Every octopus romance resembles a Shakespearean tragedy. A new study has found that octopuses have a complex love life that includes courtship, hand holding, jealousy and even murder.
The study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who journeyed off the coast of Indonesia found that wild octopuses are far from the shy, unromantic loners their captive brethren appear to be.
The scientists watched the Abdopus aculeatus octopus, which are the size of an orange, for several weeks and published their findings recently in the journal Marine Biology.
They witnessed picky, macho males carefully select a mate, then guard their newly domesticated digs so jealously they would occasionally use their 8-to-10-inch tentacles to strangle a romantic rival.
The researchers also observed smaller "sneaker" male octopuses put on feminine airs, such as swimming girlishly near the bottom and keeping their male brown stripes hidden in order to win unsuspecting conquests.
Pygmy seahorses look very much like the gorgonian coral they live their entire lives on. These tiny seahorses are only 2 centimeters long. Here's a video clip from National Geographic that shares a little more information about these small but fascinating creatures. The seahorses in the video clip are a reddish color but the Wikipedia entry says there is also a yellow species of pygmy seahorse.
This AP video tells the amazing story of a dolphin named Moko who rescued two straned whales. A group of scientists failed to rescue two pygmy sperm whales stranded on the sand bar of a New Zealand beach. Moko, a dolphin known locally, dolphin quickly came to the rescue and communicated with the whales and guided them safely to deeper waters. The dolphin then returned to the coastline to play with children swimming. There is also an article about Moko's whale rescue here.
The Mola Mola Can Gain Over 60 Million Times Its Birthweight
This Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish is one of the largest and stangest animals found in the sea. The Mola Mola is the world's largest bony fish. As the National Geographic video below describes it - the Mola Mola looks like a "massive swimming head." The Mola Mola can weigh up to 4,000 pounds. It can gain over sixty million times its birthweight. For more on this strange fish check out the listings on Fishbase.org, OceanLight.com and Wikipedia. The Ocean Sunfish website also has lots of facts, photos and news.
Researchers collecting specimens off Antarctica have found strange creatures. Creatures like giant sea spiders, tunicates and organisms looking like slender glass were all found. Researchers also described a strange looking fish with "funny dangling bits" around their mouth. They saw thousands of creatures and as many as a quarter them were previously undiscovered. You can see some of them in the video clip below. An article in the Telegraph also has photos of the tunicates and a giant scale worm. Last year a psychedelic octopus was discovered in the in frigid waters off Antarctica.
Unfortunately, global warming may allow sharks and crabs to come and eat many of these defenseless ocean lifeforms.
"Sharks are going to arrive in Antarctica as long as the warming trend continues, a bit more slowly than crabs - crabs are going to get there first," said Professor Cheryl Wilga of the University of Rhode Island (URI), US. "But once they do get there they are capable of eating the organisms that live there."
Professor Wilga said the arrival of sharks and shell-crushing bony fishes would lead to dramatic changes in the number and proportions of species found there.
Shrimp, ribbon worms and brittle stars are likely to be the most vulnerable to population declines.
Dr Sven Thatje of the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, UK, said animals living in shallow water in Antarctica were unique on Earth today because they evolved in a very cold environment over tens of millions of years.
We've all heard that global warming will generate devastating floods and droughts. We are familiar with the warnings about rising sea levels. We know that countless scientists and scientific organizations believe global warming is real and that climate change is something humans are going to have to deal with on an increasing basis over the coming decades. What's less understood by both global warming believers and global warming deniers is what carbon emissions are doing to our oceans.
Our carbon emissions are not just heating up the globe. They are also changing the chemistry of our oceans. This change is putting coral reefs including Australia's Great Barrief Reef at risk. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. Scientists from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology have calculated that if current carbon dioxide emission trends continue, by mid-century 98% of present-day reef habitats will be bathed in water too acidic for reef growth. Among the first victims will be Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest organic structure.
Chemical oceanographers Ken Caldeira and Long Cao presented their results in a multi-author paper in the December 14 issue of Science and at the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on the same date. The work is based on computer simulations of ocean chemistry under levels of atmospheric CO2 ranging from 280 parts per million (pre-industrial levels) to 5000 ppm. Present levels are 380 ppm and rapidly rising due to accelerating emissions from human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels.
