Missed out on March 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
People and the Sea

Animals and Plants

• Billions of sea anemones adorn the bottom of the Earth’s oceans – yet they are among the rarest of fossils because their squishy bodies lack easily fossilized hard parts. Now a team of paleontologists has discovered that countless sea anemone fossils have been hiding in plain sight for nearly 50 years. It turns out that fossils long-interpreted as jellyfish were anemones. To do so, a team of scientists has simply turned the ancient animals upside down. Read more.
  
  

• Missed International Day of the Seal? Fear not - there’s still time to celebrate seals with these sealy good facts. Read more.
  
  

• From the fluffy sponge crab, to the Japanese retweet mite to the satan’s mud dragon, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has again released its annual list of the top-ten marine species described by researchers during the past year. Read more.
  
  

• Seabirds that swallow ocean plastic waste have scarring in their stomachs – scientists have named this disease ‘plasticosis.’ Read more.
  
  

• The first study into the biological response of the upper ocean in the wake of South Pacific cyclones could help predict the impact of warming ocean temperatures, researchers believe. Read more.
  
  

• An unusually severe form of toxoplasmosis killed four sea otters and could pose a threat to other marine wildlife and humans. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers confirmed what was already known: jellyfish eat bigger prey as they grow, which means they also occupy a higher position in the food web as they grow. They also found that some of the concentrations of ‘healthy fats,’ increase as jellyfish grow. These changes might be influenced by their diet, and as they feed on bigger prey with higher levels of fatty acids, the jellyfish accumulate more of these fatty acids. Read more.
  
  

• The small size and isolation of the endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have led to high levels of inbreeding. This inbreeding has contributed to their decline, which has continued as surrounding killer whale populations expand. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers have found that an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was associated with the deaths of more than 330 New England harbor and gray seals along the North Atlantic coast in June and July 2022, and the outbreak was connected to a wave of avian influenza in birds in the region. Read more.
  
  

• Plastic fibres stunt growth in mussels by more than a third. Read more.
  
  

Climate Crisis

• In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, a team led by NOAA researchers used a combination of observations and computer models to generate the first broad assessment of bottom marine heat waves in the productive continental shelf waters surrounding North America. Read more.
  
  

• Warming and overfishing could switch the role of fishes in the marine carbon cycle. Read more.
  
  

• Future ocean warming and marine heatwaves could impact the growth and development of clownfish during their earliest life stages. Read more.
  
  

• A new study is providing an unprecedented examination of oxygen loss on coral reefs around the globe under ocean warming. The study captures the current state of hypoxia – or low oxygen levels – at 32 different sites, and reveals that hypoxia is already pervasive on many reefs. Read more.
  
  

• The diet quality of fish across large parts of the world’s oceans could decline by up to 10 per cent as climate change impacts an integral part of marine food chains, a major study has found. Read more.
  
  

• Underwater waves deep below the ocean’s surface – some as tall as 500 metres – play an important role in how the ocean stores heat and carbon. Read more.
  
  

Fisheries and Aquaculture

• The EU and Norway signed three bilateral agreements including quota setting in the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, the exchanges of quotas between the two parties, and reciprocal access to waters for fishers. The EU and Norway took major decisions to significantly limit the herring catches in the Skagerrak and the North Sea to protect the Western Baltic herring stock. However, the quota shares of the parties remain unchanged. Read more.
  
  

• First Fish Week concludes with “illuminating” discussion of negotiating objectives, says the World Trade Organization. Read more.
  
  

• Whale meat on the menu as Japanese suppliers try to tempt tourists. With the domestic market in long-term decline, whalers and restaurants are working with the Japan travel bureau in a bid to win over skeptical visitors. Read more.
  
  

• A plan to build the world’s first octopus farm has raised deep concerns among scientists over the welfare of the famously intelligent creatures. Read more.
  
  

• New research is beginning to unravel the times of year and locations where whales are at greatest danger of entanglement in fishing gear on the Oregon Coast. Read more.
  
