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Glen Haven, MICH – Peering through a spotting scope mounted on a tripod, researcher Alice Van Zoeren notices a piping plover skittering across a sandy, pebble-strewn Lake Michigan beach and hopping into a nest, swapping places with its mate.
At some 4,700 feet beneath the sea, marine scientists filmed a shrimp spew glowing matter, or bioluminescence, from its mouth.
Whale watching is generally regarded as innocent fun. Unlike an aquarium park, whale watching boats take you to see majestic animals that remain free in their natural habitat.
The data available to produce the definitive map of the world’s ocean floor has more than doubled, just two years after the launch of an international effort to produce a complete map by the year 2030. Following the efforts of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, coverage of the world’s ocean floor has now increased from 6% to 15%.
Scientists say it will probably be a long time before they can confidently explain the spike in gray whale deaths along the Pacific Coast, including in Alaska.
The face of a steep wall at the base of Norfolk Canyon (1400 m) with dense clusters of the cup coral Desmophyllum dianthus, a Brissingid seastar, a group of Acesta sp. fileshells and the octopus Graneldone sp Image: © Deepwater Canyons 2013 – Pathways to the Abyss. NOAA OER/BOEM/USGS.
MUMs (and daughters) of invention: Sea nymphs and MUMs are inspiring a new generation of underwater systems and vehicles. Elaine Maslin takes a look.
The numbers are bananas. Or, to be more accurate, they’re turtles. Or still, embryos. Regardless, as of noon Friday the best-available statistics showed 1,857 sea turtle nests with more than 70,700 estimated eggs laid on the Georgia coast — a staggering number for this point in the nesting season.
It all started here at the historic Scripps Institution of Oceanography Pier at La Jolla, the long long-term carbon dioxide (CO2) level monitoring program, like so many other oceanographic, atmospheric and biological studies they have conducted over the many decades. Read more here: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/weather/weather-watch/article231607708.html#storylink=cpy
Reducing harmful nutrients in state waters through moves such as more monitoring and staffing is an expected short-term goal of a new task force set up by Gov. Ron DeSantis to look at toxic algae fouling Florida waterways.
In the Canadian Arctic, layers of permafrost that scientists expected to remain frozen for at least 70 years have already begun thawing. The once-frozen surface is now sinking and dotted with melt ponds and from above looks a bit like Swiss cheese, satellite images reveal.
Scientists at London Zoo are investigating after a rare pygmy sperm whale was found washed up on a Welsh beach on Wednesday.
With significant coastal populations and property at stake, two new studies by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and its research partners focus on the behavior of tropical cyclones. Because hurricanes can cause fatalities and billions of dollars in damage, the new research could contribute to greater preparedness, improved forecasts, and resiliency efforts.
A new report examines novel approaches for saving coral reefs imperiled by climate change, and how local decision-makers can assess the risks and benefits of intervention.
Hydrothermal vents in the seafloor may affect life near the surface and the global carbon cycle more than previously thought, according to a new study.
NEW YORK (AP) — A deep-sea fish can hide its enormous, jutting teeth from prey because its chompers are virtually invisible — until it's too late.
The tube anemone Isarachnanthus nocturnusis only 15 cm long but has the largest mitochondrial genome of any animal sequenced to date, with 80,923?base pairs. The human mitochondrial genome (mitogenome), for example, comprises 16,569 base pairs.
This map by researchers at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, predicts the coverage of Gulf Coast waters by low-oxygen conditions on July 27. The thick black line shows the limits for the most probable areas showing hypoxic conditions. The university’s forecast actually calls for the hypoxia zone to expand to more than 10,000 miles in August, if no tropical weather causes mixing.
Narratives help frame our thinking and action. On the eve of World Oceans Day and in anticipation of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), a new narrative for the ocean is warranted—one that reflects current scientific knowledge and inspires new science and effective action.
The erosion in 2017 was more than six times the long-term average for the area from 1952 to 2011.
The findings may help coastal communities better protect and manage their drinking water.
