Australia to honor promise on monitoring Japan whale poachers

10 December 2013 (ABC) – The Australian Government says it intends to honour its promise to send a Customs ship to monitor Japanese whalers. But the Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he’s still working through some of the “operational issues”. “We will have clear monitoring in the Southern Ocean, and I just ask for […]

Japan poaching fleet sets sail for the Australian Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

SHIMONOSEKI, YAMAGUCHI PREF., 7 December 2013 (KYODO) – Three ships have left Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to join the mother vessel Nisshin Maru and hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and 50 fin whales through March. The Fisheries Agency had kept secret the departure date of the whaling fleet as a precaution against obstruction by […]

First comprehensive Gulf oil spill study reveals extensive damage in shoreline, deepwater habitats

By  Mark Schleifstein6 December 2013 (The Times-Picayune) – The extensive damage caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the ensuing cleanup efforts to natural resources along the shoreline and in deepwater habitats of the Gulf of Mexico were outlined for the first time Friday (Dec. 6) in a comprehensive environmental assessment. The assessment, […]

Scientists observe lowest-ever spring plankton bloom in Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem

By Doug Fraser25 November 2013 WOODS HOLE (Cape Cod Times) – A marine ecosystem expert is warning that the effect of changes in water temperature and plankton blooms may have ripple effects up the food chain. “We believe that the changes in the timing of warming events have affected plant and animal reproduction,” wrote oceanographer […]

Record number of dolphins dying off U.S. East Coast in ‘measles’ outbreak – Recovery teams ‘overwhelmed’ as hundreds of the animals wash up on beaches

8 November 2013 (Al Jazeera) – The deadliest known outbreak of a measles-like virus in bottlenose dolphins has killed a record number of the marine mammals along the U.S. Atlantic coast in recent months, officials said Friday. A total of 753 bottlenose dolphins have washed up from New York to Florida from July 1 until […]

Video: More than 10,000 dolphins slaughtered each year for shark bait off the coast of Peru

By Benita Matilda24 October 2013 (Science World Report) – An undercover investigation by a conservation organization has brought to light the indiscriminate killing of thousands of dolphins off the coast of Peru where they are used as shark bait, despite the fact that the practice is outlawed in Peru since 1996. The video of a […]

‘Plastic Whale Project’ illustrates Great Pacific Garbage Patch problem

By Betsy Cohen17 October 2013 (Missoulian) – In the dark theater, on a dimly lit stage, a 32-foot-long gray whale made of plastic bags looked so lifelike, it seemed to be gliding through the depths of the ocean. As visitors came to see the one-day exhibit of “The Plastic Whale Project,” the iconic shape and […]

How an ex-Mountie’s 10-year, $700,000 narwhal-tusk smuggling scheme came crashing down

By Tristin Hopper4 October 2013 (National Post) – Little is known of Gregory Logan from court documents. He is a former Mountie, he is in his late 50s, he hails from Grand Prairie, Alta., and, from a summer home in Maine, he orchestrated what may well be the largest narwhal smuggling ring of modern times. […]

Stressed krill first sign of damage from ocean acidification – ‘We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure’

  By Andrew Darby7 October 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Turns out it’s the little things we need to worry about in climate change. When they’re in trouble, a great polar ecosystem may be, too. The oceans are now absorbing so much carbon dioxide they are acidifying at an unprecedented rate, according to the International […]

With no sea ice to live on, 10,000 walrus come ashore in northwest Alaska

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press 1 October 2013 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska’s northwest coast. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point […]

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