All posts tagged: marine biology

Culling predatory starfish conserves coral on the Great Barrier Reef

Culling predatory starfish conserves coral on the Great Barrier Reef

Published by skeptic

A diver injecting vinegar into a crown-of-thorns starfish as part of the culling programme CSIRO A culling programme has succeeded in protecting key areas of the Great Barrier Reef from voracious coral-eating starfish. Scientists who analysed the outcome say the effort should be expanded to conserve more of the reef. Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) are relentless feeders on nearly all species of coral within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Each starfish can reach 1 metre in diameter and eat 10 square metres of coral reef each year. The starfish are native to the reef, but it is thought increasing nutrients pouring into the reef’s waters from agriculture and other human factors have increased their numbers and worsened the destruction of corals. Between 1985 and 2012, they accounted for 40 per cent of the region’s coral loss. During a major reef-wide eruption of the starfish between 2012 and 2022, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority carried out a large-scale culling programme. Teams of divers inject the starfish with a single shot of either vinegar or ox bile, …

How mass bleaching has pushed the Great Barrier Reef to the brink

How mass bleaching has pushed the Great Barrier Reef to the brink

Published by skeptic

Corals can turn white when they expel their symbiotic algae James Woodford One Tree Island isn’t an easy place to get to. Part of the Great Barrier Reef, there is often just one short window each day when the tides are high enough for a small boat to cross the rampart of treacherous coral that surrounds the island. Only then can you reach the remote research station it houses. I was travelling with Selina Ward from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Like me, she was making the arduous trip to the… Source link

How the infamous Pitcairn Island became a model of ocean conservation

How the infamous Pitcairn Island became a model of ocean conservation

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Pitcairn is one of the remotest inhabited islands in the world Michael Runkel/robertharding/Ala​my AFTER four nights at sea on a pitching and rolling ship, the announcement over the Tannoy is the sound of sweet relief. “Land ahoy!” I get dressed and lurch out onto the foredeck. If it really is ahoy, I can’t see it. The sun is coming up and dazzling the point on the horizon where terra firma should be, due east of our position in the middle of the South Pacific. The ship rolls sickeningly and I retreat to my berth. A couple of hours later, I re-emerge and am greeted by an awesome sight – a rugged green rock rising out of the ocean like something from the film Jurassic Park. This is Pitcairn, one of the remotest inhabited islands in the world and part of a British overseas territory. I am here to find out how this isolated community is aiming to put its dark past behind it and reinvent itself as a paradigm of ocean conservation – and also …

In Ascension author Martin Macinnes: ‘Science fiction can be many different things’

In Ascension author Martin Macinnes: ‘Science fiction can be many different things’

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Martin MacInnes, author of In Ascension Gary Doak Martin MacInnes is the author of the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club: In Ascension, the story of a marine biologist, Leigh, from her childhood to her adventures among the stars. He sat down with our culture editor Alison Flood to answer some of her questions about his novel. But be warned – as this is a book club discussion, there will be some spoilers about the plot ahead, so do read the novel first before diving into this interview. Alison Flood: Martin, welcome to the New Scientist Book Club! How would you describe what’s going on in your novel? Martin MacInnes: I’ll give a slight caveat in that, as a former bookseller, I’m quite sceptical of the ability of a quick synopsis to do justice to a book, but I’ll do my best. It’s about the story of one life and of life itself, from a young Dutch marine biologist to 4 billion years of evolution, from difficult childhoods and complex family dynamics to …

Damaged coral reefs can recover quickly after restoration work

Damaged coral reefs can recover quickly after restoration work

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Hexagonal frames called reef stars are installed in degraded areas to stabilise loose rubble and kickstart rapid coral growth The Ocean Agency Restored coral reefs can grow just as quickly as healthy reefs in as little as four years, according to the results of a restoration project in Indonesia. While the rapid recovery is promising, the reefs tend to have less species diversity than undamaged reefs, and more observations are needed to see how they fare over time and in tougher conditions such as heatwaves. The world’s coral reefs face numerous threats, from rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification to human activity such as overfishing. Just off the south coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, reefs were severely damaged about 30 years ago by dynamite fishing, where explosives are dropped into water to kill or stun large numbers of fish. “There is no natural recovery from the dynamite fishing,” says Tim Lamont at Lancaster University in the UK. “It leaves behind lots of loose fragments of old, dead coral skeletons, which washes around and doesn’t allow for …

Strange animals called pyrosomes are thriving as the Pacific heats up

Strange animals called pyrosomes are thriving as the Pacific heats up

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Pyrosomes thrive in warmer seas Mark Conlin / Alamy Strange colonial animals called pyrosomes are thriving in the north-east Pacific Ocean as it warms up, especially during marine heat waves. But according to a computer model, their success means less food is available to animals higher up the food chain, including fish. “It could have huge implications for energy flow throughout this ecosystem, and how many fish we can catch,” says Dylan Gomes at Oregon State University. Pyrosomes, sometimes called sea… Source link

Thousands of humpback whales starved to death after marine heatwave

Thousands of humpback whales starved to death after marine heatwave

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Humpback whales were affected by a marine heatwave in the Pacific Ocean Nicola Ransome The number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean fell by 20 per cent between 2012 and 2021, according to a study that used artificial intelligence to identify individual whales from photos of their tails. The decline coincided with a massive marine heatwave sometimes called the blob, which began in 2013 and lasted until 2016. The unprecedented intensity of the blob was almost certainly the result of global warming. The findings suggest that around 7000 whales starved to death because of the marine heatwave, says Ted Cheeseman at Southern Cross University in Australia. The blob is known to have caused mass die-offs of many other animals, such as seabirds. “This is unlikely to be a one-time event and if we do not rapidly curb the causes of climate change globally, more marine heatwaves decreasing ocean productivity worldwide will be our future,” says Cheeseman. “This will hit humpback whales and other whale species, but we should recognise these whales are indicators …

Read an extract from In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

Read an extract from In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

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“I was pressed against a teeming immensity.” A river underwater. Alamy Stock Photo From age ten I was allowed to swim in the Nieuwe Maas on my own. The cold water shocked me and soothed me and took my mind away. I would enter the water and lie back and close my eyes and drift. Afterwards I came stumbling back along the stony beach, my feet blue and insensate from the cold. I perched with a towel around me, shivering, my head on my knees. As I tipped the water out of my ears the sound of the traffic came back. I didn’t want to go home, and it took a long time to persuade myself to get up again. The stones pressed through my thin soles as I put my weight down, and every time I left the beach I told myself all I had to do was put those same stones in my pockets and walk out into the water and I would never have to go home again. It was an effective …

Underwater photo competition showcases stunning images of marine life

Underwater photo competition showcases stunning images of marine life

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Diving northern gannets Kat Zhou/UPY 2024 Snowy-white northern gannets (Morus bassanus) plunge into icy waters off the Shetland Islands in Scotland in search of food in this action-packed photograph. The seabirds are almost as big as an albatross, with a wingspan of up to 180 centimetres. They are also uniquely adapted to high-speed diving, with strong neck muscles and nostrils inside their bills that can be closed to prevent water entering. The shot was one of the most spectacular in the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition, which celebrates the wonders of the marine world. Here are some of New Scientist’s top picks from the many entries. Virgo wreck near Recife, Brazil Fabi Fregonesi/UPY 2024 In this photo by Fabiana Fregonesi, a school of fish swarm around a wreck, forming a shape resembling a boat’s sail for a fleeting moment. The vessel, called Virgo, was deliberately sunk in 2017 to become a dive site near Recife, Brazil. “The feeling I had at the time was that the ship was ready to set sail, beginning …