From the seawire: ocean news in November 2023
Missed out on November 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
The Unraveling of a Protist Genome Could Unlock the Mystery of Marine Viruses. Read more.
A groundbreaking scientific study conducted along the Southeast coast of India has unearthed a pressing environmental concern – the increasing risk of invasive species colonization on marine debris. The research delves into the critical interplay between plastic pollution and the introduction of non-indigenous organisms into Indian waters. Read more.
They say two heads are better than one. But in the world of fish, it appears two fins are better than one. Researchers have produced a theoretical model that demonstrates the underlying mechanisms behind how fish will synchronize their fin movements to ride each other’s vortices, thereby saving energy. Read more.
While sea freight is recognised as a pathway for the movement of exotic organisms, there is little research that has quantified the risk. Soil collected from the external surfaces of sea freight was found to support live microorganisms, worms, seeds and insects, including various regulated biosecurity organisms. The research confirms that shipping containers provide a pathway for the movement of exotic species. Read more.
Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, large, carnivorous aquatic lizards that lived during the late Cretaceous. With ‘transitional’ traits that place it between two well-known mosasaurs, the new species is named after a sea serpent in Norse mythology, Jormungandr, and the small North Dakota city Walhalla near to where the fossil was found. Read more.
Firsthand observations of a wolf hunting and killing a harbor seal and a group of wolves hunting and consuming a sea otter on Alaska’s Katmai coast have led scientists to reconsider assumptions about wolf hunting behavior. Read more.
A new study that combines genetic and molecular techniques helps solve the riddle of sea star (commonly called starfish) body plans, and how sea stars start life with bilateral body symmetry – just like humans – but grow up to be adults with fivefold ‘pentaradial’ symmetry. Read more.
Recently discovered microfossils date back half a billion years. Resembling modern-day algae, they provide insight into early life in our oceans. Read more.
A sightseeing trip in Thailand’s Surin Islands took an unexpected turn when tourists spotted a rare Omura’s whale, a species only identified in the wild eight years ago. The sighting was confirmed by the national park officers at Mu Ko Surin National Park. Read more.
Scientists examining underwater cliff ecosystems onboard research vessel Falkor(too) using the 4,500 meter robot, ROV SuBastian, have discovered two pristine coral reefs in the waters surrounding the Galápagos Islands. These newly identified cold-water reefs are situated at depths ranging from 370 to 420 meters. Read more.
Some unexpected shark strandings and subsequent surprises following autopsies have, ironically, taken marine biologists millions of years back in time as they look to the future with concern. Adding chapters to an evolutionary tale involving the infamous megalodon shark (the ‘Meg’), they think their work suggests there are more warm-blooded sharks out there than previously believed, and – based on the Meg’s demise – these species may be at great risk from warming seas. Read more.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is warning mariners about an endangered right whale spotted in Conception Bay, Newfoundland which, according to whale researcher Jack Lawson, is the first sighting of its kind in the area. Read more.
Ash falls could boost nutrients in coastal ecosystems—for better or worse Read more.
Human trade and transport have led to the intentional and accidental introductions of non-native species outside of their natural range globally. These biological invasions can cause extinctions, cost trillions, and spread diseases. A study has investigated how many of these non-native species already exist worldwide and which species groups are particularly prone to become non-native. Read more.
Seabirds roam far and wide in the Indian Ocean – so they need ocean-wide protection, new research shows. Read more.
Researchers present evidence of previously unknown luminosity in 10 deep-sea species, suggesting underestimated diversity. These new discoveries include a member of the order Molpadia, which was previously thought not to be luminescent. The authors stress the importance of considering the ecological role of bioluminesence and the need for conservation. Read more.
Researchers find exposure to heavy metals cadmium and antimony and certain organic contaminants, accumulated by the mother and transferred to her eggs, may cause embryos to be feminized in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), a species already at risk of extinction from a current lack of male hatchlings. Read more.
Some bacteria are able to tap into unusual sources of nutrients in the surface water of the oceans. This enables them to increase their primary production and extract more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In doing so, however, they release the potent greenhouse gas methane. Read more.
An international team of marine scientists has identified and officially named four species of algae new to science, challenging previous taxonomical assumptions within the Porolithon genus. The discovery has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the ecological role of these algae in the coral reef ecosystem. Read more.
Some barnacles are ‘morphing’ to protect themselves from predatory warm-water sea snails, which are expanding into their territory due to climate change. Read more.
A collaborative research team has recently revealed that rotifers, a kind of microscopic zooplankton common in both fresh and ocean water around the world, are able to chew apart microplastics, breaking them down into even smaller, and potentially more dangerous, nanoplastics – or particles smaller than one micron. Each rotifer can create between 348,000 – 366,000 per day, leading to uncountable swarms of nanoparticles in our environment. Read more.
