Sawfish are the most endangered group of marine fish in the world, largely thanks to overfishing and habitat loss. Formerly abundant, they have disappeared from many countries’ waters, and in many others…
The plan to use baited traps to catch and kill sharks off the coast of Western Australia caused considerable controversy when it was announced last year, with critics calling the shark cull ineffective…
What would you pull out of the water if you knew you were watched?
Dirk.heldmaier
The ocean, seen from a beach or from a plane, seems vast, ancient and invulnerable. It’s hard to imagine that 90% of life on earth lives below the waves, across 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of water and…
Is climate change good or bad news for sea turtles?
djblock99/Flickr
You might have seen in recent news that climate change may increase the size of some sea turtle populations, by increasing the number of female turtles. These studies hinge on an unusual trait of sea turtles…
It seems that talk is at last followed by walk.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
As it had already been cancelled once, due to the US government shut-down last October, the latest developments in Iraq made it seem likely the Our Ocean conference, organised by the US State Department…
When former Mexican president Felipe Calderon shut down the development of a planned US$2 billion, 4,000 hectare hotel mega-resort in 2012, it looked as though the extraordinary diversity of the Cabo Pulmo…
The WA government has caught 172 sharks since installing drum lines - but not a single great white.
AAP IMAGE/ SEA SHEPHERD
Perhaps predictably, the Western Australian government has claimed that its shark drum line season, which ended last week, was a success. In a media statement, fisheries minister Ken Baston said that “172…
The United Nations is concerned about port expansions and dredging disposal in the Great Barrier Reef – but that bigger picture is ignored in new ‘Reef Facts’ commercials.
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team
New “Reef Facts” commercials are currently airing during prime-time television shows in Australia, purporting to tell the “facts” about the environmental health of the Great Barrier Reef. It comes amid…
Global shipping is expected to triple by 2060.
Let Ideas Compete/Flickr
The high seas cover about 50% of Earth’s surface and host a major share of the world’s biodiversity, but remain largely ungoverned. With increasing threats to open ocean ecosystems, now more than ever…
The ocean is all stirred up with what we’re doing to it.
NASA
Carl Sagan’s description of our planet as a “pale blue dot” captured two important elements about the Earth: its loneliness in the enormity of space, and the ocean’s overwhelming dominance of the planet…
Tiny phytoplankon are at the start of the food chain.
R Kirby
Phytoplankton are the microscopic plant-like cells that float in the sea’s sunlit surface. They underpin the marine food chain and controversy over their stocks means it’s necessary to better understand…
Garom, a sculpture made from discarded “ghost nets” in the Torres Strait.
Australian Museum/Supplied
With more than half a million people participating in last Sunday’s Clean Up Australia Day, it’s perhaps not surprising that some odd objects came to light. Not all the rubbish was on land, and not all…
For many in the West, it might seem a marvel that slug-like sea cucumbers could be at risk of extinction from their popularity on dining tables. But to Asian consumers, this news should be no great surprise…
Step away from the fish, with your beak in the air.
Reemul
Some of the world’s most vulnerable marine habitats are being failed by the conservation orders put in place to protect them. As the Environmental Audit Committee meets to discuss how it will implement…
Plastics, not to be confused with food.
Chris Jordan/USFWS
The recent storms have transformed many of the nation’s coasts – blasting away the sand from beaches, eroding cliffs, and damaging properties. More surprising is the sudden and often dramatic appearance…
Pirate fishers harm economies, ecosystems, and often their crew.
Shawn Eggert/USN
When the Russian owned factory ship Oleg Naydenov was recently seized by armed Senegalese commandos for illegal fishing in Senegal’s exclusive territorial 12-mile fishing zone, it shone a much-needed spotlight…
It’s all uphill for salmon right now.
David Cheskin/PA
It is an enduring mystery how juvenile salmon, at 12cm long and weighing perhaps only 20g, can leave a Scottish river in springtime, undertake a sojourn of thousands of kilometres around the North Atlantic…
On your marks, get set, cross the Atlantic.
Uwe Kils
Reports of the third successive year of rising eel catches in France suggests the eel’s drastic decline in numbers has finally bottomed out. However it’s important to note that today’s catches are a tiny…
Going fishing? 96% of Australia’s coastline is still open to recreational fishers.
Flickr/deswalsh
The federal government’s recent announcement “reproclaiming” the new Commonwealth Marine Reserves overturns previous plans to protect Australia’s marine biodiversity, and review the management of Australia’s…