Emily Tripp Senior Writer A new thesis explains how industrial chemicals are harming polar bears. These industrial chemicals are transported from industrial cities to the Arctic on boats and planes, where the cocktail of environmental toxins is incorporated into the food chain. “The accumulated industrial chemicals cause diseases in the polar bears which do not [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Between 245 and 90 million years ago a large, fish-like reptile called the ichthyosaur dominated the Mesozoic ocean at the top of the food chain. It’s unlikely that the ichthyosaur had any predators of its own, which makes a paleontological site in Nevada containing fossil remains of [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Species of jellyfish provide greater competition for more complex organisms than previously thought. Recent research published in Science reveals that in areas where plankton-feeding fish populations have dropped off, mostly due to overfishing, jellyfish that occupy a similar ecological niche have taken their places. The jellyfish populations have [...]
Emily Tripp Senior Writer NOAA’s Fisheries Service, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mexican environmental officials have released a new plan to protect the endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. The updated Bi-National Recovery Plan was signed on September 22. “We are working together with other U.S. and Mexican agencies on the recovery [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer A virus-fighting substance known as squalamine is the subject of new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The compound was originally discovered in the liver of dogfish, where it plays an important role in protecting it, as well as some other species, from [...]
Emily Tripp Senior Writer A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology is using the Aquarius underwater lab off the coast of Florida to study how the diversity of seaweed-eating fish affects endangered coral reefs in the Caribbean. The research team, led by Georgia Tech Professor Mark Hay, is living 50 feet below [...]
Emily Tripp Senior Writer It was revealed today that Iceland’s commercial whaling industry exported an additional 133 metric tons of endangered fin whale products to Japan in July of this year. “There is a line in the sand that Iceland has just crossed,” said Allan Thornton, President of the Environmental Investigation Agency. “The Icelandic killing [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer The biological process of carbon fixation plays indispensable roles at the primary level of ecosystems and in the world’s carbonic cycle. Where there is sufficient sunlight to drive photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert CO2 into sugars and expel O2 as waste, energy passed through food [...]
Emily Tripp Senior Writer A new study from researchers at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) details the loss of coral reef species during the 2010 cold snap. Their results are published in the August 2011 issue of PLoS ONE. “It was a major setback,” said Diego Lirman, associate professor [...]
By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer Authentic Maine lobster is considered by many to be an unparalleled seafood dining experience. Despite estimations that a large percentage of “Maine lobster” sold worldwide doesn’t actually originate from the Maine coast, these crustaceans have been the enduring cornerstone of the state’s seafood industry. Lobstering here has [...]
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