(Natural News) Seagrasses are marine plants that make up huge meadows in shallow seas on all continents, except Antarctica. These aquatic plants may help boost the productivity of the world’s fisheries, suggests new research published in Conservation Letters. The study, “Seagrass meadows support global fisheries production,” was a collaboration between Dr. Leanne Cullen-Unsworth of Cardiff University and Dr. Lina Mtwana Nordlund of Stockholm […]

(Natural News) Microplastics are so small that they may seem harmless, but they’re polluting oceans and poisoning marine life by the second. According to an article on The Revelator, microplastics can absorb chemicals, which is bad news for the birds, fish, seals, and even humans that unwittingly consume these pollutants. The author of the article […]

(Natural News) Aside from boats, do other human activities bother marine life? According to a study, the answer is a resounding yes. Christine Erbe, director of the Centre for Marine Science & Technology at Curtin University, talked about her work, which studied the influence of human-generated underwater noise on aquatic life. Erbe, who studies the major contributors of […]

(Natural News) Offshore wind farms might produce clean energy, but they do have negative effects on the environment. For one, their construction causes noise that might be disturbing, driving out, or even harming local wildlife. In a Science Daily article, European researchers have devised a computer model tool to determine the possible effects of such […]

(Natural News) A new study looks at the potential damaging impacts of current global plans to mine the ocean floor, including physical destruction of deep-sea ecosystems by mining operations. The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, of which 90 percent is considered deep sea. Despite this vastness, the seas and oceans are the least explored […]

(Natural News) According to Shirley Pomponi, a marine biotechnology expert, cancer cures could be hiding among deep-sea coral ecosystems. However, these creatures are under threat because of pollution. Pomponi said that aside from being multicolored specimens, sea sponges are “potentially lifesaving creatures, some of which could hold the complex secrets to cures for cancers and other […]

(Natural News) Eight years have passed since the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. But oil continues to persist in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A study warned that this water pollution is caused by chemical reactions in the oil due to exposure to sunlight, an article on Science News reported. The disaster was the biggest marine […]

(Natural News) Britain’s coastlines are so polluted with plastics that researchers have turned to the public for assistance. An online interactive map of the U.K. will allow anyone to identify and map plastic garbage found on local beaches, reported The Guardian. Researchers from the British Science Association (BSA) cooperated with members of the charity The […]

(Natural News) The next time you stroll along the beach, be wary of any colorful pebbles you come across. Those aren’t rocks: they’re pebbles made of plastic. Also called “plastiglomerates,” hundreds of these pebbles have washed up on the beaches of Cornwall, England. According to CornwallLive.com, Atlantic currents are responsible for the surfeit of plastic […]

(Natural News) The inhabitants of the ocean can be just as mysterious and fascinating as their home. Invertebrates called pyrosomes, for example, secrete sheets of mucus that they use as a net to catch their food. Pyrosomes belong to a group of marine organisms that Kelly Sutherland, assistant professor of biology at the University of […]