Wild Boar Deaths linked to Green Algae: Confirmed

First tests on wild boars washed up on Brittany’s beaches, showed that all but one, had hydrogen sulphide gas (emitted by rotting green algae) in their lungs. Test results on the remaining boars haven’t been released yet.

Green Algae Chokes Eastern China’s Beaches

In Qingdoo, Shandong Eastern Province of China, the coastal waters are covered with algae called enteromorpha prolifera. Though this green algae is not poisonous per se, it consumes large amounts of oxygen that can threaten marine life.

Australia Carbon Pollution Tax Announcement: A Start!

Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is on Sunday due to unveil the full detail of her carbon tax legislation, which will see the country’s top 500 polluters charged per tonne of carbon dioxide they emit into the atmosphere.

Testing The Waters and The US Beaches

NRDC’s annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that the number of beach closings and advisories in 2010 reached 24,091, the second-highest level since NRDC began tracking these events 21 years ago.

The Speed of Change: Oceans in Distress, An International Report

Sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats, and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.

The Mediterranean and Climate Change’s Impacts

One of the most serious threats to life in the Mediterranean region, and indeed every part of the global ocean, is climate change. Climate change is already having an impact on the marine environment and this is likely to escalate swiftly, increasing seawater temperatures and coastal erosion, altering salinity and currents and causing serious declines in biodiversity.