While conducting a survey in the western Pacific Ocean near Japan and the Philippines, researchers came across several brightly colored fish with unique characteristics — they were a new species. Read more.
In a first for CSIRO’s research vessel (RV) Investigator, a state-of-the-art robotic float has been recovered from the Southern Ocean after its three-year mission sampling deep waters about 500 kilometres south of Tasmania. Read more.
An estimated 50,000 shipwrecks can be found around the UK’s coastline and have been acting as a hidden refuge for fish, corals and other marine species in areas still open to destructive bottom towed fishing, a new study has shown. Read more.
Algae living within the soft tissue of coral supply much of the energy needed by their hosts, and some symbiotic algae help coral withstand warmer water better than others. Researchers have now found that there was a tradeoff for corals dominated by the thermally sensitive algae – they have higher growth, but only in cooler water. Read more.
Researchers have rediscovered and successfully cultivating Rhabdamoeba marina – a rare marine amoeba that has only been reported in two cases in the past century. Using this culture strain, they performed a comprehensive analysis of its genetic sequence, revealing for the first time the phylogenetic position of this enigmatic amoeba, and proposed a novel taxonomic classification based on their research findings. Read more.
Researchers take a look at data that has so far been mostly discarded as contamination, revealing the previously underestimated role of extracellular vesicles (EVs). These are important for the exchange of genetic information between cells and thus for the microbial community in the sea. Read more.
Stones inside fish ears mark time like tree rings – and now they’re helping us learn about climate change Read more.
Climate Crisis
New research shows that potential adaptive responses by sea turtles, such as shifting the timing of when they nest, may not be enough to counteract the projected impacts from climate change on hatchling production. Read more.
The nutrients available from seafood could drop by 30 per cent for low-income countries by the end of the century due to climate change, suggests new research. That’s in a high carbon emissions and low mitigation scenario, according to the study. This could be reduced to a roughly 10 per cent decline if the world were to meet the Paris Agreement targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius – which recent reports have shown we’re not on track to achieve. Read more.
New research suggests that increasingly severe weather driven by climate change may push oceangoing seabirds to their limits. Read more.
A new study reveals increasing warming rates in the world’s oceans in recent decades and the locations with the greatest heat uptake. Read more.
New research offers a way to build climate resilience into the designs of ocean and coastal areas intended to protect marine species. The researchers recommend establishing numerous marine protected areas across political borders, starting with the Southern California Bight. Read more.
The explosion of the underwater volcano Kolumbo in the Aegean Sea in 1650 triggered a destructive tsunami that was described by historical eye witnesses. A group of researchers has now surveyed Kolumbo’s underwater crater with modern imaging technology and reconstructed the historical events. They found that the eyewitness accounts of the natural disaster can only be described by a combination of a landslide followed by an explosive eruption. Read more.
Adult fragments of a coral species can better tolerate bleaching and recover faster when treated with tougher heat-evolved symbionts, new research indicates. The study also found that treatment with the heat-evolved symbionts did not compromise the coral’s ability to grow. This differs from previous studies on Great Barrier Reef corals which found that naturally heat tolerant symbionts could enhance heat resistance in adult corals, but at a cost to its growth. Read more.
A new study provides the first characterization of the coral microbiome under hypoxia, insufficient oxygen in the water. The research is an initial step toward identifying potential beneficial bacteria for corals facing this environmental stressor. Read more.
The relationship between fiddler crabs and plants on the U.S. Atlantic coast was thought to be a positive one: fiddler crabs help plants grow. In a new study, published recently in Ecology, Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers Kayla Martínez-Soto and David Johnson found that, thanks to climate change, the relationship between crabs and plants is not always positive. Read more.
A group of the world’s leading ocean scientific, philanthropic, and other stakeholder organizations, led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, have come together to highlight the global ocean at the upcoming 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 30 – Dec. 12, 2023. Read more.
Fisheries and Aquaculture
The problem of unwanted catches has always been present in fisheries. In the EU, fishers must register all catches and bring them to shore (land), which takes up time, space and is very costly. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. Researchers from Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands have joined forces with the Dutch fishing industry to develop an AI-based tool, funded by the EU. Read more.
ICES signs Memorandum of Understanding with Faroe Islands and Greenland. ICES will provide scientific information and advice to the governments of the Faroe Islands and Greenland on fishing opportunities, including information on the state of marine ecosystems and the impact of human activities. Read more.
