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Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced that they plan dump 777,000 tons of tritium-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, as part of their multi-billion dollar recovery efforts at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The total amount of radioactive material involved would be approximately 115 times the annual safety limit for this type of discharge. The move has yet to be approved by the Japanese government, although TEPCO says that they still plan to go ahead with the decision.
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The massive corpse of an initially unidentified sea creature washed up on the shore of Indonesia’s Seram Island, prompting worldwide speculation as to what the mysterious creature was. Initially called a giant squid by the Jakarta Globe, the 15-meter (50-foot) carcass has since started to fill the area with a rotting smell, prompting the local villagers to ask the government for assistance in removing the mess.
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A new study that improves upon pre-2005 ocean temperature estimates has found that the world’s oceans have been heating up thirteen percent faster than previously estimated, and that rate is increasing as time goes by. This new revelation is important, as the oceans absorb roughly 90 percent of the excess heat that the planet is retaining, making it not only an important indicator for how quickly the planet is actually heating up, but it also means that the danger posed by disproportionately warmer oceans is also greater than we feared.
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Humpback whales in the southern hemisphere have been exhibiting odd behavior over the past few years: typically a solitary species that only temporarily gathers in pods of up to a dozen individuals, groups of up to 200 whales have been gathering in spots off of the west coast of South Africa. In addition to this oddity, these whales typically aren’t found that far north in the summer, preferring feeding grounds closer to Antarctica.

Researchers are at a loss when it comes to explaining this new behavior, although one idea suggests that this is actually a normal activity, interrupted when the humpback’s numbers dropped due to over-hunting in previous centuries.
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