An international research team has mapped the genome of the real clown fish (Amphiprion percula), providing the research community with an invaluable resource to decode the response of fish to environmental change, including climate change.
From 3 to 6 September 2018 divers from the Dutch Ghost Fishing Foundation, with the support of “Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Delphine e. V.“ (GRD) and Scubadive West carried out a salvage operation for left-behind fishing gear for the first time on the west coast of Ireland.
At the meeting of the International Whaling Commission on September, 14th 2018, Japan's application for "sustainable whaling" was rejected. So we will not see a renaissance of commercial whaling.
At the beginning of the 67th session of the International Whaling Commission, a report by the Norwegian government confirms the cruelty of commercial whaling. The report, which is initially supposed to show progress in hunting methods, shows instead that nearly 20% of whales caught by explosive harpoons suffer from 6 to 25 minutes before finally dying.
The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit organization developing technologies to clean the oceans of plastic, launched the world's first marine protection system from San Francisco Bay on September 8, 2018.
Pteropods or sea snails, also called sea angels produce deterrent chemicals to protect themselves against predators. Amphipods (Hyperiidea) can take advantage of this by piggybacking pteropods for protection against predators. A benefit for the pteropod is not recognizable, on the contrary: they are starving, because the legs of the flea crabs impede their feeding. Biologists investigated this phenomenon...
Microcystin is a toxin that can cause skin reactions, stomach problems and even liver damage. It is produced by a tiny blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) called Microcystis that proliferates rapidly in warm, nutrient-rich water. Unfortunately, Microcystis in the Great Lakes in the North of the US, which provide millions of people with drinking water, is becoming more common.
If it is up to the will of Japan, international whaling would be in for a renaissance. The WWF is warning against this at the 67th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Brazil, which started on September, 4th 2018.
Recently, the Russian research icebreaker "AKADEMIK TRYOSHNIKOV" came to Kiel on a special mission. The more than 130 meter long flagship of the Russian polar research fleet loaded equipment for a two-month expedition to the Siberian Arctic Sea. On August 18, 2018, the trip started with an international research team in Arkhangelsk.
Although vast amounts of plastic are drifting in the oceans and new microplastics are constantly being released into the oceans, the concentrations of microplastic in the surface layer are lower than expected. Researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, the Kiel Cluster of Excellence "Ocean of the Future" and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht have now shown that microplastics in seawater interact with naturally occurring particles and form so-called aggregates. This aggregate formation could explain how microplastic sinks from the surface into deeper water layers.