Missed out on June 2022’s ocean news? Here’s a glimpse into what went down in Davy Jones’ Locker this month
Sections
Animals and Plants
Climate
Crisis
Fisheries and
Aquaculture
Marine
Technology
People and the
Sea
Animals and Plants
Giant plant alert! A seagrass called ribbon weed has repeatedly cloned itself for the past 4,500 years. Covering some 70 square miles (~181 square kilometres), this seagrass has been given the title of the world’s largest (known) plant.
The Candian Government have released their reports on the state of Canadian Pacific marine ecosystems. Comprising of technical/scientific reports and plain language summaries, they describe the current status and trends in Canada’s Pacific marine ecosystems up to the end of 2020.
It seems that avian flu has jumped from domestic birds to wild birds, with large numbers of dead seabirds around the UK being reported.
Think that fish is beautiful? According to this new study, theres a fair chance it’s not the fish species that needs the most conservation support.
Did somebody say a standardised monitoring method for coral reefs? Yes, yes they did.
ICES and Joint Nature Conservation Committee have launched the Joint Cetacean Data Programme Portal. The portal “mobilizes all effort-related at-sea data collected through vessel or observer/digital aerial methods in the Northeast Atlantic area in an effort to strengthen the evidence base for cetaceans.”
European storm petrels may be tiny, but they travel quite some distance. A new study shows that those which nest in the western mediterranean head out into the Atlantic Ocean for the winter.
Speaking of moving far, bull kelp on New Zealand’s southeastern beachescome as far away as South Georgia and Marion Islands! Kelp on Tasmanian beaches can come all the way from the Kerguelen Islands.
Bad news for North Atlantic right whales that become entangled in fishing gear. Even if they’re freed, they will probably die within three years. Female survivors also tend to have lower birth rates.
Yup-another confirmation that restoring mangroves is a cost-effective way to reduce coastal flooding.
Imagine a bacteria so large you can see it without the help of a microscope. Imagine no more - in a Caribbean mangrove swamp, researchers have found a bacteria a whooping 0.9 cm long!
Corals on the move! To escape warming waters, Aussie subtropical corals are moving south to Sydney. This is good for the immigrating coral, but for the corals already living there, there may not be many options for them to move to stay in their preferred temperature range.
What caused the mass shellfish die-off in the Pacific Northwest last June? A new study suggests the lowest low tides of the year during the year’s hottest days, and at and at the warmest times of daycreated the “worse scenario for intertidal organisms.”
Researchers have started unlocking the micro-architecture of nematocysts- the stingers of jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones.
65 turtles and 14 dolphins were found washed up on Guatemala’s Pacific coast. An investigation to uncover the cause is now underway.
What sea cucumbers can teach us about self-defence? Quite a bit, says scientists who looked at their genes.
Climate Crisis
Live in the USA and curious about how resilient your local coastal wetland is to climate change? This new study and interactive map toolmight be just what you’re after.
If you’re in the Chesapeake Bay region, a new study suggests marshes will continue migrating into low-lying rural land areasas sea levels continue to rise.
Along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas, warmer oceans are making for hungrier predators. That, researchers say, could alter marine communities.
The Gulf of Maine is heating up, and this ” is changing the very foundation of its food web.”
Don’t forget the viruses. A news study has found that ome marine RNA virusesmay help “drive carbon absorbed from the atmosphere to permanent storage on the ocean floor”.
While some coral reefs may be more resilient to ocean warming, those at Ningaloo Marine Park are likely to be in for a rough ride.
In just a few decades, parts of the Arctic that were once covered in ice year-round will be reliably ice-free for months on end.
Fisheries and Aquaculture
Over in Japan, researchers are using PCR tests to improve cultivation of the edible brown seaweed, Okinawa mozuku.
Following a pending lawsuit, Indonesia has issued a decree that protects the labour rights for Indonesian deckhandsworking aboard foreign commercial and fishing vessels.
What to do with invasive lionfish? Make leather of course.
