If you trawl a net through the ocean's depths, chances are just about every living thing you haul to the surface will be able to glow. Marine biologists estimate that between 80 and 90 percent of deep-sea creatures are bioluminescent—they produce light through chemical processes.Like the deep sea itself, the reasons why many of these organisms flash, twinkle and gleam remain mysterious to science. But in the past decade marine biologist Edith "Edie" Widder has tackled more puzzles about undersea bioluminescence than any other researcher. Widder has pioneered new technologies designed specifically to study bioluminescence and, in the process, discovered new species and recorded footage of never-before observed animal behavior[.more...]
As BP finishes pumping cement into the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead Thursday, some scientists are taking issue with a new U.S. government report that says the "vast majority" of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been taken care of by nature and "robust" cleanup efforts.
In addition, experts warn, much of the toxic oil from the worst spill in U.S. history may be trapped under Gulf beaches—where it could linger for years—or still migrating into the ocean depths, where it's a "3-D catastrophe," one scientist said.
The U.S. government estimated Monday that the Deepwater Horizon spill had yielded about 4.9 million barrels' worth of crude. [more...]
The top story so far during the week-long Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is the enormous marlin that got away, but not before a wild struggle that included an attack on the press boat, providing the event photographer with the photo opportunity of a lifetime.
Jon Schwartz was aboard the Chiripa off Kailua-Kona, waiting for one of the teams to hookup, when the marlin struck one of two lures his crew was trolling behind the boat.
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New Zealand waters have more than 4100 undescribed fish species, according to a major new study.
The Census of Marine Life estimates there are more than 230,000 species in our oceans, including more than 4100 undescribed species in New Zealand's specimen collections.
Scientists have combined information collected over centuries with data obtained during the decade-long census to create a roll call of species in 25 biologically representative regions, from the Antarctic through temperate and tropical seas to the Arctic. [more...]
Toxins produced by red tide events can alter shark brains, resulting in "hyperexcitability" and even death, according to a new study that will appear in the September issue of the journal Aquatic Toxicology.
The study is the first to document how brevetoxins, which are brain-changing compounds synthesized by some harmful algal blooms, affect a free-ranging marine species. In this case, researchers focused on lemon sharks, but they believe many other types of sharks could fall victim to the toxins. [more...]
The ownership of New Zealand's coastline and the issue of customary title are shaping up as major political issues as the Government prepares to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
This week, we investigate coastal ownership and examine the implications of scrapping this contentious law. Land Information New Zealand has exclusively released detailed maps and statistics to the Herald about coastal ownership. [more...]
The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life - past, present, and future - will be released in 2010.
The stated purpose of the Census of Marine Life is to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life. Each plays an important role in what is known, unknown, and may never be known about what lives in the global ocean. [more...]
A ten-year inventory of the world's sea creatures has revealed an astonishing level of diversity and a growing number of species, with no end in sight.
The latest collection of papers relating to the Census of Marine Life (CoML), posted on PloS ONE, contains the most comprehensive record of marine biodiversity ever, says senior project scientist Ron O'Dor, based at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. [more...]
The Fifth International Fishers Forum on Marine Spatial Planning and Bycatch Mitigation will bring 300 commercial fisheries experts to Taipei, Taiwan, from August 3 to 5, 2010, to improve the sustainability of fish stocks and the protected species with which fisheries interact. Participants include commercial fishers, management authorities, experts in marine spatial planning, fishing technology experts, seafood retailer representatives, marine ecologists and fisheries scientists. [more...]
Developers of an offshore Taranaki ironsands mining project say it could be greenlighted within the next three years, and require infrastructure costing between $500 million and $1 billion.
Such a large investment in what could prove to be New Zealand's largest single source of exports would lend itself to an initial public offering, Bill Bissett, the chairman of TransTasman Resources, the group investigating the ironsands opportunity, told BusinessDesk in an interview. [more...]
A sting on poachers at a Hawke's Bay marine reserve netted three men with nearly 100 paua between them.
The sting, at Te Angi Angi Marine Reserve at Blackhead Beach, 30km east of Waipukurau, was carried out by the Conservation Department, Fisheries Ministry and police.
It was triggered by information received about people taking seafood from the reserve at night. [more...]
