Your nice, clean clothes may be having a surprising effect on ocean pollution. Household washing machines appear to be a major source of so-called “microplastic” pollution—bits of polyester and acrylic smaller than the head of a pin.
Microplastic debris “is accumulating in marine habitats,” Mark Anthony Browne and colleagues report in Environmental Science & […] Read More »
And who says regulations don’t work? The number of sea turtles accidentally caught and killed in fishing gear in U.S. coastal waters has declined by an estimated 90 percent since 1990, according to an analysis of fisheries data.
Before rules to reduce such bycatch by fishing boats were set, more than 300,000 turtles became […] Read More »
Warmer seas could mean more diverse fish schools in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Rising water temperatures have already led to major shifts in the abundance of commercially important stocks, according to a new study that, for the first time, considers the absolute abundance of fish species and not just their presence or absence.
“We see […] Read More »
Although often called “pristine,” researchers know that the Arctic hasn’t been spared from pollution. Air and water currents have imported plenty of smutz from far off smokestacks and sewer pipes, imperiling sensitive species. A new effort to track Arctic pollution over the last 25 years, however, finds that efforts to control some of these pollutants […] Read More »
Fish ranching—where the animals are free to roam but trained to return to a certain point so they can be caught—could one day become a significant part of global fisheries, fitting between traditional catching and aquaculture, says Björn Björnsson, the lead author of a study published in Marine Policy. (1) It could even reduce […] Read More »
Engineering, it has been said, is that art of taking ideas out of thin air and expressing them in steel and concrete. Now, some engineers are demonstrating how to incorporate ecological concepts into heavy-duty coastal building projects, using items as simple as concrete flower pots to create more habitat for algae, shellfish and starfish.
Thick […] Read More »
Male sea turtles can’t take the heat. Warmer temperatures cause turtle eggs to produce females – leading to concerns that global warming could wipe out mates. A new study from Central America, however, suggests that a few sheets of plastic could help one highly endangered species produce some pretty cool guys.
Among “marine turtles, sex […] Read More »
It’s not easy eating green. Despite extensive and often successful efforts to accurately label “sustainable” fish, a new genetics study suggests that some seafood traders are duping consumers into buying fraudulent flesh. Nearly one-quarter of a sample of supposedly certified “Chilean sea bass” were “actually other species” or not definitively taken from an approved fishery, […] Read More »
Researchers have definitively linked a bacterium found in human waste to “white pox disease,” a disfiguring and lethal ailment that has helped put Caribbean elkhorn coral on the U.S. Endangered Species List. But some new sewage treatment plants may help stop the spread.
“These bacteria do not come from the ocean, they come from us,” […] Read More »
A decade ago, the waters of Cabo Pulmo off of Baja California in Mexico had been hammered by overfishing. Now, thanks to local backing of a national park with strict “no take” rules, fish populations have soared, according to the results of a long-term study.
“We could have never dreamt of such an extraordinary recovery […] Read More »
“You’ve got to spread joy, up to the maximum, bring gloom down, to the minimum,” goes Johnny Mercer’s big band pop hit from the 1940s. Now, some conservation biologists are trying to “ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive” (and eliminate the negative) in a new review of conservation success stories.
Studies suggest that “conservation actions have largely failed […] Read More »
Hagfish, eel-like creatures known for secreting buckets of slime, are among the ocean’s most ancient species. They dwell on the ocean floor feeding on dead and dying sea life, filling an important ecological niche. Human activities, however, may be threatening their numbers and new research looks into the population decline of these shadowy creatures.
“By […] Read More »
Turns out those prickly sea urchins can be pretty picky eaters. An experiment aimed at seeing whether native urchins would chow down on alien seaweeds that are invading the Mediterranean has produced distasteful results, according to a new study.
The invasive seaweeds – known to scientists as Lophocladia lallemandii and Caulerpa racemosa – are having […] Read More »
Lions and tigers and bears – no more? Dorothy’s trip through the forests of Oz might be a lot less scary these days due to massive losses of the world’s largest predators. But the wipe-out has horrendous implications for the world’s ecosystems – and us, a research team argues in a major new study.
“We […] Read More »
Oceanographers call it the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. But headline writers have dubbed the remote area the “garbage patch” due to debris carried in by converging currents. Now, information gathered by a research cruise is giving new meaning to the term “trash fish,” suggesting that fish in the patch are eating up to 24,000 tons […] Read More »
