#reef-restoration

#reef-restoration

The South Florida Reef Tract, once decimated by dredging in the 1950s, has bounced back, a resilient sign of hope in these ecologically depressing times.

Bebe, the white-winged parakeet, measures around six inches and has become an internet sensation after a video showed him exploring underwater in a custom-built submarine.

These reefs are living, breathing snapshots of a watery world that you can peek into: refreshing oases where the noise of the land falls away; in its place, an intricate and utterly at-ease slice of life that you're lucky enough to witness.

"When a whale washes up on the beach like that, we work with different organizations to decide what the best course of action is," said Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) Chief Scientist Robert DiGiovanni, who was tasked with processing the whale. "Every stranding has a unique set of circumstances."

"Not only are acts like that illegal, but it's really harming a very important, like, a biodiversity hotspot that we have right out here," Brent Fish, an aquarist with Birch Aquarium, stated.

"Now we see women advancing into advanced scuba, Nitrox, and even marine research. Once they're invited in, they don't stop at entry level," says van Well.

When light shines through water, colors with longer wavelengths are absorbed by the water, with the longest wavelengths absorbed first. Blue and violet have the shortest wavelengths of visible light, so they are able to penetrate the deepest.

"While whales and dolphins may temporarily move out of areas where there is significant naval sonar activity, the intensity of modern maritime conflict poses lethal risks."

Few transformations in the history of life have been as extreme as the embrace of the ocean by seagrass. Like whales and dolphins, modern seagrasses descend from land-dwelling ancestors.

'They bite things to investigate and end up exposed to substances', lead author Natascha Wosnick told Science News.

Peat bogs provide huge value to humans and the environment. When healthy, they store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests, reducing global emissions.

In February 2023, an article in the Mexican press announced the capture of a vessel some 195 nautical miles from the port of Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan. It had been carrying nearly 700 pounds of cocaine packaged in plastic-wrapped bricks, in addition to 1,650 liters of hydrocarbons in 33 plastic containers. Two Ecuadorian fishermen were among the five detainees, and their immigration records showed unusual activity.

If you enter the amounts of different types of plastic that you clean up into the Wildlife Impact Calculator, it will tell you how many animal lives would have been at risk, had those items made their way into the ocean and been ingested.

Off the deep waters of Kumejima, Japan, Steven Kovacs captured an image that would be awarded Best in Show for the 2025 Ocean Art Photography Contest. Traveling to the Okinawa prefecture in the hopes of encountering a scarcely documented species of larval goosefish, Kovacs spent nearly two weeks blackwater diving before photographing the rare moment. "Unfortunately, this beautiful little fish turned out to be incredibly uncooperative and difficult to photograph," Kovacs says.

After four shark attacks in New South Wales in less than 48 hours, authorities on Tuesday urged beachgoers just go to a local pool instead. Sydneysiders have heard similar warnings before in the past, they've been issued for beaches polluted with faecal matter after heavy rains. The city's unique, outdated sewage management system has been linked to debris balls which have been washing up with increased frequency on Sydney beaches, including again last week at Malabar.

Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water. But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaborai and Mage, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.

One of the most precious marine reserves in the world, home to sharks, turtles and rare tropical fish, will be opened to some fishing for the first time in 16 years under the UK government's deal to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Allowing non-commercial fishing in the marine protected area (MPA) is seen as an essential part of the Chagossian people's return to the islands, as the community previously relied on fishing as their main livelihood.