On November 11, 2018, the research vessel "Polarstern" left its home port of Bremerhaven bound for Cape Town. This will mark the beginning of her Antarctic season, in which oceanographic fieldwork in the Weddell Sea, a resupply mission to the Neumayer Station III, and explorations of the Larsen C ice shelf region and the South Shetland Islands are on the agenda. At the end of June 2019, the ship is expected back home in Bremerhaven.
The 13th Edition of the Blue Dolphin of Malta International Underwater Photography Competition was held between the 18-21 October 2018 in Gozo. The competition was organised by the Federation of Underwater Activities Malta with the assistance of the Ministry for Gozo.
The oceans absorb 90 percent of the additional heat energy produced by rising greenhouse concentrations in the atmosphere; the ocean is the main source of thermal inertia in the climate system. Researchers have now used a new method to review previous calculations of ocean heat uptake. The result: over the past 25 years, the oceans have absorbed significantly more heat than average values previously calculated.
In a research dive during an expedition with the "E / V Nautilus" in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California, scientists observed a deep-sea octopus. Deep down in the deep sea near the Davidson Seamount a deep-sea octopus swam directly in front of the camera; the scientists were mesmerized by the ghost-like octopus.
A new study has shown that "robust" reef-building corals are the only known organisms in the animal kingdom that produce one of the "essential" amino acids. This makes them less vulnerable to global warming than other corals; they are primed to resist coral bleaching.
The EU wants to ban disposable products such as drinking straws or ear swabs. The plastic waste in the oceans should be reduced - after all, a beginning. But is that enough?
According to media reports, the Antarctic Commission CCAMLR has decided against setting up a protected area in the Southern Ocean at its meeting in Hobart, Australia, on 2 November 2018.
As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, coral reefs experience coral bleaching worldwide and die-offs. For many coral reefs, this is the first encounter with “extreme” temperature. For some reefs in the Central Pacific, however, the heat waves caused by El Nino are recurring events. How exactly these reefs react to repeated episodes of extreme heat was unclear.
In the Southern Ocean, north of the Antarctic, the largest marine reserve in the world is to be created. Germany has drafted the proposal for a more than 1.8 million square kilometre protected area in the Weddell Sea.
In the approximately 150 million year old limescale in the quarry Ettling a sensational new species of fish was discovered during excavations of the “Jura Museum Eichstätt”. A research team from the “Jura-Museum Eichstätt”, the Australian James Cook University and the University of Erlangen investigated this fish species and recently described it in the journal Current Biology.