Ocean News from the Web

Oceans in the News

I'm sorry to tell you that after 12 years I will no longer continue this page. I do not teach this class any more, and have other commitments. I'll keep the page open, for what it's worth, but won't be adding new material.

Oceans in the News

March 28, 2012. Dead monster washes ashore in South Carolina. Discovery news item

March 2, 2012. The oceans are acidifying as a result of high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. They may reach levels not seen since some large extinctions hit the global ecosystem. Wired.com

February 13, 2012. Shark vs shark on the Great Barrier Reef. Mind where you put your toes, in case the wobbegong is waiting! National Geograhic News

February 2, 2012. A giant iceberg threatens to break off a big Antarctic glacier. National Geographic News

February 1, 2012. Treasure looted from a seafloor Spanish galleon must be returned to Spain. The Guardian

February 1, 2012. Deal to salvage a potential treasure from HMS Victory, which sank in the English Channel in 1744. New York Times

February 1, 2012. Jellyfish swarms, possibly a sign of ecological damage to the oceans. http://www.nature.com/news/marine-ecology-attack-of-the-blobs-1.9929"> Nature News

January 8, 2012. Wave energy being generated at Newport Beach, California. Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2012. Cargo ship breaks up on the New Zealand shore, raising fears of more pollution. Terra Daily

January 8, 2012. Shark finning is not just done by industrial fleets. Terra Daily

December 13, 2011. The Japanese whaling fleet has arrived in Antarctica, aiming to kill about 900 whales. Terra Daily

December 5, 2011. Tuna stocks worldwide are on the edge of failure. Science magazine news

October 28, 2011. Hagfish can be predators as well as scavengers. (If you're really a bad person, you may be reincarnated as a banded redfish.) Open access at Nature Scientific Reports

October 14, 2011. Huge cargo of silver may be salvaged from a World War II ship sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat.

New York Times, Octoebr 14, 2011
BBC News, September 26, 2011

October 4, 2011. Japan plans to go ahead with another season of Antarctic "scientific" whaling. BBC News

September 8, 2011. The President of Kiribati would like the world to build a floating man-made "island" to house his people, who are threatened by rising sea levels. The Independent

September 6, 2011. Look out, Antarctica: here come giant red crabs! Global warming has apparently allowed red crabs to reach Antarctic waters, where they are likely to cause unknown but serious levels of ecosystem disruption. BBC News

September 1, 2011. Aerial photos of Hurricane Irene damage. Great tears in the Outer Banks.

Wired Science story.
Guide to damage photos from NOAA: this link is the starting map. NOAA

August 19, 2011. The huge Japanese tsunami of last March was seen by radar as it approached California. This technology could become vefry important in tsunami warning systems. Terra Daily

August 15, 2011. New pirate activity: this time in the Gulf of Guinea (West Africa). Terra Daily

August 8, 2011. The last of the lobstermen in Long Island Sound. New York Times. If you want it, download it now before they start charging for it.

August 4, 2011. Aerial view of the famous shoreline change at Ocean City, Maryland, by the construction of jetties. NASA Earth Observatory

August 1, 2011. The global navigation of leatherback turtles. Wired Science

July 21, 2011. Messing with great white sharks: look out! BBC News

July 21, 2011. Jellyfish increasing in British waters. (They closed a nuclear power plant, for example!) BBC News

July 20, 2011. Why dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, wear sponges on their beaks. A wonderful piece of arcana, published on PLoS: I'll add the link when I've had time to read it.

July 20, 2011. Whale hunters versus whale watchers in Iceland. Terra Daily

SLOWLY UPDATING VACATION GAP

June 21, 2011. The fastest sealevel rise in 2000 years is happening along the Atlantic coast of the USA. The paper is said to be in PNAS. Terra Daily

June 17, 2011. As the Mississippi flood waters reach the Gulf of Mexico, they are likely to produce a record large dead zone. This is because of all the fertilizer and manure they carry from Midwest farmland. Terra Daily.

