Reef

Sea surface temperature anomalies off the coast of eastern Australia on March 4, 2024, based on data from the Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature) project.Weeks of warmer-than-average ocean temperatures caused extensive bleaching in the world’s largest coral reef system.Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been hit by widespread coral bleaching caused by heat stress, government officials confirmed on March 8, 2024. This is the fifth mass bleaching of the reef since 2016.Aerial surveys of over 300 reefs…

It’s a sweltering summer in Australia, and the corals on the Great Barrier Reef are showing early signs of stress. The authority that manages the largest coral reef system in the world is expecting another bleaching event in the coming weeks—if that happens, it will be the sixth time since 1998 that spikes in water temperatures wipe out swathes of corals that are home to countless marine animals. Three of these bleaching events, which make corals more susceptible to disease and death, have happened in the last six years…

Scientists have discovered that audio recordings of healthy coral reefs may help attract free-swimming coral larvae to damaged ones. The finding could be a major step toward preserving the world's coral reefs, an estimated 25% of which have died out in the last 30 years.Although the reef structures formed by coral polyps are immobile, the polyps themselves swim through the water while still in their larval state. Eventually, when they find a place they like, they latch onto a rock or other hard surface and start secreting…

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world's oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren't just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023's mark and still rising at the end of the month.And February, as well the previous two…

Federal authorities have closed Canada's only known live coral reef in the Pacific Ocean to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fishing.Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the indefinite closure came into effect on Feb. 14 for the Lophelia Reef, located in the Finlayson Channel of British Columbia's Central Coast, about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver and 200 kilometres directly east of Haida Gwaii.The department says the reef was first discovered in 2021 and is the "first and only" known live coral reef in…

The island of Dhigelaabadhoo in the Maldives is the main field site of the ARISE programme, through which a series of extensive field tests—using state-of-the art coastal process research instrumentation and autonomous survey equipment—will be conducted between now and 2027. Credit: University of Plymouth Scientists have produced the first detailed estimates of how much sediment is transported onto the shores of coral reef…

Dense thickets of ghostly corals shelter myriads of unfamiliar sea creatures have been found covering a vast area of the deep Atlantic, breaking records to become the largest known deep sea reef."It's eye-opening – it's breathtaking in scale," says Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine biologist Stuart Sandin.We barely have a clue what these hard-to-reach ecosystems hold, with more than 75 percent of the globe's ocean floor yet to be charted in detail. But new technology has just allowed researchers to map one…

A groundbreaking discovery by Griffith University researchers reveals four new algae species in the Great Barrier Reef, reshaping our understanding of their ecological importance and highlighting the urgency of conservation efforts amidst climate change threats.A groundbreaking discovery has been made in the heart of the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef and unique reefs systems of the Coral Sea and Lord Howe Island, leading to a greater understanding of how the world heritage-listed landmark is protected. An…

Believed to be predators in perpetual motion, grey reef sharks had previously only been observed in motion, leading most to believe they needed to swim in order to breath. Credit: © Christopher Leon A first report of grey reef sharks resting under reef ledges in Seychelles changes what we know about how they breathe (they don’t need to swim continuously to stay alive) – and re-opens the case for the science of sleeping sharks.Predators in perpetual motion. Sleepless in our seas. If that’s your image of sharks, you’re not…

An underwater marine survey completed at West Mabou Beach in Port Hood has yielded some interesting results that shed new light on what species dwell in Nova Scotian harbours.The survey was completed by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and their findings were released at a public meeting in the Cape Breton community of Mabou on Monday evening.Information Morning Cape Breton host Steve Sutherland spoke with Hunter Stevens, a biologist with the group, who co-ordinated the survey and was one of the divers…