Friday, July 31, 2015

Week in Review: Save Cayman!, Scientist Study Predator-Prey Behavior, and More!

1. Save Cayman!

Many of us here at Sea Save had the honor of diving in the beautiful, rich, and pristine waters in the Cayman Islands. The Government has recently proposed the construction of a Cruise Berthing Facility to increase cruise tourism in the area. The construction of the piers will have significant negative impacts on the George town Harbour ecosystem. The increased silt areas as a result of the dredging will destroy hundreds of square footage of reef. The Environmental Impact Assessment reports the extend of the anticipated damage here. Save Cayman, a grassroots organization, has worked to educate the world on the impact of this development and has started a petition against the destruction of the precious reefs in the area. So, here's our call to action- if you are interested in making an impact, regardless of where you are in the world, please review the Save Cayman website and consider signing the petition here...

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2. Scientists Study Predator-Prey Behavior Between Sharks and Turtles


A study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science & Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy examined the predator-prey interactions between tiger sharks and sea turtles. Using long-term tracking data from both species, scientist were able to determine that turtles have not altered their surfacing behavior to avoid the tiger sharks. It appears that sharks are no longer an important factor influencing the turtle movements which may be a result of decreased tiger shark populations. This report also discusses the "landscape of fear" model, a scientific theory that explains how animals move and interact with their environment based on their fear of being attacked. Read more...

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3. White House Launches American Business Act on Climate Pledge

This week, the White House released a press statement that describes the plant to discuss climate change with 13 of the largest companies from across the American economy. Alcoa, Apple, Bank of America, berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Mircosoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart have entered into the American Business Act on Climate Pledge. By signing the pledge, companies will voice support a strong outcome to the Paris climate negotiations in Decemeber, reduce their own carbon emissions, and make investments into new renewable energy and low carbon technologies. Read more...
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4. Over 600 Baby Sea Turtles Get a 2nd Chance

Turtle ReleaseThis week, over 600 baby turtles were released into the ocean off of the Boca Raton beach. These hatchlings missed their swim frenzy due to disorienting artificial light. The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and the US Coast Guard aided in the release to make sure that the sea turtles were able to begin their aquatic life on the right flipper!  Read more...

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5. Washington, DC is Sinking into the Sea


Image result for washington dcScientist have predicted that Washington DC will drop by six or more inches in the next century. The US Capital actual sits on sit where a mile high ice sheet existed 20,000 years ago. This six inch drop, in addition to the predicted sea-level rise, will inevitably create flooding in the area. Although six inches may not sound like a lot, imagine having a constant pool of water around your feet and home all the time!  Read more...



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6. Researchers Provide New Details About Sea Stars' Immunity 

Researchers provide new details about sea stars' immunityThis week, scientists from the University of Texas at Arlington published a study in PLoS ONE examining the large mortality rate of sea stars along the West Coast. Over the last two years, disease has affected 20 different sea star species and created a 90% mortality rateScientists believe that the wasting disease is created by a virus that is related to rabies. The study describes findings on the rate of diseases and sea star immunity. Sea stars are an essential part of the marine ecosystem. Their role is to protect the rocky shores from mussel domination and maintain diversity.  Read more...

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7. Study Highlights Major Flaw in Strategy to Halt Sea Lion Decline

The New Zealand sea lion was recently named as an endangered animal by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This species has declined 50% since 1998. Scientists at the University of Otago published a study in Marine Biology that suggested that the Government focus its attention on the conservation of female adult sea lions. The lead author Stefan Meyer states that, "the smallest improvement in adult female survival will have a positive effect on population growth, whereas much more effort and money will be required to improve pup survival to a level for it to have an important impact on population growth". Read more...

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8. Rare Deep-Sea Whale Washes Ashore in Massachusetts 


Last week, a Sowerby's beaked whale was found washed ashore at a Plymouth, Mass. beach. Little is known about this whale species but it normally dwells in the deep waters of the North Atlantic. The species is extremely rare and has an extremely unique physique. There are approximately two dozen species of beaked whales, all named in this family for their pointed, dolphin-like noses. The whale was 17 feet in length and showed no signs that it had become entangled in fishing gear or struck by a ship.   Read more...




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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Week in Review: Record-Beating Pacific Ocean Heat Seen Strengthening El Nino, Exploring Evolution Via Electric Fish, and More!

1. Record-Beating Pacific Ocean Heat Seen Strengthening El Nino

Thai Drought Pits Soldiers Against Farmers Flouting Water CurbsEl Nino has increased our sea surface temperatures over the 1997 record. Scientists from Australia's Bureau of Meterology predicts that we will see this weather patter continue into 2016. According to NOAA, "in more than 135 years of global temperature data, four of the five hottest months on record all happened in 2015: February, March, May, and June". Read more...

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2. Exploring Evolution Via Electric Fish Hybrid Zone

Michigan State University is using the National Science Foundation grant to study the evolution of electric fish signals. Scientists will study the Mormyrid and African freshwater fish which live in the Bongolo Falls. Although these two fish populations normally live in different areas of the falls, a flood in the area has bridged the two populations and the two species have mated to produce fish with hybrid electric signals. The project will study the complex communications and gene sequencing in this new species of fish.  Read more...


