Missed out on July 2023’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
Oceanography
People and the Sea

Animals and Plants

• July marks the peak of the humpback whale’s 6,000-mile migration north to Queensland, Australia’s warmer waters, where they mate and give birth. “We think we have more whales in the population than we did pre-whaling,” professor Mike Noad, director of the Centre for Marine Science at the University of Queensland, told ABC News. Read more.
  
  

• Analysis of global tracking data for 77 species of petrel has revealed that a quarter of all plastics potentially encountered in their search for food are in remote international waters – requiring international collaboration to address. Read more.
  
  

• An international team of researchers developed an innovative new strategy for choosing a set of key coral species that will best maintain ecosystem functions critical for reef health. Their hedging approach provides a simple framework for aiding restoration practitioners in selecting target species for their projects, depending on spatial scale and resources. Read more.
  
  

• From growls to booms, whales, fish and crustaceans all produce sounds. Selecting the gregarious Goliath grouper, researchers deployed a novel automated detector and localization model to find underwater marine organisms using their low-frequency pulse sounds. Although passive acoustics has shed light on fish habitat preference as well as their movements, no studies have been able to illustrate their detailed behavior, until now. Classifying sounds produced by fish will help to understand how they respond to environmental changes and anthropogenic disturbances. Read more.
  
  

• Cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods like octopus and squid, are masters of disguise, changing their skin color and texture to blend in with their underwater surroundings. Now, in a study published in Nature, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research have shown that the way cuttlefish generate their camouflage pattern is much more complex than previously believed. Read more.
  
  

• Marine heatwaves caused by the warming climate are capable of sparking rapid changes in sea sponges with scientists describing the pace of change as “evolution at super speed”. Research by marine biologists at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington found sponges that survive marine heatwave conditions can undergo significant changes in their microbial make-up within one generation. Read more.
  
  

• We humans can be a scary acquaintance for whales in the wild. This includes marine biologists tagging them with measuring devices to understand them better. These experiences can make whales behave erratically for a while. Such behaviour can affect research quality and highlights an animal ethics dilemma. Now, researchers have figured out how to solve the problems with math. Read more.
  
  

• False killer whales spotted off Israel’s coast for 2nd time this year. Marine mammal expert says the species, a kind of dolphin, has been seen closer to shore over past 3 years. Read more.
  
  

• EA_0046A—the killer whale calf rescued at the heart of the 2013 mass killer whale stranding on the sand banks of the Great Sandy Marine Park, Australia, has been spotted alive and well. Read more.
  
  

• Humans began altering environments long before records were kept of the things that lived in them, making it difficult for scientists to determine what healthy ecosystems should look like. Researchers show the recent fossil record preserves a reliable snapshot of marine environments as they existed before humans. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers have finally settled a decades-long dispute about the evolutionary origins of the pygmy right whale. Read more.
  
  

• Movement in the Earth’s tectonic plates indirectly triggers bursts of biodiversity in 36 million-year cycles by forcing sea levels to rise and fall, new research has shown. Read more.
  
  

• Offshore windfarms could offer new habitats for lobsters. Read more.
  
  

• For approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have returned to the same seagrass meadows to eat. The fact that this stretches over many generations highlights the importance of protecting seagrass meadows along the coasts of North Africa. Read more.
  
  

• A team has developed a technique to study how different fish species interact with each other in a coastal region, a breakthrough that helps explain the complex relationships among marine species and how global warming impacts fish populations. Read more.
  
  

• A new species of ancient garfish which thrived in a marine environment 66 million years ago has been identified by an international team of palaeontologists. A new species of ancient garfish which thrived in a marine environment 66 million years ago has been identified by an international team of palaeontologists. Read more.
  
  

• Approximately 99.9% of fish and shark species are ‘cold-blooded’, meaning their body tissues generally match the temperature of the water they swim in – but researchers have just discovered the mighty basking shark is a one-in-a-thousand exception. Instead, these sharks keep the core regions of their bodies warmer than the water like the most athletic swimmers in the sea such as great white sharks, mako sharks and tuna. Read more.
  
  

• Important groups of phytoplankton tolerate some strategies to remove CO2 from the ocean Read more.
  
  

• Scientists have discovered a new species of marine cryptofauna in the Florida Keys. Cryptofauna are the tiny, hidden, organisms that make up the majority of biodiversity in the ocean. The tiny crustaceans are the first new gnathiid isopod to be discovered from the Floridian ecoregion in 100 years and are named after singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. Read more.
  