For the fifth consecutive year, California officials are delaying the Bay Area’s commercial Dungeness crab season to decrease the chances of migrating whales currently off the coast getting ensnared by the crab-pot fishing lines. Read more.
The wild populations that sustain a significant Indonesian fishery are more depleted than the government had estimated, as highlighted by a recent scientific study. Read more.
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, is embarking on a new research project that will provide vital information into the impacts of climate change on key fisheries in the Torres Strait, Australia. Read more.
Banding together to sell fishing rights could generate economic benefits for African countries, which receive far less from access to their fisheries on the global market than other countries do from theirs. By joining forces, researchers say African fisheries would not just secure more competitive access fees, they could also protect their seas’ biodiversity. Read more.
Sharks and rays from threatened species are being caught off northern Cyprus, according to a new study by scientists who are working with local authorities and fishers to protect the animals. Read more.
The European Commission and 20 EU and Mediterranean states renewed their commitments to deliver on their sustainability pledges made in the MedFish4Ever Declaration. Read more.
Could the world’s fastest growing bivalve be the farmed seafood of the future? A team of UK researchers hope to re-write the story of the shipworm: transforming a species once viewed as a marine pest into a valuable, nutrient-rich food, by rebranding them as “naked clams” and developing the first system for farming them Read more.
29% of commercially sold caviar tested across four European countries had been procured or sold in violation of codes protecting endangered species. Ten percent of the caviar they tested wasn’t even fish eggs, and was instead a mix of unidentifiable DNA, suspected sturgeon offal, and artificial products. Read more.
Marine Technology
NTNU’s largest laboratory—the Trondheim fjord—is something of an El Dorado for researchers developing underwater robots. A charging station has been installed on the seabed, and to ensure the robots can find the shortest route to the charging station, they train in the fjord. Read more.
At the EU Space Week 2023 in Sevilla, the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has announced the winners of the CASSINI Prize for Digital Space Applications: With the new web app ‘Eyes on Plastic’, EOMAP is one of the three awardees. Read more.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Powering the Blue Economy: Power at Sea Prize, which will award up to U$1.7 million to competitors to advance technologies that use marine energy to power ocean-based activities. Read more.
Under the ocean’s surface, marine organisms are constantly releasing invisible molecules. Some of the chemical clues reveal which creatures are nearby, while others could be used someday as medications. Now, researchers report a proof-of-concept device that ‘sniffs’ seawater, trapping dissolved compounds for analyses. The team showed that the system could easily concentrate molecules that are present in underwater caves and holds promise for drug discovery in fragile ecosystems, including coral reefs. Read more.
An international group of scientists has called for the United Nations Treaty on Plastic Pollution to focus more on measures to reduce the production and consumption of plastics and the prevention of future plastic waste, rather than on the unselective removal of waste already in the water. Read more.
A proposal promoted by the UB Chair of Sustainable Blue Economy, sponsored by the company Tecnoambiente, has received one of the awards of the BlockchainxODS challenges, a competition in which university students from different disciplines make teams to address challenges of entities or companies in the territory to fight climate change and promote the good state of the marine ecosystem through the use of blockchain technology. The award has distinguished the proposal to design a web portal to calculate the capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) by the Posidonia oceanica seagrass and thus promote the mitigation of global warming through blockchain technology. Read more.
Analysing fish blood can show us how healthy they are Read more.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) launched a new, \$1.7 million challenge: Powering the Blue Economy™: Power at Sea Prize. The prize is part of the American-Made Challenges program and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Read more.
Chemists have developed a bioinspired supramolecular approach to convert photo-switchable molecules from their stable state into metastable one with low-energy red light. Their work enables fast, highly selective, and efficient switching, providing new tools for energy storage, activation of drugs with light, and sensing applications. Read more.
Sails and satellite navigation could cut shipping industry’s emissions by up to a third Read more.
Oceanography
Past cold periods such as the Little Ice Age were associated with reduced strength of North Atlantic currents and increased surface salinity in the Caribbean. This was accompanied by disturbances in the distribution of salt to the north leading to longer, stronger cooling phases in the northern hemisphere. Read more.
As the world warms and ice sheets melt, the ocean continually rises. The greater Boston area can expect to see between one and six feet of sea level rise by 2100, according to recent estimates. To find out what this rise might mean for freshwater supplies, a team of hydrogeologists developed an innovative new model that can not only predict saltwater intrusion over the next 75 years, but also pinpoint the main sources of salt contamination today – road salt and human development. Read more.
Scientists call them “ghost forests,” the acres of once-lush trees now reduced to leafless sentinels along the coast. They are among the visible casualties of seawater intrusion, the movement of saltwater inland to freshwater areas, due to sea-level rise. Read more.
