Ocean News

It’s what’s on the menu that matters when it comes to what turtles are picking to eat, and what’s on offer can be quite different depending where you’re dining in this ocean buffet! A new paper published in Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) in July showed that the dietary choices…

The latest research shows that filter-feeding basking sharks can breach like predatory great white sharks The basking shark, cruising the oceans with its mouth agape, is an ocean image perhaps least synonymous with speed and power. Indeed, our perception of large filter feeders is that they seem to move through…

An otherworldly ocean creature from the ancient Hexanchiformes lineage, the broadnose sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN RedList. In the absence of good information about these migratory sharks, found in temperate seas around the world, the species remains vulnerable to overfishing. In Argentina’s coastal…

The unique shark community of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) in the Pacific Ocean has been captured on camera. David Acuña-Marrero and his co-authors published their findings from a survey using baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (BRUVs) in Marine Ecological Progress Series (MEPS) in June this year. Their survey deployed…

Lots of new findings made it to print these past few months, with SOSF-funded researchers publishing their research in several scientific journals. Here’s a quick round-up of the latest news. Guillaume Rieucau and a team of co-authors that included Johann Mourier and Michael Heithaus had their eyes on the sea,…

Over 260 million people rely on the seafood industry for work. However, the sector is rife with forced and child labour. The authors of a new study published in Science Advances in July say that seafood companies can do more to effectively monitor labour conditions and reduce the risk of…

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…

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…

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…

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:…

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…

For threatened wildlife populations, the spread of disease adds to a substantial list of conservation challenges that could cause their extinction. The clock is ticking to find suitable treatments, but to effectively solve infections, we need to understand how they work. A new publication by SOSF-funded researcher David Duffy finds…

A new study suggests that removing invasive rats from islands might be key to saving coral reefs. The research shows that seabirds are important carriers of nutrients to islands, which in turn feed into healthy coral reef ecosystems. Where invasive rats threaten seabirds populations, the knock-on effects for coral reefs…

Four years after the first sawfish conservation strategy was released, what have its impacts been so far? SOSF project leader Ruth H. Leeney of Protect Africa’s Sawfishes provides an overview of the many sawfish projects supported by SOSF since the strategy’s release and assesses how far we have come. (Click…

The charismatic sawfish with their elongated sharp-toothed rostrum is one of the most critically endangered family of fish on the planet. Comprised of five distinct species, this family of rays has sparked increased conservation efforts throughout the globe over the past 15 years. Today, SOSF project leader Dean Grubbs from…