Marine
Aquapod in motion
Courtesy of the MIT Sea Grant College Program
Cliff Goudey from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is developing a self-propelled fish cage. Mobile aquatic farms prevent buildup of concentrated fish waste and save energy now used by the towboats that haul commercial fish pens. Above is footage from a trial run of the mobile pod. Read more [...]
Taming the Blue Frontier
Ten thousand years ago, humans made the shift on land from hunting and gathering to farming. Now the same transformation is taking place at sea. This time, can we get it right?
Story by Sarah Simpson
Illustration by Ira Korman April-June 2009
A shipment of 100,000 fresh, sushi-grade cobia, each fish amounting to about five pounds [...]
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Rising sea levels are erasing familiar boundaries. In fact, conservationists may find themselves fighting for lands that will soon be under water. With little room to maneuver between encroaching development and rising waters, it may be time to consider proposals that run headlong into conventional environmental wisdom.
Story by Jim Robbins
Illustration [...]
To Catch a Rat
Fishers who kill seabirds can still buy them limited time until extinction
Stand and be counted
Census reveals surprising diversity in icy Antarctic waters
A womb of one’s own
Artificial uterus designed to increase shark populations
You’d think one womb would be enough. Not for female gray nurse sharks, which house dozens of embryos in two wombs and then sit idly by as the baby sharks eat each other in utero. The two strongest (or at least hungriest) sharks, one from each uterus, are born [...]
Red Light. Green light.
Preventing bird collisions may be as easy as switching bulbs
Each spring and fall, a grisly spectacle plays out above the North Sea. As millions of migrating birds fly overhead, the lights of offshore oil and gas installations throw the birds off course. Some birds die in collisions with the installations, while others spend hours [...]
Flying Whale Fins
High efficiency windmill blades patterned after humpback flippers
To feed, humpback whales round up prey into nets of bubbles, then blast through the trapped swarm, mouths agape, to catch the feast. Believing bumps on the humpbacks’ flippers aid the underwater maneuver, scientists, in an unlikely twist, are now mimicking the design for a next-generation wind turbine.
The [...]
20,000 Eyes Under the Sea
Swarms of robotic sensors draw power and data from the ocean
Artificial Upwelling
Self-powered pumps keep coral cool as oceans warm