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..because we can’t be underwater all the time
Archive for May, 2007
Friday, May 25th, 2007
This new course for divers discusses the coral reef ecosystem and food web. It illustrates its points using animals and plants found in and around coral reefs. For instance, the Caribbean Reef Shark is discussed as a top-level, active, predator. The authors manage to pack loads of information on their example species into a small space, without the prose becoming uninteresting. And even when I thought I knew lots about a subject they managed to surprise me. For instance, did you know that sponges may be able to live to over 1000 years old?
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Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Climate scientists, economists and policy researchers are all in agreement: limiting long-term global warming is achievable at a "negligible" cost. Now, the responsibility for action lies in the hands of politicians, they say. It could cost as little as eating one meal out per family.
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Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
DNA detective work has revealed that fishermen in South Korea are snaring far more whales in their nets than they admit. The "bycatch" is so large that some observers believe whales are being netted deliberately, breaking the moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
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Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Whales, birds and other migratory creatures are suffering from global warming that puts them in the wrong place at the wrong time, a U.N. official has told 166-nation climate talks. Many creatures are mistiming their migrations, or failing to bother as changes between seasons become less clear. The shifts make them vulnerable to heatwaves, droughts or cold snaps. Migratory species are particularly vulnerable because they need separate breeding, wintering and stop-over sites. Changes to any one of the habitats can put them at risk. Whales were sometimes in the wrong place to feed on fish and plankton which were thriving closer to the poles because of warmer oceans.
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Monday, May 21st, 2007
Endangered loggerhead turtles snared by longline fishermen may be inadvertently lured to the hooks because of an attraction to light sticks designed to attract tuna and swordfish, researchers said. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found in lab experiments that young loggerhead turtles will swim toward lights similar to those used by fishermen to attract big fish. "Juvenile turtles are indiscriminate eaters and bite nearly everything small that they encounter," said Ken Lohmann, a UNC biology professor whose expertise is turtle navigation. Lohmann recommended that longline fishermen direct the lights, designed to mimic the nighttime luminescence of squid, toward the bottom of the ocean. Turtles spend most of their time near the surface. He also suggested that fishermen switch to colors of light that turtles can't detect.He also suggested that fishermen switch to colors of light that turtles can't detect.
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Saturday, May 19th, 2007
A record haul of half a million silver and gold coins from a 17th Century shipwreck may have been found just 40 miles from Land's End, UK, an expert said. US treasure hunters said the coins, worth an estimated $500m (253m pounds), were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. But Odyssey Marine Exploration, who described it as the largest find of its kind, refused to pinpoint the location.
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