Deron Burkepile, University of California, Santa Barbara and Mark C. Ladd, University of California, Santa Barbara
With coral reefs in crisis around the world, many organizations are working to restore them by growing and transplanting healthy corals. A new study spotlights techniques that help restored reefs thrive.
The British First Fleet knew little of conditions in Port Jackson, later Sydney Cove, before their arrival.
George Edwards Peacock, State Library of New South Wales.
When the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Cove in 1788, they entered an ancient and unforgiving landscape. A new book charts Australians’ relationship with one of the world’s most volatile climates.
The increasingly bleached coral at Black Point on the Cobourg Peninsula is a worrying sign of what’s to come for other coral reefs in Australia.
Alan Withers
Diving without oxygen tanks requires you to enact some very weird and very strange and not all that well understood physiological feats just to stay alive.
Yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus).
Coleman M. Sheehy III, Florida Museum of Natural History
Sea snakes spend their lives in the water, giving birth to live young at sea, so why are they only found in some of the world’s oceans? The answer lies in a combination of climate and geography.
Sustainable swimwear shopping means that you don’t have to worry about the sea soaking in plastic from your bathers while you soak in the sun!
www.shutterstock.com
Many critics say that fish farms mainly sell their output to wealthy countries and don’t provide much benefit to poor people in producing countries. Three aquaculture experts show why this view is wrong.
Millions of tonnes of plastic garbage winds up in our oceans each year. Voluntary pledges haven’t worked. It’s time for Canada to advocate for an international plastics treaty.
Seismic shockwaves after a meteorite’s collision could affect systems all over the planet.
solarseven/Shutterstock.com
Research suggests a new threat to life on Earth from the meteorite’s crash: Via seismic waves, the impact triggered massive undersea eruptions, as big as any ever seen in our planet’s history.
Image from video of Mariana snailfish.
SOI/HADES/University of Aberdeen (Dr. Alan Jamieson)
The Mariana snailfish lives nearly 27,000 feet underwater, but has features that help it adapt to intense water pressure and cold. Physiological limits may prevent fish from surviving in deeper water.
Author Tom Iliffe leads scientists on a cave dive.
Jill Heinerth
Donald Boesch, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
A scientist who served on a national commission to review the 2010 BP oil spill explains why Trump administration efforts to loosen offshore drilling regulation pose major risks for minor payoffs.
A recent study shows plankton that have adapted to road salt have disrupted circadian rhythms. This finding suggests that environmental pollutants could also affect human circadian clocks.
Once unleashed, glitter gets everywhere – not just in your house, but into the environment. Time to call a halt to the glitter explosion.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau kayak in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, in British Columbia.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken swift action on protecting marine areas over the past two years, but he’ll need to continue this momentum if he is to cement his legacy.
A shark is hauled aboard a boat in 2014, during Western Australia’s controversial shark culling trial.
Sea Shepherd Australia
A Senate committee has recommended an end to sharks culls and nets. According to surveys, the public is on board with the idea of ending policies that are lethal to sharks.
The winner! Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand National Park, Esperance WA.
Peter Masters
Lucky Bay on WA’s south coast has been scientifically declared to have the whitest sand in Australia. But if you think your local beach can take the title, we want to hear from you.
The Byron Scar, left behind by an undersea landslide. Colours indicate depths.
Samantha Clarke
The ocean floor off Australia’s east coast bears the scars of numerous subsea landslides, which have potentially triggered tsunamis over the past several millennia.