The first-ever comprehensive global report on the state of shellfish has been released by The Nature Conservancy at the International Marine Conservation Congress in Washington, DC.
According to the treasure hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration, fishing trawlers are destroying wrecks by snagging them with nets and cables, dragging objects and gradually tearing the ships apart.
Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) unveiled a hazardous cocktail of pesticides when analysing the brain matter of 12 marine mammals; eleven cetaceans and one gray seal stranded near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is the most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals’ brains and it confirms suspicions of marine mammals being the carrier…
A company named Ghost Pros is currently exploring the ship wrecks of Florida in search not of gold, silver or precious stones but of ghosts. The company is using the latest underwater ghost-detection technology, including submersible high powered sonar listening devices. Ghost Pro divers have also teamed up with Tampa’s Sea Viewers, the makers of…
Thanks to a system of underwater hydrophones, scientists have been able to document the presence of North Atlantic Right whales in an area where they were believed to have gone extinct.
The first confirmed sighting of a leucistic Southern elephant seal has occurred on a beach on Marion Island, fairly near Antarctica. The entire seal is creamy white, except for eyes and nose which sports the brown colour normally seen in elephant seals.
Japan needed to cede more ground, says outgoing head of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) William Hogarth*, voicing regrets over his failure to design a compromise regarding Japanese “lethal research” on whales.
A Hawaiian company wants to build the world’s first commercial Bigeye tuna farm, in hope of creating a sustainable alternative to wild-caught big eye. Bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus, is the second most coveted tuna after the famous Bluefin tuna and the wild populations have been seriously depleted by commercial fishing fleets. As Bluefin is becoming…
As reported earlier this week, Danish television presenter Lisbeth Koelster was put on trial after deliberately pouring diluted anti-dandruff shampoo into a fish tank housing 12 guppies. The aim of the “experiment” was to demonstrate the level of toxic material in the shampoo. After being subjected to the shampoo, all but one of the fishes…
Is ritual slaughtering of animals on the beach to blame for two fatal shark attacks in the waters off Port St Johns this year? After two young men died after being attacked by sharks, a task team was set up to investigate the attacks and their conclusion, presented in an official report released on Tuesday,…
An important step in the ground-breaking Clean Seas Tuna breeding program was taken today when millions of dollars worth of Southern Bluefin Tuna was airlifted from sea pens off South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula to an on-shore breeding facility at Arno Bay.
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have undertaken what is believed to be the very first CT scan of eggs inside a coelacanth fish. “I was surprised to see that all the eggs were the same size,” said Dr Norihiro Okada, a bioscience professor at the university and a member of the research team. “I…
A sinking date has now been set for the retired military vessel scheduled to form an artificial reef off Key West in Florida. If everything goes according to plan, Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg – a 523-foot-long military ship that used to track Russian missile launches during the Cold War – will be sunk seven miles…
To demonstrate the level of toxic material in a brand of anti-dandruff shampoo, a Danish television presenter poured diluted shampoo into a fish tank on a 2004 episode of the consumer affairs show she fronted.
As reported earlier , the European Union has decided to ban the import of seal skin and other seal products hailing from commercial seal hunting. This has upset Canadian seal hunters since Italy and Denmark, both members of the European Union, are two major importers of seal products.
A new cichlid species has been described from the Río Negro and Río Tacuarí basins in the Uruguay River drainage by Uruguay ichthyologists Iván González-Bergonzoni, Marcelo Loureiro and Sebastián Oviedo.
In a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa, researchers Gertrud Konings-Dudin, Adrianus Konings and Jay Stauffer have described and named three new species of cichlid from the genus Melanochromis; two of them being fairly widespread among aquarists keeping African cichlids.
Indonesia will create Southeast Asia’s largest marine park in the Savu Sea, Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi said on Wednesday at the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Sulawesi. The Savu Marine National Park will cover 3.5 million hectares in an incredibly diverse area where you can find no less than 500 coral…
While conducting magnetic experiments in 2006, the company SharkDefense Technologies discovered how certain metal alloys would keep sharks away by affecting the shark’s electric sense.
