The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
THE oceans are as vast and unexplored as the universe. They churn up something new everyday. The most recent discovery is a multicellular organism that can live in the darkest depths without oxygen. During the last 10 years, marine scientist Roberto Danovaro and colleagues at the Marche Polytechnic University in …
Fisheries bycatch is a primary driver of population declines in several species of marine megafauna (e.g., elasmobranchs, mammals, seabirds, turtles). Characterizing the global bycatch seascape using data on bycatch rates across fisheries is essential for highlighting conservation priorities. We compiled a comprehensive database of reported data on marine turtle bycatch …
As Egypt celebrates the 50th anniversary of the start of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, some scientists say that this wonder of engineering is contributing to an environmental catastrophe that could force millions of its citizens to abandon the lush, fertile delta. The worst of these is coastal …
Tuna boats in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean will be alowed to catch a total of 13,500 tonnes of bluefin tuna next year, down from the provisional quota of 19,950 tonnes. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) says this gives the species a 60 per cent …
health Side-effects stay Chemicals called contrast agents used during cardiac angiography can seriously damage kidneys which, in turn, increases chances of heart attacks. Side-effects were earlier thought to be temporary. A team tracked 294 patients exposed to contrast agents for a year. 31 per cent of the patients were found …
Common dolphins, once a frequent sight in the Mediterranean, may soon be extinct in Greece's Ionian Sea due to overfishing, environmentalists warned on Wednesday. WWF and a dozen other environmental organisations said research showed numbers of dark-grey, white-bellied dolphins had decreased from 150 to 15 in 10 years in protected …
Hazards of the proposed canal The proposed canal, dubbed Two Seas Canal, will pump water from the Red Sea to a height of 230 m above sea level, transport it along the Araba valley and then run down into the Dead Sea. The downhill flow will be harnessed to generate …
Marine litter is a global concern affecting all the oceans of the world. It poses environmental, economic, health and aesthetic problems that are rooted in poor solid waste management practices, lack of infrastructure, indiscriminate human activities and behaviours and an inadequate understanding on the part of the public of the …
acidic oceans: Dissolved CO2 makes water more acidic. UK researchers saw a fall in the species numbers and snails with their shells disintegrating in vents in the Mediterranean sea. They say impacts such as changing of marine food web and decrease in biodiversity might become common with the increase of …
Here the authors show the effects of acidification on benthic ecosystems at shallow coastal sites where volcanic CO2 vents lower the pH of the water column. Along gradients of normal pH (8.1
Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to acidification of the oceans. A site in the Mediterranean, naturally carbonated by under-sea volcanoes, provides clues to the possible effects on marine ecosystems.
Scientists are developing a tsunami warning system for the Mediterranean region which they said on Wednesday should be ready in 2011 and could save thousands of lives. The 40-50 million euro ($63.32 million) project started three years ago, shortly after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people …
The EU is considering funding projects in North Africa and along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in an effort to tackle rising pollution levels. The European Commission and European Investment Bank have been looking at the pollution hotspots which impact on the sea as a whole and are now …
The municipality of Sidon, Lebanon, has announced a state of environmental emergency after a storm that battered the Lebanese coast caused a landslide at a huge seaside garbage dump and sent more than 150 tonnes of waste into the sea. Authorities say they are taking all possible measures to reduce …
Human activities are affecting every square mile of the world's oceans, according to a study by a team of American, British and Canadian researchers who mapped the severity of the effects from pole to pole. The analysis of 17 global data sets, led by Benjamin S. Halpern of the National …
European fisheries ministers have agreed on a 15-year plan to tighten rules protecting threatened tuna fish stocks in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The plan obliges member nations to submit detailed fishing plans before the season starts next year. This will allow the commission to verify the distribution …
