Animals need oxygen to live. Now marine biologists have discovered a large number of fish living in the dark depths of the Gulf of California, where there is virtually no oxygen. Using an underwater robot, they observed the fish that thrive in low-oxygen conditions that would be fatal to most other fish. The scientists recently published their findings in the journal Ecology.
Scientists at James Cook University have found that fish become more fearful and cautious when water quality is affected by sediment, an effect that could affect the growth and health of the animals.
The Baltic Sea contains a dark legacy of ca. 50 000 tons of dumped chemical warfare agents (CWA) and more than 200 000 tons conventional munitions originating from the I and II WWs. The question is: Are you leaving them there and accepting that toxic substances are slowly escaping, or are you holding the ammunition and risking the porous metal bodies to break or even explode? Such questions are dealt with by administration and politics. Scientists have developed decision aids in the international research project DAIMON and have now presented them at the Thünen Institute in Bremerhaven.
Using data from underwater robots, scientists have discovered that beaked whales prefer to feed within parts of a Navy sonar test range off Southern California that have dense patches of deep-sea squid. A new study, now published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows that beaked whales need these prey hotspots to survive and that similar sites simply do not exist in nearby "sonar-free" areas.
The combination of ocean warming and an infectious disease has caused the populations of the great Sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), once widespread along the west coast of North America, to collapse. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University report this in a new study, now published in the journal Science Advances.
Coral reefs in remote, uninhabited areas of the Pacific are generally in good condition. They are better off than reefs in regions closer to human settlements. This is shown by five status reports on US reef ecosystems in the Pacific, recently published by the NOAA.
The "Sweet Lake" (Süße See)in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) is a real treasure chest for underwater archaeologists. Detailed 3D maps, which were created with the help of a high-tech underwater vehicle from the famous Fraunhofer IOSB-AST, now clearly show, in addition to numerous historical artefacts’, the structures of a Bronze Age burial mound.
The Calypso Diving Centre is situated in a premier location at Marsalforn’s Promenade, right by the beach. From here they offer shore- and boat dives.
On the eastern edges of the Atlantic and the Pacific, continuous buoyancy of nutrient-rich deep water provides extremely high biological productivity. However, how these upwelling areas develop when wind systems shift due to climate change and the ocean gradually warms up is largely unclear. Three collaborative projects will address these issues over the next three years. The overall coordination lies with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel.
Coral reefs are as vulnerable as they are beautiful. Climate change heats the seawater and devastates the reefs worldwide. According to a report on the effects of climate change, by the end of this century, much of the world's coral reefs could be dying out, mainly due to bleaching events.