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by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse Human appetites are pushing makos and other iconic sharks to the brink of extinction, scientists warned in a new assessment of the apex predator’s conservation status. Seventeen of 58 species evaluated were classified as facing extinction, the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation (IUCN) said late Thursday in an update of the Red List of threatened animals and plants. “Our results are alarming,” said Nicholas […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Invisible to people but deadly to marine life, ocean heatwaves have damaged ecosystems across the globe and are poised to become even more destructive, according to the first study to measure worldwide impacts with a single yardstick. The number of marine heatwave days has increased by more than 50 percent since the mid-20th century, researchers reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Globally, marine heatwaves […]
by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Animals living in the deepest ocean trenches have been found with plastic fragments in their gut, according to new research published Wednesday showing how manmade pollution reaches into the bowels of the planet. More than 300 million tonnes of plastics are produced annually, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans. Because deep-sea exploration is expensive and time-consuming, most studies […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Every spring, the largest animals in the world, blue whales, migrate from their winter breeding grounds off of Costa Rica to the coast of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. They are in search of their favorite food, the tiny crustaceans known as krill. Scientists have long tracked the migration of the behemoths, which can weigh well over 100 tons, but could not explain how they chose their itinerary. […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A mission to explore uncharted depths in the Indian Ocean was launched on Wednesday, hoping to discover hundreds of new species and find out what impact plastic is having way below the surface. The First Descent expedition, led by British-based ocean research institute Nekton, is set to send submersibles as deep as 3,000 meters off the Seychelles from March to test the health of the […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Powerful storms have forced a Frenchman attempting to become the first person to swim cross the Pacific Ocean to suspend his bid, nearly two months into the mammoth undertaking. Ben Lecomte set off on June 5 from Choshi in Japan, planning to swim across the ocean in six to eight months. But after nearly two months swimming eight hours a day, severe storms forced the 51-year-old to head back to port […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has reopened three beaches in regions devastated by the 2011 tsunami and resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster after years of reconstruction efforts, officials said Monday. Local officials in Fukushima said they hoped the opening of the Haragamaobama beach would help change perceptions of the region, which has become inextricably linked with the 2011 disaster. One of the reopened waterfronts is Haragamaobama beach in Fukushima prefecture, about 40 kilometres north of the […]
by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France-Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — More than half the world’s oceans are being fished by large commercial vessels, particularly from China, according to the first view from space of global fishing practices published Thursday. The report in the journal Science used satellite data to track industrial fishing and found that 55 percent of the world’s oceans — and possibly more — are being exploited by big fishing operations. Some parts […]
by Marlowe Hood © Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — How quickly humanity draws down the greenhouse gases driving global warming will determine whether sea levels rise half-a-metre or six times that, even if Paris climate pact goals are fully met, researchers reported Tuesday in a study. “The trajectory of emissions in the next few decades will shape our coastlines in the centuries to come,” lead author Matthias Mengel, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Sea level rise is accelerating and could reach 26 inches (66 centimeters) by century’s end, in line with United Nations estimates and enough to cause significant problems for coastal cities, a study said Monday. The past annual rate of sea level rise — about three millimeters (0.1 inches) per year — may more than triple to 10 millimeters per year by 2100, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is in peril from climate change and widespread bleaching, but scientists said Tuesday a small portion may be resilient enough to keep much of the rest alive. About three percent of the World Heritage site — home to the planet’s largest collection of coral reefs with 3,800 in all — has so far emerged relatively unscathed from a host of threats, from warming waters to pollution […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — France and China’s space agencies unveiled their first joint satellite in Beijing Friday, which will be used to improve forecasting of ocean storms and cyclones. The satellite, named CFOSAT (China-France Oceanography Satellite), is due to be launched next year by China and will primarily be used to study wind and ocean wave patterns. “In practical terms, it will be used to improve forecasts of strong storms, cyclones or waves for all […]
