Spiny lobsters Raise an Undersea Racket That Can Be Heard Miles Away

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May 27, 2020 By Liz Kimbrough Mongabay
European spiny lobsters create quite the rumble. By rubbing an antenna across its face, a spiny lobster can create a sound that might, under the right underwater conditions, be detectable up to 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away. The sound, known as an antennal rasp, occurs when an extension of a lobster’s antennae moves across a rough patch under its eye. Lobsters likely make this sound for communication or to scare away predators. In a recently published study in Scientific Reports, researchers asked, how far does the sound of a rasp travel? And can these sounds be used in a non-invasive way to monitor lobster populations?

‘More Blue’: An Artwork Shows the Sea Changing During Lockdown

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May 27, 2020 By Nina Siegal New York Times
What impact does human behavior have on the Earth’s waters? Two London-based architects, working with scientists and environmentalists, attempted to create a visual answer to that question for an art exhibition in Italy. Before the coronavirus, the 30-screen multichannel media installation was scheduled to open in March at the Ocean Space art center in the Church of San Lorenzo in Venice.

Pandemic Rules Make Saving Right Whales Tougher, Researchers Say

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May 26, 2020 By James Munson Bloomberg Law
A multiyear, cross-border collaboration to stop the decline of North Atlantic right whales faces challenges this summer because of rules enacted to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Strained resources have forced Canada’s federal government to cut back some monitoring flights over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while bans on large gatherings and closed international and provincial borders will interrupt valuable research into what’s killing the species and hinder whale rescue missions, say conservationists.