Feature Channels: Marine Science

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Changes in the amount of fish caught does not necessarily reflect the number of fish in the sea.

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As the nations of the world prepare to vote on measures to restrict international trade in endangered sharks in early March, a team of researchers has found that one of these species – the oceanic whitetip shark – regularly crosses international boundaries.

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Using underwater video cameras to record fish feeding on South Pacific coral reefs, scientists have found that herbivorous fish can be picky eaters – a trait that could spell trouble for endangered reef systems.

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In honor of Valentine’s Day, Andrew Bass, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University, is available to discuss the Plainfin Midshipman – a vocalizing fish that hums love songs to attract its female counterpart to den-like nests beneath rocks.

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Shark attacks in the U.S. reached a decade high in 2012, while worldwide fatalities remained average, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File report released today.

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NSU researchers study the bacteria of a shark’s mouth to improve medical treatment for shark bite victims

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A hole in the Antarctic ozone layer has changed the way that waters in the southern oceans mix, a situation that has the potential to alter the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and eventually could have an impact on global climate change.

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A study by University at Buffalo researchers finds that damaged coral colonies can take years to recover their reproductive prowess.

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Two Santa Fe Institute researchers offer a coherent picture of how metabolism, and thus all life, arose. Their paper offers new insights into the likelihood of life emerging and evolving as it did on Earth, and the chances of it arising elsewhere in the universe.

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NCAR has developed a prototype system to help flights avoid major storms as they travel over remote ocean regions. The 8-hour forecasts of potentially dangerous atmospheric conditions are designed for pilots, air traffic controllers, and others involved in flights over remote ocean regions where limited weather information is available.

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A team of Roger Williams University (RWU), Boston University (BU), Conservation International(CI), and the New England Aquarium (NEAq) researchers have published their findings about this unique trade and its long-term implications.

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists will discuss improving solar power forecasting, measuring the resources needed to grow algae for biofuel and predicting the environmental impacts of ocean energy at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting this week.

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Concern is growing that human-generated noise in the ocean disrupts marine animals that rely on sound for communication and navigation. In the modern ocean, the background noise can be ten times louder than it was just 50 years ago. But new modeling based on recently published data suggests that 200 years ago – prior to the industrial whaling era -- the ocean was even louder than today due to the various sounds whales make.

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Global temperatures directly affect the acidity of the ocean, which in turn changes the acoustical properties of sea water. New research suggests that global warming may give Earth’s oceans the same hi-fi sound qualities they had more than 100 million years ago, during the Age of the Dinosaurs.

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A University of Utah study suggests something amazing: Periodic changes in winds high in the stratosphere influence the seas by striking a vulnerable “Achilles heel” in the North Atlantic and changing mile-deep ocean circulation patterns, which in turn affect Earth’s climate.

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Florida State University oceanographer Kevin Speer has a “new paradigm” for describing how the world’s oceans circulate — and with it he may help reshape science’s understanding of the processes by which wind, water, sunlight and other factors interact and influence the planet’s climate.

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A new study finds surface water samples are insufficient in determining the prevalence of plastic debris in oceans.

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Researchers monitor trout movement and diet to study causes of declining populations in Norway. The Ocean Tracking Network collaborates on the study by loaning trout monitoring equipment.

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Virgin Oceanic is aiming its experimental, cutting-edge sub straight to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

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It's "Waterworld" snail style: Ocean-dwelling snails that spend most of their lives floating upside down, attached to rafts of mucus bubbles.

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Changing human activities coupled with a dynamic environment over the past few centuries have caused fluctuating periods of decline and recovery of corals reefs in the Hawaiian Islands, according to a study sponsored in part by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University. Using the reefs and island societies as a model social-ecological system, a team of scientists reconstructed 700 years of human-environment interactions in two different regions of the Hawaiian archipelago to identify the key factors that contributed to degradation or recovery of coral reefs.