BEYOND USUAL SUSPECTS A case for neglected species in wildlife research and conservation For most of us wildlife is represented by large mammals like elephant, rhino, lion and tiger, may be birds like hornbill, raptors, peafowl and waterfowl and awe inspiring reptiles like marine turtles, crocodiles, python and king cobra. …
ELKHORN coral looks just like elk antlers. With its complex, large branches, this important reef-building coral in the Caribbean is haven to numerous reef species. But, not any more. The Caribbean has lost 90 per cent of the coral in 15 years. Apart from human activity and warming of seas, …
ON A pleasant morning when fifty-four-year-old Australian marine diver David Hannan was gearing to plunge into the deep sea, a bunch of American scientists were ready to set sail for the Arctic Ocean. In another corner of the world at Dona Paula in Goa oceanographers were contemplating plans to measure …
MUMBAIKARS won’t see any more sea links, at least for now. After the successful run of the five-kilometre road over the sea, linking Bandra to Worli in South Mumbai, the Maharashtra government was planning its extension to Haji Ali via another sea link. But now that plan has been shelved. …
The Goa government’s reluctance to scrap a controversial shipyard project has left the 200-odd families of Chicalim village distraught. In 2005, Bharti Shipyard Limited proposed to construct a Rs 250-crore shipyard on about 0.8 hectare of mudflats in the ecologically fragile Chicalim Bay in Mormugao taluka. The Goa Coastal Zone …
IN WHAT could have ramifications on the ocean food web, scientists have found that rising acidity of seawaters slows down marine nitrogen cycle. Ocean acidification is the result of CO2 dissolving in seawater and lowering its pH. Scientists know that a drop in ocean pH affects carbon cycle, reducing carbonate …
The POSCO steel plant and port planned in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district have run into fresh trouble. An expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests deferred its decision on clearing the port project, saying the South Korean steel giant did not furnish sufficient details. The company …
A WIDELY used yardstick for judging the health of marine ecosystem may be flawed. The indicator, mean trophic level, uses catch data to assess changes in the balance of species in the food web of an ecosystem. An international team of scientists recently said the indicator overlooks factors like discarded …
The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has issued showcause notices to the Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ) located in Mundra taluka of Kutch district for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 1991. The ministry has also simultaneously issued showcause notices to OPG Power Gujarat, which is planning …
CORAL reefs that offer exotic ocean views can be surprisingly noisy places, with tiny fish and invertebrates like lobsters, sea urchins, squids and corals producing a relentless cacophony of squeaks and grunts. UK scientists recently listened to these noises and found the noisier the reef the better is its health; …
The rising temperature of the world's oceans has become a major threat to coral reefs globally as the severity and frequency of mass coral bleaching and mortality events increase. In 2005, high ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean resulted in the most severe bleaching event ever recorded in …
FISHERS’ folklores are full of them but the creatures of the deep sea are still a mystery. An inventory of marine species, to be released in London on October 4, would answer the age-old question— what lives in the oceans? The Census of Marine Life, a network of researchers from …
On 27 May 2010, with crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the Obama administration announced it would pause offshore drilling plans in the Arctic Ocean, one of the planet’s most pristine ecosystems. Hailed by environmental groups, the decision was …
Humans have reduced the abundance of many large marine vertebrates, including whales, large fish, and sharks, to only a small percentage of their pre-exploitation levels. Industrial fishing and whaling also tended to preferentially harvest the largest species and largest individuals within a population. We consider the consequences of removing these …
In 2009, the European Commission estimated that 88% of monitored marine fish stocks were overfished, on the basis of data that go back 20 to 40 years and depending on the species investigated. However, commercial sea fishing goes back centuries, calling into question the validity of management conclusions drawn from …
“Wasteland” conjures up visions of dusty desolation where life is fleeting and harsh—if it exists at all. Oceans, too, have their inhospitable pockets. Scientists are discovering that climate change—and not just fertilizer from farm use—may be spurring the emergence of barren underwater landscapes in coastal waters. Expanding dead zones not …
Oxygen-poor waters occupy large volumes of the intermediate-depth eastern tropical oceans. Oxygen-poor conditions have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems because important mobile microorganisms avoid or cannot survive in hypoxic zones. Climate models predict declines in oceanic dissolved oxygen produced by global warming. The researchers constructed a 50-year time series of dissolved-oxygen …
There is no shortage of scientific studies documenting the degradation of the world's oceans, the decline of marine ecosystems and the collapse of important fish species. Several have appeared in the last month. What is in short supply is a sustained effort by world governments and other institutions to do …
