Marine protection work impacted by coronavirus
A large number of environmental monitoring projects have been placed on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak halting invaluable ongoing research that could help protect marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. Rescue teams around the world may now not be able to respond to whale strandings or incidents of entanglements in fishing gear. In…
Read MoreRussia to give orcas greater protection
According to reports, Viktoria Abramchenko, the Deputy Prime Minister in Russia responsible for environmental affairs, has announced that transient orcas are going to be added to the country’s Red Data Book of endangered species. In recent years, Russia has allowed a number of orcas to be captured for sale to the captivity industry. The whales…
Read MoreMinke whale calls drowned out by ocean noise
New research in Australia suggests noise pollution is affecting how minke whales communicate We have known for some time that increasing ocean noise levels are affecting the behaviour of whales, dolphins and other marine creatures. Orcas and humpbacks, for example, have modified their behaviour to accommodate it. But scientists in Australia have discovered that minke…
Read MoreEU Commission asked to do more to tackle climate change
EU Heads of State have taken the unprecedented step of asking the European Commission to propose policy options to tackle the impacts of climate change on the ocean. The move represents a significant step forward for the protection of the marine environment, and in making the ocean more resilient to face the inevitable changes it…
Read MoreFinancial worth of whales revealed
Policymakers and economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have placed a substantial value on the benefits of having healthy whales in the ocean. The report looks at the economic benefits whales provide to industries such as ecotourism, and also the environmental benefits (such as how much carbon they remove from the atmosphere by absorbing…
Read MoreAntibiotic resistance in dolphins mirrors trend seen in humans
Samples collected from dolphins by scientists over a 12 year period indicate that dolphins may be mirroring the trend in human resistance to antibiotic drugs. Researchers looked at the samples from bottlenose dolphins living in the Indian River Lagoon in Florida between 2003 and 2015 and found that nearly 90% of the 733 samples taken…
Read MoreMicroplastics found in brains of crabs is cause for alarm
Researchers at the University of Brighton have carried out the world’s first study into microplastics in the brains of a crustacean species, which could have wider implications for other marine creatures like whales and dolphins. After feeding polystyrene fluorescent microplastic spheres to mussels, the researchers then fed these mussels to velvet swimming crabs. The stomach,…
Read MoreNew orca calf reported in endangered Southern Resident J pod
The Whale Centre in Tofino, British Columbia has revealed that a new calf has been spotted with an endangered orca population known as the Southern Residents. The Southern Resident orcas of the Pacific Northwest is a group of 75 individuals, the only orca population listed as endangered in the U.S. As part of the Orca…
Read MoreBan on plastic straws in UK announced
The UK Government has announced a ban on the sale of plastic straws, plastic stemmed cotton buds and plastic stirrers. The ban will come into place in England from next April in the hope that it will help reduce the effect of plastic on the environment. Billions of plastic straws, buds and stirrers are discarded…
Read MoreNature may have the answer to plastic pollution
Scientists working on solutions to the growing problem of plastic pollution are now focusing attention on a potential breakthrough supplied by Mother Nature. A study by researchers at Utrecht University reveals that several species of mushrooms will break down and ‘eat’ plastic, sometimes in a matter of weeks. Some, such as the oyster mushroom, are…
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