Via Oceans Deeply
"The International Maritime Organization is under pressure to finalize long-delayed targets to reduce carbon emissions from the growing shipping industry. But governments remain divided on how aggressive to be in fighting climate change."
Via Oceans Deeply
"The European Space Agency is developing technology to allow satellites to identify the concentration, movement and origin of plastic debris across the world’s oceans."
Via FIS
"An unprecedented scientific expedition, from the Galapagos Islands to Isla del Coco, aims to identify migratory marine species that use this route and quantify their distribution, abundance and the diversity of their predators."
Via Hakai Magazine
"Once a saltwater pantry filled with green-lipped mussels and flounder, Okahu Bay has suffered the same fate as urban beaches around the world. Fishing trawlers and port dredgers decimated the once-robust ecosystem. A crude sewage system dumped raw human waste into the water for decades, further disrupting marine life and causing typhoid and cholera. Boats still leach toxins and bring invasive foreign species into the waters."
Via Grist
"Smaller cousins of the mammoth blue whale, the elusive minkes have remained mostly out of reach in the deep fjords of the icy Antarctic. It wasn’t until earlier this month that a team of scientists using an array of drones, suction-cap tags, and whale-mounted video cameras uncovered some basic facts about the species, such as their average size and how they moved. They discovered that minkes, long thought to be loners, are outgoing and social. They found out that minkes had spots."
Via Reuters
"Bowhead whales, the black filter-feeding giants of the Arctic that can live for 200 years devouring tons of tiny marine creatures, boast another remarkable quality. Their unique underwater songs make them wonderful “jazz” artists."
In August 2017, a massive net pen failure released thousands of Atlantic salmon into the waters of Puget Sound. This event prompted a renewed surge of energy for the many residents, lawmakers, advocacy groups, and businesses which oppose the development of net pen salmon aquaculture in Washington. From the cancellation of Cooke Aquaculture’s Port Angeles farm lease, to the signing of a bill on March 22, 2018 to eliminate the farming of non-native finfish in state waters, the future of finfish aquaculture in Washington is beginning to look grim.
Read the rest HERE
Via Mongabay
"These fisheries have until 2022 to demonstrate that the methods they use to catch fish, as well as other marine animals such as coral, crabs, lobsters and shellfish, either aren’t much of a danger to marine mammals, or they employ comparable methods and mitigation measures to similar operations in the United States."
Via Hakai Magazine
"Brower felt the shuddering harpoon enter the whale’s body. He looked at the faces of the men in the umiak, including those of his own sons. When he awoke in his hospital bed as if from a trance, he knew precisely which man had made the kill, how the whale had died, and whose ice cellar the meat was stored in. He turned out to be right on all three counts."
In lieu of a lead article this month, we spent our time expanding MEAM’s compilation of ocean planning and management training opportunities to help current and future practitioners connect with useful opportunities to add to their knowledge and skill sets.