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'Swarms' of jellyfish pose threat to Mediterranean tourism

30 September 2011     Mailonline.com

The Mediterranean Sea is becoming an 'ocean' of potentially deadly jellyfish that could threaten tourism, according to a scientist.     For complete article please visit here.

Coral Sea ‘hotspot’ for ocean life

22 August 2011     International Fund for Animals     Science Alert

Australia’s southern Coral Sea is a global “biodiversity hotspot” for large predatory sharks, tuna and marlin and together with the Great Barrier Reef host the only known spawning aggregation of black marlin in the world. These are key findings from the first comprehensive biological and physical profile of the Coral Sea released today.     For complete article, please visit here.

Destructive Cyclone Phyan Benefited Marine Life: Study

22 August 2011     Rupesh Samant, Outlook India

Cyclone Phyan which hit the Konkan-Goa shore in 2009 was a calamity in terms of lives lost and property destroyed. But researchers say that it benefited the marine life in the Arabian Sea.     For complete article, please visit here.

 

Shell Says Oil Spill At North Sea Platform Under Control

RTT News

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said Friday that an oil leak occurred in a flowline at its Gannet Alpha platform in the U.K. North Sea, but was under control.   For complete article, please visit here.

The Dead Sea: Deader than Ever and Getting More So

20 July 2011     By Karl Vick, Time World

It's dead because the water in it contains way too much salt — eight times as much as the oceans — for virtually any living thing to survive. With a shoreline at the lowest land point on the globe — 1,388 ft. (423 m) below sea level — and no outlet, millennia of evaporation has left the seabed so caked with minerals the freshwater that flows in turns immediately lethal.     For the complete article, please visit here.

 

Israel's maritime boundaries

11 July 2011   By David Newman, Jerusalem Post

The recent discovery of potential new gas fields in the offshore areas has resulted in a mad scramble for the formal delimitation of the zones within which each country can exclusively exploit these resources, directly or through the granting of franchise rights to international companies.
For the complete article, please visit here.

Bohai Sea Oil Leak Causes Long-Term Environmental Impact

7 July 2011   By New Tang Dynasty

More details are coming out about Bohai Sea oil spill. In their first official press conference since the news was announced last Friday. Officials are saying the oil leak has caused long-term environmental damage.

The State Oceanic Administration said in a public statement that is was issuing an investigation on the two companies, CNOOC and US oil giant ConocoPhillips, that own the offshore oil site where the spill happened. Evidence is currently being collected to account for the damage.

For full article, please visit here.

South China Sea - Asia's most dangerous waters

28 June 2011   By Natalie Robehmed, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) -- The South China Sea -- a 1.3 million square mile patch of the Pacific Ocean bracketed by China and several Southeast Asian nations -- is dotted with hundreds of largely uninhabited islands and coral atolls that are home to some of the world's most diverse marine life.

Also under its waves lie potentially huge reserves of natural gas and oil. A Chinese estimate suggests as much as 213 billion barrels of oil lie untapped in the South China Sea which, if true, would make it the largest oil reserve outside Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That prospect has cross-stitched the sea with competing claims from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. A recent spate of incidents between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels in the sea has fueled a growing rift between the communist neighbors, creating strange bedfellows as Hanoi embraces closer military ties with historic foes in Washington.

The South China Sea has now become a petri dish for swirling changes churning the geopolitical landscape, analysts say, as the rising power of China butts up against the established economic and military might of the U.S.

"How these disputes are resolved will tell us how politics in Asia is going to play out in the next 20 to 30 years," said Mark Valencia, a fellow at the National Asia Research Program and expert on the South China Sea dispute. "This will be the blueprint."

For entire original article, please click here.

 

More Monitoring on the Mediterranean Sea

27 June 2011   Hydro International

Researchers in the Balearic Islands and beyond will soon gain a better understanding of the environmental conditions in the Western Mediterranean Sea. This is due to a recent contract award to SIDMAR, who represents AXYS Technologies Marine Systems products in Spain.

The contract award comprises a variety of monitoring equipment, including buoys, ROVs, gliders, as well as service and maintenance efforts. AXYS will supply two 1.8 metre WatchMate data buoys. These new monitoring platforms will be deployed in 40m and 800m of water respectively, and will capture a wide variety of data parameters, including winds, barometric pressure, temperature, waves, currents, conductivity and temperature (CTD), and dissolved oxygen, to name a few. Sub surface sensors will be deployed along a mooring line and will transmit data via acoustic modem up to the WatchMate buoy. The buoys will transmit all collected data each hour via two types of telemetry: GSM for the near shore buoy and Iridium satellite for the offshore buoy. The buoys will be outfitted with secondary telemetry devices and all data will be logged on board for time series and historical studies.

 

For complete article, please visit here.

More than 300 New Species Discovered in the Philippines

24 June 2011 By Stephanie Stone, California Academy of Science

This spring, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences braved leeches, lionfish, whip-scorpions and a wide variety of other biting and stinging creatures to lead the most comprehensive scientific survey effort ever conducted in the Philippines, documenting both terrestrial and marine life forms from the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the sea. They were joined on this unprecedented, multi-disciplinary undertaking by more than two dozen colleagues from the Philippines, as well as by a team of Academy educators who worked to share the expedition’s findings with local community and conservation groups. Over the course of the expedition, which was funded by a generous gift from Margaret and Will Hearst, the scientists discovered more than 300 species that are likely new to science, including dozens of new insects and spiders, deep-sea armored corals, ornate sea pens, bizarre new sea urchins and sea stars, a shrimp-eating swell shark, and over 50 colorful new sea slugs. These discoveries will be confirmed and described over the coming months, as the scientists use both microscopes and DNA sequencing to analyze their specimens.

For complete article, please visit here.

Omani Al Marsa Artisan One-Hook Mixed Fishery Certified Sustainable

22 June 2011   By Margaret E.L. Stacey, Fish Information & Services

ntry_id=">Al Marsa Fisheries, located in the Sultanate of Oman on the shores of the Arabian Sea, has received Friend of the Sea certification for a wide range of species. Al Marsa Fisheries operates in the Indian Ocean which is recognised to be one of the world’s most unpolluted marine environments.

Different species have been certified by Friend of the Sea including: Blue stripe snapper (Lutjanus kasmira), Catfish (order Siluriformes), Crimson Jobfish (Pristipomoides filamentosus), Greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili), Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps), Kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis- Mackerel tuna), King soldier bream, Tiger-toothed croaker (Otolithes ruber), Soldier bream (Argyrops filamentosus), Striped bonito (Sarda orientalis), Santer Seabream (Cheimerius nufar -Red Seabream), Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus), Trevally and Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares).

For complete article, please click here.

 

Marine pollution problem for China

20 June 2011   United Press International

Explosive economic growth in China's coastal regions has led to levels of ocean pollution that threaten human and marine life, a government report concluded.

Historic deal to safeguard Yellow Sea is made

07 June 2011   United Nations Development Programme

Millions of people whose food security and livelihoods depend on the natural resources of the Yellow Sea stand to benefit from new cooperation efforts between the region’s governments to restore this highly degraded ecosystem.

With assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the governments of China and the Republic of Korea, which share the shallow body of water blighted by agricultural waste, overfishing, and unsustainable marine farming, have set up a program of transboundary measures to protect fisheries and endangered species, improve water quality and sustain local livelihoods.

Fishing pressure on the Sea has increased seven-fold over the last 20 years leading to severe depletion of several species like yellow croaker and hairtail. An estimated 40 percent of coastal wetlands have been lost to reclamation. Some coastal cities discharge untreated sewage directly into the sea.

For complete article, please visit here.