"About a third of the carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans," says Caldeira, "which helps slow greenhouse warming, but is a major pollutant of the oceans." The researchers say the absorbed CO2 produces carbonic acid - the same acid that gives soft drinks their fizz - making certain minerals called carbonate minerals dissolve more readily in seawater. This is especially true for aragonite, the mineral used by corals and many other marine organisms to grow their skeletons.
"Before the industrial revolution, over 98% of warm water coral reefs were bathed with open ocean waters 3.5 times supersaturated with aragonite, meaning that corals could easily extract it to build reefs," says Cao. "But if atmospheric CO2 stabilizes at 550 ppm -- and even that would take concerted international effort to achieve -- no existing coral reef will remain in such an environment." The chemical changes will impact some regions sooner than others. At greatest risk are the Great Barrier Reef and the Caribbean Sea.
The scientists also say that carbon dioxide's chemical effects on the ocean are largely independent of its effects on climate. This means that measures to mitigate warming short of reducing emissions will be of little help in slowing acidification of our oceans. The scientists warn that prevention continued ocean acidification may require even more drastic emissions cuts than have been presented for climate change.
"These changes come at a time when reefs are already stressed by climate change, overfishing, and other types of pollution," says Caldeira, "so unless we take action soon there is a very real possibility that coral reefs - and everything that depends on them -will not survive this century."
This video report by the Wall Street Journal's Sebastian Moffett shows a Japanese boat where a scientist catches jellyfish, part of a new wave that's menacing fisherman. These huge six-foot jellyfish have become a real threat to the Sea of Japan. Global warming has been brought up as one of the possibilities for the emergence of the giant jellies.
Reuters reports that a shocking study published in Science found that ocean life and seafood could be depleted by as early as 2048. The scientific data also indicates that marine biodiversity has already crashed by as much as 29% since 1960.
In an analysis of scientific data going back to the 1960s and historical records over a thousand years, the researchers found that marine biodiversity -- the variety of ocean fish, shellfish, birds, plants and micro-organisms -- has declined dramatically, with 29 percent of species already in collapse.
Extending this pattern into the future, the scientists calculated that by 2048 all species would be in collapse, which the researchers defined as having catches decline 90 percent from the maximum catch.
This applies to all species, from mussels and clams to tuna and swordfish, said Boris Worm, lead author of the study, which was published in the current edition of the journal Science.
Ocean mammals, including seals, killer whales and dolphins, are also affected.
"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging," Worm said in a statement. "In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected."
Boris Worm, the lead author on the study, told Reuters that most of the destruction to ocean life is from over-fishing and habitat destruction. It was not a completely bleak outlook. The study did say that techniques like marine-life reserves and no-fishing zones could be helpful. Some types of aquaculture involving vegetarian fish could also be helpful. They better be implemented quickly because a planet without fish or very scarce in ocean-life is not going to be pleasant and will probably have serious repercussions for the land dwelling life forms on Earth.
MSNBC.com reports that a treasure trove of marine life has been discovered off the coast of New Guinea. Researchers are calling it "the most biodiverse marine area on the planet."
"Six of our survey sites, which are areas the size of two football fields, had over 250 species of reef-building coral each - that's more than four times the number of coral species of the entire Caribbean Sea," he added.
The entire area covers 45 million acres off a peninsula in northwest New Guinea. Researchers have counted 1,200 species of fish there and 600 species of reef-building coral - the latter equal to 75 percent of the world's known total.
One of the new species is a variety of "walking shark" or epaulette shark.
During two surveys earlier this year, Conservation International and Indonesian experts found at least 36 new species of fish, coral and mantis shrimp in the waters, which are peppered with 2,500 islands and submerged reefs. The area also includes the largest Pacific leatherback turtle nesting area in the world, and is visited by whales, orcas and several dolphin species.
Two of the new species are members of the epaulette shark family, which distinguishes itself by sometimes using its fins to scamper away. Their name comes from the fact that they have two large round spots near their heads that look like epaulettes, the shoulder ornaments on military uniforms.
As is typical in our overpopulated world even remote areas like this face threats. Commercial fishing and the use of dynamite and cyanide during fishing are a couple of the threats facing the amazing find. More information and photos of the region can be found here on the Conservation International website. Conservation International calls the region the Bird's Head Seascape, located off the coast of Indonesia's Papua Province.
The AP reports that the Pacific Coasts' "dead zone" has returned. The dead zone was first discovered in 2002.
The oxygen-starved "dead zone" along the Pacific Coast that is causing massive crab and fish die-offs is worse than initially thought, scientists said.
