By Jutarat Skulpichetrat BANGKOK | Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:51am EST BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand is closing dozens of dive sites to tourists after unusually warm seas caused severe damage to coral reefs in the Andaman Sea, one of the world’s top diving and beach resort regions, authorities said on Thursday. Read the full article
Coral Reef Fact: When bearded fireworms (Hermodice carunculata) come to the surface to mate, the females start to emit a greenish phosphorescent glow. This attracts the males, which dart towards the females, emitting flashing lights at the same time. As the different sexes approach each other, the sex cells are shed and combine. For more […]
Demographics of bleaching in a major Caribbean reef-building coral: Montastraea annularis R. Hernández-Pacheco, E. A. Hernández-Delgado, A. M. Sabat Read the full paper www.esajournals.org 6 January 2011 v Volume 2(1) v Article 9 Abstract. Mass bleaching events have become a major cause of coral decline at a global scale. In the summer/fall of 2005 the […]
This Friday from the National Council for Science and the Environment’s ‘Our Changing Oceans’ conference in Washington DC. Broadcast about oil spill effects from 2-3pm ET. From 3-4p ET, and a look at climate change effects on the oceans. www.sciencefriday.com
News Release January 20, 2011 Two hundred forty-two cold-stunned sea turtles removed from St. Joseph Bay this winter were released Wednesday into the Gulf of Mexico off Cape San Blas in Gulf County. All were green turtles. Twenty-five Kemp’s ridleys, also rescued from the cold, will be released at a later date, along with green […]
Coral Reef Fact: Short-finned pilot whales feed mostly on squid, but they may also feed on octopus and fish, all from a water depth of 1000 feet (305 m) or more. They are known as the ‘Cheetahs of the Deep’ for their high speed pursuits of squids at these depths. Learn more Support Reef Relief’s work to […]
ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2011) — Sharks are unable to distinguish colors, even though their close relatives rays and chimaeras have some color vision, according to new research by Dr. Nathan Scott Hart and colleagues from the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland in Australia. Read more
Widespread, persistent oxygen-poor conditions in Earth’s ancient oceans impacted early evolution of animals, say UC Riverside scientists (January 5, 2011) RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The conventional view of the history of the Earth is that the oceans became oxygen-rich to approximately the degree they are today in the Late Ediacaran Period (about 600 million years ago) […]
Reef Fact: Scorpaenidae, scorpionfish, are a family of mostly marine fish (including the Red Lionfish) that includes many of the world’s most venomous species . Worldwide, scorpionfish rank second only to stingrays in total number of envenomations, with an estimated occurrence of approximately 40,000 – 50,000 cases annually. Support Reef Relief’s work to protect coral […]
Friday, January 14, 2011; 9:18 PM The Jan. 6 news story “As Arctic melts, U.S. ill-positioned to tap resources” highlighted the potential for U.S. exploitation of mineral resources at the top of the world. What it failed to point out is that sites proposed for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic Ocean are some of the most […]