In Deep Water

OSLO, June 14 (Reuters) - Norway is set to permit offshore oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters vulnerable to sea ice, angering some opposition politicians and environmentalists who say ice sharply raises risks of accidents.

 

Norway's centre-left government, seeking new resources to offset a decline in production to a 25-year low, has often said it will not allow drilling in ice-covered seas. But the exact definition has been unclear.

 

A draft law, agreed by parliament's energy and environment committee this week, will allow drilling in an offshore border zone with Russia the size of Switzerland, part of which was covered by sea ice in a chill 2003 winter.

North Sea cod stocks are on the road to sustainability, according to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) research.

 

The council, which certifies whether fish are being caught sustainably, says it is too soon to tell exactly when the North Sea fishery will be sustainable.

 

But a spokesman said on current trends, it will be ready for certification within years rather than decades.

 

Stocks would still be in recovery then, James Simpson said, but they would have passed an acceptable level.

 

MSC certification is determined by the state of the stocks, the environmental impact of the fishery, and the management plan.

 

The latter two were already in place, Mr Simpson said.

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent and the snow-line has shifted 180 meters (590 feet) higher during the past 50 years, according to a study that will be presented this week at a conference organized by the American Geophysical Union.

Researchers have published their most advanced calculation for the likely impact of melting ice on global sea levels.

 

The EU funded team say the ice sheets and glaciers could add 36.8 centimetres to the oceans by 2100.

 

Adding in other factors, sea levels could rise by up to 69 centimetres, higher than previous predictions.

 

The researchers say there is a very small chance that the seas around Britain could rise by a metre.

 

The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was highly detailed about many aspects of Earth's changing climate in the coming decades,

If you happen to know of any female fish of the Mangarahara cichlid variety, the London Zoo would very much like to introduce her to a couple of extremely eligible bachelors.

 

The zoo's aquarium is home to two of the three remaining Mangarahara cichlids known to exist -- the only problem is, they're all males. So now, in a last-ditch bid to preserve the species from impending extinction, the zoo has issued a personal ad of sorts to find them a mate, titled 'Male Seeking Female: Must Want Kids'.

This spring, southern California has seen a massive number of sea lion pup strandings. Over 1,300 baby sea lions, born last summer, have stranded themselves and are being found up and down the coastline emaciated, dehydrated and enduring hypothermia. Scientists are looking for clues to understand why the sea lion youngsters seem to have been cut off from their food supply, leading to what NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has deemed an "unusual mortality event."

 

Meanwhile, conservation photographer Morgan Heim travelled to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center to document the phenomenal effort workers and volunteers are putting into rescuing and caring for these youngsters so they can be released back into the wild. Here is their story in photos.

On 15 April more than 100 fishermen demonstrated in the streets of Fort de France, the main town on Martinique, in the French West Indies. In January they barricaded the port until the government in Paris allocated €2m ($2.6m) in aid, which they are still waiting for.

The contamination caused by chlordecone, a persistent organochlorine pesticide, means their spiny lobsters are no longer fit for human consumption. The people of neighbouring Guadeloupe are increasingly angry for the same reason. After polluting the soil, the chemical is wreaking havoc out at sea, an environmental disaster that now threatens the whole economy.

Two 19th-century glassmakers created a collection of anatomically perfect sculptures of marine creatures. Now, a hunt is on to find the animals that inspired them. ...

 

I’ve been a marine biologist my entire professional life, spending more than 25 years researching the health of corals and sustainability of reefs. I’m captivated by the magic of sessile invertebrates like corals, sponges and sea squirts — creatures vital to the ecosystem yet too often overlooked in favor of more visible animals like sharks and whales.

 

The filmmaker David O. Brown and I want to change that. To make a documentary, “Fragile Legacy,” we are on a quest to lure these elusive and delicate invertebrates in front of the camera lens.

The world's stickiest fish, with an adhesive force up to 230 times its bodyweight, is set to inspire a new household superglue, according to researchers in North Carolina. 

The small Northern Clingfish is found in the Pacific, off the north west coast of the the US. 

It uses modified fins as a suction disk to hold onto the underside of rocks amid crashing waves.

 

Supersized genetically modified salmon grow fast and fat and after years of wrangling, are ready for market – but is the market ready for them? And why is the firm hidden away in Panama?

 

It is hard to think of a more unlikely setting for genetic experimentation or for raising salmon: a rundown shed at a secretive location in the Panamanian rainforest miles inland and 1,500m above sea level.

 

But the facility, which is owned by an American company AquaBounty Technologies, stands on the verge of delivering the first genetically modified food animal – a fast-growing salmon – to supermarkets and dinner tables.

The Northern River Shark (Glyphis garricki) is one of the rarest species of shark in the world. It is known only from a small number of locations in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea. Discovered in Australia in 1986, only 36 specimens have been recorded here since.

 

The Northern River Shark is a 2.5-3 metre long shark belonging to a family known aswhaler or requiem sharks. Its closest relative in Australia is the Speartooth Shark, also found in northern rivers and estuaries and listed as Endangered by the IUCN. Distinguishing between the two is difficult, but is based on the location of the “waterline”, the point where the darker upper-body colouring of the shark changes to lighter lower colour.

