Friday, September 29th, 2006
A fleet of 100 robotic submarines could in five years' time be roaming the vast unexplored stretches of the world's seafloors and helping unlock their mysteries.
The plan was unveiled by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration at the Oceans 2006 conference in Boston last week. "The pace of exploration in the ocean is going a little too slowly," says Reginald Beach of NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration in Silver Spring, Maryland. Only 5 per cent of the ocean floor has been explored in detail, he says, which means there may be numerous new species and geothermal processes waiting to be discovered.
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Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Germany will make fighting climate change a top priority when it takes control of the G8 next year and will try to persuade the United States of its importance, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.
The United States, responsible for one quarter of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, is the only G8 member not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
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Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Scientists have issued their strongest warning so far this year that unusually warm Caribbean Sea temperatures threaten coral reefs that suffered widespread damage last year in record-setting heat.
Waters have reached 85 oF around the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico -- temperatures at which coral can be damaged if waters do not cool after a few weeks.
The warning issued by NOAA urges scuba-dive operators and underwater researchers to look for coral damage and use caution around the fragile reefs, which are easily damaged by physical contact.
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Monday, September 25th, 2006
For help in choosing a dive operator in Thailand see the newly updated SCUBA Travel directory. With ratings and recommendations from divers.
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Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
A South African shark-spotting program to warn surfers and swimmers about the approach of great whites is to be expanded, environmentalists have said, though they added the sharks have more to fear than humans.
In the only program of its kind in the world, South Africans are being trained as "spotters" who scour the ocean near popular beaches to sound the alert if they see one of the mighty predators. Many of those recruited are disadvantaged or homeless.
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Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
More than 50 new species, including sharks, shrimp, and reef-building corals, have been found in Indonesian West Papua (Irian Jaya).
The region, however, is coming under increasing threat from a proposed national policy to increase commercial fisheries there.
Among the new species were two kinds of epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium sp.) - small, slender-bodied bottom-dwellers that use their pectoral fins to "walk" across the seafloor.
Also discovered were several new species of "flasher" wrasses - named for the brilliantly colored displays the normally drab males flash to entice females to mate - along with fairy basslets, damselfishes, and a new jawfish. The scientists recorded a total of 1,233 species of coral reef fishes, at least 23 of them endemic.
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