June 14, 2011. The amazing strobe squid. Brian Switek on Laelaps blog

June 14, 2011. The global scope and impact of aquaculture. BBC News opinion piece The report the news piece refers to is here

June 13, 2011. Major Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards are back in business after environmental laws are gutted. Terra Daily

June 6, 2011. Very large sturgeon population invades San Pablo Bay (San Francisco Bay). LA Times, June 1, 2011.

May 27, 2011. The recovery of Blackbeard's anchor. BBC News

May 27, 2011. Great story about the habits of the whale shark. Terra Daily

May 27, 2011. The beaches of Benidorm have been assailed by flotillas of jellyfish. The British tourists won't care as long as there's fish and chips and beer. Terra Daily

May 27, 2011. Great diversity in marine species around the South Atlantic island of South Georgia. Terra Daily

May 15, 2011. The Danes nail a Somali pirate "mother ship". Terra Daily. Previous stories: May 6, May 1.

May 10, 2011. News is never all bad. The Japanese post-tsunami crisis means that they won't be importing fin whale meat from Iceland this year. Iceland News

May 6, 2011. Probably a bad mistake: Somali pirates have seized a Chinese cargo ship in the Indian Ocean. Terra Daily. See previous story from May 1.

May 2, 2011. Terrific krill boom this year in some Antarctic waters, and the humpback whales are gorging on it. Terra Daily

May 2, 2011. The amazing eyes (and behavior) of box jellyfish. The paper is in Current Biology. Terra Daily

May 1, 2011. The Somali pirates and international shipping: the game is changing. Terra Daily

May 1, 2011. Yet another technique to try to save Venice from persistent flooding. Terra Daily

April 25, 2011. The Japanese tsunami devastated scallop farms in Chile! Terra Daily

April 20, 2011. Proposal for saving the Baltic Sea. It would mimic natural "overturning". Terra Daily

April 8, 2011. The EU is threatening action to stop the flow of plastic into the Mediterranean: 500 tons of it in 250 billion little pieces! Terra Daily

March 29, 2011. The surface waters of the Arctic Ocean have 20% more fresh water than they used to. The effects on global circulation, and especially on the North Atlantic, are unknown. Terra Daily

March 28, 2011. Capelin -- "the fish that will save Iceland" (!!) Iceland Review Online

March 8, 2011. New giant seamounts discovered in the South Atlantic. Press release from Scripps

March 6, 2011. New shark park in Costa Rican waters. National Geographic News

February 23, 2011. Coral reefs are heading for crisis. BBC News

February 18, 2011. The Japanese whaling fleet heads home early, citing "harassment" by Sea Shepherd. They gave killed 172 whales in the Southern Ocean, 20% of their "research" target. Terra Daily

February 11, 2011. Wreck of a famous whaling ship found in the Pacific.

February 10, 2011. Pirates seize two oil tankers in two days. Christian Science Monitor For previous stories, scroll down to January 20, 2011.

January 26, 2011. The shape of the seahorse. The paper is in Nature Communications.

