Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
As the number of marine species assessments increases, so does the number of species in danger. The 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that excessive and destructive fishing activities play a primary role in oceans biodiversity loss.
Corals have been assessed and added to the IUCN Red List for the very first time. Ten Galapagos species have entered the list, with two in the Critically Endangered category and one in the Vulnerable category. Wellington's Solitary Coral (Rhizopsammia wellingtoni) has been listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The main threats to these species are the effects of El Nino and climate change.
In just a year, both Spingy Angelsharks and Smoothback Angelsharks have moved from the Endangered to the Critically Endangered category. The two species used to be a common and important deep-water predator over large areas in the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic.
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
A Sea Divers, is a new dive operation based on Koh Samui Island, Thailand. As the previous owners of Blue Planet and Bug Diving thy decided that their customers wanted something more than spending the first day of their diving course in an air-conditioned office...
So, they moved to a dive villa, in order that students can enjoy their diving experience both above and below water.
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Monday, September 17th, 2007
The tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu is urging the rest of the world to do more to combat global warming before it sinks beneath the ocean. The group of atolls and reefs, home to some 10,000 people, is barely two meters on average above sea-level and one study predicted at the current rate the ocean is rising could disappear in the next 30 to 50 years.
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Friday, September 14th, 2007
The Mary Rose trust is organising a 25th anniversary reunion for divers who took part in raising the historic warship. The Mary Rose is the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world. Built between 1509 and 1511, she was one of the first ships able to fire a broadside, and was a firm favourite of King Henry VIII. After a long and successful career, she sank accidentally during an engagement with the French fleet in 1545. Her rediscovery and raising were seminal events in the history of nautical archaeology.
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Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
A new study has identified three coldwater coral "hotspots" off Newfoundland and Labrador. The study provides the scientific basis for Canadian and European governments to protect sensitive coral habitat in the Northwest Atlantic. Coldwater corals are long-lived animals that live along continental slopes, seamounts, and mid-ocean ridges.
Coldwater corals can be damaged by fishing or other seafloor directed activities and may take centuries to grow back, if at all.
"Canada, Spain, Portugal and Russia are the countries that have the greatest potential to damage these globally important concentrations of corals," said Dr. Robert Rangeley, Vice President, Atlantic, WWF-Canada. "Their fleets are among the largest operating off Newfoundland and fish in and around the areas identified as hotspots. This also means they have the greatest opportunity to protect them."
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Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
Starvation may be impeding the recovery of the Pacific Gray whale population, say researchers.
The Gray whale population was thought to have recovered from commercial whaling, but now a new genetic study suggests the marine mammals once numbered between three and five times the 22,000 population estimated today.
If true, the findings could imply that the world's oceans are no longer able to support the same number of whales that they once could.
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