June 4, 2020 By James Gorman The New York Times
Modern medicine still depends on this animal’s blood to test for bacteria in vaccines. And an alternative test requires further study.
June 3, 2020 By Claudia Geib Hakai Magazine
A new paper suggests killer whales’ cultures may be driving down their genetic diversity—but not all researchers agree.
June 2, 2020 By Alejandra Borunda National Geographic
When scientist Wen Jun Cai and his colleagues boated across the pea-soup-like waters of the upper Chesapeake Bay in the summer of 2016, water sampling kits and pH sensors in hand, they didn’t expect to find chemical magic at play.
June 1, 2020 By Nancy Lord Hakai Magazine
The endangered beluga whales living in Alaska’s Cook Inlet are still declining in number, despite protections put in place 20 years ago and the adoption of a recovery plan in 2016. The latest population estimate—released in January, based on a survey from June 2018—is only 279 animals, down from 328 just two years before. The federal agency in charge of whale management, the National Marine Fisheries Service, has called the trend “concerning.”
May 31, 2020 By Allison Hirschlag The Washington Post
The Great Barrier Reef covers nearly 865 million acres off the coast of Australia, which means approximately 350 billion starfish inhabit it. The starfish, the most fertile invertebrate in the world, stripped 150 reefs of coral within the Great Barrier system and damaged 500 more in just a few years.