DARWIN, Australia, Aug 28, 2023 (AFP) – All 23 US marines on board a military aircraft that crashed in northern Australia have been accounted for, police said Monday, as investigators worked to uncover the cause of an accident that left three dead and five seriously injured. The Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed on Melville Island, north of Darwin, on Sunday morning during a routine military exercise for locally based troops. Authorities confirmed to AFP […]
Tag: marine
Two dead, nine missing after ship sinks between Japan, S. Korea
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Two crew were confirmed dead and nine others were missing Wednesday after their cargo ship sank in rough waters between Japan and South Korea, Japanese authorities said. Coast guards from the two countries, joined by military aircraft and a private vessel, located 13 of the 22 people who were onboard the Jin Tian, a Japan coast guard official said. But Japanese medical authorities later confirmed two of those retrieved were […]
Moscow trades US ex-Marine for Russian pilot in prisoner swap
Russia and the United States swapped prisoners Wednesday despite fierce tensions over Ukraine, with Moscow handing over a jailed ex-Marine in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling. Trevor Reed, a 30-year-old from Texas who was jailed in Russia in 2020, was exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, 53, who had been serving a 20-year US prison sentence since 2011. In footage shown on Russian state television, Yaroshenko emerged from a US plane onto a […]
Thousands of dead fish found in the Bay of Biscay
Images from the Sea Shepherd NGO shows tens of thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, 300 km from the French city of La Rochelle in the Bay of Biscay, allegedly discarded by the “Margiris”, one of the largest fishing vessels in the world. An administrative investigation has been opened.
Marine heatwaves may force fish to flee huge distances: study
by Kelly MACNAMARA PARIS, France (AFP) — Fish and other marine life may have to flee thousands of kilometres to escape damaging heatwaves, according to research published Wednesday, highlighting the scale of disruption caused by these increasing surges in ocean temperatures. Hot spells can cause dramatic changes to ocean ecosystems, devastating coral habitats, killing large numbers of seabirds and forcing species like fish, whales and turtles into colder waters. Researchers said the increasing number of […]
Ancient Australian Aboriginal sites discovered underwater
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Archaeologists have for the first time found Aboriginal artefacts on the seabed off Australia, opening a door to the discovery of ancient settlements flooded since the last ice age, they reported Thursday. Hundreds of ancient stone tools made by Australia’s Indigenous people at least 7,000 years ago were discovered two metres underwater off the remote Western Australia coast, the research published in the PLOS ONE journal said. A second site nearby […]
Mussels ‘cooked alive’ in balmy New Zealand ocean
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Up to half a million mussels were effectively cooked in the wild in unusually balmy waters on the New Zealand coast in a massive “die-off” that marine experts have linked to climate change. The dead mollusks were found by Auckland man Brandon Ferguson earlier this month at Maunganui Bluff Beach, near the northern tip of the North Island. Footage posted to social media shows a stunned Ferguson wading through rockpools choked […]
US Coast Guard officer arrested for mass murder plot
by Chris Lefkow A US Coast Guard officer who espoused white supremacist views and drafted a target list of Democratic politicians and prominent media figures has been arrested on firearms and drug charges. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, an admirer of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, was arrested last week and a powerful arsenal seized from his home in a Washington suburb, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. “The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely […]
Study warns of alarming decline in Australian fish
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Conservation experts warned Wednesday of alarming falls in Australian fish populations and called for more marine reserves and better management to halt the decline. A 10-year study, looking at nearly 200 species at 544 sites, found the main cause was overfishing, with climate change also contributing, although the organization that manages the nation’s fisheries disputed the findings. The research, in the decade to 2015 by the University of Tasmania and […]
In the Galapagos, an idyllic hammerhead shark nursery
by Jordi MIRO Agence France-Presse SANTA CRUZ, Ecuador (AFP) — For millions of years, new-born hammerhead sharks have grown up in nurseries sheltered by the mangrove swamps and reefs of the Galapagos Islands, safe from all human threat. But until November, biologists had no idea the sharks had their own hideaway that could hold some of the final secrets of this remote archipelago 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off South America’s Pacific coast. “It was quite […]
Seagrass on decline, jeopardizing human, coral health: study
by Jean-Louis SANTINI Agence France-Presse BOSTON, United States (AFP) — Underwater meadows of seagrass offer important protection against pollution to both humans and coral reefs, but are in jeopardy worldwide due to climate change, sewage and agricultural runoff, researchers said Thursday. Places with healthy seagrass — where sponges, clams, small fish and other filter feeders thrive — can reduce bacteria that is harmful to both people and marine life by up to 50 percent, said […]
Large marine protected areas established in Palawan to rebuild fish stocks
A whopping 1,013,340 hectares covering both the coastal and offshore waters of Cagayancillo, plus 80,000 hectares of Aborlan in the Philippine province of Palawan were recently declared as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This is part of a two-country initiative by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Fondation Segré to rebuild the fish stocks of the Coral Triangle by changing the way people view protected areas. MPAs are portions of the sea which […]





