Ocean News

Sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras form an important part of catches in fisheries around the world. When they’re monitored, fisheries can give researchers an important window into what’s happening with the status of many species and are a reserve of really valuable information. However, more often than not, we know…

Shark-like rays are some of the most threatened species in our oceans, but surprisingly little is known about most of them. In many cases, critical baseline data is needed to know where we might still find these species, how their populations are faring and understand how they live out their…

FLAWS: Shark Bites and Emotional Public Policymaking was published in April by Palgrave Macmillan and launched at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium. The book is written by Dr. Christopher Pepin-Neff, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, and explores different policy responses to shark bite incidents around the world. We…

The disappearance of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) from their hot spot at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa, coincides with increased sightings in sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) in the same area. Typically, sevengill sharks are known from the kelp forests in the bay, but might their presence at this…

The St. Joseph Atoll in Seychelles is a vital nursery for young blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and sicklefin lemon sharks (Negaprion acutidens). That’s the latest from SOSF project leader Ornella Weideli, in her publication submitted to the Journal of Fish Biology. A mark-recapture study, where baby sharks of both…

The bigger you are, the bigger the bite of your appetite – or at least, that’s the case for Greenland sharks. A new study by Julius Nielsen and his team of co-authors looked at what different size Greenland sharks are eating, and their results show that these sharks change their…

Ivy Baremore and her team of co-authors have tracked night sharks (Carcharhinus signatus) in the western Caribbean, where little was known about their movement patterns. Understanding where, and how, these sharks move, is critical information to help scientists better manage night shark populations. The study, published in the journal Environmental…

Charlie Huveneers and a host of co-authors have just published a new paper in Frontiers in Marine Science. Its purpose? To pool the knowledge of 43 white shark experts, and identify the critical research questions that need answering in white shark science. There have been many advances in white shark…

70 out of 100 is the score assigned to the overall health of our global oceans in 2018, matching previous scores for both 2017 and 2016. While this might seem a reasonable and stable score, experts point out that there is much left to do to ensure that the challenges…

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a popular, and often useful, conservation tool used to preserve biodiversity. The trick is, once in place, knowing whether these MPAs continue to achieve their goals. There are plenty of challenges in getting MPAs right: where best to place them? What should their optimal size,…

Scientists have developed a fast and cost-effective way of identifying highly threatened sharks that are sold illegally in international trade. Up until now, many shark products (for instance, their fins and meat), which are often visually indistinguishable from one species to the other, have been difficult to screen during detainment…

The Protected Planet Report 2018 was released towards the end of last year. The report is published every two years and reviews international progress towards achieving global biodiversity targets. Essentially, it tells us how we’re faring protecting land and sea. In particular, the report looks at whether we’re on track…

In a world first, scientists have decoded the genome – the complete set of genes – of the white shark Carcharodon carcharias. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, give us clues as to why these sharks have survived so successfully over millennia. The…

Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble. Scientists are worried that coastal development, climate change and overfishing are going to drive corals to the brink. In particular, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered massive declines in its coral reef cover over the past 27 years. The reason for…

What is a blue-green algal bloom? A bloom is used to describe an event where millions of microscopic, single-celled plants called algae, normally present in waterbodies, reach concentrations high enough to discolour the water (read more). In the case of blue-green algae,  the cells that are usually present in aquatic…