oceanbites

Fisheries and Sustainability Certification: Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

What do sustainability certification labels on fish at the market mean? How do these measures impact fishers, industry, and governments?…

Make Earth Blue Again

A team of the world’s leading marine scientists reports that we are capable of rebuilding many components of marine life…

Coastal Management Conservation Coral Ecology Fisheries Genetics Human impacts Trophic Ecology

Slowing a Thorny Invasion – Managing for COTS with DNA

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish are a natural scourge on coral reefs… or are they? The cycle of outbreaks is cruel, since it…

Neurobiology

Why don’t whales have strokes?

Whales can't breathe underwater. But even though whale brains should be damaged by the lack of oxygen, they aren't. Scientists…

Biological oceanography Ecology Evolution Methodology

Southern Ocean diatoms: while they’re small, they are mighty!

Tiny organisms called phytoplankton fuel the marine food web. How have they adapted to live in the Southern Ocean where…

Biology

Slime, baby, slime!

Hagfish might look like disgusting little slime eels, but there is so much more to these jawless fishes. Read on…

Climate Change

Arctic Viruses Infecting sub-Arctic Seals: How Climate Change is Creating Marine Epidemics

With all the preparations being made to help human populations get through Covid-19, many are wondering about the effect the…

Behavior

A game of shark and ray: Rays act differently when sharks are around

As our oceans change, we don’t really know what the current decline of sharks means for stingrays, or for the…

Chemistry Climate Change Coastal Management Developmental Biology Ecology Human impacts Ocean Acidification Physiology

Ocean acidification and baby “squidlife” crises?

Ocean acidification has been known to cause problems for marine mollusks (like oysters and pteropods), because these animals have shells…

Behavior

Minke Boings: A 50-year mystery and the science of listening in the ocean

Whale sounds are weird and fascinating, but for a long time scientists weren't even sure that whales made sounds. The…

Climate Change

A Song of Ice and Sea Level Rise

How much ice is really being lost in the polar regions, and what have been the consequences? A team of…

Aquaculture Coastal Management Conservation Ecology Economy Fisheries

Clawing Your Way to the Top: Lobster Farming in Vietnam

Can changing lobster aquaculture practices in Vietnam pave the way for green growth around the globe? The authors of a…

Biology Ecology Evolution

Facing the music: calls from one of the worlds most endangered dolphins

The Study: Melo-Santos, G., Figueiredo Rodrigues, A.L., Tardin, R.H., de Sá Maciel, I., Marmontel, M., Da Silva, M.L., May-Collado, L.J.…

Biological oceanography Coral

Turning up the heat: lab-adapted symbionts help coral survive warming waters

Ever wonder how organisms might adapt to climate change? How about humans aiding in this evolution? Read on to see…

Climate Change

A call for clouds in climate models

In this throwback to last March, learn how clouds influence the greenhouse effect. This climate modeling study focused on their…

Climate Change Plastic Pollution

Is our plastic dependence accelerating climate change?

Reference: Royer, Sarah-Jeanne, Sara Ferrón, Samuel T. Wilson, David M. Karl. “Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in…

Biology Ecology Invasive Species

Increasing resilience, one cannibal at a time

When a species invades a new habitat they must learn to cope with previously unknown environmental stressors. Read on for…

Climate Change

The Blob: A movie monster of the sea

The Blob, the Pacific marine heatwave from 2016, sounds more like a movie monster than a natural phenomenon. Still the…

Ecology

The Adventures of Shell-ock Holmes: A case of green sea turtles

How can scientists find sea turtles in the ocean? Traditional methods like capturing and tagging are invasive and expensive. Is…

Coastal Management Coral deep sea Economy Human impacts Noise ocean engineering Ocean Exploration Pollution

Life in the Abyss: the ecological impacts of deep-sea mining

Did you know that about 95% of the ocean is unexplored? The deep ocean is logistically very difficult to access,…