA, the ARC Centre of Excellence and WA Marine Science Institution found Ningaloo Reef, which is still recovering from major bleaching in 2010-11, was not affected.

The 2016 global bleaching event was the third and longest on record and the Kimberley region was the hardest hit.

Between March and May 2016, the world’s oceans were 0...

Cool-water corals can adapt to a slightly warmer ocean, but only if global greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. That’s according to a study published November 1 in the journal Science Advances of genetic adaptation and the likely effects of future warming on tabletop corals in the Cook Islands.

The study found that some corals in the normally cool waters of the Cook Islands carry genetic variants that predispose them to heat tolerance. This could help the population adapt more quickly to rising temperatures. But the preliminary results show they may not adapt quickly enough to outpace climate change.

“These corals aren’t going to adapt at an unlimited rate,” said lead author Rachael Bay, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis...

My name is Costa and as the Owner/CEO of “T101 – Technical & Diving Ops®” Dive Center located in Constanta, Romania (EU) by the Black Sea coast west side. I am pleased to introduce us.

We are dive centre authorised:

• ANDI Training Facility AER0 #001
• SDI/TDI Training Facility #1004957
• DDI Dive Center #20060
• DAN Europe Business Partner #726506

We offer diving and training for sport, technical (Basic Nitrox to Advanced Trimix & Wrecks Exploration, OC & CCR/Rebreather), gas blending, first response and disabled, starting from beginners to instructor level. We train divers as per/and exceeding ANDI, SDI/TDI/FRTI, PADI/DSAT TecRec, DDI, EFR & DAN Europe standards.

Our “house-reef” is ideal for beginners but is offering the unique opportunity to dive the sunken city “Tomis” (present Consta...

Plastics are abundant in our oceans. Now scientists have found that corals — which already faces numerous threats and have declined on a staggering scale  — may be feeding on it not because it resembles prey, but because it actually tastes good to them.

Corals are living organisms. Coral reefs are collections of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of tiny creatures called polyps which attach themselves to a rock or the skeletons of dead corals. The beautiful colours you may be familiar with are caused by microscopic algae that live inside their tissue.

And while we may appreciate their beauty, corals are an important feature in our oceans, providing food and shelter for millions of marine creatures.

But there’s also something else in abundance in our waters: plastic...