Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
Officials from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority met along the shores of the Dead Sea to settle details of a study to save the shrinking body of water, agreeing to proceed with plans to draw water from the Red Sea.
Four donor countries _ France, Japan, the United States and the Netherlands _ have committed themselves to participate in financing the $15 million study. The study will look at the environmental and social consequences of transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.
Geological experts warned that the drop in the water level would increase the earthquake possibilities. They also warn the Dead Sea will disappear in 50 years if current trends persist.
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Monday, December 11th, 2006
A host of record-breaking discoveries and revelations that stretch the extreme frontiers of marine knowledge were reported by the just-released Census of Marine Life 2006. They include life adapted to brutal conditions around 407 oC fluids spewing from a seafloor vent (the hottest ever discovered), a mighty microbe 1 cm in diameter, mysterious 1.8 kg (4 lb) lobsters off the Madagascar coast and a US school of fish the size of Manhattan Island.
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Sunday, December 10th, 2006
The critical base of the ocean food web is shrinking as the world's seas warm, new NASA satellite data show. The discovery has scientists worried about how much food will grow in the future for the world's marine life. Small changes that happen in the bottom of food web can have dramatic changes to certain species at higher spots on the food chain
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Friday, December 8th, 2006
Decompression sickness, or the bends, is caused by nitrogen bubbles forming in the body. During ascent the pressure reduces and the volume of gas in the blood and tissues increases. If the ascent is too fast the bubbles may reach a dangerous size and prevent blood flow or damage tissues.
Normally associated with SCUBA diving, decompression sickness (DCS) is also be a risk for repetitive breath-hold diving. This was put forward as early as 1965 but is still not widely acknowledged.
A new study published in the Research in Sports Medicine journal compared four groups of breath-hold divers: (1) Japanese and Korean amas and other divers from the Pacific area, (2) instructors at naval training facilities, (3) spear fishers, and (4) .dive athletes.
The researchers report some 90 cases in which DCS occurred after repetitive breath-hold dives. Because the risk of suffering from DCS increases depending on depth, bottom time, rate of ascent and duration of surface intervals, some approaches to assess the risks are presented. Regrettably, none of these approaches is widely accepted.
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Thursday, December 7th, 2006
THE international marine conservation organisation, Oceana claims it has evidence documenting 71 Italian and 37 French illegal driftnetters as they were carrying out fishing activities or preparing to leave port.
Oceana has presented reports to ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black and Mediterranean Seas and Contiguous Atlantic Area).
Furthermore it says it has presented evidence of fraud regarding European subsidies and illegal marketing of tuna and swordfish, as well as incidental bycatch of cetaceans, sea turtles and sharks.
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Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
Greenpeace want you to help them put an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean. Go to their new web site where you can get inspired by other people's ideas, rate them, improve them and add your own.
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