Search and rescue operation launched after small vessel failed to arrive at Pinang resort in the Banyak Islands off Aceh
Four Australian tourists and three Indonesian crew are missing after their boat encountered a storm on its way to a group of remote islands off the west coast of Indonesia.
A search and rescue operation was launched on Monday after the small boat failed to arrive at its resort island destination known for its surf and beaches on Sunday.
Continue reading...Scientists stunned by unprecedented heat-stress event say they can only hope it ‘motivates and unites people’
Corals across several countries are bleaching and dying en masse from unprecedented levels of heat stress, prompting fears that an unfolding tragedy in Central America, North America and the Caribbean could become a global event.
US government scientists have confirmed reefs in Panama, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and six countries in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas and Cuba, are suffering significant bleaching, alongside corals in Florida that began turning white almost a month ago.
Continue reading...Population has declined dramatically due to overfishing and environmental changes in the Indian Ocean
African penguins are on track for extinction by 2035 if measures are not taken to ensure their survival, campaigners have said.
The population of African penguins has declined dramatically over the past 100 years. In the early 20th century, it is thought that there were probably several million breeding pairs: today, fewer than 11,000 breeding pairs remain, and the population continues to fall sharply.
Continue reading...Research suggests behaviour may reflect evolutionary response to previous outbreaks of disease
Aerial surveys of the North Sea have revealed that seals practise social distancing – and the discovery may have profound implications for the spread of disease among the marine mammals.
In a paper published today by the Royal Society, researchers conducting censuses of grey and harbour seals detail new evidence that the two species not only maintain distances between their own kind (unlike walruses, for instance, who cluster close together) but also that this behaviour may “reflect an evolutionary response to viral susceptibility”.
Continue reading...Fossils found in Peru from extinct species show it may have had body mass of 85-340 tonnes – heavier than blue whales
The fossilised bones of an ancient creature that patrolled coastal waters 40m years ago belong to a newly discovered species that is a contender for the heaviest animal ever to have existed on Earth.
Fossil hunters discovered remnants of the enormous and long-extinct whale in a rock formation in the Ica desert of southern Peru. Fully grown adults might have weighed hundreds of tonnes, researchers believe.
Continue reading...The 90-100F readings add to previous warnings over warming water putting marine life and ecosystems in peril
The surface ocean temperature around the Florida Keys soared to 101.19F (38.43C) this week, in what could be a global record as ocean heat around the state reaches unprecedented extremes.
A water temperature buoy located in the waters of Manatee Bay at the Everglades national park recorded the high temperature late on Monday afternoon, US government data showed. Other nearby buoys topped 100F (38C) and the upper 90s (32C).
Continue reading...Experts fear for health of corals and other marine life as about 1m sq km of ocean experience prolonged elevated temperatures
A marine heatwave has broken out along more than 2,000km of the Queensland coast, raising concerns for the health of corals on the Great Barrier Reef and other ocean life.
Satellite data managed by the US National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) shows the heatwave started to emerge at the end of June.
Continue reading...Scientists caution against rush to mine the seabed, and say it could be decades before the full impact on marine life is known
Animal populations appear to decrease where the deep sea is being mined, and the impact on marine life of the controversial industry may involve a wider “footprint” than previously expected.
According to analysis of seabed ecology undertaken after drilling tests in 2020 in Japan – the country’s first successful extraction of cobalt crusts from deep-sea mountains – there was a decrease in marine life such as fish and shrimp at the site a year later. The density had dropped even further in areas outside the impact zone, by more than half.
Continue reading...Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed as UN-backed authority prepares for crucial talks
The list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good.
Ireland and Sweden became the latest developed economies to join critics, including scientists, environmental organisations and multinationals such as BMW, Volvo and Samsung. The carmakers have committed not to use minerals mined from the seabed in their electric vehicles.
Continue reading...World Meteorological Organization says weather pattern is in place, which for Australia increases risk of drought, heatwaves, bushfires and coral bleaching
Ocean temperatures around Australia last month were 0.5C above average, as the UN’s weather agency declared the world was now in an El Niño.
El Niño events influence weather extremes around the globe and for Australia increase the risk of drought, heatwaves, bushfires and coral bleaching.
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Continue reading...Rising temperatures in north Atlantic and drop in Antarctic sea ice prompt fears of widespread damage from extreme weather
“Very unusual”, “worrying”, “terrifying”, and “bonkers”; the reactions of veteran scientists to the sharp increase in north Atlantic surface temperatures over the past three months raises the question of whether the world’s climate has entered a more erratic and dangerous phase with the onset of an El Niño event on top of human-made global heating.
