Scientist: Phytoplankton bounce back from abrupt climate change; 'pretty resilient'
State College, Pennslyvania - Feb 18, 2006 18:28 EST
The majority of tiny marine plants weathered the abrupt climate changes that occurred in Earth's past and bounced back, according to a Penn State geoscientist. "Populations of plankton are pretty resilient," says Dr. Timothy J. Bralower, head and professor of geoscience. Bralower...

High-tech tags on marine animals yield valuable data for biologists and oceanographers
Santa Cruz, California - Feb 18, 2006 18:19 EST
Researchers are enlisting seals, sea lions, tunas, and sharks to serve as ocean sensors, outfitting these top predators with electronic tags that gather detailed reports on oceanographic conditions and, in many cases, transmit the data via satellite. The data are...

Research: Too much sugar not good for coral reefs; bacteria grow 'out of control'
Panama City, Panama - Feb 18, 2006 09:25 EST
The race is on to buy up inexpensive land along coastlines for vacation homes and tourist hotels. But increased development can mean more nutrient rich runoff that threatens the very coral reefs attracting tourists in the first place. David Kline...

Mechanism for memory revealed in neurons of electric fish
Austin, Texas - Feb 17, 2006 22:13 EST
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin studying electric fish have gained new insight into how memory is stored at the level of neurons. Their finding, published in the Feb. 16 issue of Neuron, could help researchers better understand memory...

Sonar technology reveals eerie ghost of the Mikhail Lermontov wreck 20 years after sinking
Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand - Feb 17, 2006 21:56 EST
A scientist from New Zealand's National Instute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has used sophisticated sonar technology to reveal a ghost-like image of the Mikhail Lermontov lying in its watery grave in the Marlborough Sounds. Twenty years after sinking, the...

Hawaii Man Recalls the Day a Great White Shark Attacked Him
Kauai, Hawaii - Feb 16, 2006 19:48 EST
Kenny Doudt talks about the longest 15 seconds of his life. It happened 25 years ago in the split second moments when he found himself in the jaws of a great white shark. The attack happened in the chilly...

EPA Clears the Way to Sink USS Oriskany as an Artificial Reef off the Florida Panhandle
Atlanta, Georgia - Feb 16, 2006 18:27 EST
The EPA issued to the U.S. Navy and the state of Florida an Approval to Dispose of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) contained in electrical cable and other non-liquid materials and equipment onboard the decommissioned USS Oriskany. This approval allows the Navy...

UN Sea Turtle Recommendations Ignored by Fisheries; Extinctions or a Longlining Moratorium
Forest Knolls, California - Feb 15, 2006 19:22 EST
This week, the United Nations General Assembly will convene a high level working group to address the biological diversity crisis on the high seas. Despite the General Assembly's November 2005 resolution that calls for conservation measures and closures of fishing...

Paws or claws? Giant Corpse was Floating Mystery
Miami, Florida - Feb 15, 2006 18:14 EST
Something very dead was floating in an Olympia Heights canal in western Miami-Dade: A black bear was the word from Miami-Dade police. Their corpses turn up rarely and it's almost always gruesome when they do. They turn up skinless, headless...

Researchers: Thin tough skin, slow-growing gills protect larval Antarctic fish
Champaign, Illinois - Feb 14, 2006 19:43 EST
Very thin but hardy, unblemished skin and slow developing gills appear to be keys to survival for newly hatched Antarctic notothenioids, a group of fish whose adults thrive in icy waters because of antifreeze proteins (AFPs) in their blood. Such adaptations...

Escapee Farmed Salmon Infiltrate Fitter Wild Populations
Quebec, Canada - Feb 13, 2006 18:50 EST
There is growing concern about the threats that farmed Atlantic salmon escapees constitute to wild salmon populations. Consumers and environmentalists are concerned about farmed salmon yet heritable changes that have accumulated in farmed strains at the genetic level are largely unknown. In...

The Man Who Scared Millions: 'Jaws' Author Peter Benchley Dead at 65
New York, NY - Feb 13, 2006 10:08 EST
Peter Benchley, whose novel Jaws terrorized millions of swimmers even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday. Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years,...

Diver Lost Off Puerto Rico Swims 10 Miles to Safety; 'Thank You God'
Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico - Feb 10, 2006 18:03 EST
A lost diver who was the subject of a U.S. Coast Guard search managed to swim 10 miles through heavy seas to safety, authorities said Thursday. Marcos Calzada Colon said that at one point he followed a pod of whales because...

