Ocean

An international team of researchers suggests that a wide variety of marine species could be used for monitoring the world's oceans. Using electronic tags, exploiting their natural behavior could fill gaps in our knowledge of the seas.

Take a walk along the canal in Amsterdam’s Westerdok district, and you may see an unsightly mess of waste gathered at the edge of the canal. What you’re seeing is the work of a new bubble barrier, designed to stop plastic waste flowing out to sea.

As far as fighting climate change is concerned, "one whale is worth thousands of trees," the IMF has said. But reports suggesting that trees therefore pale into insignificance compared to whales are missing the point.

Scientists have uncovered an unfortunate feedback loop that could make things worse for the climate. According to a new study, ocean acidification seems to increase the amount of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, that’s released into the air.

About 65 million years ago, a huge asteroid slammed into the Earth and wiped out three quarters of all life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. Now, Yale researchers have found evidence that oceans became too acidic for marine animals to take.

A new long-term study has found high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wild dolphins, with rates growing over the last decade.

A huge raft of volcanic rock is floating towards Australia – and scientists say it'll help the ailing Great Barrier Reef.

​Famed American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937, while attempting to fly around the world in a Lockheed Model 10E Electra. Now, a high-tech unmanned boat has been enlisted to help search for that plane, near an island where Earhart may have crash-landed.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have turned to Twitter for a better picture of the effect ocean plastics are having on sharks and rays. Summing these reports, they identified more than 1,000 individual sharks and rays seen entangled in ocean waste.

Three species of Caribbean coral are hardy enough to survive the rising levels of ocean acidification expected to take place over the next century. Whilst the corals were able to live in the unusually hostile environment, their skeletons were seriously affected, leaving them vulnerable to erosion.

A small study has found that a short swim in the ocean can alter the composition of a person’s skin microbiome for at least 24 hours. It is unclear what the implications of these changes are but the researchers hypothesize the alterations could leave a person more susceptible to infection.

With oceans of liquid methane, Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most fascinating places in the solar system. To better understand this weird world, scientists recreated Titan’s alien oceans in the lab, producing new types of crystals that don’t occur naturally on Earth but may be common on Titan.