Marine Science News

NOAA-supported scientists announced that this year’s Gulf of America hypoxic zone is approximately 1,332 square miles, making it the 2nd smallest zone on record in 40 years of measurement. Hypoxic areas, also called “dead zones,” are areas with little to no oxygen in the water, which can negatively impact fish, shellfish, corals and aquatic plants by making critical habitat unavailable to bottom species. The annual hypoxic zone survey was led by scientists at Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON).

Chile will export its first floating laboratory to the United States after ASENAV signed a contract to build a hybrid vessel dedicated to ocean research for the University California of San Diego.From its home port in San Diego, California, the 38-meter vessel will serve hundreds of scientists and students each year along the Eastern Pacific coast as part of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. The NB 201 project, designed by US-based naval architecture firm Glosten, will replace Research Vessel Robert Gordon Sproul…

Marine Science students from Curtin University recently partook in a sea voyage from Perth to Hobart, a trip that helped some determine their career paths. Twenty university students were selected from across Australia for CAPSTAN, a national sea-training program run by CSIRO, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and the Australian and New Zealand International Scientific Drilling Consortium to develop the next generation of marine experts.During 13 days aboard CSIRO’s research vessel (RV) Investigator…

Freire Shipyard has celebrated the keel laying of the new flagship research vessel for the Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU -Technical University of Denmark). Measuring 70 meters length and 16 meters beam, with accommodation for 38 people, the Dana V is set to become a world-class platform for research and education.Successor to the Dana IV, the Dana V was designed by the Knud E. Hansen A/Sconsortium, Odense Maritime Technology A/S and Naval Architects, with environmental sustainability at its core.

An international study has found whale sharks and ships are more likely to collide by the end of the century due to climate change.The researchers used global climate models and satellite-tracking data of 348 tagged whale sharks from 2005 to 2019 and combined it with shipping traffic models and habitat suitability estimates to predict the risk of interaction.Whale sharks are highly mobile marine megafauna that can travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers annually. The species…

Forecasters earlier this year predicted that hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean could be supercharged in 2024. But the tropics have been abnormally quiet in recent weeks, often the busiest ones of the year.The Atlantic hurricane season, which officially spans June 1 to Nov. 30, started on a strong note. In early July, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest observed Category 5 storm, the strongest rating, breaking the record by more than two weeks.Next week marks the traditional peak of Atlantic hurricane season…

Bellingham, Wash. shipbuilder All American Marine (AAM) announced it has been awarded a contract to build a 73-foot research vessel for the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). The vessel will operate as a multipurpose research platform capable of conducting a wide range of scientific missions, including oceanographic surveys, biological studies and educational outreach programs along the Mid-Atlantic, U.S. East Coast and offshore waters.The 73’ x 26.7’ aluminum catamaran…

Scientists aboard Britain's high-tech polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough are headed to the Weddell Sea to investigate how carbon dioxide moves and transforms in the Southern Ocean.The ship departed Tuesday from Punta Arenas, Chile for the 30-day scientific expedition.As the carbon in the seawater rises to the surface near Antarctica, it interacts with the atmosphere, ice, and microscopic plants and animals, called phytoplankton and zooplankton, near the ocean surface, before descending to the ocean depths.

Humans have sailed the world’s oceans for thousands of years, but they haven’t all reached port. Researchers estimate that there are some three million shipwrecks worldwide, resting in shallow rivers and bays, coastal waters and the deep ocean. Many sank during catastrophes – some during storms or after running aground, others in battle or collisions with other vessels.Shipwrecks like the RMS Titanic, RMS Lusitania and USS Monitor conjure tales of human courage and sacrifice, sunken treasure and unsolved mysteries.

Woodside Energy last week announced it would start seismic testing for its Scarborough gas project off Australia’s west coast, before reversing the decision in the face of a legal challenge from Traditional Owners.Seismic testing is highly controversial in marine environments. Australia’s federal regulator (the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) is currently examining a proposal for seismic testing in the Otway Basin in Bass Strait, which conservationists say has attracted more than 30…

Around 6 billion tons of marine sand is being dug up each year in a growing practice that a U.N. agency said is unsustainable and can wipe out local marine life irreversibly.Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water but its extraction for use in industries like construction is only loosely governed, prompting the U.N.

