Category News

Mauritius deployed its coastguard and armed forces on Monday after a Chinese-flagged trawler containing 130 tonnes of oil ran aground off the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. It is the second shipwreck in less than a year off Mauritius, after a tanker struck a reef in July and leaked 1,000 tonnes of fuel in the country’s worst environmental disaster in history.

Fisheries Minister Sudheer Maudhoo said the captain of the Lurong Yuan Yu, a trawler flying the Chinese flag, issued distress calls late Sunday afternoon.

Residents said flares were sent up by the fishing vessel, which was stranded off Pointe-aux-Sables in the northwest of the main island not far from the capital Port Louis.

“The first measure is to pump all the oil on board,” Minister Maudhoo told reporters late Sunday, a...

Cancer should be a near certainty for whales, the longest-living and largest mammals there are — but scientists are finding that cetaceans are excellent at protecting themselves against the deadly disease. Just how do they do that? It could all come down to good genes, according to a new study published by The Royal Society.

“The odds of developing cancer increase with longevity and body mass,” explained lead study author Daniela Tejada-Martinez, a postdoctoral researcher at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Having more cells means having a higher probability that some of them may develop dangerous mutations as they grow and divide over the course of their life cycle.

“Paradoxically, big and/or long-lived species have lower cancer risk...

Scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (Coral CoE at JCU) have assessed how many corals there are in the Pacific Ocean. In a world-first coral count, the team have estimated that there are roughly half a trillion corals in the Pacific Ocean alone – approximately the same number of trees in the Amazon, or birds in the world.

Until now, scientists didn’t know how many individual coral colonies there are in the world, and these findings have prompted them to reevaluate the risks of extinction.

“We need to know the abundance of a species to assess its risk of extinction,” said Dr Andreas Dietzel of Coral CoE at JCU. “However, there is very little data on most of Earth’s wild animal and plant species – not just corals...

This week marks South Australia becoming the first State or Territory in Australia to ban single-use plastic products with drinking straws, stirrers and cutlery to be prohibited from sale, supply or distribution across the state.

The legislation was passed in Parliament last year with South Australia’s Single-use and Other Plastic Products (Waste Avoidance) Act 2020 becoming the first legislation of its kind in Australia.

Following this initial phase of plastic banning, on 1st March 2022, oxo-degradable plastic products, as well as expanded polystyrene cups, bowls, plates and clamshell containers will also be banned.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has welcomed the beginning of South Australia’s ban on single-use plastics today, saying the ban will save the li...

A simple but powerful idea is to improve the health of corals using cocktails of beneficial bacteria. The strategy is being explored as part of global scientific efforts to help corals become stronger, more stress resistant and more likely to survive bleaching events associated with climate change.

Corals rely on bacterial and algal symbionts to provide nutrients, energy (through photosynthesis), toxin regulation and protection against pathogenic attacks. This complex and finely balanced relationship underpins the health of the holobiont and coral reefs as a whole.

Rather like the use of probiotics in plant science to improve growth and resilience, marine scientist Raquel Peixoto believes that, in times of stress, corals could benefit from a boost to their natural symbiotic partners...

With WA’s coastline enduring a marine heatwave event, marine scientists have raised concerns about coral bleaching events along the Coral Coast. Sea surface temperatures were up to 3C warmer than average in January, and are expected to reach their highest levels in a decade by April, according to data from the CSIRO.

Australian Institute of Marine Science’s coral ecologist Dr James Gilmour, pictured, believes the thermal stress of the heatwave may lead to coral bleaching events in Ningaloo, Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands.

“Low level bleaching has already been observed in parts of Exmouth Gulf,” he said.

“While the recent tropical low has reduced environmental temperatures, the risk of bleaching will continue in the coming weeks.”

The Bureau of Meteorology says ...

Last week Australia joined a new alliance of 40 countries pledging to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 from pollution, overfishing, climate change and other environmental threats. Australia already boasts one of the largest networks of marine protected areas in the world, with about half of Commonwealth waters around mainland Australia under some form of protection. 

Job done? Actually, no. 

Despite the size of our protected areas, marine wildlife continues to vanish. A government report card recently scored the Great Barrier Reef a “D” for its failing health. Meanwhile, commercial fishing depletes non-target or non-economic species as collateral damage, and damages marine habitats through trawling, the marine equivalent of clear felling forests...

They are the most extraordinary of fish, resembling “hedge trimmers with fins”. The sawfish, which is a kind of ray, is also among the most endangered of the fish living in the oceans. Once found along the coastlines of 90 countries, the animals are now presumed extinct in more than half of these, according to a new study. 

They are vanishing due to habitat loss and entanglement in fishing nets, experts have said.

Their “saws”, which evolved to sense and attack prey, have now become a liability, making them prone to being caught up in fishing gear.

“Through the plight of sawfish, we are documenting the first cases of a wide-ranging marine fish being driven to local extinction by overfishing,” said Prof Nick Dulvy of Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia, Canada.

O...

Israeli environmentalists are warning that a UAE-Israeli oil pipeline deal threatens unique Red Sea coral reefs and could lead to “the next ecological disaster”. The agreement to bring Emirati crude oil by tanker to a pipeline in the Red Sea port of Eilat was signed after Israel normalised ties with the Gulf Arab nation late last year and should come into force within months. 

With experts warning of possible leaks and spills at the ageing Eilat port, and the Israeli environmental protection ministry demanding “urgent” talks on the deal, activists mobilised last week.

They held a protest in a parking lot overlooking Eilat’s oil jetty against what they see as a disaster waiting to happen, chanting that profits will be made “at the expense of corals”.

“The coral reefs are 200 me...

In a possible victory for UK oceans, four key areas of the seabed off England may soon be off-limits to bottom-trawlers. Using post-Brexit powers to protect marine life, the Marine Management Organization will consult on proposed bylaws to prohibit vessels from engaging in bottom trawling in four of England’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), The Guardian reported. The consultation runs through March 28, 2021, BBC reported.

This highly destructive form of fishing involves dragging weighted nets along the seabed in search of scallops, sand eels, sole, cod, crab and other bottom-dwelling animals, reported BBC...