Please browse our News feeds below for the most up to date information concerning our cause.
The Ocean Conservancy News
- Mon, 21 Oct 2019 12:00:24 +0000: How Can You Give Back to Our Ocean? - Ocean Conservancy
Your voice is important to the fight for a healthy ocean and YOU can help by taking action
The post How Can You Give Back to Our Ocean? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
- Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:00:59 +0000: Whale Falls are the Hottest Restaurants in the Deep Sea - Ocean Conservancy
They have everything: Ghostly fish, cephalopods, bone-eating worms and so much more.
The post Whale Falls are the Hottest Restaurants in the Deep Sea appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
- Thu, 17 Oct 2019 18:38:02 +0000: Unilever to Halve their Use of Virgin Plastic—and That’s A Big Step - Ocean Conservancy
The consumer goods giant plans to reduce 110,000 tons of plastic from their products by 2025 and invest in waste collection and a more circular economy.
The post Unilever to Halve their Use of Virgin Plastic—and That’s A Big Step appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
- Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:46:38 +0000: Bringing Our Ocean to the Prairie - Ocean Conservancy
Representing our ocean at the 2019 Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual meeting
The post Bringing Our Ocean to the Prairie appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
- Mon, 14 Oct 2019 12:00:16 +0000: Exploring Monterey Bay’s Deep-sea Octopus Garden - Ocean Conservancy
If you think you smell popcorn, that’s just the team at Ocean Conservancy getting ready for the live stream!
The post Exploring Monterey Bay’s Deep-sea Octopus Garden appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
The Open Channels News
- Tue, 15 Oct 2019 20:04:04 +0000: OC Overview for the week of 14 October 2019 - OpenChannels News
Photographic evidence of climate change in the Northwest
https://www.kuow.org/stories/these-photos-of-climate-change-in-the-pacif...
Orcas sighted in Puget Sound, including rare 'little white whale'
https://komonews.com/news/local/orcas-flock-in-big-numbers-to-puget-soun...
- Mon, 07 Oct 2019 16:30:55 +0000: OC Overview for the week of 07 October 2019 - OpenChannels News
The Gulf Of Maine Is Warming, And Its Whales Are Disappearing
https://www.klcc.org/post/gulf-maine-warming-and-its-whales-are-disappea...
Literature sheds light on the history and mystery of the Southern Ocean
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-literature-history-mystery-southern-ocean....
- Mon, 30 Sep 2019 18:13:57 +0000: OC Overview for the week of 30 September 2019 - OpenChannels News
Give it back to the gods: Reviving Māori tradition to protect marine life
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/give-it-back-to-the-gods-reviving-maor...
- Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:16:06 +0000: It’s not just about marine mammals anymore: How ocean noise can harm marine ecosystems - OpenChannels News
Editor’s note: We’ve all read about how ocean noise can harm marine mammals. New research reveals that it can have profound impacts on lower trophic levels as well, with likely consequences for marine ecosystems. Catch up on the latest research with this month’s Skimmer.
A little background on sound in the ocean
- As we get started discussing how ocean noise affects marine animals (and marine ecosystems), there are some critical points about sound in the ocean to keep in mind:
- Sound is a “compression wave that causes particles of matter to vibrate as it transfers from one to the next.” How loud or soft a sound is perceived to be is a function of the amplitude or intensity of the wave[1] and the receiver’s hearing. Sound waves with higher amplitudes/intensities are perceived to be “louder” than sound waves with lower amplitudes/intensities.
- Sound travels a lot faster and farther in seawater than through the air. Sound travels nearly five times faster in seawater than on land (1500 vs 340 m/s) and can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers in seawater versus tens of kilometers on land. As a rule, lower frequency sounds travel farther than high frequency sounds because lower frequency sound waves lose energy (“dissipate”) more slowly. In addition, higher amplitude/more intense/louder sounds travel farther than lower amplitude/less intense/softer sounds because they have more energy to start with.