  

Climate Crisis

• Maritime nations have been finalizing a plan Thursday to slash emissions from the shipping industry to net zero by about 2050 but experts warn the deal falls well short of what’s needed to prevent climate catastrophe. Read more.
  
  

• Seabed trawling’s impact on the climate may be overestimated Read more.
  
  

• New research uses data collected by coastal residents along beaches from central California to Alaska to understand how seabirds have fared in recent decades. The paper shows that persistent marine heat waves lead to massive seabird die-offs months later. Read more.
  
  

• A sudden marine heat wave off the coast of Florida has surprised scientists and sent water temperatures soaring to unprecedented highs, threatening one of the most severe coral bleaching events the state has ever seen. Read more.
  
  

• The ocean’s color has changed significantly over the last 20 years, and the global trend is likely a consequence of human-induced climate change. Read more.
  
  

• Kelp and seaweed forests, the largest coastal vegetated habitats on the planet, have been largely excluded from the ‘blue carbon’ umbrella, which encompasses the carbon mitigated by the world’s oceanic and coastal ecosystems. But a ground-breaking international study released by Conservation International and the University of Western Australia, reveals that these underwater forests could play a significant role in mitigating climate change. Read more.
  
  

• If, as the saying goes, ‘nothing in life is free,’ then corals might pay a price for being resilient to climate change. Indeed, the prevailing belief among scientists has been that corals must suffer reduced growth or other tradeoffs when they partner with symbiotic algae that help them tolerate warmer water. Yet, new research demonstrates that certain corals can have their cake and eat it too, and as a result, these coral-symbiont partnerships may come to dominate reef ecosystems in a climate-changed future. Read more.
  
  

• Rising ocean temperatures are sweeping the seas, breaking records and creating problematic conditions for marine life. Unlike heatwaves on land, periods of abrupt ocean warming can surge for months or years. Around the world these ‘marine heatwaves’ have led to mass species mortality and displacement events, economic declines and habitat loss. New research reveals that even areas of the ocean protected from fishing are still vulnerable to these extreme events fueled by climate change. Read more.
  
  

• Scientists are investigating the use of membrane contactors for direct ocean carbon capture. Read more.
  
  

Fisheries and Aquaculture

• A new sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed between the EU and Madagascar Read more.
  
  

• Japan this week deposited its instrument of acceptance for the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, joining other leading marine fish catch producers in affirming support for the Agreement. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki of Japan met on 4 July to mark the occasion, with the total number of acceptances now over a third of what is needed for the Agreement to enter into force. Read more.
  
  

• New research has found that the design of biodegradable fishing gear needs to improve if it is to help address the environmental and economic impacts of ‘ghost fishing’. Read more.
  
  

• CSIRO are working with partners in northern Australia to develop a low input prawn farming industry. Read more.
  
  

• Rates of Chinook salmon bycatch in the Pacific hake fishery rise during years when ocean temperatures are warmer, a signal that climate change and increased frequency of marine heatwaves could lead to higher bycatch rates, new research indicates. Read more.
  
  

Marine Technology

• Using drone photography, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology are now able to determine the age-structure of free-ranging dolphin groups. Read more.
  
  

• Governments are set to agree to boost the global shipping sector’s emissions reduction targets. After a week of behind closed door negotiations, the talks chair put together a draft strategy which includes improved emissions cut targets for 2030, 2040 and 2050. The strategy aims for the sector to reach net zero either “by” or “around” 2050 and targets emissions cuts on 2008 levels of 20% by 2030 and 70% by 2040. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers report a new single-photon Raman lidar system that operates underwater and can remotely distinguish various substances. They also show that the new system can detect the thickness of the oil underwater up to 12 m away, which could be useful for detecting oil spills. Read more.
  
  

• Scientists propose new strategy for modern sails to help shipping sector meet its carbon reduction goals Read more.
  
  

• Hydro Volta is a Belgian start-up that proposes a sustainable method of producing drinking water from seawater, addressing the global water shortage in an economical and ecological way. Through the EU BlueInvest Readiness Assistance programme, the start-up developed a better understanding of the financial concepts essential for its growth. Read more.
  
  

Oceanography

• An oceanographic campaign led by the University of Barcelona will study the largest underwater waterfall in the world, in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.
  
