Researchers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Baruch College have developed a device that safely traps delicate sea creatures inside a folding polyhedral enclosure and lets them go without harm using a novel, origami-inspired design. Research on marine organisms often […]

A new study has revealed a decline in the ability of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park reefs to recover after disturbances. Scientists at The University of Queensland, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reefs Studies (Coral CoE) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have found a decline in the ability of Great Barrier […]

Academics from the Archaeology Department at the University of York have discovered that North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) populations both inhabited the waters of the mediterranean two thousand years ago. Up until now it was assumed that the Mediterranean Sea was outside of the historical range of the […]

A new study published this month in the journal Nature Communications has shown that diatoms can withstand population collapse in an acidified environment by conserving valuable energy normally used for carbon dioxide consumption. Diatoms are a type of microscopic plankton called phytoplankton, the most common of the four plankton types and are the foundation for many aquatic food webs, also […]

Sea urchins do not possess eyes, but instead can see using the tips of their tentacle-like feet. The quality of their vision through these feet has now been tested by Lund University in Sweden, in a new study that has shown that while sea urchins have fairly low resolution vision, it is good enough to […]

Bacteria are responsible for 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is also on the rise as a result of their excessive use throughout populations. Patients in hospitals who are already battling illnesses or have compromised immune […]

Marine ‘dead zones’ are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world’s oceans and large lakes, caused by excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom marine environments. There are more than 500 dead zones around the world, with the northern Gulf […]

New research shows that tens of thousands of sea turtles are caught each year by small-scale fishers off South America’s Pacific coast. The study, led by the University of Exeter and supported by the UK government’s Darwin Initiative, involved conducting surveys at 43 harbours in Ecuador, Peru and Chile, revealing that gillnet fisheries catch more […]

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science this week showcases the use of hormone analysis to provide a viable way of measuring the duration and effects of fishing gear entanglement on endangered North Atlantic right whales. This forensic technique for analyzing stress responses can also provide information on fasting periods and physical stress in whales. North […]

Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid now known as the Chicxulub impactor, struck the Earth’s surface leaving a crater 93 miles in diameter. This impact is widely agreed to have caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction in which 75% of plant and animal species on Earth became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Although the asteroid killed off […]