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 […]

  Increasing global temperatures due to climate change have resulted in increases in the severity and frequency of coral disease events around the globe. Coral species have faced rapid declines due to disease outbreaks, so understanding immune responses and associated potential life-history trade-offs is therefore a priority. Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington […]

In recent years, there has been growing concern in the scientific community that major tropical cyclones such as typhoons and hurricanes will increase with global warming. To better predict the frequency of these weather patterns, understanding typhoons in the past warmer periods of Earth’s history is particularly important. A new method of investigating these events […]

A fifth of the world’s biggest fisheries, such as Atlantic Cod and Walleye Pollock are reliant on healthy seagrass meadows, according to a study published this week. The study, entitled ‘Seagrass meadows support global fisheries production‘ published in Conservation Letters, also demonstrates the prevalence of seagrass associated fishing globally. Carried out in partnership with Dr Leanne […]

A study published this week in the journal Endangered Species Research has identified a local population of Blue Whales off New Zealand that is genetically distinct from other populations in the Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean. This population, consisting of 700 pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda), have been found living between the North and South Islands of New […]