Source: Fuel Fix
Author: Carol Christian
A strange sea creature, filmed about 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico by an oil-rig camera, is thought to be a rarely seen jelly fish that’s more at home near the Antarctic. The creature briefly comes into frame before disappearing. But just when the camera operator things it has disappeared for good, the creatures comes back for a thorough visit.
Continue reading Bizarre sea creature caught on Gulf rig camera
Guest Commentary by Jo Royle
One of the biggest challenges we have today is connecting people to the liquid planet. Not that I am saying every citizen needs to feel a connection to the blue, their life support system, but we do need a movement of engaged people.
Continue reading Understanding the value of the deep-sea ecosystem
Source: National Geographic
Author: Rhian Waller
As debate rages in the European Union on how to regulate, and eventually phase out and ban deep-sea trawling, I am reminded of my many deep-sea cruises. Looking for cold-water corals in the depths of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Antarctic, often thousands of meters below the oceans surface, there is almost always a reminder that human influences run deep.
Continue reading Clear Cutting the Seafloor: Deep-Sea Trawling
Source: WWF
Gland, Switzerland: WWF, as part of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance, unveiled a new vision for the creation of the world`s largest marine protected area across Antarctic marine habitats on International Day for Biological Diversity, 2012.
Continue reading Stronger protection needed to save Antarctica’s marine biodiversity
Source: Stuff.co.nz
Author: Michael Field
A summer at Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound has come up with the alarming finding for scientists – the region’s population of toothfish shows signs of collapsing.
Continue reading McMurdo Sound’s toothfish population at risk
Source: The New Zealand Herald, Author – Isaac Davison
A powerful coalition of conservation groups backed by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is calling for an Antarctic fishing ban within an area half the size of Australia.
The volcanoes were found near the U.K. territories of the South Georgia Islands and South Sandwich Islands (see map) during a monthlong mapping expedition, which used multibeam sonar to fill in a 370-mile (600-kilometer) by 90-mile (150-kilometer) gap in existing seabed maps.
Continue reading Giant Undersea Volcanoes Found Off Antarctica
Recently touted as headline news around the world was the fact that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by a thread.” This news from Antarctica is the latest in an increasingly worrying string of stories about melting polar ice caps and the effects of climate change on global oceans, declining fish stocks, the devastation of bottom trawling, and the total human impact on the world’s oceans (see below a collection of media reports on the latest scientific findings).