BBC News
Wired Science, with great images.
Monterey Bay Aquarium exhibit
January 24, 2011. A new family of carnivorous jellyfishes that eat other jellyfish. The paper is in Biological Bulletin. National Geographic News
January 21, 2011. A mud volcano emerges from the Indian Ocean, close to the shore of Pakistan. Great before-and-after images! NASA Earth Observatory
January 20, 2011. Updates on Somali pirates: they lose one, capture two.
- South Korean special forces storm a hijacked ship, save all the crew, and kill most of the pirates. New York Times
- The Somali Parliament votes down a draft bill that would outlaw piracy. BBC News
January 19, 2011. Despite increased naval patrols, the pirates of Somalia are doing better than ever. Time to start simply sinking them (IMHO).
- Terra Daily
- BBC News
December 28, 2010. Where do cold manatees go? USA Today
December 20, 2010. A set of wonderful marine vertebrate slides. BBC News
December 15, 2010. Where gigantic icebergs go to die: and the effects on local ecology. BBC News
December 10, 2010. The prehistoric Persian Gulf as a dry land host for history. The geological/oceanographic background is that the Persian Gulf was a dry basin before it was flooded by the Indian Ocean as sea level rose during the warming after the last Ice Age. The flooding is dated around 8000 years ago. The new paper (in Current Anthropology) is mostly an neat idea paper: that this now-submerged terrain held the beginnings of Mesopotamian civilization. Data are sparse, but they don't contradict the idea. Terra Daily
December 9, 2010. The gigantic mouth of the blue whale. BBC News
December 9 2010. Multiple shark attacks kill one German woman and injure three Russian tourists at Sharm-el-Sheik, on the Egyptian Red Sea coast.
- What's going on? BBC News, December 9, 2010.
- The Egyptians call in outside help. BBC News, December 6, 2010
- The fatal attack on the German woman. BBC News, December 5, 2010.
- Dubious claim by the Egyptians that they had captured the shark involved. BBC News, December 2, 2010.
- The first attacks, on the three Russians. BBC News, December 1, 2010.
December 9, 2010. The Europeans do not seem able or willing to stop or even regulate shark finning. BBC News
November 23, 2010. Phytoplankton bloom off the coast of Namibia. NASA Earth Observatory
November 7, 2010. Cheating on tuna fishing quotas. There is a massive black market (spurred by demand in Japan), and it's supplied by fishing companies, often with aid from corrupt Government officials -- the French being particularly bad. Is anyone surprised by any of this? Terra Daily
November 6, 2010. At least business is booming somewhere! Somali pirates receive record ransoms. BBC News
November 2, 2010. Iceland exports about 500 tons of fin whale meat to Japan. Daily News from Iceland
October 29, 2010. The Gulf Oil spill: claims that Halliburton used bad cement are strengthened in new evidence. The inquiry is still in process, however, and we will know more in a month or more. BBC News
October 28, 2010. Tsunami strikes the west coast of Sumatra after an M 7.7 earthquake. The current death toll is 340, but hundreds of people are still missing.
- Aid reaches the offshore isands. BBC News, October 28, 2010.
- BBC News, October 27, 2010.
- BBC News, October 26, 2010
October 27, 2010. Spain tries to keep American treasure looters away from its sunken shipwrecks. The Guardian, October 6, 2010.
October 27, 2010. Top ten surf spots in Oahu. BBC Travel
October 26, 2010. Huge sockeye salmon run in British Columbia this year, after a disastrous one last year. BBC News
October 24, 2010. Somali pirates seize two ships off the coast of Kenya. ABC News
October 24, 2010. Surfer killed by shark at a Southern California beach. AP on NPR site
October 22, 2010. The icebergs resulting from the huge ice shelf break in Greenland. This piece is about potential hazards, and the technology of tracking icebergs. Popular Mechanics. Previous stories:
- A giant ice island that split off the Greenland ice sheet hit a rock in Nares Strait and broke into two. The two pieces, each still huge, will survive as enormous icebergs for at least two years, and before it melts it may drift into sea-lanes off Labrador and Newfoundland. And this event is a powerful reminder of the loss of Greenland ice: the numbers are staggering. Terra Daily, September 13, 2010.
- Status of the ice mass on August 16, 2010. NASA Earth Observatory
- Assessment of the rate of ice loss from Greenland. Terra Daily, August 13, 2010.
