The Ocean Brief

Short ocean stories and insights covering science, policy, innovation, and the ocean community

Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

Being a better friend to wetlands

What better day to start being better friends with wetlands than World Wetlands Day? Here are some ideas to get you started:

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Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

Call for your letters to the Sea

Onewater is currently accepting “Letters to the Sea” from this age group. These will be recited at our Somos OceanoS ‘Voices from the Shore' event at the 2024 UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona.

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Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

Marine species discovered in 2023

In 2023, we made many new discoveries - truly amazing life hidden deep - and not so deep - beneath the waves. Here are just a few of them.

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Samantha Andrews, Founder, Ocean Oculus Samantha Andrews, Founder, Ocean Oculus

Is there colonialism in climate targets?

The famous 1.5C threshold for global warming by 2100 has been enshrined by the Paris Agreement, but is the target truly equitable?

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Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

Bacteria linked to mass death of sea sponges weakened by warming Mediterranean

In 2021, divers off the Turkish Aegean coast first observed dark stinging sponges dying in great numbers. Researchers have now sampled three species of pathogenic Vibrio bacteria, previously known to infect unrelated marine animals, from diseased and dying sponges. Evidence suggests that vibriosis may be a secondary illness that affects already weakened sponges, but is not necessarily the primary agent of the novel disease.

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Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

​World-first system to monitor the ‘seafood basket’ of Australia

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has completed initial testing of a ‘weather service’ for water quality in the Spencer Gulf in South Australia – which provides much of the country’s seafood – with plans to use the technology in local seafood farms. 

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Samantha Andrews Samantha Andrews

Plastic additives messing with amphipod sex life

Plastic waste in the water might be stopping - or interrupting - some shrimp-like creatures from reproducing. In a unique study, the ability of ‘shrimp like’ creatures to reproduce successfully was found to be compromised by chemicals found in everyday plastics.

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