Have you ever tried to keep a seahorse alive in an aquarium only to fail miserably? Well, to add insult to injury, these creatures seem to be much sturdier than previously believed, because how else can you explain the amazing survival of a British seahorse found three miles inland in Weymouth, Dorset?
As reported earlier today, a Sarpa salpa fish has been caught in British waters, the first one since 1983 and the fourth one ever reported from the United Kingdom. The fish received a lot of attention, not only for being so far out of its normal range but also for being, well – far out…
Sarpa salpa, a fish species capable of causing long-lasting hallucinatory experiences in humans, has been caught far north of its normal range. Normally found in the warm waters of the Mediterranean and off the African west coast, Sarpa salpa is an unusual guest in northern Europe. Only three previous recordings exist from British waters, with…
Scientists are unaware of the state of nearly two-thirds of Europe’s fish stocks and do not have enough information to assess the exact scale of the crisis the European fishing industry is facing, says the European Commission.
Genetic pattern analysis strongly suggests that California and British Columbia urchins are not connected via larval dispersal and comprise two distinct populations. Sea urchins have one of the longest larval periods of any known marine invertebrate and it has therefore been tempting to assume that ocean currents must be mixing urchin larvae all over the…
The Turkish government has set their own very high catch limit for endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna without showing any regard for internationally agreed quotas and the survival of this already severally overfished species. By telling the Turkish fishermen to conduct this type of overfishing, the Turkish government is effectively killing the future of this important…
U.S. and Canadian scientists have documented the first known migration of blue whales from the coast of California to areas off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since the 1965 ban of commercial whaling
This update might come as a surprise for, I added a bird section. Many fish keepers keep other animals as well and I want them to be able to find information on other animals as well here on AC. Our bird section is still small but will grow over the coming months.
A strange algae plume has turned the normally crystal clear Caribbean Sea around the Virgin Islands green down to a depth of roughly 80 feet (25 metres) and sharply decreased visibility in these popular dive waters. How and if the plume will have any long-term effect on the region’s marine life remains unknown.
Alabama fishermen and scuba divers will receive a welcome present from the state of Alabama in a few years: the coordinates to a series of man-made coral reefs teaming with fish and other reef creatures. In order to promote coral growth, the state has placed 100 federally funded concrete pyramids at depths ranging from 150…
Amber, a porpoise living at the Harderwijk dolphin centre in the Netherlands, has given birth to a calf this spring, making her the second porpoise ever to give birth in captivity. Visitors are now gathering to come and see the calf, which has been given the name Kwin.
“The ‘underwater turbulence’ the jellies create is being debated as a major player in ocean energy budgets,” says marine scientist John Dabiri of the California Institute of Technology. Jellyfish are often seen to be aimless aquatic drifters, propelled by nothing but haphazard currents and waves, but the truth is that these gooey creatures continuously contract…
The Spanish police have seized 11 tonnes of shark fins in destined to be shipped to Hong Kong. According to a statement from the police, the shark fins did not appear to come from a protected species but were found in a warehouse that lacked authorization to export shark fins.
An expansion of vertical seagrass occurring some 25 million years ago was probably what prompted seahorses to evolve from horizontal swimmers to upright creatures. If you live in vertical seagrass, an upright position is ideal since it allows you to stay hidden among the vertical blades.
Basking sharks have surprised researchers by leaving the cold waters of the north Atlantic during fall and head down to Bahamas and the Caribbean. …
A new species of Jupiaba tetra has been described by Brazilian ichtyologists Birindelli, JLO, AM Zanata, LM Sousa and AL Netto-Ferreira.
According to the simplest version of the so called Iron Hypothesis, plankton blooms move atmospheric carbon down to the deep sea and increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere can therefore be counteracted by promoting plankton blooms. The Iron Hypothesis derives its names from the suggestion that global warming can be thwarted by fertilizing plankton…
Yesterday, the European Parliament voted to ban most seal products from the European market. The legislative resolution was adopted with 550 votes in favour, 49 against and 41 abstentions. Suggestions from the European Parliament’s will only become law if adopted by the European Council of Ministers, which represents the member states. The legislative report on…