- Wired Science, August 6, 2010.
- Satellite images before and after. NASA Earth Observatory
October 18, 2010. Feature article on the deep sea fauna of the oceans. American Scientist, November/December 2010 issue. Open access, thank you!
October 8, 2010. The Spill: National Geographic feature on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. October National Geographic, with a photogallery and other links.
September 28, 2010. A fish that suckles its young (in the ovary!). This is the eelpout, a fish from the northern coast of Europe. It is well known for having live birth, but how the eggs developed into large, active young fish before birth was not known.
- BBC News
- Abstract of the paper
September 9, 2010. U.S. marines re-take a hijacked ship off Somalia. BBC News, September 9, 2010, with many links to previous stories.
September 7, 2010. The amazing physiology of the narwhal. "The marathon runners of the sea." BBC News
September 4, 2010. The US Coast Guard has declared that the BP well poses no further threat to the environment. BBC News. For previous stories, scroll down to August 13, 2010.
September 3, 2010. The mass migration of the Christmas Island red crabs. Swarms of voracious red crabs have appeared in many a sea-faring yarn, but the reality is even better! National Geographic photogallery
September 3, 2010. Blue whales off Southern California. Los Angeles Times
September 2, 2010. Surge of piracy in the South China sea. It seems to me that this will provide a perfect excuse for the Chinese Navy to show the world what it can do. Given central control, aggressive patrolling, and a sense that the Navy is protecting trade routes vital to its economy, I would expect to see a dramatic decline of piracy in this region, as opposed to the pathetic inability of the many navy ships operating around Somalia to make any significant impact on the local pirates there. Terra Daily
August 27, 2010. More on the mimic octopus. Wired Science
August 25, 2010. Vladimir Putin and the whales. Interesting: as they say in the news piece, I don't see George W. Bush, or Barack Obama, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doing this... Terra Daily
August 25, 2010. The EU, Iceland, and the Faeroes, and mackerel. There's a lot of political posturing here. Iceland would like to join the EU, but the nightmare for Icelanders is the French and Spanish fishing fleets that would decimate their carefully managed cod fishery if it were opened to all the EU. I suspect this latest issue is a ploy by the EU to portray the Icelanders as overfishers. Terra Daily
August 23, 2010. Image gallery of algal blooms in the ocean. Wired.com
August 20, 2010. Floating plastic in the Atlantic. There is said to be a paper in Science, but I didn't see it in the last issue. August 20, 2010. Floating plastic in the Atlantic. There is said to be a paper in Science, but I didn't see it in the last issue. Maybe it is in press.
- BBC News
- Site for the research program
August 17, 2010. Surfer killed by shark off Western Australia. The story doesn't say that the beach had been closed to swimming because of the sharks. BBC News
August 14, 2010. Scour power: how big storms re-shape coastal landforms (and any houses built on them). A fine feature article by Sid Perkins in Science News.
- Science News
- Background article on Hurricane Ike (URL from Sid perkins' article): US Geological Survey
August 13, 2010. BP has completed the "top kill" in its effort to seal off its crippled well. The question now arises
- Wikipedia article, updated as needed, August 13, 2010.
- The question now arises whether the "bottom kill" from a "relief well" is now needed. BBC News, August 13, 2010.
- BP is completing the "static kill" on the top of the well by pouring cement into it. CNN, August 6, 2010.
- BP's progress on the "static kill". USA Today, August 4, 2010.
- About 75% of the oil spilled has disappeared, probably fron natural breakdown. BBC News, August 4, 2010.
- New York Times, August 2, 2010.
- BBC retrospective on the disaster, with any links. BBC News
- BP appoints a new CEO and sends the previous one to Siberia. The company writes off $32 billion (that's Billion) to pay for the spill and clean-up. BBC News, July 27, 2010.
- BP has admitted faking images of its clean-up operations that it posted on its web site! (London) Telegraph
- Now is the time when we see whether the oil will seep out another crack in the well. BBC News, July 19, 2010.
