Ocean Sentry
A field survey conducted by a team of marine scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has uncovered toxic bacteria living on the surfaces of microplastics, which are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimetres in size, collected from the coastal areas of Singapore. These bacteria are capable of …
February, 2019
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8 February
5th North Atlantic right whale sighted
On February 5th 2019, volunteers with Sebastian Inlet State Park sighted a mother-calf pair just off the beach. Photographs taken by Park Ranger, Ed Perry, confirm the mother is Catalog #4180.
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8 February
Scientists find some fish can ‘recognise themselves’ in mirror
They are often said to have a three-second memory, but the brain power of fish has been considerably underestimated, according to scientists who found some fish can recognise themselves in the mirror.
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7 February
Scientists in race to save giant kelp off Tasmanian coast
Giant kelp forests once dominated Tasmania’s east coast, but 95 per cent has been lost over the past few decades.
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7 February
Humans’ taste for meat is pushing the world’s largest animals toward extinction
Research published in Conservation Letters today says that direct hunting of the world’s largest animals for human consumption of meat and body parts is the greatest single killer of these animals, and more than 150 species are threatened as a consequence.
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6 February
Climate change: World heading for warmest decade, says Met Office
The world is in the middle of what is likely to be the warmest 10 years since records began in 1850, says the Met Office. It’s forecasting that temperatures for each of the next five years are likely to be at or above 1C compared to pre-industrial levels.
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6 February
West Coast seismic oil survey a threat to marine food chain
A Norwegian company has applied to conduct seismic surveys for oil along the Cape’s West Coast using air-gun blasts known to be highly damaging to marine life.
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6 February
Mass seabird deaths baffle researchers, thousands wash up on Dutch beaches
As many as 20,000 guillemots have died in Dutch waters in the past few weeks, baffling researchers, broadcaster NOS said on Tuesday. The sea birds, which breed on cliffs and live on fish and crustaceans, are being washed up dead on Dutch shores from the Wadden Islands to Zeeland.
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6 February
Underwater forests threatened by future climate change, new study finds
In humans, it has been observed that changes in the microbes in the gut can result in poor health. A similar process happens in kelp. Predicted ocean warming and acidification can change microbes on the kelp surface, leading to disease and potentially putting fisheries at risk.
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5 February
Much of the surface ocean will shift in color by end of 21st century: study
“It could be potentially quite serious. Different types of phytoplankton absorb light differently, and if climate change shifts one community of phytoplankton to another, that will also change the types of food webs they can support. ”
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5 February
Scientists have detected an enormous cavity growing beneath Antarctica
This huge opening at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier – a mass infamously dubbed the “most dangerous glacier in the world” – is so big it represents an overt chunk of the estimated 252 billion tonnes of ice Antarctica loses every year
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5 February
Poor diet may have caused nosedive in major Atlantic seabird nesting colony
The Ascension population has declined in numbers from several million in the middle of the last century, to just a few hundred thousand today. A team based in the University’s School of Biosciences believes the birds’ plight is closely linked to changes in populations of predatory fish such as tuna.