Industrial fisheries are starving seabirds all around the world
Industrial fisheries are starving seabirds like penguins and terns by competing for the same prey sources. Seabirds are now the most threatened bird group.
French journalists labelled spies over Indian mining investigation
Two French journalists have been labelled spies and are the subject of a criminal investigation after they tried to report on sand mining in south India – an assignment they took up because Indian journalists had been threatened for reporting on the issue.
California prepares policy for coastal ‘retreat’
Oceanfront homes could be demolished along California’s coastline under a groundbreaking proposal to preserve the state’s made-for-movies beaches before they’re destroyed by rising seawater. The California Coastal Commission plans to release guidance early next year for dealing with sea-level rise in residential areas.
$18 million sand project to restore 3.5 miles of beach, Florida
Work began this week on the largest beach renourishment project in the Port Canaveral area of the five that have occurred since 1995. The $18 million, federally funded project will restore sand to 3.5 miles of beaches, stretching from Port Canaveral’s Jetty Park to south of Cocoa Beach Pier.
Conserving Canada’s Diverse Marine Life
Despite the deep, cold waters, newly discovered undersea mountains off Canada’s west coast are home to a rich diversity of life. The recently designated Offshore Pacific Area of Interest, is a 140,000 square kilometre region 100 to 200 kilometres west of Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia.
Coastal Warning: An Unwelcome Messenger on the Risks of Rising Seas; By Orrin H. Pilkey
Marine scientist Orrin Pilkey has long been cautioning about sea level rise and the folly of building and rebuilding along coastlines. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about why an eventual retreat from oceanfront property on the U.S. coast is inevitable.
The ‘great dying’: rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says
Up to 96% of all marine species and more than two-thirds of terrestrial species perished 252m years ago. Rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event in the Earth’s history, which wiped out the vast majority of marine and terrestrial animals on the planet, scientists have found.
What seabirds can tell us about the tide
A study, aimed to track tagged seabirds’ behaviour and movements along the coast, revealed that, at night, these seabirds spent a lot of their time idle on the sea surface. Using seabirds to tell us about the tide could be especially useful for the marine renewable energy industry. Generating tidal energy requires detailed knowledge of current speeds.
Marine waste is turning the Earth into a plastic planet
The Ocean Atlas published by the German Heinrich Boll Foundation, an independent international green think tank for policy reform and the University of Kiel’s Future Ocean Cluster of Excellence, lists the top 20 nations with the worst plastic waste mismanagement around the world.