SOSF-sponsored marine podcast Naked Oceans is back for a second series, with this month’s episode focusing on life and death in the ancient seas. Listen in to learn about how life emerged from the oceans – and how it almost came to an end, as well as what the past can tell us about the future of life in the seas. As always, you can download the episodes for free at the Naked Oceans website or on iTunes.

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Deep-sea fishing, particularly bottom trawling, is one of the most destructive and inefficient ways of fishing. Though it provides less than 1% of seafood consumed globally, fishing fleets looking to capitalize on previously unexploited deep-sea fisheries are moving further and further off-shore, sometimes trawling in waters more than a mile deep.

In doing so, they destroy fragile deep water ecosystems, which are extremely slow to recover. Many species of fish and other marine life at these depths are characterized by long life spans and slow reproduction, making them extremely vulnerable to modern mechanized fishing practices like trawling – the equivalent of bulldozing the seafloor. Deep-water corals – some of which have been alive more than 4,000 years – sponges, and other animals are ripped from depths and then discarded as waste. Species targeted by deep water trawling, such as the orange roughy, are particularly at risk, as entire populations can be wiped out in a single season

A new comprehensive analysis of deep-sea fisheries, conducted by a team of leading marine scientists and published in Marine Policy, has sounded the alarm on the unsustainability of this practice ahead of the upcoming UN decision on whether to allow deep…

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In July 2012, the 12 th ICRS will welcome over 2,500 delegates from around to world to the tropical city of Cairns, Australia, to attend 1,500 talks and posters presenting the latest research on the world’s coral reefs. The Reef Sharks and Coral Reefs mini-symposium will focus on research into the ecological roles of reef sharks in coral reef ecosystems; the environmental, biological, ecological and behavioural factors affecting the strength and dependence of these interactions; techniques for studying reef shark ecology; and methods to monitor reef shark populations. The mini-symposium will also explore the implications of reef shark declines, and the ramifications of recent research for their conservation and management.

Registration opens: 1 August 2011. Deadline for abstract submission: 1 February 2012. Early-bird registration closes: 1 March 2012. Click here to visit the website for the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium.

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SOSF West African manatee project leader Lucy Keith is currently blogging from the field in Congo:

Mamiwata is an African name for a spirit believed to be embodied by the manatee. This blog chronicles my search for the elusive West African manatee, and my exploration to understand its biology, habitat and preservation needs, economic and cultural significance. So little is known about this animal, yet it is intensely hunted almost everywhere it exists and may already be gone from much of its previous range. In 2006 I was inspired to go try to find and learn more about them, starting in Gabon.

Lucy’s blog is a fascinating account of the day-to-day life of a researcher in Congo, complete with all the difficulties, surprises and delights that are involved (including chubby West African manatee orphan Victor, below).

Victor, an orphaned West African manatee. Photo by Lucy Keith.

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The first 12-episode season of SOSF-sponsored podcast Naked Oceans, from Cambridge University-based Naked Scientists, has drawn to a close. We’re happy to announce that a second series is already in the works, but in the meantime, here is a recap of all the episodes so far:

1. July 2010. The problem of oil spills

We investigate the impacts of oil spills on the marine environment, hunting down the hidden world of microbes in Louisiana wetlands, tracing the fingerprint of oil in open oceans plankton communities, and we discuss the likely fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And 14 years on, we head to the south coast of Wales to find some of the survivors of the Sea Empress Oil Spill.

2. August 2010. Climate change and the oceans

One of the most pervasive problems in the oceans today, we dive into the science of climate change to find out what changes are we already seeing and what the prospects are for the future. We call in on the Arctic and the Antarctic to find out what’s going on in some of the most vulnerable parts of the…

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A high-level international workshop on the state of the world’s oceans took place at the University of Oxford earlier this year, where 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries concluded that if the current trajectory of damage continues, the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.

The scientific panel looked at the latest research focusing on the primary threats to the marine environment and came to some stark conclusions:

The combination of stressors on the ocean is creating the conditions associated with every major extinction of species in the Earth’s history. The rate of degeneration in the ocean is far faster than anyone has expected. Many of the negative impacts previously identified are worse than anyone had predicted. Although difficult to assess because of the unprecedented speed of change, the first steps to globally significant extinction may have begun with a rise in the extinction threat to species such as reef-forming corals.

Dr Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) which convened the workshop said:

“The findings are shocking. As we considered the cumulative effect…

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The Antinea Changing Oceans Expedition – a ten-year adventure through the world’s most important marine eco-regions aimed at publicizing information on the state of our oceans – is currently in the Egyptian Red Sea, and they have some troubling news on the state of the local reefs:

“Our aim was to understand how human pressure was affecting the marine ecosystem. We were prepared to dive on some destroyed spots. But as I told you in my last email, we discovered that the impact was much bigger than what we expected. We were quite shocked by what we saw!”

Even the isolated “far south”, near the Sudanese border, has not escaped the effects of damaging fishing methods:

“The reefs we found there were indeed in a much better state than what we experienced before. But far from pristine!!! Even in this remote region dynamite fishing has destroyed the reefs and the life that depends on them. Very little fish and big scars in the coral… Ali, who dived there only 3 years ago for the last time did not recognize the place! No more sharks or mantas… very few big fish.”

The expedition crew includes Spanish scientists…

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