A new study shows for the first time that fishing likely worsens population collapses in species of forage fish, including herring, anchovies and sardines. Some of the largest fisheries in the world target these species, and these "baitfish" are also a key source of food for larger marine animals, including salmon, tuna, seabirds and whales.
A team of engineers and biologists reports new progress in using computer modeling and 3D shape analysis to understand how the unique grasping tails of seahorses evolved. These prehensile tails combine the seemingly contradictory characteristics of flexibility and rigidity, and knowing how seahorses accomplish this feat could help engineers create devices that are both flexible and strong.
Tagged mako shark shows dramatic swim track - traveling more than 7,300 miles in less than 12 months.
Scientific leaders in the U.S. and Mexico recently took steps to strengthen their collaborations to develop better ocean-observing capabilities and improve data sharing Gulf-wide.
New study provides evidence naturally occurring methane gas leaks in the sea floor vital to the microbial diversity are highly diverse themselves.
An international team of scientists has found oxygen and oxygen-breathing microbes all the way through the sediment from the seafloor to the igneous basement at seven sites in the South Pacific gyre, considered the “deadest” location in the ocean.
The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association is developing a new citizen-science data portal that will help make information that citizen-science groups gather more accessible to a wider audience.
Leading ocean scientists from the U.S. and around the world today urged President Obama to halt a planned oil and gas exploration program off the Atlantic coast involving millions of underwater sound blasts that would have “significant, long-lasting and widespread impacts on the reproduction and survival” of threatened whales and commercial fish populations.
Without the Bahamas mosquitofish to eat, bigmouth sleepers slide down the food chain and survive on insects, snails and crustaceans. And, in so doing, sleepers’ behaviors, ratio of males to females and physical appearance change, too.
NSU researchers looked at hurricanes since the early 1990s to identify a correlation between changes in ocean currents and the spread of invasive species
UAH researchers borrowed from biological structures called tubercles that humpback whales use to maneuver in the ocean to make a piezoelectric energy harvester for use as an airflow or fluid speed and direction-sensing device.
A new study has found that La Niña-like conditions in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Panamá were closely associated with an abrupt shutdown in coral reef growth that lasted 2,500 years. The study suggests that future changes in climate similar to those in the study could cause coral reefs to collapse in the future.
A Florida State researcher has developed a framework to help government and conservation groups make decisions about how to best allocate resources for conservation purposes.
While researching the two known species of seadragons as part of an effort to understand and protect the exotic and delicate fish, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego made a startling discovery: A third species of seadragon.
Unique "Competition" Created to Attract Sponsors - Goal to Gather Additional Data on Sharks
The Government of Madagascar has created the country’s first marine sanctuary for sharks as part of a new law to safeguard the country’s marine resources and the communities that rely on them, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Mercury concentrations in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna are increasing at a rate of 3.8 percent or more per year, according to a new University of Michigan-led study that suggests rising atmospheric levels of the toxin are to blame.
The Great Lakes are the freshwater system than has been the most invaded by non-native species. Researchers predict they will remain vulnerable to future waves of invasions, unless some US-Canadian coordinated measures are implemented. The scientists also identify some species at high risk of being in the Lakes by 2063, if nothing is done.
A new acoustic fish-tracking tag is so tiny it can be injected with a syringe. It’s small size enables researchers to more precisely and safely record how fish swim through dams and use that information to make dams more fish-friendly.
Coral reef health is declining worldwide. To better understand the combined effects of mosquito pesticides and rising sea-surface temperatures, Dr. Cliff Ross, UNF associate professor of biology, exposed coral larvae to selected concentrations of pesticides and temperatures.
A team of scientists has identified how a “sixth sense” in fish allows them to detect flows of water, which helps resolve a long-standing mystery about how these aquatic creatures respond to their environment.
New research on bioluminescent ostracods shows how tiny crustaceans are helping scientists to understand evolution by sexual selection. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 5, 2015.
New research shows rapid evolution has helped to make the venom of black widow spiders so toxic. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in West Palm Beach, Florida on January 4, 2015.
Charles Messing, Ph.,D., has identified a new, very rare species of sea lily. Rather than name the creature himself, he's providing the opportunity of a lifetime and auctioning off those rights on eBay. Funds to help further research.
Study with FL. Dept. Of Environmental Protection mapped staghorn coral - found previously undiscovered reef patches
The saga of the Osedax “bone-eating” worms began 12 years ago, with the first discovery of these deep-sea creatures that feast on the bones of dead animals. The Osedax story grew even stranger when researchers found that the large female worms contained harems of tiny dwarf males.