- The new cap withstands increasing pressure. BBC News, July 17, 2010.
- The oil flow is still blocked as pressure rises in the well. BBC News, July 16, 2010, with links.
- Oil stops flowing. BBC News OnLine, July 15, 2010.
- Geological perspective on hazards and rewards in the BP drilling project. Washington Post, July 13, 2010.
- BP is ready to replace its containment cap with a larger one that should collect more oil. New York Times, July 12, 2010.
- BP's first relief well is slightly ahead of schedule. BBC News, July 8, 2010.
- For previous stories, scroll down to July 6, 2010.
August 12, 2010. New large turbine designed to generate power from tidal currents. BBC News
August 10, 2010. Iceland and the EU battle over whaling if or when Iceland joins the EU. If I were an Icelander, I'd worry much more about the rapacity of the Spanish and French fishing fleets! BBC News
August 10, 2010. Huge block of ice breaks off a Greenland glacier. It will survive as an enormous iceberg for at least two years, and before it melts it may drift into sea-lanes off Labrador and Newfoundland.
- Wired Science, August 6, 2010.
- Satellite images before and after. NASA Earth Observatory
August 3, 2010. Antarctic octopus with a venom that works even at sub-freezing temperatures. Wired Science
August 2, 2010. Submarine canyon on the floor of the Black Sea. It was formed, and is still being formed, as salt water from the Mediterranean flows into the Black Sea beneath the surface. The dense salt water cuts down int the canyon as it sinks under gravity to the floor of the Black Sea (which has much fresher and lighter water). The paper is said to be in press in Geology. AOL News
August 2, 2010. Pirates still active around Somalia. Terra Daily
July 30, 2010. Massive algal bloom on the coast of China. National Geographic photogallery
July 28, 2010. Oceanic plankton seems to have declined over the last 100 years: that may be associated with ocean warming.
- BBC News
- Nature news item. May or may not remain available.
July 26, 2010. A boat made largely of plastic bottles sails across the Pacific (to raise awareness of the issue of plastic garbage in the oceans). BBC News
July 22, 2010. Strange new types of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Cayman Trough, on the plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. Terra Daily
July 22, 2010. The amazing underwater caves in the limestone of the Bahamas. Feature article in the August National Geographic magazine
July 22, 2010. The amazing underwater caves of the Bahamas, photogallery. National Geographic
July 22, 2010. Dead jellyfish stings 150 people. CNN
July 21, 2010. Is this real? Whale lands on small yacht. BBC News OnLine
July 15, 2010. Nautilus has been found living in moderately deep water along the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Terra Daily
July 15, 2010. The bearded goby to the rescue in the Benguela ecosystem. The paper is in Science this week. A wonderful story of ecological opportunism.
- Wired Science
- National Geographic News
July 13, 2010. Big black jellyfish hit the beach in San Diego. SignOn San Diego
July 10, 2010. 2.7 square miles of the Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier in Greenland break off in less than 24 hours. Satellite images on Wired Science
July 6, 2010. Iceland is having real trouble selling its whale meat to Japan. Two things are clear (to me): first, it looks like a very shaky economic proposition for Iceland to continue whaling, and second, the Japanese don't really want any imported whale meat. Iceland Review, July 6, 2010.
July 6, 2010. THE GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL, so far...
- Oil spill now affects the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. Voice of America, July 6, 2010.
- A new large skimmer vessel begins operating in the Gulf. CNN, July 4, 2010.
- Oil clean-up delayed by waves from Hurricane Alex. The impact of Alex is neither direct nor disastrous, but it is real. New York Times, July 1, 2010.
- Waves from Hurricane Alex push oil ashore at the same time that they hinder clean-up efforts. National Geographic News , June 30, 2010.
- BP plans to change its oil collection system on the sea floor. Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2010
- Tropical Storm Alex approaches the southwest edge of the Gulf. CNN, June 26, 2010.
- Gulf oil spill hits Florida beaches. National Geographic photogallery, June 25, 2010.
- New York Times, June 23, 2010.
