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  • World Oceans Summit 2012

    Emily Tripp Senior Writer The Economist’s World Oceans Summit will begin one month from today, from February 22 to 24, in Singapore. The Summit will be chaired by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-chief of The Economist and will focus on how the

    Jan 22, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Right whale mother and calf. Photo Credit: NOAA.

    Saving Whales by Creating Harvest Quotas

    Emily Tripp Senior Writer An economist and two marine scientists have suggested that we could save whales by creating tradable harvest quotas. Every year, anti-whaling nonprofit organizations spend nearly $25 million on efforts to end commercial whaling.  Unfortunately, every year,

    Jan 18, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Other Recent Articles

  • Polar bear mother and cub. Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

    Polar Bears Harmed by Environmental Toxins

    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 [...]

    Oct 15, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Giant squid illustration from Canadian Illustrated News, October 27, 1877

    Evidence of an Ancient Sea Terror?

    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 [...]

    Oct 14, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Photo Credit: NOAA

    Jellyfish Prove Unexpectedly Efficient Predators

    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 [...]

    Oct 03, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle. Photo Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

    Revised Bi-National Recovery Plan to Help Endangered Sea Turtle

    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 [...]

    Sep 26, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Potential New Virus Treatment of Shark Origin

    Potential New Virus Treatment of Shark Origin

    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 [...]

    Sep 24, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Aquarius Underwater Laboratory. Photo Credit: NOAA.

    Research Team Spends Ten Days in Aquarius Underwater Lab to Study Coral Reefs

    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 [...]

    Sep 18, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Obama Opts for Alternatives to Economic Sanctions on Icelandic Whaling

    Obama Opts for Alternatives to Economic Sanctions on Icelandic Whaling

      By Henry Workman Marine Science Today Writer In a message to Congress on Thursday President Obama announced:  “I am not directing the Secretary of the Treasury to impose trade measures on Icelandic products for the whaling activities that led to the certification by the Secretary of Commerce.”  This was in response to a deadline [...]

    Sep 16, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

  • Endangered Fin Whale Products Exported from Iceland

    Endangered Fin Whale Products Exported from Iceland

    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 [...]

    Sep 09, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

  • Coral Reefs at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park off Key Largo, FL. Photo Credit: Todd Murray.

    Florida Reefs Suffer in Cold Snap

    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 [...]

    Sep 01, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post