Despite a recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that highlighted that 25% of freshwater fish were threatened with extinction, scientists in Turkey have recently come across a rare species sighting that gives some hope to the situation. Ichthyologists in Turkey recently spotted the leopard barbel (Luciobarbus subquincunciatus), a rare freshwater […]
Following what is expected to be the warmest year on record, next year could bring massive coral bleaching events that disrupt marine ecosystems. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine studies professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, is predicting that coral reefs will experience dramatic bleaching. Hoegh-Guldberg and colleagues shared their predictions in a “Perspectives” piece for […]
On Wednesday, 95,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the coastal waters of Laguna Beach in Southern California, prompting the closure of over two miles of the coastline. The closure spans from Laguna Avenue to Blue Lagoon, according to the announcement from the Orange County Health Care Agency. The area will be closed until further notice. […]
We’ve all seen cigarette butts on the sidewalk, on the beach or lying in the grass, but may not have realized the toll those cotton-like plastic fibers take on the environment. The cost of marine ecosystem damage and waste management related to the plastics in cigarette packaging and butts is approximately $26 billion per year, […]
The largest iceberg in the world — A23a, nearly 1,500 square miles, about three times as big as New York City — has broken free of its anchor on the floor of the Weddell Sea and begun to drift toward the Southern Ocean. In 1986, the Antarctic iceberg calved off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in […]
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching off the Louisiana coast for the source of a leak in a 67-mile-long pipeline that has spilled over 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. When the leak started has not been specified, but it was first reported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) […]
Caviar made from the eggs of wild sturgeon is now illegal, as the ancient fish was brought to the edge of extinction by poaching. Caviar can only be traded legally internationally if it comes from farmed sturgeon, reported Cell Press. The regulations in place to protect the endangered species are being broken, however, according to […]
Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic products and industrial waste — are now so pervasive in Earth’s environment that they are found everywhere from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. According to a new report, all aquatic species in the mouths of rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and […]
Quick Key Facts History of Seaweed Prior to 2020, seaweed, known as macroalgae, was thought to be around 800 million years old, but a green seaweed fossil discovery in Northern China dates back over a billion years, with some scientists believing that it was the ancestor of not just modern day seaweeds, but also land […]