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Minimizing bycatch by maximizing incentives
What’s the best way for fishermen to avoid catching the wrong type of animal in their nets? According to this paper, there’s the way we’re doing it now, and there’s a way that allows for more flexibility and more compliance. Read on to find out more about preventing bycatch through incentives!
Happy World Oceans Day!
Happy World Oceans Day! A day to celebrate and appreciate the fantastic oceans, while also raising awareness of the importance of minding and minimizing our impacts.
Oil Spill Snorkels: Eating oil, breathing electrons, saving the world?
Oil spills are not great for the environment, but some bacteria thrive on eating oil. Scientists have been researching ways to use these natural oil degrading bacteria to clean up oil contaminated areas. A group in Italy adapted graphite rods to encourage marine mud bacteria to degrade oil more quickly. They call this the “Oil Spill Snorkel”. Read on to find out more about how and why this works, and some of the other ways we can naturally clean up the earth!
Spotlight on Constructed Wetlands
Wetlands are one of the world’s powerhouses for ecosystem services, filtering our water, controlling coastal erosion, and providing feeding and nursery habitat for a huge variety of wildlife. They are super productive, containing plant species that grow fast and therefore contribute a huge influx of organic material to the system when they die and start […]
Fishy Crimes: How Indonesia Is Taking Back Its Fisheries
Fish poaching is a huge problem for countries around the globe, disrupting conservation efforts and damaging local economies. Indonesia, once a country plagued by the practice, has taken hard stances against illegal fishing and turned their fishing economy around.
OceanTech: profiling the sub-surface via Argo floats
The final post of theme week introduces the Argo array, an international effort to understand the ocean’s sub-surface via technological floats that enable continuous, real-time temperature and salinity data collection. Data collected from the Argo array can be coupled with satellite and shipboard measurements to provide a more complete understanding of global ocean dynamics.
The Entire Ocean in a Drop
Article: Stoeckle MY, Soboleva L, Charlop- Powers Z (2017) Aquatic environmental DNA detects seasonal fish abundance and habitat preference in an urban estuary. PLoS ONE 12(4): e0175186 Effectively managing fish populations requires accurate and timely monitoring data. Scientists and environmental managers need to know when (presence/absence data), where (location data), and how many fish (abundance […]
Benthic biology on a thermally boring deep-sea ridge
The deep ocean is vast and full of neat ocean dwellers, many of which scientists know little about. One way to investigate them is from images and videos captured during deep-sea exploration efforts using submersibles. A group of scientists did just that to quantify the benthic assemblages at different depths and a variety of substate types on a ridge in the Indian Ocean.
What lies beneath: A Gargantuan Volcanic Crater in the Arctic Ocean
Deep underneath the Arctic Ocean, researchers are studying properties of its sea floor, and colossal sized terrain features are slowly coming to the fore. Learn about one such discovery, the Gakkel caldera!
Red dead algae
Life on earth has been evolving for a long time – billions of years! The timing of when different kinds of life developed is controversial, but can tell us about the conditions of earth in the past. A group of scientists in Sweden looked at ancient fossils from India, and found what they describe as red algae. This is important because at 1.6 billion years old (that’s 1,600,000,000 years) this is the oldest fossil of this type of algae described to date. These red algae fossils are also much older than most biological models said they should be. This could mean that more types of organisms have been around longer than we thought!
Atlantic confirmed as accomplice in Arctic sea ice loss
A team of scientist gathered new evidence from the Arctic Ocean, revealing a new suspect responsible for rapidly melting Arctic sea ice.
Now you see me, now you don’t…or do you?
Camouflage is a fantastic adaptation that appears all over the tree of life. One thing we don’t often consider, though, is how effective the disguise of camouflage is when viewed through non-human eyes. Click here to find out more about how flounder hide in plain sight of their predators and prey!
Take my breath away: Decline in oceanic oxygen levels fifty years in the making
Most marine organisms require dissolved oxygen to sustain their survival. So what is the current status of oceanic oxygen levels? Read on to learn about the oft under appreciated resource of our planet!
Throwing Babies out with the Sea Ice: Ringed Seals Response to Ice Decline
As the Earth warms, sea ice declines. What happens to those animals who rely on the ice? Today’s oceanbites looks at one animal, the ringed seal, and how it may be affected by climate change!
An Ocean in Your Beer
This St. Patrick’s Day, think outside the green beer and whiskey and try an ocean-inspired beer! Didn’t know there were beers brewed with ocean life? Read on to learn more about how our oceans and your beer are intertwined.
Oceans absorb more carbon with weaker ocean circulation
A team of researchers investigate why the ocean has been absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere in recent decades, and find ocean circulation could be responsible.
A look into the past…and into a gnarly set of teeth
New discoveries are made every day, but ‘new’ does not always mean current. In this case, scientists are using technology to reconstruct the jaws of a creature that dominated the oceans over 70 million years ago and are solving the mystery of how its strange teeth allowed for a diverse diet. Intrigued?
Small MPAs: the new all-you-can-eat buffets?
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a popular conservation tool and are in many situations very effective. Unfortunately, as with many plans, there may be some unintended consequences, as seen in the case of small MPAs in Fiji, where they appear to have attracted corallivorous crown-of-thorns sea stars (Acanthaster spp.). Find out more in today’s oceanbites!
Like a champion Casanova in the sky
After migrating thousands of miles from their southern wintering grounds, males of a certain species of shorebird log thousands more miles scouring the summer territories for fertile females. It’s pretty nuts.
Glaciers have big league role in silica budget.
Glaciers get a lot of attention because they’re expansive sheets of ice. They’re important to understand because they can impact sea level, circulation, climate, albedo, and they are homes to microbial organisms and large animals. A new reason they are getting attention is their recently realized importance to the global silica budget. Researchers found that melting glaciers deliver enough silica to the surface ocean that their contribution should not be ignored.
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