World First? Diving Instructor Captures Images of Divers Interacting with Killer Whales
Argentina - Feb 9, 2006 18:44 EST
A diving instructor has recorded what may be the first ever images of killer whales interacting with humans in Argentina. Gabriel Hermida was on a boat taking new divers out for their first ever dive off the Argentinean coast when a...

Survivor: Canadian shipwreck deserves respect; 'It's deep water and it's dangerous'
Brockville, Ontario - Feb 9, 2006 18:18 EST
The sole living survivor of the J.B. King explosion believes that while divers should still be llowed access to the wreck, the site should be protected and recognized as a gravesite. Now 94, Captain Ev Snider was one of 11 people...

Vet Attacked by Lionfish While Cleaning Aquarium; 'I was Having Seizures and Convulsions'
Getzville, New York - Feb 9, 2006 10:19 EST
Kevin Freels has been a vet for three years. He has seen his share of injuries, but he never thought he'd be on the receiving end of a potentially deadly attack from his own pet. “I was just doing the routine...

Six Indicted in Scheme to Poach and Smuggle Protected California Leopard Sharks
Oakland, California - Feb 9, 2006 09:47 EST
United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan announced that a federal grand jury indicted six individuals on charges of criminally catching and selling thousands of undersized juvenile leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata). The indictment, which was returned on January 24, 2006, and...

New Sonar Method Offers Way to Assess Health of Squid Fisheries
Monterey, California - Feb 8, 2006 16:44 EST
California’s $30-million-a-year squid fishery has quadrupled in the past decade, but until now there has been no way to assess the continuing viability of squid stocks. A multi-institutional team of scientists this month reported a new sonar technique to locate...

Researcher: 'Two-Mouthed' Trout Caused by Injury, Not Genetics
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Feb 8, 2006 16:24 EST
Clarence Olberding of Lincoln thought he had the catch of the day when he hooked a trout with two mouths. But a Harvard University researcher who examined the severed fish head said the unusual deformity was caused by an...

Study: Fish the Primary Source of Mercury Contamination in Women
Ashville, North Carolina - Feb 8, 2006 16:11 EST
Interim results of the nation’s largest mercury hair sampling project were released today by the Environmental Quality Institute (EQI) at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. The report found mercury levels exceeding the EPA’s recommended limit of one microgram of mercury...

Galapagos Tour Operator Banned for Two Months Following Illegal Shark Fishing
Galapagos, Ecuador - Feb 7, 2006 19:20 EST
The regulatory authority of the Galapagos National Park suspended Celebrity Xpeditions from operating tours in the Galapagos Islands for two months as a consequence of an illegal shark-fishing incident. The authority also ordered Celebrity to pay a fine equivalent to the...

Research: Up to 10 Years for Seafloor to Recover from Bottom Trawling; 'No good habitat, hardly any fish'
Gulf of Maine - Feb 7, 2006 19:05 EST
Based on the gradual increases in complexity and diversity of seafloor communities that have been protected from bottom trawling for two, four, and six years, Watling estimates that it will take roughly a decade for the surface-dwelling organisms to reestablish...

Researcher: Barge Scheme Could Help Down-Welling Currents, Save Europe from Deep Freeze
Edmonton, Canada - Feb 7, 2006 18:51 EST
Dr. Peter Flynn, the Poole Chair in Management for Engineers in the U of A Department of Mechanical Engineering, has studied whether down-welling ocean currents can carry more dissolved carbon into the deep ocean. He learned they can't, but in...

Scientists Trace Origin Of Shark's Electric Sense; 'Our fishy ancestors had the anatomy for it'
Gainsville, Florida - Feb 6, 2006 18:53 EST
Sharks are known for their almost uncanny ability to detect electrical signals while hunting and navigating. Now researchers have traced the origin of those electrosensory powers to the same type of embryonic cells that gives rise to many head and facial...

Woman Who Caught Shark While Ice Fishing Lacked Proper Shark Fishing Permit, Faces Fine
Ste-Rose-Du-Nord, Quebec - Feb 4, 2006 17:30 EST
The woman who caught a shark the size of a small car while ice fishing earlier this week could be fined because she didn't have the proper fishing permits. Diane Guillemette was fishing with her partner in the Saguenay fiord -...

One fish, two fish: New sensor improves fish counts
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Feb 2, 2006 18:38 EST
Researchers at MIT have found a new way of looking beneath the ocean surface that could help definitively determine whether fish populations are shrinking. A remote sensor system developed by Associate Professor Nicholas Makris of mechanical engineering, along with others at...

