Large size and a fast bite spelled doom for bony fishes during the last mass extinction 65 million years ago, according to a new study to be published March 31, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Today, those same features characterize large predatory bony fishes, such as tuna and billfishes, that […]
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – A nerve toxin produced by marine algae off California appears to affect creatures in the deep ocean, posing a greater threat that previously thought, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. Surface blooms of the algae known as Pseudo-nitzschia can generate dangerously high levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin blamed […]
Go down to the beach today and you’ll find plenty of garbage among the sand — but that’s nothing compared with the continent-sized whirlpools of lethal waste out there beyond the horizon By WINIFRED BIRD, Special to The Japan Times Umbrella handles. Pens. Popsicle sticks. Lots and lots of toothbrushes. These are just a few […]
Leatherback turtles, the most widely distributed reptiles on Earth, are threatened with extinction themselves, in large part due to the carelessness of humans. A professor addresses the threat of plastics to this endangered species. Since leatherbacks prefer eating jellyfish, it’s widely believed they mistake bags or other plastics for their meals. They survived the […]
MIAMI (Reuters) – A tidal wave of man-made trash is threatening world oceans, damaging wildlife, tourism and seafood industries and piling additional stress on seas already hit by climate change, conservationists said on Tuesday. A report by U.S.-based Ocean Conservancy detailed what it called a "global snapshot of marine debris" based on itemized records of […]
Chemical change placing ‘unprecedented’ pressure on marine life and could cause widespread extinctions, warn scientists by David Adam, environment correspondent Human pollution is turning the seas into acid so quickly that the coming decades will recreate conditions not seen on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs, scientists will warn today. The rapid acidification is […]
It seems we’re not the only ones struggling to adapt to the summer weather — Australian researchers have found the increased temperatures may be affecting turtles too. Scientists found that green turtle hatchlings from Heron Island weren’t swimming as well as expected. Zoologist Dr David Booth, from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, said green […]
The shells of tiny ocean animals known as foraminifera—specifically Globigerina bulloides—are shrinking as a result of the slowly acidifying waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. The reason behind the rising acidity: Higher carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere, making these shells more proof that climate change is making life tougher for the seas’ […]
Via Ocean Acidification: A Sea Change World Premiere Mar. 14 at DC Environmental Film Fest It’s official: A Sea Change premiers Saturday, Mar. 14 at the DC Environmental Film Festival, at 3:30 pm. In a fabulous venue: the Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History, in downtown Washington at the intersection of 10th […]
Via Apocadocs: By Doug Fraser A Woods Hole scientist believes he may have found a key culprit behind a mysterious disease linked to a dramatic drop in lobster populations from Buzzards Bay to Long Island. In research conducted this summer, Hans Laufer found that common man-made chemicals used in plastics, detergents and cosmetics had infiltrated […]
