FOR the first time since the early 1970s, a highly venomous sea snake has turned up on a southern California beach—the latest in a string of unusual wildlife sightings, including hammerhead sharks and red-footed boobies, writes The Economist. This snake, which typically lives in tropical waters, has never before turned up so far north (in this hemisphere at least). While it is not clear what has brought it to Ventura County, experts …
Defined as engagement of non-professionals in scientific investigation, citizen science involves volunteers asking questions, collecting data, or interpreting results. While people such as Thoreau, with his field observations at Walden Pond, have been doing citizen science for centuries, as a formal discipline this field is less than 45-years-old. Read the full story in the Huffington Post.
Researchers announced this month that a massive global coral bleaching event is jeopardizing the health of coral reefs around the world, and the crisis is still heating up, writes National Geographic. Read the full story here.
Unusual warming in the waters off the northeastern United States has killed off vast numbers of Atlantic cod, further endangering a valuable and iconic fishery despite years of fishing restrictions, writes Discovery News.
Redmap has some creative members out there: we received wonderful entries into our t-shirt competition! Check out the four winning designs....
A team of marine scientists have discovered that WA's coral reefs contain weather maps going back hundreds of years. The scientists, from the University of WA and Curtin University, drilled into giant porite corals on Ningaloo Reef, the Abrolhos Islands and Rowley Shoals to find the marine weather data. They discovered that the core samples were able to tell them what causes marine heat waves among WA's unique coral reefs. Read …
SWIMMING with humpback whales is set to become WA’s newest must-do experience, with the State Government giving the go-ahead to a trial at the Ningaloo Marine Park. Building on the success of whale shark tourism, the humpback whale tours will be offered to 11 licensed operators at Exmouth and Coral Bay next year. WA’s humpback population is back to pre-whaling numbers, with more than 30,000 whales – which grow up to …
Warmer waters across the California coast have brought unprecedented sightings of marine animals along the shore and in the water. Larger fish and bigger schools of fish are staying around later in the year, and in some cases, species that have never before been documented in California have found their way to California shores. Read the full story at NBC 7 San Diego.
The world’s oceans are warming at an accelerated rate due to anthropogenic activities. Over 100 species have undertaken polewards range-shifts along the south-east coast of Australia with expected positive and negative impacts in the invaded southern communities. Read more about this hot topic by researcher Jorge E. Ramos and Redmap founder Gretta Pecl from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in the Ecological Society of Australia's Hot Topics …
New research shows that warm sea-surface temperature anomalies in the region can cause shifts in the marine environment where they feed, forcing the birds to travel farther and dive deeper for their food — and causing declines in their populations. Read more about the impacts of warming seas on penguins in The Washington Post.