Almost two centuries after Charles Darwin's voyage around the world, environmentalists plan to follow in his footsteps by undertaking a two-year journey across four continents to study endemic wildlife and boost conservation.The group will set sail on board a 105-year-old schooner on Tuesday from the southern English port of Plymouth, from where British naturalist Darwin's own expedition began in 1831, leading him to develop the theory of evolution by natural selection.The 40,000 nautical mile "Darwin200" expedition hopes to anchor in 32 ports, including all the major ports visited by Darwin's

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew and embarked researchers ventured onto a floe of multi-year ice for the first of three multi-instrument ice stations in the Arctic Ocean Basin late July and early August.As the Healy carefully approached and maintained position alongside an ice floe above 77 degrees north, the crew and a team of scientists, working in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research, (ONR) offloaded a diverse collection of equipment on to the floe carefully…

Britain's high-tech polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough is gearing up for its first Antarctic science cruise.Over the coming weeks, the crew and scientists on board the vessel will be carrying out a range of trials to test the ship's science equipment in both deep and shallow water around the Scottish coast. Among the tech to be tested are the vessel's moonpool, coring equipment and the ship’s workboat Erebus, all of which are critical elements of upcoming science missions.Erebus will be put through its paces with new equipment…

An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life.Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in fishing gear have fueled a prominent campaign by environmental groups to pressure the industry to adopt on-demand equipment that only suspends ropes in the water briefly before traps are pulled from the water.The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch…

The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then. That’s the worrying conclusion of a new study in Nature Communications.Predictions of an ice-free Arctic Ocean have a long and complicated history, and the 2030s is sooner than most scientists had thought possible (though it is later than some had wrongly forecast). What we know for sure is the disappearance of sea ice at the top of the world would not only be an emblematic sign of climate breakdown…

In Cape Cod Bay, 10-year-old Pilgrim and her calf skim the water's glassy surface alongside the Shearwater research vessel to feed on tiny crustaceans.The two are among the last surviving 340 or so North Atlantic right whales left migrating along the U.S. East Coast – down from 480 right whales in 2010.The biggest threats they face include being struck by passing ships or getting entangled in ropes used for lobster fishing off the U.S. East Coast - scientists have recorded 98 such injuries or deaths of whales since 2017.Now, the whales face another threat as the U.S.

University of South Florida (USF) Associate Professor Joseph Dituri has broken the world record for living underwater, previously set at 73 days.Dituri is studying how the human body responds to long-term exposure to pressure from an underwater habitat located at Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo where he’s been living since March 1.His 100-square-foot underwater home has subjected him to an isolated and extreme-confined environment. With this new record, Dituri's officially reached uncharted territory for science, and he hopes his research may have far-reaching impacts, even in space.

MBARI revealed plans to grant its 25-year-old research vessel Western Flyer to the University of South Florida where the vessel will begin a new life as a sailing classroom for the university's Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO).“We’re thrilled the Western Flyer will be sailing on to an exciting new chapter at the Florida Institute of Oceanography,” said MBARI President and CEO Chris Scholin. “The ocean plays a vital role in sustaining life on Earth. With the Western Flyer…

Lobsters versus right whales: The latest chapter in a long quest to make fishing more sustainableMaine lobster fishermen received a Christmas gift from Congress at the end of 2022: A six-year delay on new federal regulations designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.The rules would have required lobstermen to create new seasonal nonfishing zones and further reduce their use of vertical ropes to retrieve lobster traps from the seafloor. Entanglement…

This week, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) scientists worked with the U.S. Coast Guard during ice-breaking in Lake Superior Harbor in Duluth, Minnesota, aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Spar. This project is the first set of experiments funded by the newly developed Great Lakes Center of Expertise.Teams from both Coast Guard District 9 and NOAA deployed uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) with multispectral, thermal and LIDAR sensors to collect data while the Spar was breaking ice in the harbor.

A network of acoustic monitoring buoys aims to help protect North Atlantic right whales—one of the world’s most critically endangered species—from ship strikes along the U.S. East Coast.Although North Atlantic right whales are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, serious threats to their survival abound with only approximately 336 of these great whales remaining on the planet. The installment of the buoys aims to aid in right whale’s survival and will fill a critical gap in monitoring along the East Coast.

In 80% of the world, we don’t really know.Across much of the world’s oceans, waves are getting bigger. In the Southern Ocean, where storm-driven swell can propagate halfway across the world to California, the average wave has grown about 20cm in the past 30 years.These changes are part of climate change, and are likely to continue well into the future. If you’re making long-term plans near the sea – like building ships, or constructing flood defenses in coastal cities – you need more detail about how big those waves are going to get.In a study published this week in Science Advances…