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3. Beautiful Maps Show the World's Oceans in Motion

The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio has released a series of maps of the world's oceans. These maps show the warm and cold ocean currents, ocean eddies, and the Gulf Stream. The beautiful images created by scientists give the public a clear depiction of ocean movement.   Read more...


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4. Authorities Cracking Down on Illegal Shark Fishing Activities in Delaware
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This week, the Division of Fish & Wildlife Natural Resources Police of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) reviewed 16 violations of shark fishing that were reported in the state. Shark fishing along the coast has been popular in the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware bay. The state prohibits removing any species of shark from the water by any means. The 16 violators have been  reprimanded by the state government. Read more...


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5. One Whale Helps Scientists Discover Secret Whale-Migration Patterns


Isabella is a blue whale in the eastern south Pacific who is showing scientist a whole new side to whale migration. Although the blue whale is one of the largest animals in history, many of the behaviors of this animal are still unknown. A study published in Marine Mammal Science reported that Isabella traveled over 3,000 miles to the Galapagos to breed in the winter. Read more...



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6. Five Things Learned From Swimming with Sharks
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Did Discovery's Shark Week wet your appetite to see some sharks up close and personal? Here are five facts that tell the truth about the relationship between humans and sharks.    Read more...




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7. The Surprising Importance of How We Label the Fish We Eat

Do you know what kind of fish you're eating? Where it was caught? How it was caught? If the label lines up with the product? The Food and Drug Administration reported that ,between 2013 and 2013, 15% of fish that was tested was mislabeled. Fish have not been correctly labeled under their FDA approved market names but instead under common names.  Read more...

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8. What Oysters Reveal About Sea Change


 Every small change in the ecosystem has a huge impact on the food chain. This month, New York Times put together a series of videos about sustainable agriculture. One video discusses the Hog Island oysters and the high mortality rate due to ocean acidification. The struggle that the oyster population faces is representative of the instability of the marine ecosystem.  Read more...


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9. On the Trail of the Sea Bass Pirates

Illegal harvest
Overfishing has depleted global fishing stock and now many international organizations have establish protection efforts for many species. This week, Thai customs stopped a boat suspected of holding $5 million worth of illicit "Chilean sea bass". This article describes the many cases of illegal fishing and fish transportation that occur throughout the world.  Read more...


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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Week in Review: Five Nations Protect Arctic from Fishing, Shark Week 2015, and More!

1. Five Nations Sign to Protect Arctic from Unregulated Fishing

File:Arctic Ocean, off Tromso, Norway.jpg
Years ago, the Bering Sea "Donut Hole" was a popular fishing location for high-seas pollack catches. In 1999 an international agreement was made to ban fishing in the area to protect the species and the food chain of the area. This week, the US, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark/Greenland are establishing a similar agreement for the 1.1 million square mile zone in the central Arctic Ocean. This ban should be a proactive measure to protect the Arctic cod populations. The five countries will refrain from fishing in the area until there is a regulatory system put in place.  Read more...

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2. Shark Week 2015 Returns to Science, Breaks Records!

sharkLast week was an extremely exciting week for Sea Save and all of the shark lovers out there! According to Variety, "Shark Week 2015 averages 1.269 million viewers over the entire seven-day run, topping the event's previous record of 1.201 million, set in 2013". It seems that viewers continued to appreciate the programming although Discovery chose to drop the fictional stories! Read more...


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3. Polar Bears Experience Limited Energy Savings in Summer 

This week, a study in Science revealed that polar bears are unlikely to avoid the drastic impacts of climate change. Scientists implanted temperature loggers and trackers into more than two dozen polar bears to test the theory that polar bears may be able to partially compensate for the longer summer food deprivation. These animals use a process called heterothery to avoid unsustainable heat loss while swimming. Although heterothermy is an adaptation to the warm climate temperatures, it is not enough to sustain the polar bear population. Read more...


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4. Florida Man Arrested for Riding Sea Turtle

TurtleEvery young child probably dreams of riding on the back of a sea turtle at some point in their lives. As you grow up and learn more and more about the ocean ecosystem, you understand that marine life is not a toy. This week, a Miami man was imprisoned after riding a sea turtle and spearing a shark. The shark was an undersized nurse shark and the man put it in a cooler after spearing it. This story is a valuable reminder that humans should respectively observe the underwater world.   Read more...


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5. Why do Dolphins Hitch Rides on Whales?
dolphin hitching a ride on a whale
Symbiosis... often times when you think of symbiotic relationships you think of the classic example of the cleaner wrasse's cleaner stations or another mutually beneficial relationship. Have you ever thought about dolphins and humpback whales? Sometimes a dolphin will ride on the back of humpback whales. Although the exact reason for this interaction is unknown, scientists believe that the dolphin and whale were actually just having some fun and playing together!   Read more...


