Underwater sensors caught a rare event off Cornwall: one porpoise became trapped in a net while two animals exchanged possible distress calls
Bycatch, the accidental capture of animals in fishing gear is considered the world’s greatest direct…
Underwater sensors caught a rare event off Cornwall: one porpoise became trapped in a net while two animals exchanged possible distress calls
Bycatch, the accidental capture of animals in fishing gear is considered the world’s greatest direct human-caused threat to dolphins and porpoises. Off the coast of Cornwall, a set of underwater sensors was listening to the ocean when it detected something researchers rarely get to see. According to an online report by Phys Org, two harbor…
Sea otters returned to a polluted California estuary in 1984; eelgrass expanded 600%, while marsh-edge erosion later slowed by 69% on average
Sea otters returned to California’s Elkhorn Slough in 1984 when pollution had severely affected its ecosystem. When sea otters returned to California’s Elkhorn Slough in 1984, the estuary was already facing severe environmental pressure. The coastal wetland had high nutrient levels linked to its agriculture-dominated watershed, while eelgrass had fallen to an all-time low of…
Brazil restored a former cattle landscape with native trees; decades later, lowland tapirs returned after disappearing for 100 years |
South American tapir. Image Credit: Charles J. Sharp/Wikipedia A former cattle landscape in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest has been transformed into a thriving wildlife refuge through years of restoration and the planting of native trees. At the Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve in Rio de Janeiro State, land that was once cleared and used for grazing has gradually…
Quote of the day by Isaac Newton: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things” |
Isaac Newton, one of history’s most influential scientists, spent much of his life trying to understand the laws governing the natural world. His work transformed physics, mathematics and astronomy, but his approach to discovery was rooted in careful observation, experimentation and the search for underlying principles. One of his enduring observations was that truth is…
A Scottish river project set out to revive oysters that once covered an area the size of Edinburgh; now, 60,000 have been returned |
A Scottish restoration project has returned 60,000 native oysters to the Firth of Forth, reviving a species that once formed vast oyster beds across an area roughly comparable to the size of Edinburgh. The Restoration Forth partnership originally aimed to return 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary, but the target was later doubled after…
In 2015, Canada sank a 113-metre retired warship off British Columbia; five years later, monitoring had recorded more than 170 marine species on the wreck
A lingcod guards its egg mass on the Annapolis (Image Credit: Michel Joseph via Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia) A retired Canadian warship that was deliberately sunk off British Columbia in 2015 has become an artificial reef supporting a growing community of marine life. The former HMCS Annapolis, measuring 113.1 metres in length, was…
Human hair, receipts, fishing nets, and eggshells were among 17 waste materials tested to create stronger, lower-carbon cement building products |
Cement is one of the most widely used materials in construction, but its production comes with a high environmental cost. Circular Design Cement, a 2026 James Dyson Award project, is exploring a new approach to construction materials. The project uses everyday waste and industrial byproducts as recycled aggregates in cement-based materials designed for architectural applications….
Meet Franklin Howley-Dumit Serulle, the amateur naturalist whose online insect photo helped reveal a new hoverfly species |
PC: Swiss Academy of Sciences A photograph shared online has helped scientists identify a hoverfly species that had remained a mystery for years. The insect, named ‘Monoceromyia ndidiae’, was photographed in the Dominican Republic and posted on iNaturalist. Its unusual appearance caught the attention of an entomologist, who began asking whether the fly represented something…
Meet Naidely Valeria Vidaurre-Quesada, the scientist who helped uncover a ghost shark species hiding in Costa Rica’s dark waters |
Far below the surface of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, where sunlight disappears and fishing grounds give way to deep water, three unusual fish specimens had been sitting in scientific collections for years. They would eventually become the basis for describing a species unknown to science. At the centre of that work was Naidely Valeria Vidaurre-Quesada,…
From 2012 to 2022, nearly 30,000 commercial vessel arrivals brought 430 sq km of submerged hull surface to Alaska; biofouling habitat grew 50%, increasing invasive-species risk
Biofouling happens when marine organisms attach to or occupy submerged parts of a vessel The submerged surfaces of nearly 30,000 commercial vessels arriving in Alaska over 11 years created more opportunities for marine organisms to hitchhike to new locations, according to a research.The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, examined 29,799 commercial vessel arrivals…
