NEWS / BLOGS
The Importance of Remotely Operated Vehicles in Offshore Mining
When most people think of mining they imagine terrestrial mining operations consisting of earth moving machines designed to dig down to bedrock to extract gold, coal, or diamonds. Offshore mining, also called Deep Sea Mining, is a rather new method of extracting precious materials from the ocean floor.
Read full article at the source: https://www.aquabotix.com/news/the-importance-of-remotely-operated-vehicles-in-offshore-mining
Underwater noise
Underwater noise - a man-made problem
Whales and seals depend on their sense of hearing for survival. Man-made underwater sounds can impair their hearing in both the short and long term, displace them from vital habitats, cause a change in important patterns of behaviour and thereby deteriorate the survival capacity of these marine mammals.
Most whales and seals, many fish and even some invertebrates such as squid rely on acoustic signals for a great number of basic activities, including communication, mate selection, location of prey, protection against predators, or navigation. A change in ambient noise can have a negative impact on the biological fitness of individual animals or even entire populations.
Read full article at the source: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/underwater-noise#textpart-1
What is a marine protected area?
Marine protected areas conserve, manage, and protect.
The majority of marine protected areas in the United States are multiple-use sites, meaning fishing, boating, surfing, diving, and other recreational activities are allowed.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) in the U.S. come in a variety of forms and are established and managed by all levels of government. There are marine sanctuaries, estuarine research reserves, ocean parks, and marine wildlife refuges. Each of these sites differ. MPAs may be established to protect ecosystems, preserve cultural resources such as shipwrecks and archaeological sites, or sustain fisheries production.
Read full article at source: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mpa.html
Blue whales lack the ability to avoid cargo ships, says Stanford biologist
As the largest animals in the ocean, blue whales have not evolved defensive behaviors. New research by Stanford biologist Jeremy Goldbogen suggests this might explain why the whales are so prone to ship collisions.
GPS data from a blue whale shows the animal (blue dots) rising to the surface and then slowly dipping and narrowly missing a cargo ship (red dots) before diving deep once again.
For millions of years, blue whales have cruised the world’s oceans with hardly a care, their sheer size making them largely free from predator attacks. The downside to being the largest animals in history, however, is that the species was never pressured to evolve defensive behaviors.
Read full article at source: https://news.stanford.edu/2015/05/04/whales-ships-collisions-050415/
Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ is the largest ever measured
June outlook foretold New Jersey-sized area of low oxygen
Scientists have determined this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” an area of low oxygen that can kill fish and marine life, is 8,776 square miles, an area about the size of New Jersey. It is the largest measured since dead zone mapping began there in 1985.
Read full article at source: http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-is-largest-ever-measured
Ocean Acidification
Carbon dioxide in the water puts shelled animals at risk.
For tens of millions of years, Earth's oceans have maintained a relatively stable acidity level. It's within this steady environment that the rich and varied web of life in today's seas has arisen and flourished. But research shows that this ancient balance is being undone by a recent and rapid drop in surface pH that could have devastating global consequences.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/critical-issues-ocean-acidification/
Corals eat plastic because we’ve made it tasty, study suggests
By Ben Guarino October 30
“Plastics may be inherently tasty,” said Austin Allen, a Duke marine science doctoral student. Allen and Seymour are the lead authors of a study just published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. Along with Duke marine ecologist Daniel Rittschof, they demonstrated that corals respond to microplastic fragments as though they were food.
What are Microbeads and Why are They Illegal?
Next time you wash your face, think of the sludge that you've just dumped in the rivers and ocean. Not from your skin. From microbeads.
Microbeads are tiny bits of plastic found in exfoliating body washes and facial scrubs. Since their introduction in 1972, they have made their way into more than 100 personal care products sold by companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and L'Oréal.
Source: https://www.popsci.com/what-are-microbeads-and-why-are-they-illegal