500 whales stranded in Tasmania – indigenous elders are best guides to understanding this tragedy

It's time to listen to warnings from the people of the Pacific.

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marine-biology whales dolphins cetaceans marine-conservation tasmania pacific indigenous-knowledge whale-stranding maori-culture pacific-islanders

When hurricanes temporarily halt fishing, marine food webs recover quickly

Hurricane Harvey destroyed the fishing infrastructure of Aransas Bay and reduced fishing by 80% over the following year. This removed humans from the trophic cascade and whole food webs changed.

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environment fish ecology hurricane fishing food-webs research-brief marine-biology ecosystems texas cyclones gulf-coast trophic-cascade oyster-reefs

A rush is on to mine the deep seabed, with effects on ocean life that aren't well understood

Companies are eager to mine the deep ocean for valuable mineral deposits. But scientists are concerned about impacts on sea life, including creatures that haven't even been discovered yet.

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mining minerals oceans marine-biology metals international-law clean-energy-future law-of-the-sea international-seabed-authority

The Moon and stars are a compass for nocturnal animals – but light pollution is leading them astray

Towns and cities create an orange glow on the horizon at night. It's so widespread that it even disturbs sea creatures.

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moon wildlife marine-biology stars milky-way light-pollution artificial-light night-sky coastal-areas

Abandoned fibreglass boats are releasing toxins and microplastics across the world

Too many small yachts and speedboats are simply being abandoned to shed toxins and microplastics into the sea.

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plastic-pollution marine-biology ships microplastic boats

Microplastics: tiny crustaceans can fragment them into even smaller nanoplastics

The discovery that such a common animal can rapidly produce vast numbers of nanoplastics is particularly worrying.

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microplastics marine-biology freshwater-biology microplastic crustaceans

With the help of trained dolphins, our team of researchers is building a specialized drone to help us study dolphins in the wild

Wild dolphins are fast, smart and hard to study, but it is important to understand how human actions affect their health. So we are building a drone to sample hormones from the blowholes of dolphins.

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robots hormones marine-biology drones whales bermuda dolphins dolphin stress-hormones marine-mammals innovation-and-invention

Tiny plankton drive processes in the ocean that capture twice as much carbon as scientists thought

Microscopic ocean phytoplankton feed a "biological pump" that carries carbon from the surface to deep waters. Scientists have found that this process stores much more carbon than previously thought.

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climate-change carbon-sequestration photosynthesis marine-biodiversity oceans marine-biology marine-snow phytoplankton carbon-storage

Scientists at work: Uncovering the mystery of when and where sharks give birth

Researchers are using a newly developed satellite tag to study previously unknown aspects of tiger shark reproduction. This approach could be used on other difficult-to-study shark species.

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reproduction conservation sharks wildlife scientists-at-work oceans marine-biology tagging endangered-species tiger-sharks women-scientists satellite-data the-bahamas