Science Blog

"Nutritious, low in fats and available in a variety of delicious forms, flavours and textures seafood is often advertised as the perfect food. More people are choosing to eat seafood and to meet this growing demand more fish and shellfish are being caught and farmed than ever before. Depending on how fish are caught, the way they are caught, how well fishing operations are managed and how long they live before they are able to reproduce, some fish and shellfish are doing better than others.

For example, yellowtail and dorado grow fast and mature early and are therefore less vulnerable to overfishing than fish like red steenbras and musselcracker, which take longer to mature and reproduce. The ready availability of fish in the market place can create a false impression that if a species is available, then it must be abundant or well managed. Fortunately, when you choose seafoods that are more abundant and better managed, you are making a difference for ocean life."Read more....

http://www.youtube.com/noaapmel

This report from the United Nations Environment Programme outlines the environmental and economic health of the world's oceans - present and future - underlining growing concern from pressures such as pollution, over-fishing and climate change. Download the article from Polity.org.za

"What is out there, under the sea? After 10 years, it would appear that the Census of Marine Life has an excellent idea of the species residing throughout the world's oceans and seas. The project was sponsored by a host of institutions, including the Rockefeller University in New York, and the initial findings of this magnificent undertaking were announced this Monday. Commenting on the report, the co-founder of the project Jesse H. Ausubel remarked, "We're like the people in London and Paris 200 years ago, putting together the first dictionaries and encyclopedias." Equally amazing was the discovery that there are few "ocean deserts", and the census discovered a host of new species. The project reveals that there are almost 250,000 marine species in existence, and if microscopic life were included, that number could potentially land in the hundreds of millions. One particularly interesting new species found in the census was the so-called "yeti-crab". This denizen of the deep lives far off the coast of Easter Island, and it has rather elaborate furry claws. More discoveries and information from this project will be released in the coming weeks and months, and it's a project well worth keeping tabs on" From the Scout Report October 8, 2010. 16(40)

Marine Census Yields Plenitude of Wonders
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/in-first-marine-census-a-plenitude-of-wonders/?hpw

Marine Census Shows Vast Diversity of Sea Life
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704847104575532031662747228.html

Biggest Marine Census Complete
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101004-coml-complete-census-vin-video/

New Map Charts Troubled Status of Ocean Life
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/10/ocean_map.html

Census of Marine Life
http://www.coml.org/

NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/

Written by Jan Anton Houg

"The year 2010 has been a marker for reflecting upon the reduction of biodiversity loss around the world, as participating countries to the World Summit - held in 2005 in New York - have committed themselves to reduce this loss by 2010.(2) Today, the increasing threat of biodiversity and devastating destructions on the environment are especially eminent in tropical coastal marine ecosystems, where, inter alia, mangrove forests, coral reefs and numerous fish species  support not only local livelihoods, but also a growing economic niche for tourism development and marine species trade. This is particularly prevalent in  developing African countries with a high biodiversity of marine ecosystems, such as Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique." Read the full article.......

 

From "How Stuff Works"

An accurate measurement of sea level is very hard to pin down.

But it is an important measurement for two main reasons.... read more.....

A new state-of-the-art global observatory
currently under construction is about to launch
ocean science light years ahead. May/June 2010.
Read the article by Annie Reisewitz... 

Appoximately 100,000 volumes from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library, the world’s largest oceanography library, 
have been digitized and are being made publically accessible
as part of a partnership between Google, the University of
California and the UC San Diego Libraries.

Read the article by Dolores Davies, May 20  2010