September 19, 2020 By Lynda V. Mapes The Seattle Times
For nearly a month the team has been at sea, marveling at the prowess of southern and northern resident killer whales as they follow the orcas’ foraging rounds, using a drone and stick-on cameras to record the daily lives of orcas, even underwater.
September 17, 2020 By Carolyn Gramling Science News
Sound waves traveling thousands of kilometers through the ocean may help scientists monitor climate change. As greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet, the ocean is absorbing vast amounts of that heat. To monitor the change, a global fleet of about 4,000 devices called Argo floats is collecting temperature data from the ocean’s upper 2,000 meters. But that data collection is scanty in some regions, including deeper reaches of the ocean and areas under sea ice.
September 17, 2020 By William J. Broad The New York Times
A giant new vessel, OceanXplorer, seeks to unveil the secrets of the abyss for a global audience.
September 17, 2020 By Nancy Averett Hakai Magazine
Some marine mammals carry gene mutations that could make them more susceptible than humans to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus at the heart of the ongoing pandemic. If these marine mammals get infected, the results could be devastating—more than half of the species predicted to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 are already at risk of extinction.
September 16, 2020 By Liz Kimbrough Mongabay
As the planet plunges headlong into its sixth mass extinction, caused by humans, biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, and efforts to address this crisis, through a series of targeted goals, have largely failed.