The UK has announced 41 new protected ocean zones that collectively span twice the length of England, creating a massive “blue belt” that activists say could be crucial to Britain’s marine life.
TREASURE ISLAND — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, says the fight against red tide must continue. Speaking to the regular meeting of the Barrier Islands Governmental Council on May 29, Crist announced that he was able to secure $10 million for research into red tide.
“Nature is our best bet to tackle climate change and secure the future,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, at the declaration of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) in early March.
FOLLY BEACH — The teardrop-shaped oyster shell didn’t look like the others shells on the beach. The concrete-like limestone encrusting it was at least 3 million years old.
Harmful algal blooms in the Red Sea could be detected from satellite images using a method developed at KAUST. This remote sensing technique may eventually lead to a real-time monitoring system to help maintain the vital economic and ecological resources of the Red Sea.
Where do they come from? What lives on and between them? How do they affect swimming?
MIAMI — On a sunny afternoon in Dania Beach, a dozen scientists unloaded crates full of corals from a dive boat and onto a pickup truck. They gently removed each piece from large tanks on the deck and placed them inside smaller containers, which were slowly taken onshore.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday it is launching an investigation into the high number of gray whale deaths reported on the West Coast this year to determine whether environmental, human or disease-related causes are to blame.
Deep beneath the North Sea, scientists have discovered a fossilized forest that could hold traces of prehistoric early humans who lived there around 10,000 years ago, before the land slipped beneath the waves a few thousand years later.
“To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering,” conservationist Aldo Leopold’s advised.
Abnormally high temperatures have led to unsafe travel conditions, uncertain ecological futures and even multiple deaths
An estimated 90 percent of seabirds in the North island are at risk of extinction according to the Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust report.
Wreck is the term used for a massive bird die-off; it seems appropriate.
Tom Frazer plans to make water quality a priority in new role created by Republican governor Ron DeSantis
Researchers from the University of the Philippines Diliman have created an online community-based assessment tool to assess the presence of blue carbon in coastal areas, by utilizing the power of satellite imagery.
“Every person in our community knew something was wrong,” says one local official.
Type "sea-level rise" in an internet search engine and almost all the resulting images will show flooded cities, with ample guidance on civic options for protecting urban infrastructure, from constructing seawalls to elevating roadways.
On a sunny afternoon in Dania Beach, a dozen scientists unloaded crates full of corals from a dive boat and onto a pickup truck. They gently removed each piece from large tanks on the deck and placed them inside smaller containers, which were slowly taken onshore.
Sea levels could rise by over 1 metre by 2100 even if Paris climate deal objectives are met, threatening coastal cities, says US-based PNAS study (PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academies of Science).
The Indian Ocean is warming rapidly, raising alarm bells for high-intensity storms.
Sea turtle nesting has begun on the Outer Banks. On Wednesday morning, the first nest north of Hatteras was found in Nags Head, according to the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles.
These pens near the naval town of Polyarny on the Kola Peninsula might very well be the home from where runaway ‘Whaledimir’ beluga escaped from. Or was he brought to Norwegian waters on purpose?
Ancient geologic structures may play future role. Scientists have discovered an ancient geologic structure that restricts where ocean water flows, and reveals that local ocean currents may play a critical role in the ice shelf's future retreat.
Every spring, millions of ducks touch down on Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, a spread of muskeg and dark water the size of Maryland. These days, more ruddy ducks seem to be among them. Recent sightings of this handsome, rust-colored bird — the males with a teal-blue beak — suggest ruddy ducks are moving farther northward.
A new Duke University-led study finds that the death of marsh plants due to disturbances like the heavy oiling from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill can double the rate of shoreline erosion in hard-hit marshes.
The sperm whale that just washed ashore in Italy is just the tip of the iceberg.
UD study examines the dangers of depleting freshwater resources beneath the world’s oceans
GULFPORT, MS - Freshwater intrusion from the Bonnet Carre spillway is damaging aquatic life in the Mississippi Sound, with 13 dead dolphins and 23 dead sea turtles found along the Mississippi Coast in the last two weeks.
