Study Measures How Much of Corals' Nutrition Comes from Hunting

When it comes to feeding, corals have a few tricks up their sleeve. Most of their nutrients come from microscopic algae living inside of them, but if those algae aren't creating enough sustenance, corals can use their tentacles to grab and eat tiny prey swimming nearby. A new study from researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the University of New Mexico, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography is revealing that more of corals' nutrients come from this sort of hunting than previously expected, information that may help predict the fate of coral reefs as global ocean temperatures rise. The... (read more)

2019-10-09 10:10:06

Researchers Use Drones to Weigh Whales

How do you weigh a living whale? The obvious response is very carefully, but scientists can’t exactly put these large marine mammals on a scale. Researchers from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) in Denmark and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the US devised a way to accurately estimate the weight of free-living whales using only aerial images taken by drones. The innovative method, published in the British Ecological Journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, can be used to learn more about the physiology and ecology of whales. Body Volume and Mass of the Whales By measuring the body... (read more)

2019-10-07 10:57:24

Kīlauea Lava Fuels Phytoplankton Bloom off Hawaii Island

When the Kīlauea volcano erupted in 2018, it injected millions of cubic feet of molten lava into the nutrient-poor waters off the Big Island of Hawaii. The lava-impacted seawater contained high concentrations of nutrients that stimulated phytoplankton growth, resulting in an extensive plume of microbes that was detectable by satellite, as research of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) shows. A study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii (UH) in Mānoa and University of Southern California (USC) and published in the Science journal revealed that this biological response hinged on unexpectedly high concentrations of... (read more)

2019-09-06 11:16:26

Russian Arctic Team Maps Five Islands Found by a Student

A Russian Arctic expedition has mapped five small islands in the Far North, discovered by a student analysing a glacier's retreat in satellite photos, the BBC reports. Before Marina Migunova's discovery in 2016, the islands were hidden under the Nansen Glacier, also known as Vylka, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The islands Marina found are in Vize Bay, on the northeastern coast of Novaya Zemlya and range in size from 900 to 54,500sq m. Marina received a special honorary diploma from the Russian Hydrographical Society for her discovery. She is now a naval oceanographical engineer in the Russian Northern Fleet. About... (read more)

2019-08-31 09:01:06

Divers Find What is Thought to be the Earliest Boatbuilding Site in the World

An 8,000-year-old wooden platform has been discovered off the Isle of Wight coast near Yarmouth in the UK, BBC News reports. The seabed where the structure was found—at a depth of roughly 36 feet—would have been dry land when the platform was built, and still connected to the European mainland. The platform sits adjacent to and may have been part of Bouldnor Cliff, a submerged Mesolithic settlement first identified in 1999, which—among a number of discoveries—has yielded what is thought to be the earliest boatbuilding site in the world. Divers from the Maritime Archaeology Trust, which oversees the site, first spotted... (read more)

2019-08-23 09:29:17

Lost 52 Project Discovers the Bow of WW II Submarine 'Grunion'

Video Included

Tim Taylor and his team of the Lost 52 Project have identified the bow of the USS Grunion. It was discovered about a quarter of a mile from the main wreckage. In October 2018, the Lost 52 Project team returned to the site of the main wreck and found that the ship's bow had slid down a steep volcanic embankment. The submarine went missing about a month after it departed on its first war patrol in 1942. It wasn't seen again until the sons of the Grunion's commanding officer began searching for it and found the wreckage in 2007 off the... (read more)

2019-08-01 09:58:10

Satellite Trackers to Mark Ghost Nets

Ocean Voyages Institute, a non-profit organization, has successfully removed more than 40 tons of fishing nets and consumer plastics from the area known as the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, or more commonly known as the Pacific Gyre. The sailing cargo ship Kwai, arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, after a 25-day clean-up mission. In the Pacific, between California and Hawaii, four ocean currents converge to create a vortex that collects huge amounts of plastics. This debris field covers vast expanses of ocean, the organization says. Fishing Ghost Nets A prime target for Ocean Voyages Institute’s 2019 voyage was the fishing gear called... (read more)

2019-07-31 01:09:43

Study Clarifies Influence Currents in the Atlantic Ocean on Sea Level Rise

A study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) clarifies what influence major currents in the North Atlantic have on sea level along the northeastern United States. The study, published June 13 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal of geoscience published by the American Geophysical Union, examined both the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the zonally-integrated component of surface and deep currents in the Atlantic Ocean, and historical records of sea level in coastal New England. The AMOC is characterized by a northward flow of warm, salty water in the upper layers of the Atlantic, and a... (read more)

2019-07-30 02:05:25

Dr Mathias Jonas speaks about World Hydrographic Day 2019

It's World Hydrography Day. This year's theme, 'Hydrographic information driving marine knowledge' helps us remember that hydrography touches our everyday lives. In this video, Dr Mathias Jonas, Secretary General of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), shares his thoughts on the organization's role in providing a forum for collaboration, standardization, research, education, and bringing the field of hydrography to the global stage. (read more)

2019-06-20 07:12:39

Smile

World Hydrography Day is celebrated each year on 21 June, which is also the beginning of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. This year’s event signals the start of centenary celebrations in our industry; 2019 marks one hundred years since the 1st International Hydrographic Conference, which was held in London in 1919. The festivities will culminate in two years’ time, when World Hydrography Day will coincide with the IHO-100 Symposium in Monaco, marking the 100th anniversary of the International Hydrographic Organization which was established in 1921. On 17 June, just a couple of days before this year’s event at the... (read more)

2019-06-18 12:51:03