The shy, elusive vaquita is the smallest and most endangered porpoise in the world, with fewer than 20 remaining in their small range in the Gulf of California’s Sea of Cortez. Vaquitas have been hanging on against all odds, despite the consistent threat of entanglement in gillnets used to illegally catch totoaba, a large fish […]
Dust, tiny particles of everything from skin tissue to microplastics, lifted by the wind to settle on a table, the fur of an Arctic fox or the surface of the ocean. Dust is something seen by humans as an annoyance to be wiped away or a pollutant to avoid inhaling, but it also plays a […]
Sometimes, change is good. Scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science have discovered a new resiliency in certain coral reefs in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Dominant, foundational coral species on those reefs have survived multiple marine heat waves so far by changing out the symbiotic algae within their […]
Just below the surface of the world’s ocean is a layer of deep where sunlight doesn’t reach. Known as the mesopelagic, its depths of 656 to 3,280 feet are cold and dark, but flash with bioluminescent light. In fact, there is more life here than in the rest of the ocean put together. One study […]
Quick Key Facts We use a lot of plastic. Since the 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced by humans. All in all, only 9% of these plastics have actually been recycled, and the rest has either been incinerated or landed up in landfills — and, in many cases, in the […]
A new study has noted concentrations of microplastics in Melosira arctica, a type of algae that grows underneath sea ice in the Arctic. As a nutrition source at the bottom of the food web, scientists are concerned about wildlife that eat the contaminated algae. In the study, led by researchers from Alfred Wegener Institute for […]
Beneath Earth’s coastal waters lie vast forests of a nutritious and useful brown algae seaweed known as kelp. For thousands of years, kelp has sustained and been a part of the culture of people around the world. A new study published in Nature Communications has found that the planet’s vast undersea kelp forests generate an […]
Researchers have found polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in samples of sediment sourced about 8,000 meters deep in the Atacama Trench, a deep-sea trench in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the coasts of Peru and Chile. Despite bans spanning back to the 1970s, PCB remains are still threatening the environment. New research, published […]
Designated as a protected area in 1998, the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest marine protected areas on Earth. Covering approximately 51,352 square miles, the GMR is home to Galápagos penguins, Galápagos brown pelicans, Galápagos sea lions, the blue-footed booby and other unique animal species. Recently, […]
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