Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine chemist Andrew Dickson plans to purchase and deploy an autonomous buoy-mounted sensor to study the effect increasingly acidic ocean water could be having on ecosystems in the California Current. Recently published findings by other researchers have indicated a disturbing upwelling of acidic waters into coastal regions that support sea urchins, abalone and other marine invertebrates whose ability to form shells could be impaired by the corrosive water. Dickson said recent discoveries like that underscore the need for more detailed measurements.
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Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Half of U.S. coral reefs are in poor or fair condition, threatened by climate change and human activities like sports fishing, shipping and the release of untreated sewage, a U.S. government report has said. Reefs in the Caribbean, in particular, are under severe assault and coral in the U.S. Virgin Islands and off Puerto Rico had not recovered from 2005, when unusually warm waters that led to massive bleaching and disease killed up to 90 percent of the marine organisms on some reefs.
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Friday, July 25th, 2008
Energy investment in Scotland's seas can be balanced with protecting marine wildlife and seabirds, the Scottish Government has claimed. The comments came as Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead launched a consultation on Scotland's Marine Bill. Campaigners urged the government to use a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to protect the marine environment. They want the bill to include strong measures to protect seas around the country and the wildlife they contain.
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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could reach a new record size this year. The discharge of pollutants and nutrients from the Mississippi River causes algae to bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. When the algae dies, the decaying absorbs so much oxygen from the water that large areas become inhospitable to fish. The resulting lifeless area is called a eutrophic or hypoxic zone, or more colloquially, a dead zone. The condition is cyclic, and reaches its maximum in late summer.
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
The establishment of marine protected areas is often viewed as a conflict between conservation and fishing. A new study in the journal Conservation Biology, shows that involving all the different groups of people affected by the protection zone early in the planning stage will more effectively protect the environment than ignoring detractors concerns.
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Monday, July 21st, 2008
It may be an infuriating puzzle which has baffled and defeated countless children and their parents over more than two decades, but an octopus appears determined to solve the Rubik's Cube. The three-dimensional puzzle, which became a huge success in the early 1980s, is among toys being given to the intelligent sea creatures to determine whether they favour a particular tentacle, or if they are octidextrous.
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