Category News

In 1990, as NASA’s Voyager I spacecraft traveled beyond Neptune’s orbit on the way to becoming the first human-made object ever to leave our solar system, its imaging team implemented an idea originally proposed by astronomer Carl Sagan, turning the camera around for one last look at Earth before entering interstellar space.

The image it beamed back showed Earth as nothing more than a pale blue dot. Sagan observed: “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

So, how are we faring as custodians of the blue part of our planet, Earth’s oceans? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be: very poorly. In a new study published in One Earth, we aimed ...

Overfishing of bronze whaler sharks in Gansbaai is threatening the shark tourism industry, with shark cage diving operators bearing the brunt of the practice. Conservationists and scientists are concerned about the high number of bronze whaler sharks being caught because there is a limited number of the species which provides great opportunities for tourists to experience the region’s marine life.

The Great White Shark Protection Foundation is campaigning for a marine area in the region to be protected from shark vessels and fishers due to bronze whaler sharks’ important role in the tourism industry.

Wilfred Chivell, owner of shark cage diving company Marine Dynamics, said: “We fully understand that fishermen can legally catch bronze whaler sharks, however, the minimal loss that fishe...

Today, whales are a beloved icon right up there with polar bears when it comes to mascots for protecting the planet. That wasn’t the case in 1966 when biologist Roger Payne came upon a dead, beached dolphin with a cigar butt carelessly shoved in its blowhole — which shocked him enough to make it his mission to “try to find out things about them that would capture the fancy of humanity,” he says in the most recent episode of NPR’s Invisibilia.

Payne’s eventual discovery that humpback whales sing, and his tireless efforts to bring those songs to as many people as he could — calling radio stations to play the record he’d made — led to restrictions on commercial whaling. Hearing whales had transformed the way humans thought of them. This episode of Invisibilia, hosted by Alix...

UNESCO should declare the Red Sea’s 4000km of coral reef a Marine World Heritage Site and take additional measures critical for the reef’s survival, urges an international group of researchers led by Karine Kleinhaus, MD, of Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS).

Their article, “Science, Diplomacy, and the Red Sea’s Unique Coral Reef: It’s Time for Action,” appears in Frontiers in Marine Science. Kleinhaus and co-authors argue that while rapid ocean warming due to climate change is predicted to decimate 70 to 90 percent of the world’s coral reefs by mid-century, the coral reef ecosystem in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba is strikingly resilient to rising sea temperatures.

Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, at the northernmost portion of the Red Sea, wi...

Sometimes it feels like we know all there is to know about the natural world. But when you talk to researchers in biology, ecology, geology or other science subjects, they’ll tell you what we know only scratches the surface. There’s so much more to discover. In the animal world, whale migration is a great example.

Thus far, marine biologists have never been sure why whales migrate. They hypothesized that it had something to do with where they prefer to give birth (many whales calve in warmer waters), or maybe was connected with food supplies. But whales are large enough animals that the cold waters where they tend to live should be fine for giving birth, and during migration, whales eat a lot less because they’re busy moving and not finding hunting grounds.

But there’s a new theory: Maybe ...

Stony corals provide habitat for an eye-popping one-fourth of the ocean’s species. They serve as the centerpiece of a rich and diverse ecosystem, which is why their recent behavior has scientists concerned. New research shows that stony corals around the world are hunkering down into survival mode as they prepare for a mass extinction event, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports.

The deep-sea isn’t the barren, bizarre environment we once thought it to be. It can be brimming with life, often in unexpected shapes. Bremer Canyon Marine Park is already well-known as a biodiversity hotspot. All sorts of whales and dolphins, fish and seabirds, call it home. Marine scientists have been conducting research on megafauna in the area for over a decade, but there’s still much more to discover.

In the most recent survey, researchers at the University of Western Australia teamed up with the philanthropic Schmidt Ocean Institute to explore the deeper parts of the sea — specifically, the canyon itself.

Using the deep-sea remotely operated vehicle, SuBastian, which is capable of sampling depths to 4,500 meters, they set out to explore the depths of Bremer Canyon.

The canyon ...

An interview with Richard Vevers, Chief Executive Officer of The Ocean Agency

In partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, the Ocean Agency has launched Glowing Glowing Gone, a creative awareness campaign that draws attention to coral fluorescence due to climate change.

Coral fluorescence, or “glowing” coral, is a last line of defense before coral dies and bleaches. The Ocean Agency worked with Pantone and Adobe to turn the warning colours of glowing coral into three official Pantone colours, to inspire action that everyone can use.

Through Glowing Glowing Gone, The Ocean Agency hopes to garner public support to inspire policy and funding to conserve coral reefs and save an ecosystem on which our entire planet depends.

Richard Vevers, Chief Executive Officer of The Oce...

In 2015, 193 countries agreed on 17 global objectives for ending poverty and protecting the environment by 2030. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included SDG 14, to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

A new study by two former diplomats with the CONOW Competence Centre for International Relations published in the journal Marine Policy estimates that to hit the targets needed to achieve this SDG the world must spend $175 billion per year.

Reducing marine pollution will take more than half the money needed, according to the paper. At over $90 billion, that cost includes programs to clean up ocean trash, better manage waste and improve wastewater treatment plants. It also means investing in research on biodegradable plas...

At least 26 per cent of our oceans need urgent conservation attention to preserve Earth’s marine biodiversity, a University of Queensland-led international study has found. Dr Kendall Jones said the international community needed to rapidly increase marine conservation efforts to maintain the health of the world’s oceans.