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The scientist identified two distinct populations of white shark at the east and west of Bass Strait in Australian waters, prompting researchers to suggest the huge fish may need regional conservation plans.
Read moreIt appears that the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) then invaded the inner reef and gradually moved into the inner part of the bay by the end of 2011, even though there were few corals there.
Read moreWhat matters is the physical presence of substantial objects on an otherwise featureless seabed.
Read moreBeaked whale species are thought to be sensitive to noise arising from certain human activities; in 2000, beaked whale strandings were observed coinciding with naval sonar exercises in the Bahamas.
Read moreIn a study that covered 17 separate locations round Lizard Island in far North Queensland, researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University videoed the behaviour of large reef fish, allowing them to ide
Read more"Actually having good followers helps leaders get on with their tasks," said Andrea Manica, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge who led the study recently published in the journal Current Biology.
Read moreThis strange-looking creature, Melibe leonine, is one of the most characteristic members of the Opisthobranchia.
Read moreReleased this week, the study is the first IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ assessment available for all known species of marine shore-fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, sea birds, corals, mangroves and seagrasses in a major marine biogeograph
Read moreOne reason squid may be going down there at night is because water near the surface is really warm—up to 28 C (82 F)—which may stress them.
Read moreCombining scientific data from three major factors impacting our oceans – climate change, human activity (including fisheries and river run-off) and food web dynamics (fish eating fish), the Nereus model shows life under the sea from 1960 to 2060.
Read moreSulewesi came on my radar when I first set eyes on Roger Steene’s book, Coral Seas, published in 1998. At the time, the last thing on my wish list was another coffee table book.
Read moreBull sharks, tiger sharks and great whites are generally deep-ocean dwellers. But every so often they lurk around popular swimming and surfing spots. Now scientists aim to find out why.
Read moreIn research aimed at understanding the process of fish population decline when coral reefs sustain major damage, PhD student James Kerry and Professor David Bellwood have found that big fish show a marked preference for sheltering under large, fla
Read moreHowever, at locations were there was excessive adverse impact (like pollution), the corals did not recover fully, even after eight years.
“You can imagine that when you are recovering from a sickness, it will take a lot longer if you don’t eat well or get enough rest,” said Jessica Carilli, a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
“Similarly, a coral organism that must be constantly trying to clean itself from excess sediment particles will have a more difficult time recovering after a stressful condition like bleaching.”
Disease and overfishing also affected coral health. In places where there is overfishing, the population of bigger fishes like groupers are either significantly reduced or have vanished.
In the absence of these predatory fishes, other fish species thrive. One such species is the butterflyfish, which feed on coral and appear to be responsible for disease transmission amongst the corals.
In a study, scientists compared seven Marine Protected Areas [MPAs] where fishing had been banned for at least five years, and another seven neighbouring sites with similar diversity.
They discovered that the corals at the latter sites suffered more diseases; in some cases, the difference was twice as many. In addition, many butterflyfish were found at the sites where fishing was allowed, leading to a higher incidence of coral disease.
Orcas have been studied extensively in the northeast Pacific ocean, where resident killer whales eat fish, but migrating whales eat marine mammals.
Read moreDead zones are areas in the ocean where oxygen levels are so low that most fish cannot survive over the long term.
Blue marlins and many other billfish are high-energy fish that need large amounts of dissolved oxygen. By comparing the movement of the blue marlins and the location of low-oxygen areas, scientists have shown that blue marlins venture deeper when dissolved oxygen levels are higher, and remain in shallower surface waters when low dissolved oxygen areas encroach on their habitat from below.
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