Weather, not pollution, appears to be the culprit, scientists said, and no relief is in sight. However, some said there is no immediate sign of long-term damage to the crab fishery in the dead zone, a 70-mile stretch of water along the Continental Shelf between Florence and Lincoln City.
Oregon State University scientists looking for weather changes that could reverse the situation aren't finding them. They say levels of dissolved oxygen critical to marine life are the lowest since the first dead zone was identified in 2002. It has returned every year.
Strong upwelling winds pushed a low-oxygen pool of deep water toward shore, suffocating marine life, said Jane Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology at OSU.
The article says Oregon State University scientists saw a crab graveyard and thousands of dead sea creatures in the dead zone. Scientists are blaming low-oxygen water triggered by global warming for the dead zone. So far, the local commercial fishing industry has not been impacted.
Niall Ferguson has written an opinion piece for the Telegraph that highlights recent information that should be of grave concern to everyone. Plastic refuge is on the rise and according to the United Nations Environment Programme there are "46,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the world's oceans."
According to the Marine Conservation Society's latest annual survey, which covers more than a hundred miles of British coastline, there has been a 90 per cent increase in the density of litter over the past decade. More than a third of the rubbish found in the latest survey consisted of fragments of plastic, food wrappers, bottle lids and cotton buds.
And it's not just Britain. The plastic plague is a global epidemic. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, there are approximately 46,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the world's oceans.
The problem is more than merely aesthetic. Last week the Los Angeles Times carried a shocking report from Midway Atoll, which is about as isolated a spot as the world has to offer, 2,800 miles west of California and 2,200 miles east of Japan.
Hardly anyone lives there, so the number of crisp packets chucked in the sea can't be large. And yet birdlife on Midway is being devastated as albatrosses inadvertently feed their chicks lethal fragments of plastic picked up from what's known as the Eastern Garbage Patch, a virtual island of trash formed by the currents of the North Pacific subtropical gyre.
The Patch is not so much a city in the sea as a municipal dump on the sea.
The island of garbage and ocean full of plastic are not pleasant things to think about. Just because the ocean currents sometimes take garbage away where we can't see it doesn't mean we shouldn't be very concerned by these alarming statistics. Pollution is also a big concern for Earth's future. It isn't just global warming gases we have to worry about.
A new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found that the same manmade gases responsible for global warming are also helping the oceans to become more acidic. The Discovery Channel reports that the study found that the oceans have become so acidic that they "eat away the skeletons of many vital reef-building corals."
Atmospheric scientists around the world agree that the additional carbon dioxide in the air and oceans has come from exponential growth in fossil fuel burning emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.
Current carbon dioxide levels are higher than they have been for at least 650,000 years, according to ice core data from the Arctic and Antarctic.
Ocean acidity has already increased 30 percent since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, said Richard Feely, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.
By the end of the 21st century that could go up to 150 percent, he said.
"This is not controversial," said Kleypas, referring to the current acidity levels. There's an overwhelming amount of data backing it up, she said.
The ocean data is yet more evidence that we need to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Named World's Largest Marine Sanctuary
President Bush has designated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the United States' 75th national monument. MSNBC.com reports that the move creates the world's largest marine protected area.
Bush said he drew inspiration from a documentary on the island chain's biological resources shown at the White House in April by Jean-Michel Cousteau, the marine explorer and filmmaker whose father was the late Jacques Cousteau. Over dinner that night, Bush said he also got "a pretty good lecture about life" from marine biologist Sylvia Earle, an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society.
The decision immediately sets aside 139,000 square miles of largely uninhabited islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and underwater peaks known as seamounts to be managed by federal and state agencies.
Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will manage nearly all of it, said the new protected area would dwarf all others.
"It's the single-largest act of ocean conservation in history. It's a large milestone," Lautenbacher said. "It is a place to maintain biodiversity and to maintain basically the nurseries of the Pacific. It spawns a lot of the life that permeates the middle of the Pacific Ocean."
The National Geographic has a special feature on the Northwest Hawaiin Islands called "Hawaii's Outer Kingdom." The feature shows some of the beautiful wildlife found in this region. The National Geographic also says the marine area is home to over 7,000 species.
We've all heard that global warming will generate devastating floods and droughts. We are familiar with the warnings about rising sea levels. We know that countless scientists and scientific organizations believe global warming is real and that climate change is something humans are going to have to deal with on an increasing basis over the coming decades. What's less understood by both global warming believers and global warming deniers is what carbon emissions are doing to our oceans.
