Ocean News

Ocean 2012, a coalition focused on ensuring that the 2012 reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy stops overfishing and ends destructive fishing practices, has produced an excellent, informative video that succinctly summarizes the problem: You can find out more about overfishing and the actions you can take to help…

Today, we had the incredible privilege of receiving a cheque for 650 USD from Evan Smith, who ran 100 miles to raise money and awareness for sharks. Evan lives in Long Grove, United States, Illinois, and running is one of this second-grader’s passions, but not the only one… When he’s…

Douglas McCauley and Paul DeSalles did not set out to discover one of the longest ecological interaction chains ever documented. But that’s exactly what they and a team of researchers — all current or former Stanford students and faculty — did in a new study published in Scientific Reports. Their…

More than 20 meters beneath the seafloor, microbes have adapted to an environment almost entirely devoid of nutrients and energy by slowing their metabolisms to the point where, up until recently, scientists assumed that they were dead. A new study published last week in the journal Science sheds light on…

Last week, the long awaited SHARK Exhibition at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale (www.moafl.org) was officially opened with several events, including a Shark Family Day. Long before humans first appeared on Earth, sharks were swimming the seas. They predate dinosaurs by about 200 million years and were revered…

The oceans have changed more in the past 30 years than in all of human history. In many places, more than 75% of marine megafauna has been lost, and almost nowhere shallower than 3,000 feet has been untouched by commercial fishing. These are just some of the stark facts presented…

Peru’s northern coast is currently the site of one of the biggest Unusual Mortality Events for dolphins ever recorded. As many as 3,000 dead dolphins have been found since January 2012, and more than 1,000 dead seabirds, mainly pelicans, have washed up on shore in recent weeks. And nobody seems…

This weekend saw the official launch of theBlu, a globally shared art and entertainment experience. Inspired by the world’s oceans, "theBlu" is a living and breathing digital art exhibit of ocean habitats and species, created by artists and developers from all over the world. Its aims are to: Use the…

The seas around the islands of Fiji are teaming with ocean life, and lots of sharks! From tourism operators, adventurers, marine researchers, coastal fishermen, deep sea anglers, anyone with a love for the blue and the wonders living in it, it’ was a time to check who is alive down…

Many shark populations have plummeted in the past three decades as a result of excessive harvesting – for their fins, as an incidental catch of fisheries targeting other species, and in recreational fisheries. This is particularly true for oceanic species. However, until now, a lack of data prevented scientists from…

Time to pack our kits: 1000 shark books, prizes and shark outfits, and fly to the enchanting island of Pohnpei and meet more than 650 fifth graders in various schools around the island. Tova Harel Bornovski, president of the Micronesian Shark Foundation, Timothy Oikong AKA Shark Ranger Tim, and Ken…

As Europe enters the final stages of debate on a proposal to close the loopholes in the shark finning ban, find out what finning is, why the current regulation isn’t good enough and why conservationists, scientists, and an increasing number of countries in the EU and beyond support a policy…

It’s been two years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill dumped nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. We’ve examined some of the consequences of this event earlier, but reverberations from the ecological disaster continue to be felt. Fishermen in the region are finding significant…

It might sound like a bad 50s B-movie, but unfortunately it’s not fiction: jellyfish populations appear to be on the rise nearly everywhere. In a study published in this month’s edition of the journal Hydrobiologia, UBC scientists examined data for numerous species of jellyfish for 45 of the world’s 66…

If you’ve been following this blog lately, you’re well aware of ocean acidification – the process by which increased CO2 in the atmosphere is making the oceans more acidic – and how it negatively affects shell-forming marine life, corals and other parts of the ecosystem. We have been sponsoring Jason Hall-Spencer’s…