Since April, the warming appears to have entered a new trajectory. Meanwhile the area of global sea ice has dropped by more than 1 million sq km below the previous low.
Continue reading...Small island countries press for guarantees as rising sea levels risk leaving their citizens stateless
Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves.
The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of the most vulnerable countries, has invited international legal experts to consider this question and begun a diplomatic campaign to ensure that political statehood continues even after a nation’s physical fabric is submerged.
Continue reading...Rescue team says every noise being tracked and analysed; ‘every possible effort’ being made to bring missing crew home, says Polar Prince co-owner
An oceanographer has told the BBC the underwater noises give hope that those on board are still alive.
“There are plenty of sound sources in the ocean, but it does give hope,” Simon Boxall, a senior lecturer in oceanography at the University of Southampton, told the World Service.
A Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises as a massive search continued on Wednesday in a remote part of the North Atlantic for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.
A statement from the US Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost abroad the Titan as estimates suggest as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president warns flood waters contaminated with sewage, oil, chemicals and possibly anthrax
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the ecological disaster triggered by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam has become a global problem as severely contaminated waters flow into the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian president said the flood waters raging through the lower Dnipro River valley brought with them sewage, oil, chemicals and possibly anthrax from animal burial sites.
Continue reading...Eight teenagers in police custody after allegedly dragging woman from car on the Gold Coast. Follow the day’s news live
Business groups argue ‘same job, same pay’ laws would disadvantage workers
I mentioned a little earlier that business groups have glommed together to launch a campaign against the federal government’s proposed “same job, same pay” industrial relations laws.
The so-called ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ proposals does not mean equal pay for men and women. It does not speak of fairness and justice, as its name falsely represents.
It means by law, employers will have to pay workers with little knowledge or experience exactly the same as workers with decades of knowledge and experience.
Without a real threat of losing passengers to other airlines, the Qantas and Virgin Australia airline groups have had less incentive to offer attractive airfares, develop more direct routes, operate more reliable services, and invest in systems to provide high levels of customer service.
Continue reading...Fears biodiversity proposals could be abandoned amid opposition from lobby groups and some countries
MEPs have been accused of whipping up “a culture war against nature” after the fisheries and agriculture committees voted against the EU’s biodiversity restoration law.
Last June, the European Commission revealed proposals for legally binding targets for member states to restore wildlife on land, in rivers and the sea. The nature restoration law was announced alongside separate legislation proposing a crackdown on chemical pesticides with the aim of reversing the catastrophic loss of wildlife on the continent.
Continue reading...Up to 50,000 whales expected to pass Australia’s east coast during annual migration from Antartica to Great Barrier Reef
Carrie Davis describes seeing her first adult humpback whale of the season launching out of the water off the coast of Sydney last week as magical.
“It’s just this feeling of awe to see this fat whale of that size get all that body out of the water,” said Davis of Go Whale Watching in Sydney. “No matter how many times you see it, it always takes your breath away.”
Continue reading...A research team has discovered a parasite that’s been killing off sea urchins, but there’s no method to eliminate it yet
Marine biologists at a Florida university say they have solved the mystery of a mass die-off of long-spined sea urchins from the US to the Caribbean.
The scientists blame a microscopic, single-cell parasite for the die-off, which took hold early last year. Affected Diadema antillarum urchins lose their spines and suction, then succumb to disease.
Continue reading...Griffith University researcher captures video of five whales doing ‘bizarre rolls’ on the sea floor as they exfoliate and socialise
Whales have been caught on camera enjoying a marine version of a day spa, returning to their favourite spot off the Gold Coast to scratch off itchy skin and parasites, and catch up with their cetacean buddies.
Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke and his colleagues were trying to shed light on the behaviour of competing pods of humpbacks that use Gold Coast waters to rest, breed and socialise.
Continue reading...Shadow minister submits bill to curb spills as Environment Agency reveals sewage was dumped for almost 1m hours last year
Ministers have treated coastal communities as if they are “open sewers”, Labour has said, after a damaging analysis of Environment Agency (EA) data revealed sewage was dumped for almost a million hours last year.
In total, the data – which was analysed by the party – shows 141,777 sewage-dumping events occurred across 137 constituencies on the coasts of England and Wales in 2022.
Continue reading...