A new report identifies the world's most dangerous waters for shipping and says accidents pose a particular danger for some of the most ecologically important areas.

 

The research says the worst accident hotspots are in the South China Sea, the Mediterranean and North Sea.

 

Losses are more likely in the future as the number of ships is expected to double, the authors warn.

 

The study has been carried out for WWF International.

The potential risks of genetically modified fish escaping into the wild have been highlighted in a new study.

 

Scientists from Canada have found that transgenic Atlantic salmon can cross-breed with a closely related species - the brown trout.

 

The fish, which have been engineered with extra genes to make them grow more quickly, pass on this trait to the hybrid offspring.

 

The research is published the Proceedings of the Royal Society B..

Rising sea levels will lead to a drastic decline in seagrass stocks, a new study has found, but reducing water pollution may help offset the effects.

Seagrass is crucial to slowing climate change because of its remarkable capacity to absorb greenhouse gases, with some experts saying it is as important as forests in the fight against global warming.

 

The study, conducted by University of Queensland researchers published in the journalGlobal Change Biology, examined seagrass meadows along Queensland’s Moreton Bay.

Wildlife charities are calling for tighter regulations to protect seabirds from a group of chemicals that caused hundreds of seabirds to be washed up off the south coast of England.

 

The number of seabirds affected by the recent spill of polyisobutene (PIB) has now reached 4,000, said the RSPB.

 

The sticky chemical is used as a lubricant in ships' engines.

 

It is also moved in large quantities, as it is used to make chewing gum, adhesive tape and sealants.

 

The organisations are appealing to theInternational Maritime Organization (IMO) to "reclassify" the chemical.

esterday’s announcement of the removal of trout from a small creek in the Alpine National Park to protect a critically endangered native fish highlights the problem that is trout.

 

Trout have been so successfully and so pervasively introduced into Australian freshwater systems that most people now think that they are native. The truth is that trout have caused the extinction or demise of many freshwater fish and invertebrate species, including some excellent angling fish such as the Murray cod, Macquarie perch and trout cod.

The FSA has calmed fears following claims that salmon that potentially contains dioxins above EU safe limits has been exported to other EU member states by Swedish companies.

It sounds ludicrous, but it could just be true: scientists say seagulls may be responsible for hundreds of southern right whale moralities off the Argentine coastline. Since 2003, scientists have documented the deaths of 605 southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) near Península Valdés which the whales use as a nursery. Notably, 88 percent of these were newborn calves. The death rate is so high that researchers now fear for the whales' long-term survival.

"The southern right-whale population is still only a small fraction of its original size, and now we have reason to worry about its recovery," Vicky Rowntree with the Ocean Alliance and the University of Utah says. "Our long-term data indicate that the Península Valdés whales were increasing steadily at close to 7% per year until recently. Elevated calf mortality is reducing that growth rate substantially (by nearly a third in one estimate). If this continues, we just don’t know what will happen."

Firms in Sweden have sold about 200 tonnes of Baltic salmon in Europe despite an EU ban targeting toxic chemicals in fish, officials say.

 

The ban does not apply to Baltic salmon sold to domestic consumers in Sweden, Finland and Latvia. But the sellers are required to give advice about safe limits for consumption, set by the EU.

 

Dioxins found in Baltic herring and salmon prompted the EU ban in 2002.

 

A French firm imported 103 tonnes of Swedish salmon, but no longer does so.

Chinese white dolphins, nicknamed "pink dolphins," are rarely spotted in Hong Kongwaters. However, the near-threatened species is becoming even more uncommon, and conservationists warn that Hong Kong risks losing the dolphins altogether unless immediate action is taken.

 

According to the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, the number of pink dolphins in waters surrounding the city have dropped significantly in recent years from 158 in 2003 to 78 in 2011, the Agence France-Presse reports. However, the current pink dolphin population may be even smaller since the 2012 statistics have yet to be released.

Scientists from Norway's Center for International Climate and Environmental Research monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region. They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to revert to pre-industrial levels. Many creatures, including commercially valuable fish, could be affected. They forecast major changes in the marine ecosystem, but say there is huge uncertainty over what those changes will be.

Climate change is dramatically altering the Swiss Alps, where hundreds of bodies of water are being created by melting glaciers. Though the lakes can attract tourists and even generate electricity, local residents also fear catastrophic tidal waves.

American Rivers released their report on the most endangered rivers in the states. At the top of the list is, sadly, one of the most iconic and beautiful rivers: The Colorado.

 

Amy Kober writes on National Geographic's NewsWatch, "Outdated water management across the basin is inadequate to respond to the pressures of over-allocation and persistent drought. According to the Bureau of Reclamation’s Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study (December 2012), there is not enough water in the Colorado River to meet the basin’s current water demands, let alone support future demand increases. Scientists predict climate change will reduce the Colorado River’s flow by 10 to 30 percent by 2050."