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6. Great White Rescued with Shark CPR



This week, a great white shark was found stranded on a beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Biologists in the area were able to resuscitate the shark by gradually placing the shark in water to allow for oxygen to gradually enter its body again. Similar to how scuba divers have to decompress after deep dives, sharks also have to adjust to the pressure change. If the scientists had just dropped the shark back into the water, the great white would have died. This adapted CPR method saved a beautiful 7.5 ft male great white shark! Read more...



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7. Why are People so Afraid of Sharks?

This is a perfect article to read after enjoying a wonderful Shark Week! Daivd Ropeik, an instructor of risk communication at Harvard University and the author of the book How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts, helps us answer the question above. Statistically, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would die from a shark attach- a 1 in 3,748,067 chance to be exact. The human brain automatically thinks of sharks with a dangerous connotation. Ropeik explains the factors and variables that contribute to the human perspective on sharks. Read more...






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8. Secret Soviet Data Used by US Scientists to Say Japan Lied to IWC about 1960s Whaling

A stripped carcass of a whale lies on the deck in a pool of blood on a Japanese vessel in the Antarctic, 1993. Findings published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday revealed that the Japanese reported catching 15 times more female sperm whaled than the Russians in the 1990s. The Japanese falsified data until the International Whaling Commission was formed in 1972. This new information now has scientist questioning their understanding of the baseline whale  population. Approximately 760,000 sperm whales were killed in the 20th century with the majority hunted by the Japanese and Soviet fleets.  Read more...


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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Week in Review: Managing Mining of the Deep Seabed, Worried About Sea Level Rise?, and More!

1. Managing Mining of the Deep Seabed

Managing mining of the deep seabed
In past Week in Review stories Sea Save has highlighted the increase in exploration to build our knowledge of the deep sea.  In a proactive attempt, a group of scientists have set the groundwork for the future deep-sea environmental protection and mining regulations. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), "the deep seabed is legally a part of the "common heritage of mankind". This protection proposal will be presented to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) which manages the seabed and those areas that inherently belong to every human on the planet. By adopting some of the marine protected areas, ISA can maintain some conservation in the deep sea as well as overall environment stability.  Read more...

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2. Why the Earth's Past Has Scientists So Worried About Sea Level Rise

This week, a study published in the journal Science revealed that the 20 foot increase in the global sea level was a result of a 1-2 degree C temperature increase. The review, lead by Andrea Dutton of the University of Florida, analyzes over 30 years of data on sea level, ambient temperature, and ice sheet size. Observations and volumes of both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are discussed in the report. According to the scientists, both of these ice sheets have significant contributors to the sea level rise. Concerns for sea level rise continues to grow. An additional increase of 10-20 feet in the world's sea level could destroy low elevation cities like Miami, Dhaka, Tokyo, Singapore, and New Orleans. Read more...



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3. Shark Files: Baited Cameras to Count Worlds Sharks

The Global FinPrint project received four million dollars from Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. to study the top predators in the ocean. The study will use baited cameras to assess the current shark and ray populations. Areas that have been targeted for further explorations are the Indo-Pacific, tropical western Atlantic, and southern and eastern Africa and Indian Ocean islands.    Read more...


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4. Reward Doubled in Sea Turtle Nest Vandalism Case
Throughout turtle nesting and hatching season, the state of Florida has strict rules on how to navigate the beaches. Two weeks ago, the Authorities in Holmes and Brandenton Beaches believe that a man and a woman took an ATV on the beach and ran over 5 turtle nests and two shore birds. This careless activity killed anywhere between 500-600 turtles. The community is enraged and is offering a reward for anyone who can provide information on the couple. Read more...


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5. 15,000 sq km of Coral Reef Could Be Lost in Mass Bleaching


Fish swim amongst bleached coral near the Keppel Islands in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), around 12% of the world's reefs have suffered bleaching in the last year and the progression will only continue. Scientists believe that the next bleaching event will occur in 2016 and could destroy 15,000 sq km of reef.  This would be the third recorded bleaching event , previous ones occurred in 1998 and 2010. Although we have only had a 0.8C change in global temperature, there are drastic impacts on the world's oceans.  Read more...



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6. Extremely Rare White Humpback Whale Spotted in New Zealand

PHOTO: A white humpback whale with a normal black humpback whale on July 5, 2007 in Cook Strait, New Zealand.
This week, an incredibly rare, white humpback whale was spotted off of the coast of New Zealand. Although we weren't all there to see the beautiful animal, you can watch the video here! Only four white humpback whales have been reported in the world. 




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7. Sharkcano! 

Brennan Phillips, a National Georgraphic Society/Waitt Grants Program grantee, recently spent over four days exploring an underwater volcano off of the Solomon Islands. The volcano is named Kavachi and scientist are unsure how frequently it erupts.To learn more about this mysterious structure, Philips and his team deployed a number of robots and UAVs to explore. What did the cameras reveal? A number of hammerhead and silky sharks! These sharks were able to withstand the hot and acidic waters around the volcano. To see the footage click here...

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Be sure to "LIKE" http://facebook.com/SeaSave to ensure our "Week in Review" is delivered to your newsfeed every Thursday. 

Sea Save Foundation is committed to raising awareness of marine conservation. The Week in Review is a team effort produced by the Sea Save staff to provide a weekly summary of the latest in marine research, policy, and news.