By Tim Radford For atoll dwellers across much of the world, the island freshwater on which they depend may be in jeopardy within a couple of decades. The combination of sea level rise and ever more extreme storm conditions—each a consequence of global warming and climate change—could make many of the world’s coral atolls uninhabitable […]
Governments around the world are waking up to the scourge of plastics on our oceans and its creatures by banning items such as shopping bags and drinking straws. But an often-overlooked form of plastic waste is also a major threat to our seas: “ghost” gear. A report released Thursday from World Animal Protection highlights that […]
By Holly Binns To Shirley Pomponi the sea sponges lining her office shelves are more than colorful specimens; they’re potentially lifesaving creatures, some of which could hold the complex secrets to cures for cancers and other diseases. The marine biotechnology expert, who is research professor and executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, […]
The Seychelles has created two vast new marine protected areas in the Indian Ocean after a groundbreaking finance deal brokered by the Nature Conservancy and other stakeholders, including environmentalist and Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio. In exchange for writing off a portion of its debt, the island nation agreed to protect a total of 81,000-square-miles of […]
By Robynne Boyd Off the coast of Broward County in southeast Florida, a 330-year-old coral colony has withered in the water thanks to a mysterious pathogen. At the height of its health, this slow-growing variety of coral, known as mountainous star, looked like a car-size brown mushroom cap scored by ridges and valleys and colored […]
Ireland’s Dáil Éireann, the country’s lower house of parliament, voted 78-48 Thursday to advance a bill to stop the government from issuing new contracts for both on and offshore oil and gas exploration. Despite strong opposition from the Irish government, the legislation was backed by thousands of activists, campaigners, parliamentarians as well as a surprising […]
By Andy Rowell Oil from the stricken oil tanker Sanchi, which exploded and sank in the East China Sea, may have now reached the shores of Japan, according to the country’s Coast Guard. Reuters reported Friday that residents on the Japanese Amami-Oshima islands, famed for pristine beaches and reefs, have reported black oil clumps being […]
By Andy Rowell The Sanchi oil spill in the East China Sea could potentially be one of the worst tanker spills in decades, experts are warning, even though the spill has now largely disappeared from news reports. Work by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the University of Southampton, who have plotted where […]
Last year wasn’t just one of the hottest years on Earth’s surface, as it was the hottest year on record for the global ocean, according to a new study from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP)/Chinese Academy of Science. Researchers Lijing Cheng and Jiang Zhu found that the top 2,000 meters of ocean waters are […]
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