New study finds that when women participate in decision-making, they help make small-scale fisheries more equitable and sustainable.
This month saw the introduction of the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism, “which is envisioned to support developing and least-developed countries in implementing a prospective agreement to curb harmful fisheries subsidies.”
A new study has found fishing and changing climate conditions are to blame for the decline of Scotland’s Atlantic salmon over the past 800 years.
Some salmon farms in British Columbia, Canada have some serious sea lice problems. Internal government documents show one farm had sea lice counts about five times the legal limitduring the period when wild juvenile salmon migrate from rivers to the ocean.
Looking to improve fisheries stock assessments? ICES have recently launched PANDORA’s Toolbox- an online resource features R code, stock assessment methods, predictions, new biological knowledge, self-sampling data, acoustic sampling, and marine social science.
The MedSea4Fish programmewas officially launched earlier this month. The programme ” is an ambitious long-term programme, combining the European Union’s (EU) common fishery policy (CFP) models of regionalisation and stakeholder participation with the GFCM capacity-building framework.”
The Government of Canada has outlined the next steps in transition from open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia.
Sometimes two industries can’t exist in the same space, at least not without a financial impact. A new study suggests as offshore wind energy develops along the USA’s northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts, the shellfish industry there could see revenue losses.
Marine Technology
Whale whale whale, what’s helping the development of AI systems for conservation? Satellite images of whales!
Five years and 48 million square kilometers later, the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBSCO) has been updated! The updated map extends 10 degrees further north than the previous map, and now covers an area 2.4 times larger than the original. To get an idea of how detailed the map is, if you divide the map into 500m grid squares, 23% of these cells now have at least one modern depth measurement.
EO Map have just launched SDB-Online - a cloud-based WebApp that can create high-resolution bathymetric grids for shallow waters.
In the future, tiny robot fish might help remove microplastics from the ocean..
The Candela P-12 Shuttle is the World's fastest electric ship - and its going to help the people of Stockholm commute.
- 3D printed reefs anyone? Yes please say Ørsted and WWF Denmark, who have teamed up to see if these artificial reefs can help cod.
People and the Sea
How old is too old to sail solo across the Pacific? For Kenichi Horie, 83 years old is definitely not too old.
The EU annual Bathing Water reportis out and… it’s not terrible news. 88% of the EU’s coastal bathing sites sites have reached ‘excellent’ water quality standard, something they put down to some 40 years of persistent action to clean up waters.
A new study suggests there is an association between eating lots of tuna and non-friend fish and malignant melanoma risk. The researchers don’t suggest changing your fish consumption based on this study just yet, They note that their study is observational, meaning it doesn’t find that consumption increases melanoma risk. They say more work is needed to work out why there is an association between the two.
You’ve heard of cities being gentrified, but what about coasts? Scientists say this is a real problem in Puerto Rico, where gentrification is displacing people and damaging important habitats like mangroves and wetlands.
Dakar, Senegal residents and visitors are now able to visit West Africa’s first underwater museum.The first exhibition hosts eight sculptures that the artists hope will raise awareness about pollution.
Whether you love or hate ‘mermaiding’, there’s no doubt it’s a growing subculture.
Could your seafood be decidedly fungi? These scientists and chefs are giving plant-based seafood a try..
Novel antibiotics… on ocean plastic pollution? According to one new study, that’s really a thing.
Searching for a way to prevent wrinkles? One new study suggests Pacific whiting skincould become your friend. Don’t start smearing Pacific whiting on your face just yet though, more science needs to be done first.
How important is the USA’s marine economy to GDP? The annual Marine Economy Satellite Account report puts the figure at some U$361 billion.
Not all oil slicks are created by people, but according to one new study, around 90% of the chronic oil slicks in the ocean come from human sources.
Scientists are calling for an update to U.S. noise regulations, to protect porpoises, seals, and other marine animals from hearing damage.
Off the coast of Samar, Philippines, the USS Samuel B Roberts has been found nearly 7,000 meters below the sea surface. This is the deepest wreck every discovered.