Interesting Articles
Lantern Shark
While bottom trawling in the northern South China Sea fishermen caught 23 small sharks they didn’t recognize, froze the specimens and gave them to researchers. Scientists discovered the sharks were a new species of lantern shark (Etmopterus lii) or Li’s lantern shark and named the new species after Yong-Tai Li, “the captain of the fishing vessel Xin Yong Tai,” who helped catch the sharks. Lantern sharks are named for “their ability to produce blue-green light, known as bioluminescence. Li’s lantern sharks are about 15 inches in length.
lantern sharks
Florida Manatees Surviving Winter
Florida Manatees have spent the last few years struggling to survive. In 2021, some 1,101 manatees died in the state from starvation due to the loss of seagrass, and next year another 783 manatees perished. Even when there is an adequate food supply manatees, which lack blubber, migrate to warm water during winter. They cannot remain in water colder than 68ºF for weeks at a time or they will suffer cold-stress syndrome. The cold water adds an extra threat to already physically stressed animals that can kill them weeks later. Juvenile manatees are especially at risk. On January 21, 2024, just north of Orlando at Blue Springs State Park officials counted 932 manatees huddled together in the area. The springs are at a constant temperature of 72ºF.
Sea cow
Satellite Identifies Four New Emperor Penguin Colonies in Antarctica
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species, are endemic to Antarctica. Discovery of four new nesting sites of the species brings the number of known nesting sites of emperor penguins around Antarctica to 66. Scientists now believe they now know the locations of all the world's remaining breeding pairs. It's vital information for conservationists monitoring a species that's under increasing pressure as a result of climate change.
In Situ Imaging of Deep-Sea Animals
Two research expeditions were conducted onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor with the ROV Subastian, a 4500m-rated work-class ROV system. The first took place October 12-17, 2019, off the west coast of Oahu, Hawaii, and the second on August 12-21, 2021, off the coast of San Diego, California. The research combined 3D imaging and mobile robotic platforms; it captured the internal and external morphology and genetic information for species description of the animals, surpassing traditional passive observation methods and preserved specimens, particularly for gelatinous zooplankton. It is estimated that 33 to 66% of all ocean species have not yet even been described.
Spotlight on Thresher Sharks
Thresher sharks are named after their long scythe-shaped tails. In fact, the tail of a thresher shark makes up makes up about half the length of its body. The shark uses its elongated tail to stun the fish upon which it feeds.
amazing thresher shark that stuns its prey with its tail.
There are three species of thresher sharks: common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) and the pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus), the smallest and most endangered species of thresher sharks. Threats to thresher sharks include overfishing in targeted shark fisheries, and by-catch in fishing gear targeting other species. High levels of illegal and unregulated fishing have caused drastic reductions in their populations wherever they are found. All three species are listed on CITES Appendix II.
Each year, thresher sharks draw divers to Malapascua Island in the
Philippines for an opportunity to photograph these spectacular sharks. According to the Global Shark Attack File there are no reported unprovoked attacks by thresher sharks.
Here is How You Can Help Penguins
Here is a new citizen-science project for anyone that loves penguins. You find penguins by simply sitting on your couch with your computer and count penguins in photos. On the project website, viewers click through photos. When penguins are spotted, the viewer can click on each animal to mark it. The results help train computers to spot and identify penguins. The data can highlight impacts that fishing — threatening the types of food available to the penguins — and climate change might have on these tuxedoed swimmers. How the birds’ populations are changing may help scientists to design effective programs to protect penguins.
Where Leatherback Sea Turtles Roam
The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest turtle in the world and the only species of sea turtle that lacks a hard shell. Leatherbacks are highly migratory, some swimming over 10,000 miles a year between nesting and foraging grounds. Once prevalent in every ocean except the Arctic and Antarctic, the leatherback population has rapidly declined in many parts of the world except in the northwest Atlantic.
A new study led by a team of marine scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Southeast Fisheries Science Center, provides groundbreaking findings that offer insights on the migration and foraging patterns of leatherback sea turtles along the Northwest Atlantic shelf. Between 2017 through 2022, researchers tagged and tracked 52 leatherback sea turtles off the coasts of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Beaufort, North Carolina.