  

• Intense fishing and over-exploitation have led to evolutionary changes in fish stocks like cod, reducing both their productivity and value on the market. These changes can be reversed by more sustainable and far-sighted fisheries management. A new study shows that reversal of evolutionary change would only slightly reduce the profit of fishing, but would help regain and conserve natural genetic diversity. Read more.
  
  

• Researchers from Shandong University Reveal How Ocean Mesoscale Eddies Modulate Global Human Fishing Activities. Read more.
  
  

• As humpback whale populations grow, Dungeness crabbers foresee their own demise. Read more.
  
  

Marine Technology

• The Government of Jersey has partnered with French “clean marine technology” firm OceansLab and Ports of Jersey to explore how “clean energies” could power Jersey’s ferries, cargo ships and lifeboats. Read more.
  
  

• A simple 19th Century tool is still useful to ocean scientists in the age of satellites, new research shows. Read more.
  
  

• An international team of experts convened remotely as part of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative’s Climate Working Group to consider the deep-sea impacts of ocean-based climate intervention (OBCI). A research team has analyzed the proposed approaches to assess their potential impacts on deep-sea ecosystems and biodiversity. Their findings raise substantial concern on the potential impacts of these technologies on deep-sea ecosystems and call for the need for an integrated research effort to carefully assess the cost and benefits of each intervention. Read more.
  
  

• It’s not just humans who enjoy eating shellfish, so do marine rays. They like to ‘crunch’ on clams, which can sometimes take a big bite out of clammers’ profits. Using aerial and underwater videos, researchers assessed the ability of the whitespotted eagle ray to interact with clams housed within a variety anti-predator materials. Whitespotted eagle rays have strong jaws, plate-like teeth and nimble pectoral fins, which make them formidable and highly maneuverable predators of clams. Read more.
  
  

• What do you do if a hacker takes over your ship? That’s the question the folks over at NTNU discuss. Read more.
  
  

• An engineering professor, in partnership with the Smithsonian National Zoo, is studying the mechanisms sea lions use to move underwater to engineer more effective underwater motorized technology. Read more.
  
  

People and the Sea

• An unprecedented rise in plastic pollution has been uncovered by scientists, who have calculated that more than 170tn plastic particles are afloat in the oceans. Read more.
  
  

• Noise from human activities is harming ocean invertebrates and ecosystems, new research shows. Scientists reviewed hundreds of studies on the impact of noise on marine invertebrates (such as crabs, molluscs, squid, prawns and worms). They concluded that noise caused by humans is harming invertebrates in numerous ways, from cellular level to entire ecosystems. Read more.
  
  

• Stockholm Environment Institute have released their “Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy in Sweden” report, which provides a concise and forward-looking summary of how a transformative transition towards a more sustainable blue economy could take place in Sweden, and thereby also contribute to a more sustainable development outside Sweden. Read more.
  
  

• The European Commission released a new investor report with an overview of investment activities and opportunities in the EU blue economy. Read more.
  
  

• Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, addressed the Monaco Blue Initiative on 20 March 2023 to advocate for increased international co-operation and action on tackling shared ocean challenges. Read more.
  
  

• Down the coast in Australia? Keep an eye out for shark egg cases! 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. Read more.
  
  

• Australian Blake Johnston on Friday shredded the world record for the longest surfing session, dodging swarms of jellyfish to ride hundreds of waves across 40 punishing hours. Read more.
  
  

• A global mapping project has revealed the major stressors placed upon global coastlines by human activity. Read more.
  
  

• Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world’s oceans following 10 years of negotiations. The High Seas Treaty aims to help place 30% of the seas into protected areas by 2030, to safeguard and recuperate marine nature. Read more.
  
  

• In the Philippines, the oil slick from the sunken MT Princess Empress reached the Harka Piloto fish sanctuary in Barangay Lazareto. Read more.
  
  

• The MER-CLUB project, an ambitious scientific project which aims to tackle the issue of mercury pollution in marine sediments, is developing a clean-up system based on bioremediation, a green technology which uses the potential of natural microbes to break down harmful pollutants. Read more.
  
  

• Paul Watson will set sail in April for his first mission since being ousted from Sea Shepherd last year. The four-month-long anit-whaling mission on the John Paul Dejoria will “oppose criminal operations, not legitimate companies.” Read more.