Latest news from EarthWire/marine

The protection afforded to blue whales in New Zealand waters may need to be increased, now a study has found they may be more regular visitors to the South Taranaki Bight than previously thought.

Otago commercial fishermen have reacted with anger to a proposal to extend a ban on set-net fishing around the Otago Peninsula to help preserve yellow-eyed penguin colonies.

(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) How will rainfall patterns across the tropical Indian and Pacific regions change in a future warming world? Climate models generally suggest that the tropics as a whole will get wetter, but the models don't ...

The Indo-Pacific warm pool was much dryer during the last ice age than today, because lower sea level exposed the Sunda Shelf. The large landmass, in place of the warm ocean, altered the atmospheric circulation, shifting convection further west i ...

Extending a ban on set net fishing around the Otago Peninsula will stem the deaths of one of the rarest penguin species in the world, the native yellow-eyed penguin, Forest and Bird says.

The prospect of a deep sea "gold rush" opening a controversial new frontier for mining on the ocean floor has moved a step closer.

GPS data could provide faster and more accurate early warning systems for tsunamis, a German team of scientists suggest.

A puffin census is under way on the Farne Islands to determine how many breeding pairs of the birds live at the main breeding site. Rangers are also installing cameras in the birds burrows to study the birds.    

Patrick Barkham heads to the north-east of England to visit the Farne Islands, where the National Trust is embarking on an epic census of the puffin population.

Residents in Chile discover around 600 dead animals washed up on the shore in Punta Choros, on the country's northern coast

Nipped fingers and handfuls of guano will be the order of the day for wildlife rangers on the Farne Islands as they embark on an epic census on Friday to discover whether puffin numbers have plummeted after a year of extreme weather. The 10 Natio ...

The Iceland Ministry of Industries and Innovation has responded to the Marine Conservation Society's (MCS) rating of Icelandic pelagic caught mackerel as 'least sustainable?, which has been based on seven justifications.

Over the last two days (15-16 May), representatives from the industry, the EU institutions, EU Member States, civil society as well as from the scientific community have gathered in Edinburgh to optimise the management of deep water fishing.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has upgraded European and Norwegian mackerel to a yellow 'three' rating on its Fish to Eat List, meaning people can eat it occasionally without endangering the species.

A study published today reveals that 400,000 birds are killed each year in gillnet fisheries, exceeding the estimated toll of bird deaths documented in longline fisheries.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council has released the ?Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA),? a report containing the best available science informed by traditional ecological kno ...

The warming impact of soot and methane on the Arctic climate and the increasing acidification of the Arctic Ocean: these are among the key issues that the Arctic Council?s various working groups will formally present May 15 to the Arctic Council ...

(University of Bristol) Limiting the amount of warming experienced by the world's oceans in the future could buy some time for tropical coral reefs, say researchers from the University of Bristol.

(American Society for Microbiology) Microscopic algae that live within reef-forming corals scoop up available nitrogen, store the excess in crystal form, and slowly feed it to the coral as needed, according to a study published in mBio.

(Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) Researchers at EPFL present new evidence for the crucial role of algae in the survival of their coral hosts. Ultra-high resolution images reveal that the algae temporarily store nutrients as crystals, bu ...