WASHINGTON, DC, August 29, 2007 (ENS) - Attacks against government observers monitoring commercial fishing fleets doubled in one year, an indication of rising tensions on the high seas, according to agency figures released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER.

Observers on fishing vessels track the catch to manage quotas and report any harm to marine mammals and other marine species.

Figures obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act show that the number of observer harassment cases more than doubled from 2004 to 2005, at the top of a rising trend over the past decade.


Read full article: 'NOAA Fishing Observers Suffer More Attacks at Sea'

Cambridge, Massachusetts (Aug 30, 2007 12:37 EST) In work that could one day help prevent millions of dollars in economic losses for seaside communities, MIT chemists have demonstrated how tiny marine organisms likely produce the red tide toxin that periodically shuts down U.S. beaches and shellfish beds.

In the Aug. 31 cover story of Science, the MIT team describes an elegant method for synthesizing the lethal components of red tides. The researchers believe their method approximates the synthesis used by algae, a reaction that chemists have tried for decades to replicate, without success.


Read full article: 'Secrets Of Red Tide Unraveled'

Picture a beautiful beach spanning miles of coastline, gently lapped by aqua-colored water and sprinkled with glass.

Ouch? Think again. It feels just like sand, but with granules that sparkle in the sunlight.


Read full article: 'Crushed Glass to Be Spread on Beaches'

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Undersea explorer Robert Ballard leans back and smiles at the screens arrayed above his desk. One displays a view of a remote operating vessel, another scans along a seafloor never before viewed by humans.

It's the Black Sea, not far from Ukraine, a region long closed to outsiders and now yielding a treasure trove of Byzantine vessels that met their ends 1,000 or more years ago. For Ballard the archaeologist, those vessels and their contents are a delight. For Ballard the explorer, the modern technology he's testing for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pretty exciting, too.


Read full article: 'Scientist Tests System for Ocean Vessel'

Virginia Key, Florida (Aug 22, 2007 17:09 EST) A modest new lab at the Rosenstiel School is the first of its kind to tackle the global problem of climate change impacts on corals. Fully operational this month, this new lab has begun to study how corals respond to the combined stress of greenhouse warming and ocean acidification. The lab is the first to maintain corals under precisely controlled temperature and carbon dioxide conditions while exposing them to natural light conditions.


Read full article: 'Lab Offers New Way To Look At Bleaching, Ocean Acidity, Global Warming'

A team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has won a $97.7 million research grant from the National Science Foundation to build an ocean observation system of buoys and robotic underwater vehicles off Cape Cod.



Read full article: 'Woods Hole gets $97.7m US grant'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian scientist said on Thursday that fresh test results back his country's legal bid to take control of the Arctic, just weeks after a submarine planted the Russian national flag on the North Pole's seabed.

The race to claim ownership of the Arctic, home to vast untapped gas and oil reserves, has intensified with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. all vying with Russia to build their political and legal case to claim jurisdiction.


Read full article: 'Scientist says tests back Russia Arctic claim'

SOCORRO, N.M. -- A New Mexico Tech scientist believes he has found a way to head off dangerous climate change. Oliver Wingenter said the idea is simple -- fertilize the ocean so that more plankton can grow.

Plankton growing in the ocean emits a gas known as dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, that once in the atmosphere, helps spur cloud formation. That, in turn, would cool the planet and offset some of the global warming caused by human emitted greenhouse gases, he said.


Read full article: 'Fight climate change with more plankton'

Aberdeen, Scotland (Aug 17, 2007 17:31 EST) A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life.

Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 metres, a team of 31 scientists are returning from a five-week scientific expedition which has surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, with one species thought to be new to science.


Read full article: ''New Continent' And Species Discovered In Atlantic Study'

Victoria, Australia (Aug 15, 2007 13:42 EST) Australian scientists have identified the missing deep ocean pathway – or ‘supergyre’ – linking the three Southern Hemisphere ocean basins in research that will help them explain more accurately how the ocean governs global climate.

The new research confirms the current sweeping out of the Tasman Sea past Tasmania and towards the South Atlantic is a previously undetected component of the world climate system’s engine-room – the thermohaline circulation or ‘global conveyor belt’.

Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist Ken Ridgway says the current, called the Tasman Outflow, occurs at an average depth of 800-1,000 metres and may play an important role in the response of the conveyor belt to climate change.



Read full article: 'Missing Deep Ocean 'Supergyre' Discovered'

Tallahassee, Florida (Aug 14, 2007 13:54 EST) More than a mile beneath the Atlantic’s surface, roughly halfway between New York and Portugal, seawater rushing through the narrow gullies of an underwater mountain range much as winds gust between a city’s tall buildings is generating one of the most turbulent areas ever observed in the deep ocean.

In fact, the turbulence packs an energy wallop equal to about five million watts -- comparable to output from a small nuclear reactor, according to a landmark study led by Florida State University researcher Louis St. Laurent and described in the August 9 edition of the journal Nature.

The study -- an international collaboration of scientists from the United States and France -- documents for the first time the turbulent conditions in an undersea mountain range known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It provides never-before-seen evidence that deep water turbulence swirling in the small passageways of such mountains is generating much of the mixing of warm and cold waters in the Atlantic Ocean.



Read full article: 'Mid-Atlantic Ridge Causes Significant Mixing Of Warm And Cold Waters'

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A Russian flag on the seabed beneath the ice of the North Pole is among the few signs that states are waking up to a 2009 deadline for what may be the last big carve-up of maritime territory in history.

By some estimates, about 7 million sq km (2.7 million sq miles) -- the size of Australia -- could be divided up around the world with so far unknown riches ranging from oil and gas to seabed marine organisms at stake.



Read full article: 'Russia's seabed flag heralds global ocean carve-up'

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – Thousands of Project AWARE divers and community volunteers in 100 countries of the world will tackle local debris issues during International Cleanup Day this Saturday, September 15th.

Approximately 350,000 volunteers worldwide will help remove some seven million pounds of trash from shoreline and underwater environments – making a real contribution toward ending debris issues. How? By collecting valuable data on the number and types of debris found above and below the surface. This data is used to educate the public as well as educators – a crucial part of the international effort.



Read full article: 'Project AWARE 2007 Program'

Conservationists say the federal government either invests $300 million on a Great Barrier Reef clean-up or risks its destruction.

International conservation organisation WWF said the reef was endangered by 14 million tonnes of chemicals and mud washed from farms onto the reef each year.

New research released by the University of North Carolina also showed Pacific coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, are dying faster than ever before because of climate change, disease and coastal development.


Read full article: 'Barrier Reef needs $300m clean-up'

NEW ORLEANS -- Growing corn in the Midwest for green fuel could increase pollution downriver and contribute to a "dead zone" that forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexcio, a national agriculture expert said Tuesday.


"We're in a dilemma in this country," Gary Mast, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday. "We want food. We want fuel. We want it to be produced environmentally soundly."


Read full article: 'Growing corn for green fuel fuels Gulf dead zone'