Ocean News

It has been an eerily quiet year on the white shark scene in False Bay, both in the summer months inshore, and over winter at Seal Island. During the 2017/18 summer season, Shark Spotters recorded an all-time low…

With many fish populations in serious trouble, transparency along all steps in the journey from the ocean to your plate is critical. Transshipment – the practice of transferring catches from the fishing vessel to a refrigeration vessel that takes the cargo back to port – might be a way to…

It seems like everywhere you look nowadays there is a new gadget or gizmo on the market “guaranteed” to keep you safe from shark bites. Using everything from electric currents to chilli powder, clever marketing has got nervous…

Ocean currents play a vital role in the transport of heat across our planet. With our climate changing, scientists are asking questions about how this complicated heat exchange might behave in the future – and what this means for our global air temperatures. A new paper published in Nature in…

Hammerhead sharks are undoubtedly amongst the most recognisable species of shark on the planet. This group consists of nine species which are widespread in temperate and tropical seas, and includes the great hammerhead (EN)*, scalloped hammerhead (EN), smooth…

My name is Maria A. Sabando, and I am a senior marine biology student at Florida International University (FIU). I have been working in the Southeast Environmental Research Center (SERC) stable isotope research lab at FIU for 3…

We spoke to Rima Jabado about the latest publication from her and her co-authors, “Troubled waters: Threats and extinction risk of the sharks, rays and chimaeras of the Arabian Sea and adjacent waters”. The paper was published in the journal Fish and Fisheries in July this year. Here she talks…

Have you ever had that experience of working with a group of people where that “magic” occurs and everything just flows so evenly? Where all members know the exact niche they were meant to fill. These last months…

A worrying 51% of shark, ray and chimaera species in the Arabian Sea and its adjacent waters (Red Sea, Arabian/Persian Gulf) are threatened with a high risk of extinction, says a new study published last week by SOSF project leader Rima Jabado and her co-authors. The open-access paper: “Troubled waters:…

In our last post, we described Stable Isotope Analysis and how it is useful for helping to determine the feeding habits of sharks and rays. We also mentioned that, like everything else, SIA has certain limitations. One of…

Unravelling the complicated mystery of The Little Boy, or El Niño as we’ve come to know it, is a scientific conundrum that has long kept scientists scratching their heads. The reason they’re so interested in understanding how it works? The impact of El Niño events spread far and wide, with…

South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity Over a decade ago, a small project studying the habitat use and movements of spotted grunter Pomadasys commersonnii in the Great Fish Estuary using acoustic telemetry was initiated. Little were we to…