- BP chief goes to the yacht races while the Gulf oil spill burns. Fox News, June 20, 2010.
- BP is to deposit $20 billion in an escrow account for oil spill damages. CNN
- Verbal manoeuvering by major oil companies in Congressional hearings. Terra Daily, June 15, 2010.
- Internal BP documents show serious problems before the fatal blow-out and explosion. Wired Science
- The oil spill is flowing at a rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, according to new US Government estimates. New York Times, June 15, 2010
- Other oil companies are just as unprepared as BP to stop a deep-water blowout. Financial Times, June 15, 2010.
- The Coast Guard orders BP to hurry up in intercepting the oil flow from the leak. New York Times, June 12, 2010.
- BBC update and summary, June 11, 2010.
- More signs that BP doesn't really know what it's doing. Ap on its Google link, June 8, 2010.
- BBC News, June 7, 2010.
- New York Times, June 1, 2010.
- Oil may leak until August. MSNBC
- Fish merchants close one by one in New Orleans. Terra Daily, May 25, 2010.
- BP delays its attempt to "top kill" the leak. New York Times, May 24, 2010.
- Oil seeping into Louisiana marshes. National Geographic photogallery
- Some of the oil has reached the Loop Current that will sweep it towards Florida. National Geographic News
- A list of major oil spills from NOAA. It is biased toward spills in and around the United States. For example, the deliberate sabotage of Kuwaiti oil wells by Saddam Hussein is not listed. NOAA
- BP says it has captured 20% of the flow from the leaks. Terra Daily
- The political casualties begin. Terra Daily
- Bloomberg
- It seems that there is enough blame for everyone. BBC News, May 13, 2010.
- BP's new "Top Hat" dome reaches the site. BBC News, May 12, 2010.
- The oil companies involved in the disaster blame one another. BBC News, May 11, 2010.
- BP asks the public for ideas! Terra Daily, May 10, 2010.
- BP's latest proposal verges on the desperate. BBC News, May 10, 2010.
- 80beats Blog on Discover site
- Potentially much larger-scale effects of the spill. Terra Daily, May 10, 2010
- BP's containment structure does not work. The company will try Plan B, whatever that turns out to be... AP news on Google, May 9, 2010.
- BP's containment structure is placed over the seafloor leak. We will have to wait and see how well it works. BBC News
- BBC News, May 7, 2010.
- BBC News, May 3, 2010.
- Photogallery from BBC News
- BP gets a lot of blame (probably justified). BBC News. May 1, 2010.
- Discovery News, April 30, 2010.
- The spill moves closer to the Louisiana shore: satellite image. NASA Earth Observatory, April 30, 2010.
- The lawsuits begin. Terra Daily, April 29, 2010.
- The oil leak is going now at 5,000 barrels a day. The well did not have an important safety switch. Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2010.
- National Geographic photogallery
- BBC News, April 28, 2010.
- Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2010.
- New York Times , April 26, 2010.
- National Geographic News. April 25, 2010.
- New York Times, April 22, 2010.
- BBC News, April 21, 2010.
July 4, 2010. Dangerous surf predicted for Southern California beaches. Los Angeles Times
June 25, 2010. Whale watching is a billion-dollar industry and growing. TerraDaily
June 23, 2010. There is no international agreement on a revised whaling treaty, so the status quo will continue.
- BBC News
- Analysis by BBC reporter Richard Black
June 21, 2010. Greenpeace versus French fishermen in the Mediterranean, with a school of bluefin tuna between them. New York Times
June 15, 2010. The countries that are still whaling in defiance of the international global moratorium of 1982 (Japan, Iceland, Norway) are planning to produce a range of whale-derived products to sell as well as whale meat: these will apparently include some "eco-friendly" products. Buyer beware! Terra Daily
June 9, 2010. The Japanese whaling fleet sets sail on a summer hunting voyage to the Pacific. Terra Daily
June 1, 2010. The decades-long moratorium on whaling is likely to be ended, allowing Japan, Iceland, and Norway to kill whales "legally". The Independent (of London)
May 29, 2010. The state of Hawaii bans all trade in shark fins. Terra Daily
May 21, 2010. The evolution and current status of hammerhead sharks. Terra Daily
May 21, 2010. The ocean has warmed considerably since 1993. Terra Daily
May 19, 2010. The shell of the argonaut. The octopus wiggles the shell at the surface and takes in enough air to allow energy-saving floating. Wired Science/Science News, May 19, 2010.