- In the ocean, vision is limited to tens of meters at best, and sense of touch even less than that, while smell and taste are greatly dependent on local environmental conditions such as water currents. Consequently, many marine animals – including invertebrates – use sound as their principal way of sensing the environment. They use sound for finding food, finding mates, locating offspring and other community members, finding appropriate habitat, avoiding predators, navigating, and more.
- Sound in the ocean has two components: a pressure component that acts in all directions at once and a particle motion component that has directionality. While mammals primarily sense the pressure component of sound, marine fish and invertebrates primarily sense the particle motion component of sound.
- The “silent oceans” are anything but silent. The oceans have rich natural soundscapes from both abiotic and biotic sources (e.g., rain, waves, earthquakes, animal vocalizations). Sound does not travel well across the ocean-atmosphere boundary, however, giving outside observers the false impression of relative silence.
- “Noise” is simply sound that is unwanted, unpleasant, and/or disruptive. If you think back to that list of things that marine animals use sound for (i.e., finding food, finding mates, locating offspring and other community members, finding appropriate habitat, avoiding predators, navigating, and more), manmade sounds have the potential to disrupt all of them. Given that manmade sound has intensified over a very short period of time in evolutionary terms (50-100 years) and most animals have not had time to adapt to these new sounds, it is assumed that most anthropogenic sound in the ocean is indeed “noise” to marine animals.
- Sound is a “compression wave that causes particles of matter to vibrate as it transfers from one to the next.” How loud or soft a sound is perceived to be is a function of the amplitude or intensity of the wave[1] and the receiver’s hearing. Sound waves with higher amplitudes/intensities are perceived to be “louder” than sound waves with lower amplitudes/intensities.
- As we get started discussing how ocean noise affects marine animals (and marine ecosystems), there are some critical points about sound in the ocean to keep in mind:
- Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:09:48 +0000: Latest Marine Ecosystem News and Resources for Planners and Managers - OpenChannels News
- Nearly 60% of ocean experiencing significantly increasing cumulative impact
- Marine wildlife populations decreased by half in past 40 years
- High European fisheries profits linked to sustainable practices
- US’s first large-scale offshore wind development held up by fisheries concerns
- Top ocean science research priorities for sustainable development identified
- New research brings spatial analysis approach to coastal adaptation planning
- New navigator helps practitioners find ecosystem-based climate adaptation tools and methods
- New toolkit assists with climate adaptation of coastal and marine protected areas
- Reports provide information and decision support for coral reef interventions
- Global atlas of surface ocean carbon-dioxide observations available
- New interactive map connects US home values and risk of sea-level-rise-related flooding
- New website compiles resources for deep-ocean stewardship
- Marine planning and management trainings added to database
- Responses request for surveys on US marine and coastal adaptation and capacity development for ocean projects
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution News
- Thu, 10 Oct 2019 12:00:20 +0000: Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected - News Releases – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The general consensus of governmental agencies is that it takes polystyrene thousands of years to fully break down. But a new study shows that it may instead degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight. - Thu, 03 Oct 2019 17:49:03 +0000: NOAA awards WHOI $2.9 million for harmful algal bloom research - News Releases – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science recently announced funding for 12 new research projects to better understand and predict harmful algal blooms (HABs) and improve our collective response to them. - Wed, 02 Oct 2019 14:04:31 +0000: Researchers use drones to weigh whales - News Releases – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Researchers devised a way to accurately estimate the weight of free-living whales using only aerial images taken by drones. - Tue, 17 Sep 2019 14:20:09 +0000: New study measures how much of corals’ nutrition comes from hunting - News Releases – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
A new study reveals that more of corals’ nutrients come from hunting than previously expected, information that may help predict the fate of coral reefs as global ocean temperatures rise. - Thu, 12 Sep 2019 13:53:51 +0000: New report takes in-depth look at factors contributing to sea level rise - News Releases – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Sea levels in many areas across the global ocean are rising. Since the turn of the 20th century, the seas have risen between six and eight inches globally.