By Lynda V. Mapes 27 October 2017 (The Seattle Times) – Orca whales are on a path to extinction within a century unless they get a big increase of chinook salmon to eat, and significantly quieter seas in which to find their food, a new study has found.The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, […]
By Clive Cookson 25 July 2017 (Financial Times) – The sperm count of men in the western world has fallen by more than half over a period of 40 years, according to an international study described by its authors as “an urgent wake-up call” about declining male health. “Decreasing sperm count has been of great […]
By Emily Anthes16 May 2017 (The New York Times Magazine) – Most days, the back room of the Animal Endocrine Clinic in Manhattan is home to half a dozen cats convalescing in feline luxury. They lounge in their own individual “condos,” each equipped with a plush bed, a raised perch and a cozy box for […]
By John Bacon 4 May 2017 (USA TODAY) – A killer whale found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree had one of the highest levels of PCB pollution ever recorded, scientists say. Lulu, well known to researchers as one of the last surviving whales in the waters around Britain, died after becoming entangled in […]
14 February 2017 (University of Aberdeen) – A study, from the University of Aberdeen and Newcastle University has uncovered the first evidence that man-made pollutants have now reached the farthest corners of our earth. Sampling amphipods from the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana and Kermadec trenches – which are over 10 kilometres deep and 7,000 km apart […]
By Patrick Winn 13 December 2016 (PRI) – Here in this fishing village, on the island of Java, the surf teems with kaleidoscopic color. Each wave is littered with garish bibs and bobs. The water is speckled with synthetic hues: Coca-Cola red, day-glo green and every other color in the crayon box. There are monochromes […]
By Jane Qiu 20 June 2016 (Nature) – Toxic chemicals are accumulating in marine creatures in Earth’s deepest oceanic trenches, the first measurements of organic pollutants in these regions have revealed. “We often think deep-sea trenches are remote and pristine, untouched by humans,” says Alan Jamieson, a deep-ocean researcher at the University of Aberdeen, UK. […]
By Lynda V. Mapes23 February 2016 (Seattle Times) – Puget Sound salmon are on drugs: Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, Lipitor, even cocaine. Those drugs and dozens of others are showing up in the tissues of juvenile chinook, researchers have found, thanks to tainted wastewater discharge. The estuary waters near the outfalls of sewage-treatment plants, and effluent […]
By John R. Platt 7 May 2015 (Takepart) – For the first time, plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of tuna and other fish that are a staple of the human diet. More than 18 percent of sampled bluefin, albacore, and swordfish caught in the Mediterranean Sea and tested in 2012 and 2013 […]
By Lynne Peeples23 March 2015 (Huffington Post) – Scientists are looking for — and finding — little bits of plastic in a lot of places lately: ice cores, deep sea sediments, coral reefs, crab gills, the digestive system of mussels, even German beer. Now, new research suggests they need not actually be searching for the […]
