Conservation
Go Green for Earth Day!
Do Mother Nature a solid with these helpful tips & tricks to go green today!
The importance of sea urchins
A look into Valeska’s graduate research. Why coral reefs depend on the long spined black sea urchin for survival.
For Sea Turtles, There’s No Place Like Home
Tagline: Sea turtles are occasionally released in locations that are not their home areas. But do they remain there? Find out in today’s oceanbites!
Unbelizeable, part II
A fieldwork faerie tale about an art/island paradise/conservation opportunity gone right
Are satellite tags the new dinner bell for harbor seals?
Satellite tags are being used to study the foraging behavior of fishes, but in the lab harbor seals have been found to be attracted to the acoustical signal given out by these tags. In the wild, does that mean these tags are acting as a dinner bell for harbor seals?
Unbelizeable, part I
A fieldwork faerie tale about an art/island paradise/conservation opportunity gone right
Oh Where, Oh Where Should This Oyster Reef Go?
Where indeed? Oyster reef restoration and use for shoreline protection requires some planning to maximize effectiveness. Find out more in today’s oceanbites!
Sea turtles vs Airguns
As we look for oil beneath the sea floor we cause a ruckus. How do sea turtles react and how can we protect them from the disturbance?
Blue New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions are a great way to work towards being the person you want to be. This year, why not be a little bluer? Along with the rest of the Oceanbites writing crew, I’ve put together a list of suggested New Year’s resolutions that positively impact our troubled oceans, along with links to posts we’ve published this year that address the marine issues you’d be helping to solve!
Seagrass, Disturbance, and the Blue Carbon Cycle
Seagrass beds bury carbon incredibly well! What happens to that carbon when you uproot, plow through, or otherwise disturb seagrasses? Does that carbon get released again? And how long does it take to capture that much carbon again once the seagrass grows back? All great questions with answers in today’s oceanbites!
Predator vs. Prey: starfish vs. coral
The crown-of-thorns starfish has become a vicious predator of acroporid corals in the Indo-Pacific. This study looks at recruitment strategies of both the coral and the starfish in order to better understand if the coral has a chance of surviving the feeding frenzy of the crown-of-thorns starfish.
Trawling selects for faster fish
A new study suggests that differences in exercise performance make some individuals more vulnerable to capture by trawling than others, and that this may drive the evolution of commercially-important fishes (Photo: Wikimedia).
Feeling fishy about our view of fish feelings
Humans are conscious beings that experience a range of emotions. But do other organisms share this quality, or is it unique to humans? A new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B challenges the long held belief that fish do not experience “emotional fever” – a commonly used indicator of whether or not an animal is capable of experiencing emotions. Read more to find out how this could matter in terms of management and conservation.
How to Stop Dragging Our Assets: The World’s First Fishery Habitat Quota
Setting limits on fish catch is standard practice in fisheries management. For the first time in history, limits on habitat damage was introduced in 2012 for the groundfish bottom trawl fishery in British Columbia. Was it successful? Read to find out!
Corals better learn to keep up or they may drown!
The coral reefs protecting many islands in the Pacific need to grow quickly in order to keep up with the rising sea levels and increasing ocean temperatures. As of now, researchers are optimistic that some species of corals are up to this challenge, but that relies on the rate of sea level rise.
What would coral reefs be like without human impact?
One would think that an isolated reef ecosystem shielded from the influence of people would provide an ideal benchmark against which other coral reefs can be compared. But in a recent study, researchers found it isn’t that simple.
Leaving the nursery: fish migration between juvenile and adult habitats
Many fish utilize different habitats as adults than they do as juveniles, but little research has shown how they make the shift between the two habitats. This recent study did just that using acoustic tags! Read to learn more!
Just sealing around; Ice seal misidentification in aerial surveys
Aerial photographs are a great way to collect images of marine species in order to analyze their distribution patterns. Distinguishing different species is difficult, and unfortunately this leads to the misidentifictation of several species. This is the case for ice-associated seals, species for which global climate change has motivated intensive monitoring efforts in recent years.
Survival at different stages of the fishing process informs management strategies for the silky shark
Knowing that a species has low survival rates after encountering a fishing vessel is useful. But knowing exactly what about the fishing process kills that species can result in more effective conservation efforts.
Nest Mess: rising seas change the environment of sea turtle nests, hindering hatching success
As a poster child for conservation, threats to sea turtles, such as fishing nets and coastal development, have been highly publicized. But recent research has shown that sea level rise, as a function of climate change, is affecting the emergence of turtle hatchlings.
© 2017 oceanbites. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by WordPress. Designed by 