Despite many similarities between Dreissena species, quagga mussels infested native unionids less severely than zebra mussels. The study suggests that minor differences between closely related invasive species can have major differences in environmental impacts on the native communities.
Water off Washington’s coast is warming a third of a mile down, where seafloor methane shifts from a frozen solid to a gas. Calculations suggest ocean warming is already releasing significant methane offshore of Alaska to California.
A Vanderbilt biologist has determined that electric eels possess an electroshock system uncannily similar to a Taser.
A research team has designed a new approach that could lead to underwater imaging lidars that are much smaller and more efficient than the current full-size systems. The new technology would allow modest-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carry bathymetric lidars, lowering costs substantially.
A new report shows that maritime — or “blue” — industries dominate Mississippi’s economy and that the state’s three coastal counties support at least 35 percent of its entire workforce through the blue economy.
A new site displays real-time ocean acidification data for the open ocean and protected bays in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.
Professor Don Levitan, chair of the Department of Biological Science, writes in the latest issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series that bleaching — a process where high water temperatures or UV light stresses the coral to the point where it loses its symbiotic algal partner that provides the coral with color — is also affecting the long-term fertility of the coral.
Dr. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann Institute and Dr. Boswell Wing of McGill University found that deep-sea microbes that “breathe” sulfur prefer that sulfur to be light. In fact, the microbes will “fractionate” heavier sulfur into lighter isotopes. Learning the preferences of these microbes can help reveal the ancient past … and predict the future.
For the first time, scientists working in the waters of Patagonia are using satellite tags to remotely track southern right whales from their breeding/calving grounds in the sheltered bays of Península Valdés, Argentina, to unknown feeding grounds somewhere in the western South Atlantic.
A new special issue of the journal Harmful Algae that compiles five years of research studies about red tide in the Gulf of Mexico recommends state and federal funding support to maintain and expand the ability to predict and track the movements of these harmful algal blooms.
Conservationists are rejoicing at the listing of 21 species of sharks and rays under the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), made official today in the final plenary session of the Conference of Parties (CoP).
The Government of Bangladesh has created the country’s first marine protected area that will now safeguard whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, and other oceanic species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Two coastal ocean observing organizations are calling for a major expansion of the high frequency radar (HFR) system in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Southeastern Atlantic coast as a cost-effective way to gain near real-time information about surface currents, wave heights and winds.
A new study has found that implementing stricter fisheries management overcame the expected detrimental effects of climate change disturbances in coral reef fisheries badly impacted by the 1997/98 El Niño, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Phytoplankton blooms can fix as much carbon as an equivalent-size rainforest, but where does the carbon go when the bloom collapses? Three Weizmann Institute scientists – a marine microbiologist, a cloud physicist, and an oceanographer – investigate.
Gordon Burghardt and his colleagues Vladimir Dinets, a psychology research assistant professor, and James Murphy of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., are the first to document play with objects in a cichlid fish species.
The sounds that most animals use to communicate are innate, not learned. However, a few species, including humans, can imitate new sounds and use them in appropriate social contexts. This ability, known as vocal learning, is one of the underpinnings of language. Now, researchers have found that killer whales can engage in cross-species vocal learning: when socialized with bottlenose dolphins, they shifted the sounds they made to more closely match their social partners.
Australian researchers fit oysters with biosensors to measure how they respond to changing environmental conditions or stressors on aquaculture farms. Their results have implications for achieving and maintaining ideal conditions for targeted species in aquatic environments.
A new paper from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Montana State University, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the U.S. Geological Survey looks at the feasibility of electrofishing to selectively remove invasive trout species from Montana streams as an alternative to using fish toxicants known as piscicides that effect all gill-breathing organisms.
Skates have primitive colons. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. The discovery could change scientific understanding of evolution, of how animals emerged from water to live on land.
Sea monkeys have captured the popular attention of both children and aquarium hobbyists because of their easily observable life cycle. Physicists are interested in a shorter-term pattern: Like other zooplankton, brine shrimp vertically migrate in large groups throughout the day in response to changing light conditions. New research suggests that the collective movement of small marine organisms could affect global ocean circulation patterns on a level comparable to the wind and the tides.
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), Government of Indonesia, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)’s Wildlife Crimes Unit announced today the first-ever series of enforcement actions against a trader of sharks and rays in Indonesia.
A nearly 600-year reconstruction of climate indicators along the West Coast of North America indicates that upwelling in the California Current became more variable over the latter part of the 20th century.
A group of researchers have used a special camera developed by Viktor Gruev, PhD, to discover that female northern swordtail fish choose their mates based on polarization signals from the males.
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