In the late summer and early fall off Cape Cod and Nantucket, Massachusetts, there is a high abundance of jellyfish on which the leatherbacks feed. When the sea temperature drops during winter, the turtles move southward. But questions still remained about where the turtles went in between, and what they were doing along the way. The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science offers unique insights into the utilization of the U.S. coastline by these majestic creatures, challenging previous assumptions and emphasizing key conservation implications.
A Mass Coral Bleaching Stretching from Great Barrier Reef
to South-East Queensland is Occurring
Thermal stress is impacting coral reefs off Bundaberg, Hervey bay, and Moreton Bay off Brisbane off Eastern Australia. Higher-than-average ocean temperatures are causing thermal stress on the southern end of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef and large patches of white coral have been seen further south. Bleached coral doesn't always mean that the coral is dead; it indicates that it's actually starving to death. The coral does have some time to recover, but if the water stays warm the coral will die. The longer that the thermal stress occurs and the longer that the algae are expelled from the tissue of the coral, the less chance the coral has of recovering. For ocean temperatures to drop we need to reduce carbon emissions in order to control global warming
The Protective Role of Fluorescence in Neon-Colored Sea Anemones
Researchers at Stanford University and UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography have uncovered a direct genetic link between fluorescence and color in sea anemones -- those soft and tentacled tide pool creatures often encountered by beachgoers. The fluorescent proteins control a genetic color polymorphism together with the ability to combat oxidative stress.
Spotlight on the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
The head of a scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) differs from other
hammerhead sharks; while its head is flattened and extends to hammer-like lobes on each side, it has an indentation on front of head at its midpoint. Maximum size is about 12 feet. A slowly maturing species, females reach maturity around 15 years (8 feet) and males reach maturity at 10 years of age (6 feet) and are estimated to live up to 30 years. The shark's small mouth indicates it is better suited for eating fishes and it is known to use its head to pin stingrays to the bottom, allowing the shark to feed on those difficult to capture species. It also feeds on smaller sharks, barracuda, mullet, jacks, grunts and marine invertebrates including crabs, squid, shrimp, and lobsters.
A circumglobal species, the shark is found in coastal warm temperate and tropical seas and commonly inhabits the continental and insular shelves of the Florida Gulf and Atlantic coasts. It is known to enter estuarine habitats and nearshore areas, occasionally moving offshore in search of prey. Large, seasonal aggregations of the shark have been observed in the western Gulf of Mexico near the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and around seamounts.
The shark is threatened by commercial fishing, mainly for the shark fin trade and is very vulnerable to being caught as bycatch by trawls, purse-seine nets, gillnets and longlines. The Eastern Pacific and Eastern Atlantic populations of scalloped hammerhead sharks are endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Read more
SEA URCHINS
Sea urchins play a key role in protecting coral reefs. They contribute to reef resilience by grazing algae and providing settlement space for corals, thereby helping to maintain conditions necessary for coral communities to recover after acute disturbances (such as storms or bleaching events).
Researchers at the University of South Florida have discovered a marine parasite attacking sea urchins has spread to a new species and region. A parasite that devastated sea urchins in the Caribbean and Florida in 2022 has caused another die-off more than 7,000 miles away in the Sea of Oman, is the same parasite currently afflicting the urchins in the Sea of Oman,
According to a new study at the University of South Florida a single-celled organism, identified last year as the cause of a mass mortality event in one urchin species, is the same parasite currently afflicting the urchins in the Sea of Oman, near the Arabian Sea. They’re concerned it is becoming a pandemic for sea urchins.
A ciliate, a single-celled organism, killed 95% of long-spined sea urchins called Diadema antillarum in affected areas between Florida and the Caribbean back in 2022. The parasite burrows into the urchins' tissue causing them to lose their spines and also lose control of their tube feet, which they use to walk. Even if the parasite does not kill the urchin it makes them susceptible to getting eaten by other marine life. The parasite has so far only been observed to affect sea urchins. The USF lab used infected urchin specimens and genomic tests to make the determination. They are also looking into how the parasite spreads and how it’s transported.