Ocean News

In conjunction with the University Marine Biological Station Millport, SOSF is sponsoring a field course for students on coral reef management and monitoring, taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from the 30th of March to Thursday 9th April, 2009. The course organiser for this year’s course is SOSF’s Chief Scientist Dr…

Drawing your attention to the launch of the Shark Alliance Member State Challenge. The campaign follows the publication of the European Commission’s Plan of Action for the Conservation of Sharks last month, which initially which set the stage for long held out for improvements in the European Union’s (EU) policies regarding shark…

For me, there are few sharks out there that evoke the same sense of awe and admiration as Sphyrna mokarran; the great hammerhead shark. I’ve only seen one in all my years of diving, and that was just a fleeting glimpse; by the time my mind had registered that it was…

Contributed by Peter Richardson Whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles splashed into the imaginations of thousands of Sri Lankan school children earlier this year when the Marine Conservation Society toured its Cool Seas Roadshow along the west and south coasts of the island. From the fishing town of Kalpitiya in the North West,…

Tagging a whale shark is easy compared with other species such as, for example, bull sharks. Whale sharks spend a lot of their time very close or even at the surface and are relatively slow moving animals. So all it takes to be successful is finding a whale shark at…

The international shark attack file (ISAF), based at the Florida Museum of Natural History and considered the worldwide authority on human-shark encounters, recently published their 2008 Worldwide Shark Attack Summary. The report identifies a drop in unprovoked shark attacks  over the last year, with 59 in 2008 compared with 71 in 2007.…

ABC’s Nick Watt spent the day cage diving with the SOSF Shark Centre’s very own Alison Kock, along with fellowShark Angel Julie Anderson. After initially being completely aprehensive about his first great white shark encounter, Nick quickly discovers why these majestic apex predators are vital to the Earth’s oceans. Watch the…

The basic concept of pop-up satellite biotelemetry is that an electronic tag is externally attached to the study animal collecting depth, temperature and light intensity data for a pre-set time interval. After reaching the programmed pop-up date (usually weeks to several months), the tag will detach from the animal (via…

You might think that feeding for a manta ray is a pretty straight forward process; simply find the plankton, unfurl your cephalic fins and open your mouth!  But it’s not quite that simple, in fact my research has shed new light on the wide variety of different strategies which manta rays…

Every single day we would encounter between 20 and 30 bull sharks in Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Some of the large females that were not seen for weeks returned to the site with mating scars. We will see if some of them become visibly pregnant during the course of this…

I’m one of those “the grass is always greener” types. When I’m out in the field, I crave the comforts of home, friends, and family. When I’m at home, I get itchy feet after a week or so and just want to get back underwater and get stuck into a…

Posted on behalf of Doug Perrine: Manta enthusiasts in Hawaii – home of the original Manta Madness night dive, where up to 3 dozen mantas can be seen feeding on plankton attracted by dive lights – say that help is urgently needed to protect the mantas from looming threats. Manta…

Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean – and shocking stats about its rapid decline — as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet. Sylvia Earle, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker…

  Laura and Robert Sams, with some young Dubai pirates.   Why has a one-legged pirate from the United States been recently seen making appearances around several Dubai primary schools?  It might have something to do with the fact that SOSF is sponsoring a week of educational assemblies produced by…

For most divers seeing a whale shark is at the top of their ‘must see’ list, a once in a lifetime experience to swim with the biggest fish on our planet.  I will always remember the first time I saw a whale shark; it was just a glimpse of a huge…