A prominent 2019 study used ice cores in Antarctica to suggest that marine productivity in the North Atlantic had declined by 10% during the industrial era, with worrying implications that the trend might continue. But new research led by the University of Washington shows that marine phytoplankton — on which larger organisms throughout the marine ecosystem depend — may be more stable than believed in the North Atlantic. Read more.
CSIRO’s research vessel (RV) Investigator is heading into the heart of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to investigate why the planet’s strongest current that helps keep the Antarctic frozen is leaking warm water into the polar seas. Read more.
A new approach to examining the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems may provide a more accurate understanding of climate change responses – and predictions for future consequences – according to a new article. The paper highlights the interplay between the trend of climate warming and the fluctuations in local temperature. These two properties cause atypically warm events such as marine heatwaves to occur with increasing frequency and magnitude. Read more.
Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth’s history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems – and serves as a warning that marine environments are likely more fragile than apparent. New research, published today in leading international journal Nature Geosciences, suggests that oceanic anoxia played an important role in ecosystem disruption and extinctions in marine environments during the Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction, a major extinction event that occurred around 200 million years ago. Surprisingly however, the study shows that the global extent of euxinia (an extreme form of de-oxygenated conditions) was similar to the present day. Read more.
Research shows that variations in pyrite sulfur isotopes may not represent the global processes that have made them such popular targets of analysis and interpretation. A new microanalysis approach helps to separate out signals that reveal the relative influence of microbes and that of local climate. Read more.
Using historical records from around Australia, an international team of researchers have put forward the most accurate prediction to date of past Antarctic ice sheet melt, providing a more realistic forecast of future sea level rise. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest block of ice on earth, containing over 30 million cubic kilometers of water. Hence, its melting could have a devasting impact on future sea levels. To find out just how big that impact might be, the research team turned to the past. Read more.
The world’s biggest iceberg is on the move after more than 30 years being stuck to the ocean floor. The iceberg, called A23a, split from the Antarctic coastline in 1986. But it swiftly grounded in the Weddell Sea, becoming, essentially, an ice island. At almost 4,000 sq km (1,500 sq miles) in area, it’s more than twice the size of Greater London. The past year has seen it drifting at speed, and the berg is now about to spill beyond Antarctic waters. Read more.
People and the Sea
Endangered whales and dolphins live year-round in an area of the Mediterranean earmarked for oil and gas exploration, new research shows. Read more.
Across the world, women and men experience the impacts of the climate crisis in different ways. These are shaped by societal roles and responsibilities and result in widening inequalities between men and women. Sea-level rise, storm surges and high waves in coastal area do not discriminate, but societal structures often do. This makes climate change a highly gender-sensitive issue. Read more.
West Africa’s plastic waste could be fuelling the economy instead of polluting the ocean Read more.
Clearing mangroves to stop estuaries getting clogged with mud actually makes the problem worse, new research shows. Read more.
It’s one of the most famous taglines in film history, immortalising sharks as ruthless predators. But beyond the horror generated by Spielberg’s Jaws series, a persistent fear of sharks remains, with consequences that extend into reality. Read more.
U.S. regulators say they will review the use of a chemical found in almost every tire after a petition from West Coast Native American tribes that want it banned because it kills salmon as they return from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn. Read more.
In Australia, windfarm critics claim projects will harm marine life. Scientists say that’s not backed by credible evidence. Read more.
Trapped on Chinese squid-fishing ships, crews face beatings, malnutrition and more Read more.
Let coastlines be coastlines: How nature-based approaches can protect Canada’s coasts Read more.
Those who hold such data and know how to use it will have a lot of power in terms of value creation, management and security. New technology will significantly increase the flow of data, and an as yet unresolved question is how this information should best be managed. Together with partners, the research community at NTNU’s Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (AMOS) has developed methods and technology that can monitor large areas of ocean in the High North. Read more.
The deep sea is home to one of the largest animal communities on earth which is increasingly exposed to environmental pressures. However, our knowledge of its inhabitants and their response to human-induced stressors is still limited. A new study now provides first insights into the stress response of a pelagic deep-sea jellyfish to ocean warming and sediment plumes caused by deep-sea mining. Read more.
In a captivating discovery beneath the depths of the Baltic Sea, divers have stumbled upon the remnants of a German steamship, the Karlsruhe, which met its demise at the end of World War II. Read more.
Encounters with humans from 2017 to 2021 killed hundreds of Steller sea lions and other marine mammals that swim in Alaska waters, along with dozens of Alaska whales, according to a new federal report. Read more.