May 12, 2010. A measure of the catastrophic decline in British fisheries over 150 years. National Geographic News
May 12, 2010. The "colossal squid" of deep-sea waters is not a fearsome predator: at least, that's what a new paper suggests. It's based on extrapolating up from smaller known creatures, which is not always a safe procedure (but it's the best we can do at the moment).\. The paper is in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association in England.
- BBC News
- National Geographic News
May 10, 2010. A gray whale in the Mediterranean This is an astounding sighting. BBC News
May 7, 2010. The "city of gonads" jellyfish, from Tasmania. National Geographic News
May 6, 2010. Pirate update: the Russians win one, the French don't have such a clear win.
- BBC News
- Terra Daily
April 27, 2010. "Asphalt volcanoes" found on the sea floor off Santa Barbara. These structures are what you'd get if something like the Rancho La Brea tar seeps were extruded on the sea floor, instead of on land in the Los Angeles Basin. The paper is in press in Nature Geoscience.
- National Geographic News
- Terra Daily
- Press release
April 22, 2010. New species from waters off Greenland: some new to science, some new to Greenland as the ocean warms. National Geographic News
April 19, 2010. Tiny marine creatures: photogallery. BBC News. But see also the science behind the pictures: BBC News
April 14, 2010. Japan is selling whale meat from its "scientific" whaling program overseas. Specifically, to South Korean and American buyers. Never mind the ethics, this is just plain illegal under international agreements. Wired Science
April 8, 2010. A humpback whale beached on Long Island is terminally sick. Fox News
April 5, 2010. A Chinese freighter is hard aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, there is the possibility of extensive environmental damage. The freighter was carrying Australian coal to China. BBC News
April 1, 2010. The British government sets up the world's largest marine reserve, around the Chagos Islands. Of course, the reality is that the declaration won't guarantee anything if in the end the islands are turned over to a third-world government. BBC News
March 27, 2010. The Chilean tsunami: an amazing image of a trawler swept three miles (5 km) inland. Terra Daily
March 24, 2010. BPA is now detected across the oceans. Wired.com
March 24, 2010. Potential release of large amounts of methane from the Arctic continental shelves. This would be a dangerous new addition to the greenhouse gases already in Earth's atmosphere. NSF
March 24, 2010. New way of resolving a territorial dispute: rising sea level (or erosion) makes an island disappear. Terra Daily
March 24, 2010. The UN fails to approve a proposal that wouldprevent overfishing of sharks. See item on corals, March 21, 2010, and item on tuna from March 19th. Terra Daily
March 21, 2010. The UN fails to approve a proposal that would protect rare corals. Terra Daily
March 21, 2010. A California sushi restaurant closes after being caught selling whale meat (that's illegal in the US). Authentic, yes, served by the Japanese chef, and the meat tested by DNA. Immoral and illegal, though.
- Terra Daily, March 21, 2010.
- Los Angeles Times, March 11, 2010.
March 19, 2010. Hydrogen sulfide bubbling out of the sea off the coast of Namibia. See it from satellite! NASA Earth Observatory
March 19, 2010. A solar catamaran is due to set off on a round-the-world test voyage. Scientific American. What this short article doesn't say is that the usual navigational routes have to be re-thought. Instead of charting a course for favorable winds, the solar boat would chart a course to minimize winds (and clouds), and specifically choose calm and cloudless areas. Should be fun for an oceanography class!
March 19, 2010. Proposal to list Atlantic bluefin tuna on the CITES endangered species list fails: shamefully, the Canadians voted against it too. The Japanese, of course, are relieved.
- Two views from Spain
- Japan is relieved. Christian Science Monitor, March 19, 2010.
- Opinion piece on BBC News
- The end of the proposal, BBC News, March 18, 2010.
- National Geographic site
- BBC News
- Japanese lobbying against the proposal. Terra Daily
- The Tsukiji fish market fears the ban. Terra Daily.
March 17, 2010. Scotland aims to be the Saudi Arabia of marine energy. Discover Magazine
