Researchers from Canada and Denmark have found that a prolonged heat wave in the waters of the Pacific Ocean nicknamed the Blob have disrupted the balance in the microscopic marine life that lives in the region, threatening the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The researchers also warn thatread more
A one-ton underwater observatory that had been installed off the northern coast of Germany has mysteriously disappeared without a trace, leaving behind nothing but the tattered end of the data cable that allowed the unit to communicate with the mainland. On August 21 at 8:15 p.m. local time, the GEOMARread more
A recent encounter between a human diver and a humpback whale has illustrated how concern for the safety of others can reach across species. Marine biologist Nan Hauser was on an expedition to the South Pacific’s Cook Islands to study whales for a film that she is making. But while diving with a humpback whale, her 25-tonne subject appeared to be attacking her, at least at first. But what she learned after extricating herself from the leviathan’s advances made her see the whole situation in a completely different light.
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A new study on the lifespan of the Greenland shark has established that this fish may be the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth. While marine biologists have long suspected that this species of shark had a long lifespan — one individual, caught twice, with each catch more than a decade apart, had shown growth of less than a centimeter per year — researchers had no definitive way of dating individual specimens, as dating fish involves counting the layers in their bones. Sharks, on the other hand, have cartilage skeletons that don’t exhibit this layering, making dating them difficult.
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