UnderwaterTimes Newswire

They call it the "white plague," and like its black counterpart from the Middle Ages, it conjures up visions of catastrophic death, with a cause that was at first uncertain even as it led to widespread destruction â€" on marine corals ...

Acidification of the Arctic Ocean is occurring faster than projected according to new findings published in the journal PLoS One. The increase in rate is being blamed on rapidly melting sea ice, a process that may have important consequences for ...

The radioactive ocean plume from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster will reach the shores of the US within three years from the date of the incident but is likely to be harmless according to new paper in the journal Deep&...

Much as human siblings can have vastly different personalities despite their similar resemblance and genetics, two closely related species of electric fish from the Amazon produce very different electric signals. These species, new to science, are described in the open ...

Performing experiments in a river in Trinidad, a team of evolutionary biologists has found that male guppies continue to reproduce for at least ten months after they die, living on as stored sperm in females, who have much longer lifespans (...

It turns out that alligators do not live on meat alone. Neither do Nile crocodiles. A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society says that the American alligator and a dozen other crocodile species enjoy an occasional taste of ...

Naval History and Heritage Command's (NHHC) Underwater Archeology Branch (UAB) dove into the history of a recently-discovered late-19th century No. 24 Howell Torpedo, Aug. 9, and they scored a direct hit. "We started looking through SECNAV (Secretary of ...

Small prey fish can grow a bigger 'eye' on their rear fins as a way of distracting predators and dramatically boosting their chances of survival, new scientific research has found. Researchers from Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef ...

Genetic testing by DNA Barcoding, has revealed which species are sold under the commercial term 'ray wings' in Ireland and the UK. The blonde ray, given the lowest rating for sustainability in the marine conservation society's good fish guide, was ...

Fish do not feel pain the way humans do. That is the conclusion drawn by an international team of researchers consisting of neurobiologists, behavioral ecologists and fishery scientists. One contributor to the landmark study was Prof. Dr. Robert Arlinghaus of ...

Dolphins can recognize their old tank mates' whistles after being separated for more than 20 years â€" the longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human species. The remarkable memory feat is another indication that dolphins have a level of ...

Ocean Opportunity, a Rhode Island based not for profit organization, is pleased to announce that its founder, Rhode Island native Michael Lombardi recently became among the first to train in the new deep diving system called the Exosuit. The Exosuit ...

Independent researchers working in coordination with the Navy ships USS Dewey (DDG 105) and USS Cape St. George (CG 71) conducted ground-breaking marine mammal behavioral response studies (BRSs) on the Navy's Southern California Offshore Range in July. The studies occurred ...

Underwater Photography Guide is proud to announce that it is accepting entries for the Ocean Art Photo Competition 2013. There are over $75,000 worth of prizes, including over 35 liveaboard and scuba diving resort packages, dive equipment, and much more. Grand prizes are ...

The American Elasmobranch Society (AES), the leading society of shark researchers in the U.S., is calling upon the Associated Press, Reuters and other media outlets to update their guidelines for editors and reporters to support more accurate stories on ...

Odyssey Marine Exploration, pioneers in the field of deep-ocean exploration, has recovered over 61 tons of silver bullion this month from a depth of nearly three miles. This recovery of bullion from the SS Gairsoppa, a 412-foot steel&...

Manatees can feel water movements thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair â€" an ability that makes them one of the most touch-sensitive mammals on Earth â€" according to a new study led by scientists at ...

A chemical analysis of oil sheens found floating recently at the ocean's surface near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster indicates that the source is pockets of oil trapped within the wreckage of the sunken rig. Both the Macondo ...

A new study estimates that global sea levels will rise about 2.3 meters, or more than seven feet, over the next several thousand years for every degree (Celsius) the planet warms. This international study is one of the first to combine ...

Whale earwax is not a topic that usually comes up on a walk to get coffee, but it did for Baylor U. researchers Dr. Stephen Trumble, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Sascha Usenko, assistant professor of environmental science. They ...

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) today declined to protect great white sharks off the coast of California under the Endangered Species Act. Although peer-reviewed scientific population estimates at the two primary white shark aggregation sites indicate fewer ...

Scientists have discovered a diverse multitude of microbes colonizing and thriving on flecks of plastic that have polluted the oceansâ€"a vast new human-made flotilla of microbial communities that they have dubbed the "plastisphere." In a study recently ...

research team led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has discovered that marine microbes are adapted to very narrow and specialized niches in their environment. This may explain why so few of these microbesâ€"usually less than 1%â€"can be grown ...

A team of scientists from SeaWorld and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute has uncovered an unusual cause of death among bottlenose dolphins in Florida's Indian River Lagoon: asphyxiation (choking) by ingestion of certain fish. "This is the first study ...

More than 25,000 people from various countries have signed the petition to force Indonesian government to resolve illegal sea turtle trades in Bali. The petition established by SOS Sea Turtles and ProFauna is delivered to the governor of Bali on 19 June 2013. ...

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have found that a lake on an island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, has been relatively untouched by changes in climate for the past 7000 years, and has so far also resisted the impact ...

The commercial value of spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) in the Caribbean reaches $1 billion annually, thus making it one of the most valuable fisheries in the region. In a new study of this iconic species, Ph.D. candidate Andrew Kough and ...

Swimming around and around in a 20,000 gallon tank at the University of Rhode Island's Bay Campus are several large yellowfin tuna captured last fall about 100 miles off the Rhode Island coast. The fish are part of the first effort in ...

A team of Spanish researchers, coordinated by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has started to sequence the genome of the global deep ocean. They are using more than 2,000 samples of microorganisms collected in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans ...

A new study on the feeding habits of ocean microbes calls into question the potential use of algal blooms to trap carbon dioxide and offset rising global levels. These blooms contain iron-eating microscopic phytoplankton that absorb C02 from ...

Campaigners warned tourists to stay away from Scotland if they care about wildlife, especially seals, as they may be horrified to witness mass seal shootings. The warning comes as television presenter Neil Oliver launched a £350,000 campaign promoting Scotland as a ...

Efforts to restore sturgeon in the Great Lakes region have received a lot of attention in recent years, and many of the news stories note that the prehistoric-looking fish are "living fossils" virtually unchanged for millions of years. ...

Remora fish, with a sucking disc on top of their heads, have been the stuff of legend. They often attach themselves to the hulls of boats and in ancient times were thought to purposely slow the boat down. While that ...

Fish can hide in the open ocean by manipulating how light reflects off their skin, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The discovery could someday lead to the development of new camouflage materials for use in ...

Fish with parasites attached to their heads have a stronger preference for left or right when facing a T-intersection, giving them an edge when it comes to escaping predators, research from The Australian National University (ANU) has revealed. ...

Sharks are worth more in the ocean than in a bowl of soup, according to researchers from the University of British Columbia. A new study, published today in Oryx â€" The International Journal of Conservation, shows that shark ecotourism currently generates ...

Forty-two may or may not be the answer to everything, but it likely defines the temperature limit where animal life thrives, according to the first laboratory study of heat-loving Pompeii worms from deep-sea vents, ...

A marine research expedition sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has led to the discovery of perhaps the world's largest methane cold seep by two university-...

The widespread disappearance of stromatolites, the earliest visible manifestation of life on Earth, may have been driven by single-celled organisms called foraminifera. The findings, by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI); Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University ...

A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, one-twelfth of ...