Quebec woman lands shark while ice fishing; 'It’s not something we see often'
Sainte-Rose du Nord, Quebec - Feb 1, 2006 19:36 EST
A shark the size of a car has been reeled in by a woman out for a day of ice fishing. The whopper — a Greenland shark, which isn’t dangerous — is so big it had to be pulled from the...

DAN Vows to Protect Bent Divers In Spite of Insurance Disputes with Chamber Owner
Durham, North Carolina - Jan 31, 2006 00:00 EST
In a press release today, Diver's Alert Network (DAN) vowed that they will continue to support members despite a billing dispute with a chamber owner. In the unlikely event of a diving injury, DAN has promised that members will...

Despite rescue effort, Maine salmon may be facing extinction
Maine - Jan 31, 2006 00:00 EST
Maine salmon might be facing extinction despite a $20 million, five-year rescue effort and inclusion on the federal government's list of endangered species. The recovery program has focused on restocking Maine's rivers with native salmon bred in a hatchery, but few...

Chronic oil pollution takes toll on seabirds along South American coast
Seattle, Washington - Jan 31, 2006 00:00 EST
The old adage tells that oil doesn't mix with water. It doesn't do much for creatures in the water either, as demonstrated by new research on the effects of water-borne oil on seabirds along the Atlantic Coast in Brazil, Uruguay...

Hurricane Spawns Shark-mating Frenzy; 'They Decided to Begin Copulating'
West Palm Beach, Florida - Jan 28, 2006 00:00 EST
When Wilma swept through the area, knocking out power to the museum's McGinty Aquarium for several hours, the pair of white-spotted bamboo sharks knew what to do when the lights went out, and when they came back on. "The mating was...

Flap Over Fishes in Deciding Who's the Smallest of Them All; 'Would that be Length, Volume or Weight'
Seattle, Washington - Jan 28, 2006 00:00 EST
The authors of a paper in this week's Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Section B, who say their 7.9 mm-long fish from a peat swamp in Southeast Asia is the smallest fish and vertebrate known, have failed to...

Tuna Industry Confirms FDA Findings on Safety of Canned Tuna
Washington, D.C. - Jan 27, 2006 00:00 EST
The U.S. Tuna Foundation today called the continuing series of reports in the Chicago Tribune irresponsible journalism designed to alarm the public about a healthy and popular food when all government studies in the U.S. and abroad confirm that canned...

Researchers: Killers Whales Demonstrate 'Cultural Learning'
Snowbird, Utah - Jan 25, 2006 00:00 EST
Killer whales, which lure gulls by setting traps, are now among the animal species known to demonstrate “cultural learning,” a phenomenon in which animals of the same species learn from other members of their group. The new discovery was made by...

Study: Killifish thrive on pollution
New Bedford, Massachusetts - Jan 23, 2006 00:00 EST
New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts is one of the most toxic bodies of water in the United States, yet it is home to a thriving population of killifish. "You'd think nothing, absolutely nothing, would be able to live in New Bedford...

Government Tests Confirm Mercury Levels in Canned Tuna Are Low
Washington, D.C. - Jan 20, 2006 00:00 EST
Underscoring the safety of canned tuna for all Americans, new findings from the government's food safety agency -- the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- confirm that canned tuna contains mercury levels that are very low and are considerably less than...

Nicaragua bans freshwater shark fishing amid dwindling population numbers
Managua, Nicaragua - Jan 18, 2006 00:00 EST
Nicaragua banned freshwater fishing of bull sharks and sawfish on Tuesday because of alarming population declines, and said it wants neighboring Costa Rica to impose a similar prohibition. Overfishing in the San Juan River that forms much of the border with...

Florida Man Fined $10,000 for Illegal "Ghost Netting", Killing Loggerhead Turtle
Palm Beach, Florida - Jan 13, 2006 00:00 EST
James Allman was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $10,000 on Friday in federal court. Allman of Port Salerno had pleaded guilty last year to helping set a large "ghost net" adrift off the shores of Martin County in...

'Darwinian debt' may explain why fish stocks don't recover
Stony Brook, NY - Jan 11, 2006 00:00 EST
Why does it take so long for fish stocks to recover from over-fishing? This problem has been worrying both scientists and fishery managers who expect stocks to quickly rebound when fishing stops. Now a research team from Stony Brook University...

Defiant Japan: Killing Whales Is the Only Effective Way to Study Them
Southern Ocean, Antarctica - Jan 8, 2006 00:00 EST
With menacing actions and words, Japan yesterday defied the world to stop it killing whales. A Japanese harpooner allegedly rammed Greenpeace activists in the Antarctic, and the country's whaling industry lashed out at opposition to its bloody trade. In a rare public...