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New Jersey Monitoring of Ocean Waters

Posted by amir on Sunday, 28 August 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Two New Jersey legislators held a press conference in Belmar last week to underscore the importance of improved water quality testing to make ocean waters safer for swimmers. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th District) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who coauthored the Beaches Environmental Assessmen...

Biodiversity Hot Spots: Top 10 sea locales make sobering list

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Biologists have identified the world's most vulnerable coral reefs. Each so-called hot spot is a marine region rife with organisms found nowhere else and threatened by human influence. The 10 hot spots "represent very high priorities for conservation because they contain a disproportion...

Seeking Protection for Coral Sea "Hotspot"

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

The Coral Sea is perhaps best known and celebrated for the area that occupies much of its western edge: the Great Barrier Reef, which fringes the northeastern Australian coast. The world's largest coral reef, it was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1981 in recognition of its extensiv...

Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2°C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved. Under conditions expected...

World Ocean Day is today, June 8th

Posted by plantitfilm on Wednesday, 08 June 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

The 8th of June is World Oceans Day, our annual chance to celebrate all things marine! Coordinated by The Ocean Project and The World Ocean Network, World Oceans Day encourages us to consider everything that the oceans provide us with — from oxygen to climate regulation, food to pharmaceut...

Photo of a hawksbill turtle caught in a net

British Blowing Up Dead Whale

Posted by grant on Tuesday, 31 May 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

A 13-metre sperm whale that became beached in north-east England has died, rescuers said. Firefighters used their jet to spray the mammal, which was reported alive but partially submerged on the beach at Redcar in Cleveland on Tuesday. A Cleveland fire brigade spokesman said the whale died despite...

A Looming Oxygen Crisis and Its Impact on World’s Oceans

Posted by grant on Thursday, 19 May 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

As warming intensifies, scientists warn, the oxygen content of oceans across the planet could be more and more diminished, with serious consequences for the future of fish and other sea life. by carl zimmer The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is overshadowing another catastrophe that’s also un...

Man-made rock reef is part of a welcome seaweed change

Posted by ep-admin on Sunday, 08 May 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Three years ago, Southern California Edison pushed basketball-size rocks from a barge off San Clemente. Little did the utility realize that the kelp reef it created would thrive the way it has, or as quickly. By Tony Barboza It was a gamble when Southern California Edison crews pushed basketball-s...

California beaches 'contaminated' after rain storms

Posted by ep-admin on Thursday, 23 December 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

California health officials have warned residents to stay away from beaches contaminated by run-off after a week of torrential rain. Miles of beaches remain closed after the deluge washed rubbish, pesticides and harmful bacteria into the sea. And even as the rain has relented, residents ...

Is the End in Sight for The World’s Coral Reefs?

Posted by ep-admin on Monday, 06 December 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

It is a difficult idea to fathom. But the science is clear: Unless we change the way we live, the Earth's coral reefs will be utterly destroyed within our children's lifetimes. by j.e.n. veron Over the past decades, there have dozens of articles in the media describing dire futures f...

Britain sets up the world's largest marine reserve

Posted by plantitfilm on Friday, 12 November 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

At midnight tonight, the world's largest fully protected marine reserve will come into force in the British territorial waters of the Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean. But this new sanctuary, designated as a "no-take" zone where commercial fishing will be banned, serves to un...

Coral Bleaching in the Caribbean

Posted by ep-admin on Sunday, 26 September 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Due to above-average water temperatures in the Caribbean Sea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that coral bleaching will be very likely this year. It may even be as severe as 2005 when 80 percent of corals were bleached and 40 percent died. There have been reports ...

Coastal Cleanup Day

Posted by ep-admin on Friday, 24 September 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Coastal Cleanup Day (CCD) is an international event with over 90 countries around the world participating, making it one of the largest volunteer efforts on the planet! Last year, over 14,000 volunteers from Los Angeles County joined together to pick up over 300,000 pounds of trash and recyclables f...

Can coral reefs adapt to climate change with migration?

Posted by ep-admin on Friday, 24 September 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Is it possible for corals to move or grow in other places that are more conducive to their needs? Stephanie Wear is a marine scientist with The Nature Conservancy’s Global Marine Team. She said that there is little evidence that this is happening: At this point, there is little evidence that cor...

Coral Can Recover from Climate Change Damage, New Research Suggests

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts...

Toxic Algae Killing Sea Otters

Posted by ep-admin on Tuesday, 14 September 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

A toxin produced by a type of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, has been devastating a colony of sea otters off the coast of California. In a paper published in the journal, PLoS ONE, by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz, ...

Ocean Acidification – The Other Carbon Problem

Posted by ep-admin on Sunday, 22 August 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Humankind's assault on the oceans continues apace. A short time ago, we considered the loss of 40% of the phytoplankton in the oceans since 1950. In my post How We Wrecked The Oceans, marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson explains why he believes the sea will be devoid of fish and other large...

Hawaii Gets World Heritage Status

Posted by plantitfilm on Saturday, 31 July 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Sri Lanka's central highlands and a protected marine area in Hawaii, the only habitats of several endangered plant and animal species, have been added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites, the U.N. body said on Saturday. Sri Lanka's central highlands were deemed of prime importance because of t...

Is Your Beach Safe to Swim?

Posted by plantitfilm on Saturday, 31 July 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

We aren't telling you to not go swimming, but maybe you need to know that this is not your parents beach anymore. "We found that when swimming in sub-tropical beach areas with no known pollution or contamination from sewage or runoff, you still have a chance of being exposed to the kind of ...

Ocean greenery under warming stress

Posted by davebishop on Friday, 30 July 2010 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

A century of phytoplankton decline suggests that ocean ecosystems are in peril. Marine phytoplankton — the vast range of tiny algae species accounting for roughly half of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass — have declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century, researchers repo...