Ocean News

Eighteen species of endangered sharks and rays, as well as three sea cucumber species, were approved for listing on CITES Appendix II today. After nearly two weeks of negotiations at CoP18 hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, over 70% of votes supported the listings across all species. It’s a move that will…

In July this year, an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species saw 9 out of the 10 recognised species of wedgefish classified as Critically Endangered. All six species of giant guitarfish were classified the same. This category, the highest threat ranking…

With over 200 species of chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras) in their waters, the Philippines are no doubt an important archipelago for sharks. What has project leader AA Yaptinchay worried, however, is that there is currently little in the way of awareness and management for the majority of these…

This week, nations from around the world are gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to vote on trade restrictions and regulations for endangered species. In the midst of heated negotiations, days of meetings behind closed doors and strong lobbies before Parties make their decisions, the eyes of marine scientists and ocean conservation…

Giant trevallies (Caranx ignobilis) are no strangers to making headlines. These fish burst out of the waters in Seychelles, and into public fascination, on a sequence in BBC Earth’s Blue Planet II, sniping fledgeling terns from the sea’s surface. But their TV debut with David Attenborough came before that, swimming…

Cape Hangklip at the southwestern tip of the Cape Peninsula of South Africa has tricked many a travel-weary sailor of yesteryear. Often enough, in fact, that they named the bay into which they mistakenly retreated False Bay. For early mariners on their return leg from the east, it was all…

South African scientists record progressive delays in the annual ‘sardine run’ from 1946 – 2012   The humble sardine hardly seems a headline-grabbing fish. But every year on South Africa’s eastern coastline, a thrill courses through the community in anticipation of the arrival of shoals of these small, silver fish.…

Professor David Sims is a Marine Biological Association Senior Research Fellow and professor at the University of Southampton. He heads up the Global Shark Movement Project, a collaborative scientific drive that brings together data from a global marine research community. The goal? To use shark tracking and environmental data to…

In an average month, the areas of the ocean most used by pelagic sharks will have a 24% overlap with industrial longline fisheries. That’s according to a landmark study: “Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries”, published today in the journal Nature. The findings, which represent…

Reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) are homebodies at heart, keen to keep closer than we’d previously imagined to D’Arros Island and the neighbouring St Joseph Atoll. This finding, part of a new study that details the movements of reef mantas in the Amirante Islands of Seychelles using acoustic telemetry, places…

Shortfin mako sharks (Isurus oxyrinchus) range widely across the seas, but they respond differently to similar environmental cues in different parts of their range. These sharks responded very differently to water depth, bathymetric slope, sea surface temperature, primary productivity and sea surface height gradient in two regions of the western…

You’d be forgiven for not knowing the otherworldly creature called the elephantfish. With the odd, trunk-like appendage on its head that it uses to root around for crabs on the sandy seafloor, this relative of the elasmobranchs (sharks, rays and skates) is aptly, if oddly, named. Also known as a…

Angel shark populations have received full protection in the Canary Islands. Three species of angel shark: the Angelshark (Squatina squatina), as well as the sawback angelshark (S. aculeata) and smoothback angelshark (S. oculata) have been listed on the Spanish Endangered Species List for Canary Island waters. All three species are…

Who you are, what you eat, and where you swim, matter. At least, that’s the message when it comes to different shark species, and how vulnerable they are to contaminants throughout their lifetime. No risk assessments, or management plans, currently factor in the magnitude of pollutants accumulating in different shark…

World Oceans Day is celebrated annually on 8 June. On this day, we celebrate what our oceans mean for our survival and wellbeing, and highlight some of the more pressing challenges to their healthy functioning. It’s been unofficially observed since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, but…