Blog Archives

Dozens of new types of coral have been identified in a remote section of the Great Barrier Reef and it has been described as a ‘lost world’ by researchers. Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Torres Strait Regional Authority have been studying the area of Torres Strait for the last three years.

Their findings were presented at National Environmental Research Program conference in Cairns last week, reports the Cairns Post.

The researchers were looking at five different sites from central to eastern Torres Strait and they discovered 91 new species of coral in the region.

Dr Scott Bainbridge, from AIMS, said: ‘These reefs are in extremely good condition.

‘They are managed by the local communities, and potentially these may also be important to southe...

An estimated 1,900 microfibers can get rinsed out of a single piece of synthetic clothing each time it’s washed, and these microplastic fibers might be the biggest contributors to ocean pollution.

The issue of plastics polluting our oceans isn’t a new one, as the presence of vast quantities of plastic waste in the water and shorelines has been researched and documented. The origin of much of the larger bits of plastic debris in the ocean is fairly obvious, at least for those items that are identifiable with the naked eye, but one of the more pervasive ocean pollutants is so small as to be virtually invisible to us...

Conservation efforts to save sharks are broadening from the Great White to less iconic species including Thresher sharks found in waters off Egypt and the Philippines, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, or CMS, will meet from tomorrow to Nov. 9 in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. Of 32 species under threat that are proposed to be listed by the conference, more than 20 are sharks.

“I think it’s the first time at any environmental meeting where sharks have outnumbered the traditional conservation species: iconic land predators and migratory birds and eagles,” Luke Warwick, a senior associate at Pew’s shark conservation initiative, said in an Oct. 30 phone interview...

The UK’s chief scientist says the oceans face a serious and growing risk from man-made carbon emissions. The oceans absorb about a third of the CO2 that’s being produced by industrial society, and this is changing the chemistry of seawater. Sir Mark Walport warns that the acidity of the oceans has increased by about 25% since the industrial revolution, mainly thanks to manmade emissions. CO2 reacts with the sea water to form carbonic acid.

He told BBC News: “If we carry on emitting CO2 at the same rate, ocean acidification will create substantial risks to complex marine food webs and ecosystems.”

He said the current rate of acidification is believed to be unprecedentedwithin the last 65 million years – and may threaten fisheries in future.

The consequences of acidification are l...

The deeper half of the ocean did not get measurably warmer in the last decade, but surface layers have been warming faster than we thought since the 1970s, two new studies suggest. Because the sea absorbs 90% of the heat caused by human activity, its warmth is a central concern in climate science. The new work suggests that shallow layers bear the brunt of ocean warming.

Scientists compared temperature data, satellite measurements of sea level, and results from climate models. Both the papers appear in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Underestimation

Specifically in the Southern Hemisphere where fewer measurements have been made, a team of researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California investigated long-term warming in the top 700m of the ocean.

They wanted t...

Great Whites are killed after surfer loses arm and hand. The carcasses of two great white sharks caught off the coast of Esperance, in southern Western Australia, will be cut open after a surfer was attacked.

Sean Pollard, 23, lost part of an arm and his other hand in the attack at Kelpids Beach, Wylie Bay, on Thursday morning. He is in a stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital.

Two great white sharks were caught and killed after WA’s Department of Fisheries deployed drum lines off the beach following the incident.

The sharks have been taken to Perth by truck for research purposes, and Mr Pollard’s surfboard will also be forensically examined by shark experts.

However, the Department of Fisheries conceded it might not be possible to confirm whether the sharks killed were involved in the...

WA’s most renowned coral reefs, including Ningaloo Reef, are not as protected as scientists previously thought, with new research revealing warmer water temperatures have reduced coral growth and survival rates. This reduced growth means Western Australian corals may become more vulnerable, since the South West coast is a ‘hot spot’ for ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster than other parts of the Indian Ocean.

UWA PhD student Taryn Foster investigated the growth of three coral species— Acropora pulchra, Pocillopora damicornis and Goniastrea aspera —at Ningaloo Reef in the north, the Houtman Abrolhos Islands in the Mid West and Marmion Reef in the south near Perth.

Ms Foster measured coral growth from 2011–2013, a time when water temperatures were unusually high.

Th...

Approved by the World Bank Board of Directors, the 18.2 million dollars Marine Protected Areas Project will benefit the 43 million people who live in Brazil’s 514 thousand km2 coast area. Financed by the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), the project will bring far-reaching social and economic benefits, protecting the capacity of coastal ecosystems to produce food, maintain good water quality, and increasing their resilience to and recovery from degradation. It will also increase the wellbeing and opportunities for traditional local communities that directly depend on fishing activities for subsistence

“The coastal zone is currently one of the most environmentally threatened regions in Brazil” said Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s Minister of Environment...

Western Australia’s shark cull is to be halted after the state’s environmental regulator advised against it. Earlier this year, baited traps known as drum lines were set up as a trial along seven beaches to catch sharks, after a series of fatal attacks. But the policy was controversial, with critics arguing it could damage the marine ecosystem.

The regulator cited “a high degree of scientific uncertainty” about the impact on the white shark population.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it had weighed the potential impact of the plan against the need to maintain “the diversity, geographic distribution and viability” of marine life. It made particular reference to the white shark, because it is listed as a “vulnerable” species.

Experts consulted by the EPA said there was “too...

Katupika communities have created what is thought to be the biggest network of marine reserves in Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands following the addition of four new sites to existing Managed Marine Areas governed by the Lauru Land Conference of Tribal Communities.

The new areas are Kukuru, Malanguni, Tarapae and Karago. All these sites are in the south east of the province and are owned by different clans. However, each comes from the same Volekana ‘mother tribe’.

This month a team consisting of three conservation practitioners from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) made a 10-day trip to Katupika communities in south east Choiseul to conduct training for 18 biological monitors from the villages of Ruruvai, Pututu, Posarae, Ropa, Kelekaku, and Lituni.

The Community Based Resource Manageme...