ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral responsible for maintaining major marine habitats and providing a natural barrier against hurricanes in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin. Now a University of Florida geographer and his colleagues applied Geographic Information […]
CANBERRA, Australia — Reduced catches of small oceanic ‘forage’ fish like sardines and anchovies may be required in some ocean areas in order to protect the larger predators that rely on these species for food. This is a finding of the first major study of the ecosystem effects of fishing forage species: ‘Impacts of fishing […]
ScienceDaily (July 5, 2011) — Speculation that the welfare of a small, at-risk shorebird is directly tied to horseshoe crab populations is in part supported by new scientific research, according to a U.S. Geological Survey- led study published in Ecosphere, a journal of the Ecological Society of America. Population health of the red knot, a […]
Overfishing and pollution putting fish, sharks and whales in extreme danger – with extinction ‘inevitable’, study finds Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent. guardian.co.uk,Monday 20 June 2011 19.21 BST Fish, sharks, whales and other marine species are in imminent danger of an “unprecedented” and catastrophic extinction event at the hands of humankind, and are disappearing at a […]
Two-decade study unlocks secrets of “living fossil” fish. Not only is the coelacanth one of the world’s oldest fish species, but the individual fish may also be long-lived. (From National Geographic / by Matt Kaplan) — A new study suggests the ancient fish can live up to a hundred years and even longer. Until 1938, […]
Watching Google Earth over time could show the effects of predator removal, such as through fishing, nearly anywhere on Earth, according to a study published this week in Scientific Reports. A Google Earth image survey of the lagoon habitat at Heron Island within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef revealed distinct halo patterns within algal beds surrounding […]
New Partnerships Needed to Ensure Future of Marine Environments: UN On World Oceans Day, UN Environment Programme Launches Guide to Ecosystem-based Management Nairobi, 8 June 2011 – Declines in marine and coastal ecosystems due to human activities such as overfishing and pollution could be reversed if organisations, communities and other stakeholders adopt a more integrated […]
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2011) — A team of 21 researchers from 11 nations, including professor Robert “JJ” Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has completed the first-ever study of the risk of extinction for individual seagrass species around the world. The 4-year study, requested by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature […]
May 27, 2011 UPDATE – read to the end to download a new Technical Report released by the National Marine Fisheries Service recommending TEDs in skimmer trawls to save sea turtles! A legal loophole deadly to sea turtles allows shallow water shrimp vessels known as skimmer trawls to operate without sea turtle escape hatches, known […]
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2011) — A new study from University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science scientists Chris Langdon, Remy Okazaki and Nancy Muehllehner and colleagues from the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany concludes that ocean acidification, along with increased ocean temperatures, […]