Wind has shaped the face of Mars for millennia, but its exact role in piling up sand dunes, carving out rocky escarpments or filling impact craters has eluded scientists until now.
Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the 'garbage cans of the sea' -- they'll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. And in a new study, scientists just discovered that baby tiger sharks eat birds. And not seabirds like gulls or pelicans -- familiar backyard birds like sparrows, woodpeckers, and doves. In short: Baby sharks, doo doo doo doo doo doo They eat birds, doo doo doo doo doo doo
In this study, two 50 m segments of dune on an intermediate beach were monitored monthly with a terrestrial lidar scanner. Topographic changes and vegetation coverage were quantified at high spatial resolution (0.1 m in the alongshore and cross-shore dimensions) and used to investigate dune response to a series of major tropical and extratropical storm events.
Underwater Arctic forests are expanding thanks to global warming. Karen Filbee-Dexter explores how these important ecosystems are changing with the climate
Officially, of course, the Atlantic hurricane season does not begin until June 1.
Future sea level rise (SLR) poses serious threats to the viability of coastal communities, but continues to be challenging to project using deterministic modeling approaches. Nonetheless, adaptation strategies urgently require quantification of future SLR uncertainties, particularly upper-end estimates.
ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - A second gray whale has been found dead, making it the third whale found in just a few weeks in Alaska. This time the carcass was found near Cordova. At least 60 gray whales have been reported stranded dead along the west coast, during their spring migration from Mexico to Alaska. Of those necropsied, many were found to be skinny and malnourished.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Dozens of gray whales have been found dead along the U.S. West Coast in recent weeks and some scientists believe the cause lies far to the north, in the heated-up Arctic waters off Alaska.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the planet's most powerful and arguably most important. It is the only one to flow clear around the globe without getting diverted by any landmass, sending up to 150 times the flow of all the world's rivers clockwise around the frozen continent.
Though still unconfirmed on the cause, a bizarre oceanic event in the Bay could be a harbinger of strange things to come. What happened on January 20, 2019, in the San Francisco Bay was so rare and mysterious, that it has simply been called a "tidal event," as the Examiner reports.
Scientists are predicting a "large to very large" Gulf of Mexico dead zone this year. It may even wind up being the largest on record.
ROWLEY — The air was brisk Wednesday morning on Plum Island Estuary when Woods Hole Research Center biologists ventured by boat into a nearby section of the Great Marsh to examine its slow recovery from a decade-long controlled pollution experiment.
“Rare Manatee Seen in Outer Banks Marina” proclaimed a headline in a June 2018 edition of the Raleigh News & Observer. In recent years, reports of manatee sightings in North Carolina have become particularly notable not because of their rarity, but because of their increasing frequency.
Scientists investigating methane seeps on the ocean floor off North Carolina were in for a surprise—when a deep-sea tubeworm, never seen before in the region, popped out “like a jack in the box.”
New study conducted across three coastal cities of Mumbai, Thoothukudi and Dhanushkodi
Sharks are intercepting grey seals from huge seal colony on Sable Island
Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, CA - Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment (BEACON) and its partners are restoring the historic kelp bed in Goleta Bay, California. The "sand dwelling" kelp bed in Goleta Bay was completely destroyed in the 1982-1983 El Nino storms.
Abstract - Despite their importance to ocean productivity, global patterns of marine phytoplankton diversity remain poorly characterized. Although temperature is considered a key driver of general marine biodiversity, its specific role in phytoplankton diversity has remained unclear.
Today, all of the sites under review have seen the return of some greenery and wildlife. But the new growth tells only part of the story.
BANGKOK - There has never been a time of greater promise or greater challenge for the future of our oceans. This is the topic on everyone’s minds as the international community gathers in Copenhagen this week for the first Global Planning Meeting for the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
Scientists, federal officials and concerned citizens to gather in Baton Rouge
For the fourth time, the Five Deeps Expedition has successfully dived to the bottom of one of the world’s five oceans. In the world’s deepest diving operational submersible, the 'Limiting Factor', Victor Vescovo and his team completed the fourth mission of the expedition to reach what is commonly known as the deepest point on planet Earth: Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench. Victor Vescovo set a new deep-diving record with this achievement.