  

• Understanding Atlantic Ocean circulation is key for assessing the global ocean interconnections, in what is known as the ‘global conveyor belt’. This is because the latitudinal ends of the Atlantic, bordering the polar regions, are cold-water formation regions that trigger the onset of the global conveyor belt. Because of their high density, each winter the waters of these polar regions sink and initiate the conveyor belt, thus helping to redistribute heat on a planetary scale, which ultimately influences the climate, especially in Europe. Read more.
  
  

• New fossil mammal specimens from Caribbean Panama suggest ongoing marine interchange during the final stages of formation of the isthmus connecting North and South America. Read more.
  
  

• Changes in ocean wave and storm conditions have not caused long-term impacts on sandy coastlines in the past 30 years, a new study has found. Read more.
  
  

• A large portion of Greenland was an ice-free tundra landscape – perhaps covered by trees and roaming woolly mammoths – in the recent geologic past (about 416,000 years ago), a new study shows. The results help overturn a previous view that much of the Greenland ice sheet persisted for most of the last two and a half million years. Instead, moderate warming, from 424,000 to 374,000 years ago, led to dramatic melting. At that time, the melting of Greenland caused at least five feet of sea level rise, despite atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being far lower than today (280 vs. 420 ppm). This indicates that the ice sheet on Greenland may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood – and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting in coming centuries. Read more.
  
  

People and the Sea

• Understanding when and where ships are entering areas of Arctic sea ice can help elucidate the potential impacts of vessel traffic in the region. Read more.
  
  

• PuertAlMar, which translates as ‘gateway to the sea’, is a project that shows how human activities and thriving biodiversity can coexist in ports. It also shows how the carbon footprint of ports can be reduced. Located in the port of Vigo, on Spain’s Atlantic coast, this EU-funded project was carried out by the Autoridad Portuaria de Vigo – the Port Authority of Vigo - and the University of Vigo. It has produced very good results that can be replicated in other ports. Read more.
  
  

• MER-CLUB is an ambitious scientific project which aims to tackle the issue of mercury pollution in marine sediments. Mercury pollution is a global problem with large environmental, socio-economic and health impacts. Read more.
  
  

• To achieve tangible solutions for ocean conservation, a new article suggests that we should listen to the people who are most affected by the current problems facing the ocean: the people in the tropics. Read more.
  
  

• Re-routing shipping lanes is one way to reduce the effects of underwater noise on the marine environment. Until now, ocean scientists have not been able to study how large-scale diversions of this kind might affect noise levels or marine life. When Denmark and Sweden decided to change the main shipping lane, ‘route T’, for entering the Kattegat, which 40,000 ships use each year, researchers at the Ecoscience department at Aarhus University in Denmark were quick to respond. Read more.
  
  

• Knowing where marine litter comes from is fundamental to achieve a healthy marine environment. And this is exactly what the Finnish EU-funded RoskatPois! (LitterAway!) project set out to do. It identified the sources and quantities of marine litter in the Finnish marine environment and how it got there, so as to be able to explore how to reduce marine litter at source. The project was coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), and run together with the Natural Resources Center (Luke) and the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom). Read more.
  
  

• “If the sea dies, so does Jeju”: Jeju women divers, fishers protest Fukushima water dumping Read more.
  
  

• Governments will soon likely be able to apply for deep sea mining contracts in international waters, a plunge into the unknown that is worrying conservationists as calls for a moratorium on such digging grow. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers find 176 bird species using human-made materials in their nests. Read more.
  
  

• The European Union’s efforts to move forward its green agenda received a boost as the European Parliament adopted its position on the EU Nature Restoration Law. The European Union’s efforts to move forward its green agenda received a boost today [12 July] as the European Parliament adopted its position on the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL). Read more.
  
  

• Deep Sea Trench: Garbage Dump on the Sea Floor. Plastic waste found at a depth of 9,600 meters. Read more.
  
  

• Animal populations appear to decrease where the deep sea is being mined, and the impact on marine life of the controversial industry may involve a wider “footprint” than previously expected. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers reveal the extent of plastic pollution on coral reefs, finding that debris increases with depth, largely stems from fishing activities, and is correlated with proximity to marine protected areas. Read more.
  
  

• An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety review has concluded that Japan’s plans to release treated water stored at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station into the sea are consistent with IAEA Safety Standards. Read more.