March 11, 2010. Iceberg mayhem on the coast of Antarctica. In mid-February, a huge floating iceberg collided with a tongue of ice extending out from an Antarctic glacier, breaking it off. Now there are two floating iceberg, each the size of a small (American) state. NASA Earth Observatory, image taken March 8, 2010.
March 10, 2010. At least a dozen shipwrecks found on the floor of the Baltic Sea by an oil pipeline company. Because the Baltic lacks oxgen in its deep waters, the wrecks may be very well preserved. AOL news
March 5, 2010. The Baltic Sea now has the world's largest dead zone. The problem is that it has a very long coastline for its volume, and its water exchange with the main ocean is limited by the very narrow, shallow strait between Denmark and Sweden. Forthermore, several of the countries on the Baltic shore are heavy polluters: probably Poland and the old East Germany are the worst. National Geographic
March 3, 2010. An area in the Atlantic where floating plastic garbage is concentrated. The phenomenon is like the better-known Pacific garbage patch, and the setting is the same: an area where debris arrives on the wind-driven surface, but doesn't disperse.
- BBC News.
- National Geographic News
- See February 17 for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
March 2, 2010. Aboriginal populations who are abusing their right to kill whales for "subsistence". BBC News
March 2, 2010. Photogallery of damage from the tsunami that followed the CHilean earthquake. National Geographic News
February 24, 2010. Everything you wanted to know about seamounts. This is a special issue of the journal Oceanography, and is available on open access on the Web. Right now the URL is "current issue", so it willchange as the next issue comes out. Oceanography
February 24, 2010. A Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Britain yields treasures.
- National Geographic photogallery
- The archaeology group that discovered it describes the finds
February 23, 2010. Cooperative squid hunting by sperm whales?
- BBC News OnLine
- Sid Perkins for Science News
February 22, 2010. The oceans are more acidic than at any time in the last 800,000 years. No paper: this was a presentation at a meeting. Scientific American
February 22, 2010. Can there be any compromise over whaling? BBC News
February 21, 2010. Australia vs. Japan over whaling. BBC News
February 17, 2010. More on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. CNN. Previous stories:
- New York Times, November 9, 2009.
- National Geographic News photogallery, September 4, 2009.
- National Geographic News, August 27, 2009.
- BBC News
February 14, 2010. Sharks: don't mess with Australian grandmothers! BBC News
February 10, 2010. Dramatic cracking last month of a large part of the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf on the coast of Antarctica. NASA Earth Observatory
February 10, 2010. El Nino's effects spread far and wide. Terra Daily
February 10, 2010. Underwater volcano erupts close to Iwo Jima.
- Mainichi News Service, February 3, 2010.
- National Geographic News, February 10, 2010.
February 4, 2010. Sharks kill surfer on the Florida coast. Notice, however, that this is the first shark fatality in Florida in years. Humans kill far more people than sharks do, and you're far more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a shark. Los Angeles Times
February 2, 2010. A potent toxic dinoflagellate in Chesapeake Bay. John Hopkins University
February 1, 2010. New Zealand teenager fights off a shark with her boogie-board. Video clip from BBC
January 26, 2010. The height and power of storm waves have increased dramatically in recent years along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Science Daily
January 26, 2010. The deepest hole in the history of scientific drilling of the ocean crust. This was a hole drilled off the east coast of New Zealand that hoped to sample 35 million years of climatic history. National Geographic News
January 19, 2010. Picture gallery of marine creatures with unusual modes of life. BBC News
January 13, 2010. Tourist eaten by "giant" shark off South Africa. The Guardian
January 11, 2010. The problem of the Humboldt squid in the Pacific. Feature from New Scientist
January 9, 2010. Britain plans to spend $200 billion on offshore wind farms. The Independent
January 9, 2010. The Sea Shepherd group claims that a Japanese whaling ship deliberately rammed one of their boats, tearing off its bow. Christian Science Monitor

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