ORLANDO, Fla., May 14 (UPI) -- Sea level rise is hitting coastal habitats along the south Atlantic Coast faster than scientists previously thought, threatening entire species of birds and whole ecosystems if action isn't taken soon, a Florida researcher says.
Seventeen gray whales have stranded themselves along Washington's shorelines in 2019, and experts are looking for answers.
Scientists are tracking two massive, thousand-pound white sharks lurking in the open Atlantic off the Carolina coast.
The Blake Ridge Shipwreck is about 130 miles off the North Carolina coast and 7,000 feet underwater, out of reach to all but the most technically inclined and well-funded marine archaeology expeditions.
Slow and steady wins the race — especially in sea star restoration. Following a devastating loss of sea star life from Alaska to Mexico due to sea star wasting disease in 2013, the population is gently increasing its way back upward.
Up 2.5% of the sand on beaches near Hiroshima may in fact be fallout debris from the World War II atomic bomb that devastated the Japanese city. Unusual tiny spheres were forged when the Japanese city bore the brunt of nuclear explosion.
The impact of climate change on the algae that live in Arctic sea ice is likely to be large and complex, according to models co-developed by the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The study, published May 10 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, quantified the amount of water flowing in major Texas rivers during heavy rains and found that there is enough room in coastal aquifers to store most of it.
Data from a Hawaii observatory has recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over 415 ppm, marking a historic precedent
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Legislation meant to protect Hawaii’s shark population was altered at the 11th hour to remove the apex predators from the bill amid concerns from the scientific community.
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AP NEWSST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's southernmost alligators are too skinny and Lake Okeechobee is choking on sediment, but natural springs long dry are bubbling again because of ecosystem repairs highlighted in a new report card on Everglades health.
An ambitious wetlands restoration project is underway on Delaware Bay, where scientists are using innovative methods to revive a badly damaged salt marsh. The project could be a model for other places seeking to make coastal wetlands more resilient to rising seas and worsening storms.
Construction officially began yesterday in Houma, La., on the 199′ research vessel Resolution, a new research ship being built at Gulf Island Shipyards and for the University of Rhode Island.
Ryan Lawler saw the dorsal fin in the distance, swaying slowly side to side, and assumed it was a great white shark. As his boat got closer, he saw the massive fish's snout sticking out of the water, its mouth wide open.
It was another cold season full of records in Alaska, mostly of the abnormally warm kind. The state is in the midst of a five-plus-year onslaught of extreme warmth, only infrequently broken by the customary cold. This year’s warm season has begun on the same foot.
The Arctic sea-ice decline is among the most emblematic manifestations of climate change and is occurring before we understand its ecological consequences. We investigated future changes in algal productivity combining a biogeochemical model for sympagic algae with sea-ice drivers from an ensemble of 18 CMIP5 climate models.
The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group released the Open Ocean Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy (PDF, 18 pg.), a document describing processes to help us fine-tune our restoration work, and promote effective and efficient use of restoration funding.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today announced it has selected the University of Rhode Island to host NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
A team of researchers, conservationists and fishermen have agreed on a package of new measures to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, whose population continues to teeter at the brink of extinction.
Slow and steady wins the race — especially in sea star restoration. Following a devastating loss of sea star life from Alaska to Mexico due to wasting disease in 2013, the population is gently inching its way back upward.
Amongst the huge variety of life on Earth, there are some mighty resilient microorganisms out there. Now, scientists have tracked down an ocean microbe that survives by breathing arsenic – the chemical element we humans regard as a notorious poison.
The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season is almost upon us; the last two hurricane seasons were devastating for Florida. The race is on to recover and build resilience ahead of the next storms.
Estuaries vulnerable to storm tides, river flooding
Over one-third of marine mammals and nearly one-third of sharks, shark relatives, and reef-forming corals are threatened with extinction, according to a new report released today on the state of global biodiversity.
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s coral reefs provide more than $835 million in flood protection for the state annually, according to a new study.
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