(Natural News) A team led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH Manoa) has video-recorded humpback whales attempting to catch prey in the water near Alaska. The humpback whales can be seen swimming in a circular pattern while blowing bubbles to create a “net” and encircle their prey. This technique is called bubble-net fishing and is usually […]

(Natural News) The unique appearance and abilities of octopus tentacles have left scientists scratching their heads for decades. Previous research shows that the suction cup-covered tentacles are essential for foraging, but few studies looked at them on a molecular level. Now, a new study shows that these tentacles have minds of their own. In a recent report, researchers […]

(Natural News) A recent study published in Biology Letters found that North Atlantic right whales produce “whisper-like sounds” when communicating with their calves to avoid attracting predators. Researchers from Syracuse University, Duke University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed that the mothers dramatically toned down an “up call,” which right whales use to communicate with each other, when communicating […]

(Natural News) Waves of garbage have washed up on the shores of a small Honduran town, affecting wildlife and the local economy that’s mostly dependent on the town’s pristine beaches to draw up tourists. Officials said enormous islands of trash appeared on the coast of Omoa in northern Honduras on Sept. 19. According to the Voice of […]

(Natural News) Sea snakes, despite their name, still need to surface to get air to breathe. Australian researchers, however, have found one species that has developed an organ that lets it effectively “breathe” underwater for a limited time. Blue-banded sea snakes (Hydrophis cyanocinctus) are aquatic reptiles that can reach up to around 5 feet or 1.5 meters […]

(Natural News) A typical beach stroll usually ends with someone finding a few pretty seashells, coral fragments and colorful beach glass. One man, however, found something prehistoric after going on what was supposed to be an ordinary beach stroll with his family. According to Harvey Wall, he and his family were looking for seashells when […]

(Natural News) Plastic pollution in the ocean has claimed yet another marine animal as a victim – and in a particularly disturbing way. Gruesome images of a dead dolphin on a beach in Cornwall, U.K. reminded everyone of the deadly threat posed by plastic trash to marine life. Cornish local Simon Heester called in the […]

(Natural News) The bottom of the sea is so weird that it might as well have come from another planet. And a strange environment produces fittingly odd creatures, such as the sea spider. A marine cousin of terrestrial arachnids like spiders and scorpions, sea spiders look even more nightmarish. A recent study found that sea […]

(Natural News) Some of the largest living animals in the world dwell exclusively in the polar seas and the deepest parts of the oceans. Blue whales, colossal squid, lion’s mane jellyfish, and other leviathans may have attained and maintained their massive sizes thanks to a combination of extremely slow metabolic processes and oxygen availability in polar […]

(Natural News) Imagine a crab with a lobster’s carapace, a shrimp’s mouth, and bulging eyes, plus the ability to swim. This stuff of seafood dreams and Lovecraftian nightmares is called the chimera crab, and it prowled the seas of the ancient Earth. Its discoverers dubbed it Callichimaera perplexa, “perplexing beautiful chimera” in Latin. The name came from […]