Clipperton: A Plastic Paradise
A little dot in the Pacific, Clipperton is surrounded by coral reefs and encloses a stagnant lagoon. Despite looking like paradise, Clipperton is being invaded by plastic.
Alert Diver Category: Water Planet
The Ocean Less Traveled
TALK TO ANY HUMAN UNDER THE AGE OF 13, and they have probably been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I was just 3 years […]
Rewilding Mustique’s Reefs
IT’S NO SECRET THAT CARIBBEAN REEFS ARE IN CRISIS. Many stony coral species face an uncertain destiny, and some scientific predictors point toward extinction in the near future for some species.
What is the value of a dead reef compared with the value of a living marine ecosystem?
Protecting Hawai‘i’s Fishes
CHARLES DARWIN’S FIVE WEEKS IN THE GALÁPAGOS Islands were crucial to the development of his theory of evolution, likely due to the Galápagos having the world’s second-highest proportion of endemic species. What if Darwin had instead visited the islands with the world’s highest rate of endemism?
To Eat or Not To Eat Fish
SEAFOOD HAS LONG BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART of the human diet, and some people consider it to be an inexhaustible food source. Fish-finding sonar, satellite locating systems, 100-mile-plus longlines with […]
Blame the Ballast
MARITIME TRANSPORT HAS MORE TO DO WITH CORAL DISEASE than you might think. Just like most animals, corals can get diseases. Researchers first recognized coral disease in the early 1970s. […]
Fighting the European Green Crab Invasion
One of the world’s most destructive invasive species is gaining new ground — or water — in Canada and up to Alaska. Carcinus maenas, which translates to “raving mad crab,” outcompetes many local crab species in devouring clams, oysters, and mussels, and they sometimes even eat other crabs and juvenile fish. They destroy seagrass, an essential habitat for juvenile salmon, herring, rockfish, and many other marine animals.
Hope for Sharks at CITES 2013
The stakes were high at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting this spring. On the table were the fates of manta rays and five species of shark.
Guardians of Malpelo
Colombia has some of the strictest illegal fishing laws in the world, but people still need to stand up and enforce them. Erika Lopez has taken on the role of guardian of Malpelo, an island 314 miles (506 kilometers) west of Colombia.
When Tiny Toxins Fight Back
Sometimes the tiniest critters can pack the greatest punch. Phytoplankton, which are unicellular microalgae, can cause mass mortalities of animals such as dolphins and manatees and be the source of serious human illness.