The very first research study to take a gander into what kind of biological activity there is in the deepest part of the ocean crust has turned up bacteria with an astonishing range of abilities, which include eating oil, natural gas, and “fixing” or storing carbon.

This new study, which was recently released in the journal PloS One, has demonstrated that a vast number of bacterial lifeforms were thriving, even when the temperatures reached the boiling point of water.

“This is a new ecosystem that almost no one has ever explored,” commented a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, Martin Fisk. “We expected some bacterial forms, but the long list of biological functions that are taking place so deep beneath the Earth is surprising.”

The Oceans crust cover close to seventy percent of the surface of our planet and it’s geology has been explored to a certain degree, however no one has bothered to look into its biology – because it is hard to do, and very costly, but also because most scientists have always taken it for granted that nothing was happening down there.

The temperatures rise exponentially as you get deeper – as any high school graduate can tell you – and researchers now think that the maximum temperatures which can harbor life are at about 250 degrees.

So, now you know, when we think we know something about the world – such as boiling water kills bacteria – we are thrown a curve ball. However, the discovery that some of these organisms like to eat oil is very exciting indeed.

diatoms, the most common type of photoplankton.

A recent study has revealed that the previously accepted theor of how and phytoplankton appear in the worlds’ oceans is in fact not correct.

The results of the study have overturned over 50 years of common knowledge about the growth of phytoplankton, which is the foundation of almost all life in the ocean as well as many major fisheries. These results also bring to light new concerns that global warming may actually be stunting the growth of phytoplankton, rather than increasing it.

The study was published in the journal Ecology by a professor of botany at the Oregon State University, Michael Behrenfeld, who just happens to be one of the leading experts in the world when it comes to using remote sensors to take a gander at the productivity in the ocean. This study was also backed up by NASA, it’s good to see they still have an interest in what goes on down here, and not just in what goes on in space.

The new study has concluded that the theory developed in 1953, the “critical depth hypothesis”, is not only incomplete, but also inaccurate in explaining summer phytoplankton appearances which have been observed for the last few centuries in the North Atlantic Ocean. These appearances are the foundation of many of the worlds’ fisheries.

The old theory stated that due to increased light in the spring, the phytoplankton bloomed more, however its been discovered that the production actually goes up in the middle of winter, effectively blowing that theory out of the water.

The new theory is that the winter storms churn the water, and make it more difficult for the organisms that eat the phytoplankton to find them, hence the phytoplankton is more abundant in those months.

Most IWC* member countries accidently kill whales, e.g. by unintentionally ramming into them with motorized vessels or by using fishing methods that may entangle and suffocate these air-breathing mammals as accidental by-catch. While this type of accidental deaths is reported from most member nations, Japan and South Korea have an inordinate amount of accidental by-catchs, says Professor Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University.

By analysing the DNA of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets, Baker, a cetacean expert, and Dr Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck of the University of California-Irvine, found that meat from as many as 150 whales came from the coastal population. Japan’s scientific whaling program only targets whales from open ocean populations, but whales accidently killed outside the program are allowed to be sold.

Humpback Whale

Japan and South Korea are the only countries that allow the commercial sale of products derived from whales killed as accidental by-catch and the sheer number of whales represented by whale-meat products on the market suggests that there might be something fishy about these allegedly accidental kills.

They DNA study showed that nearly 46 percent of examined Minke whale products came from a coastal whale population, which has distinct genetic characteristics, and is protected by international agreements. In addition to minke whales, Baker and Lukoscheck also found DNA from Humpback whales, Bryde’s whales, Fin whales, and Western gray whales.

“The sale of bycatch alone supports a lucrative trade in whale meat at markets in some Korean coastal cities, where the wholesale price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as $100,000,” Baker said. “Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally.”

In January 2008, Korean police launched an investigation into organized illegal whaling in the port town of Ulsan, reportedly seizing 50 tons of minke whale meat.

Japan has asked the IWC, who is holding its annual meeting this week, to allow a small coastal whaling program in Japanese waters. This request is something that professor Baker says should be scrutinized carefully because of the uncertainty of the actual catch and the need to determine appropriate population counts to sustain the distinct stocks.

Baker and Lukoscheck have presented their findings to the IWC commission and the study will also be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Animal Conservation.

* International Whaling Commission

For the first time in history, scientists* have succeeded in measuring the physiology of marine phytoplankton through satellite measurements of its fluorescence. With this new tool, it will become possible for researchers to continuously keep an eye on the ocean’s health and productivity. Since it is based on satellite images the method works all over the world.

“Until now we’ve really struggled to make this technology work and give us the information we need,” says Michael Behrenfeld, an Oregon State University professor of botany. “The fluorescence measurements allow us to see from outer space the faint red glow of tiny marine plants, all over the world, and tell whether or not they are healthy. That’s pretty cool.”

Knowing how the world’s phytoplankton populations are doing doesn’t only tell us about the plankton it self; it also provides us with valuable clues that can help us assess a long row of other processes on the planet. By studying phytoplankton, it is for instance possible to learn about climate change and desertification.

* The break through is the result of the successful collaboration of Oregon State University, the NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maine/Orono, University of California/Santa Barbara, University of Southern Mississippi, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Cornell University, and the University of California/Irvine.

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 North Atlantic Right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), where even the name is a reference to it being the “right” whale to hunt, was heavily targeted by whalers during the 19^th and 20^th century and the entire species was on the brink of extinction when the moratorium on whaling was implemented in the 1960s.

Being an important whaling area throughout the 19^th century, Cape Farewell Ground off the southern tip of Greenland was believed to have no surviving population of Right whales, but when scientists from Oregon State University (OSU) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) begun investigating the area using hydrophones, they recorded a total of 2,012 Right whale “calls” from July through December 2007.

“We don’t know how many right whales there were in the area,” says David Mellinger, assistant professor at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and chief scientist of the project. “They aren’t individually distinctive in their vocalizations. But we did hear right whales at three widely space sites on the same day, so the absolute minimum is three. Even that number is significant because the entire population is estimated to be only 300 to 400 whales.”

During the last 50 years no more than two Right whales have been sighted at Cape Farewell Ground, so even a figure as low as three during the same day is good news.

The project has been using five hydrophones engineered by Haru Matsumoto at OSU, configured to continuously record ambient sounds below 1,000 Hz over a large region of the North Atlantic. These underwater hydrophones are sensitive enough to record sounds from hundreds of miles away. The scientists used previous recordings of Atlantic and North Pacific Right whales to identify the species’ distinct sounds, including a type of vocalization known as “up” calls.

“The technology has enabled us to identify an important unstudied habitat for endangered right whales and raises the possibility that – contrary to general belief – a remnant of a central or eastern Atlantic stock of right whales still exists and might be viable,” says Mellinger.

Results of the 2007 study were presented this week at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to Mellinger and Clapham, scientists involved in the project include Sharon Nieukirk, Karolin Klinck, Holger Klinck and Bob Dziak of the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies – a joint venture between OSU and NOAA; Phillip Clapham, a right whale expert with NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory, and Bryndís Brandsdóttir of the University of Iceland.