Marine oil spills are usually measured by the amount of oil floating on the surface. But the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico—from a deep-sea well required a different approach. Find out how one fluid-dynamics expert caused estimates to rise sharply practically overnight. © 2011 National Geographic; partially funded by NSF UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT ONE […]
Maev Kennedy. guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 June 2011 15.19 BST The Ningaloo coast in Australia, a vast complex of reefs, caves, streams and shallow waters, and the Kenya lake system in the great rift valley in Africa, an area of outstanding beauty and home to 13 threatened bird species, are the latest sites to be added […]
Ocean Fact: Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) “are among the fastest pelagic” (open ocean)” species (reaching speeds up to 60 mph)”. FACT SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoo Join Reef Relief today and help protect our marine world. www.reefrelief.org/act/donate
From: Jeremy Hance, MONGABAY.COM, Published June 20, 2011 06:45 AM The past twelve months have seen 914 species added to the threatened list by the world’s authority of species endangerment, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List. Over 19,000 species are now classified in one of three threatened categories, i.e. Vulnerable, […]
Take action now to speak up for the world’s most endangered marine mammal: the Hawaiian monk seal. The federal government has proposed to expand habitat protections to include important foraging areas and vast reaches of Hawaii’s coastline. Poised to gain new habitat protections in the Hawaiian Islands, the seal’s possibility of recovery just stepped up […]
Coral Reef Facts: Slipper lobsters are a family of decapod crustaceans found in all warm oceans and seas. Despite their name, they are not true lobsters, but are more closely related to spiny lobsters and furry lobsters.” They “are instantly recognizable by their enlarged antennae, which project forward from the head as wide plates.” This […]
Biologists and conservationists maintain that establishing marine reserves — areas where fishing is off-limits or severely restricted — offers the best hope for recovery for our overstressed oceans. So why is such a small area of the world’s oceans protected? by Bruce Barcott. Yale Environment 360 This week the National Marine Protected Areas Center, a […]
Coral Reef Fact: Sea butterflies are small sea snails which float freely in the water with the currents. Their bodies have adapted to this existence, shrinking their shell & gills & the foot has become 2 wing-like lobes(parapodia) used to move it through the sea. Even though “their shell may be so fine as to […]
Two-decade study unlocks secrets of “living fossil” fish. Not only is the coelacanth one of the world’s oldest fish species, but the individual fish may also be long-lived. (From National Geographic / by Matt Kaplan) — A new study suggests the ancient fish can live up to a hundred years and even longer. Until 1938, […]
Watching Google Earth over time could show the effects of predator removal, such as through fishing, nearly anywhere on Earth, according to a study published this week in Scientific Reports. A Google Earth image survey of the lagoon habitat at Heron Island within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef revealed distinct halo patterns within algal beds surrounding […]