Marine Biology News:
Courtesy of Science Daily
Penguin biologists from around the world warn that ten of the planet's eighteen penguin species have experienced further serious population declines. The effects of climate change, overfishing, chronic oil pollution and predation by introduced mammals are among the major factors cited repeatedly by penguin scientists as contributing to these population drops.
Russian oil and gas company Rosneft is conducting oil and gas exploration work that may have caused the critically endangered western gray whale to flee its main feeding ground. Tests and offshore installment of equipment by Rosneft for a major seismic survey began in late August, despite repeated calls from 12 governments, NGOs, scientists and the public to postpone the survey because of potential risks to the whales.
In 1998, Charlie Kerfoot discovered a "doughnut" of phytoplankton circulating in Lake Michigan, helping to feed the lake's famous fishery. Just 12 later, the doughnut is disappearing, and Kerfoot fears that the lake's ecosystem will crash, taking with it much of the fish biomass.
Unexpectedly, scientists have now discovered a true counterpart of the cerebral cortex in an invertebrate, a marine worm. Their findings give an idea of what the most ancient higher brain centers looked like, and what our distant ancestors used them for.
A combination of the biology of marine mammals, mechanical vibrations and acoustics has led to a breakthrough discovery allowing scientists to better understand the potential harmful effects of sound on marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.
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Oceanography News:
Courtesy of Science Daily
A coastal studies expert disagrees with published estimates that more than 75 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident has disappeared.
In addition to Antarctica, New Zealand was warming at the end of the last ice age, indicating that the deep freeze up north, called the Younger Dryas for the white flower that grows near glaciers, bypassed much of the southern hemisphere, according to new research.
The Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps are melting at half the speed previously predicted, according to analysis of recent satellite data.
Researchers use soil moisture and salinity of porewater combined with other data to develop tools for restoring coastal wetlands.
Scientists propose that an overlooked type of biological catalyst -- metal-ligand complexes -- could have jump-started metabolism and life itself, deep in hydrothermal ocean vents.
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Ocean Conservation News:
Courtesy of Ocean Conserve
Independent: A genetically modified salmon which grows twice as fast as normal is completely safe for human consumption and poses little risk to the environment according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulatory body's verdict paves the way for GM animals to be produced commercially for food for the first time. The creature, dubbed "Frankenfish" by critics, looks likely to be approved for human consumption later this month. Its developers, a Boston-based company called ...
Guardian: The government will this month sound the death knell for the world's largest tidal energy project – to be built across the Severn estuary between Somerset and south Wales – when it rules out public funding for the controversial £20bn plan. The announcement will please some environmentalists, who were worried about the impact on bird life in the estuary, but others say such spending cuts will make a mockery of David Cameron's pledge to be the "greenest government ever". The ...
NYT: THE scientific rebel J. Craig Venter created headlines – and drew comparisons to Dr. Frankenstein – when he announced in May that his team had created what, with a bit of stretching, could be called the first synthetic living creature. Two months later, only a smattering of reporters and local dignitaries bothered to show up at a news conference to hear Dr. Venter talk about a new greenhouse that his company, Synthetic Genomics, had built outside its headquarters here to conduct ...
NYT: Crews hoisted the blowout preventer that once sat atop BP's stricken well to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday night, and the federal leader of the spill response said that there was no longer any risk that the well might leak again. "This well does not constitute a threat to the Gulf of Mexico at this point," the leader, Thad W. Allen, a former Coast Guard admiral, said during a conference call with reporters. "The well has been effectively secured regarding any potential ...
LiveScience: As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill unfolded earlier this summer, a mechanical engineer helped cleanup crews keep up with the moving target by developing a steady stream of forecasts that predicted where the oil slick would spread several days in advance. The engineer's three-day forecasts successfully showed where and when oil would wash ashore in the Mississippi River Delta locations of Plaquemines Parish and Grand Isle, La., as well as on the white-sand beaches of Pensacola, Fla., ...
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NOAA News:
Courtesy of NOAA
The contiguous United States had its fourth-warmest summer (June-August) on record, according to the latest NOAA State of the Climate report issued on Wednesday, Sept. 8.
NOAA and others released a report on Tuesday that showed dissolved oxygen levels have dropped by about 20 percent from their long-term average in the Gulf of Mexico in areas where federal and independent scientists previously reported the presence of subsurface oil. Scientists from agencies involved in the report attribute the lower dissolved oxygen levels to microbes using oxygen to consume the oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
NOAA today announced a $131.9 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contract to Walsh Construction Company of Chicago to construct the main facility at NOAA’s new Pacific Regional Center on Ford Island in Honolulu.
On Friday NOAA reopened 3,114 square miles of Gulf waters offshore of the western Florida panhandle to commercial and recreational fishing. The reopening was announced after consultation with FDA and under a re-opening protocol agreed to by NOAA, the FDA, and the Gulf states.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced today an extension of the disaster for California salmon fishermen due to the low numbers of spawning Chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River and the subsequent reduction in commercial fishery revenues.
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