Rubbish in the Pacific
Aboard the Alguita, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.
 

Dolphins have been filmed playing an impromptu game of football… using a jellyfish as an improvised ball.  A team of marine biologists were astonished to see a dolphin swim under a jellyfish and with a quick flick of its tail shoot it out of the water. (Pics and video)
 

A powerful fish-killing toxin that has caused major losses in commercial ponds of catfish, striped bass and tilapia may also have cancer-killing properties.
A powerful fish-killing toxin could have cancer-killing properties as well, according to collaborative research led by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Paul V. Zimba and chemist Peter Moeller of the U.S. National Oceanic [...]

The tiny Pacific nation of Palau is creating the world’s first shark sanctuary, a biological hotspot to protect great hammerheads, leopard sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks and more than 130 other species fighting extinction in the Pacific Ocean. But with only one boat to patrol 240,000 square miles (621,600 square kilometers) of Palau’s newly protected waters [...]

The Benthic Rover
Like the robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which wheeled tirelessly across the dusty surface of Mars, a new robot spent most of July traveling across the muddy ocean bottom, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the California coast. This robot, the Benthic Rover, has been providing scientists with an entirely new view [...]

Oithona attacking prey. The position of the copepod before the jump is marked with white and after the jump with black.
Could you filter 100,000 cubic metres of syrup every day to find food in a concentration of two grains of rice per cubic metre?

Great Barrier Reef
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest living organism, is under grave threat from climate warming and coastal development, and its prospects of survival are “poor,” a major new report found.   While the World Heritage-protected site, which sprawls for more than 345,000 square km (133,000 sq miles) off Australia’s east coast, is in [...]

These are zebrafish that were cloned in the Michigan State University Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory
A team of Michigan State University researchers has developed a new, more efficient way of cloning zebra fish, a breakthrough that could have implications for human health research.

Speleonectes atlantida
With needle-sharp fangs and powerful limbs sprouting from its head, you probably won’t find this crab cousin floating in a creamy bisque anytime soon.
 

A fun day at the beach..hmm I don’t think so.
SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GRÈVE, France — It should have been a perfect day for Vincent Petit, finishing an afternoon gallop on a wide expanse of beach along a pastel-colored bay. Instead, he and his mount were sucked into a hole of noxious black sludge.

Amidst waves and wildlife in the world’s oceans, billions of pounds of Styrofoam, water bottles, fishing wire and other plastic products float in endless circles.
 

The doc is in
It’s not every day that a biologist’s work makes it on to Comedy Central. But after giving a talk at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City about herpes-like viruses in corals, that’s what happened to Rebecca Vega Thurber, then a marine biology postdoc.1 Her findings were mentioned on [...]

This is kind of like saying birds of a feather flock together but with fish
This incredible wall of shimmering silver fish was captured by stunned divers who had been exploring a reef in the Philippines.

Its great to see that some whales that are making a come back
Puiji and Naya are expecting. The twenty-something beluga whales at Shedd Aquarium are pregnant, a facility official said, with calves expected to be born this fall.

Now we know why Michael Phelps is such a great swimmer. He’s a direct descendant
Elaine Morgan is a tenacious proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis: the idea that humans evolved from primate ancestors who dwelt in watery habitats. Hear her spirited defense of the idea — and her theory on why mainstream science doesn’t take [...]

A young diver in China owes her life to a Beluga Whale, like the one pictured above. Belugas have an affinity for humans, but Mila the whale took the relationship to a new level at the Polar Land Aquarium in Harbin, North East China. Yang Yun was competing in a free-dive competition there, hoping to [...]

The top ten or bottom ten mistakes in evolution
1.)  Sea mammal blowhole. Any animal that spends appreciable time in the ocean should be able to extract oxygen from water via gills. Enlarging the lungs and moving a nostril to the back of the head is a poor work-around.

Jellyfish mixing up the oceans’ waters
Talk about a “butterfly flaps its wings” scenario. Scientists Kakani Katija and John Dabiri of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have worked out just how jellyfish swim, and propose that the way jellyfish and other swimmers move through the water could have as big an impact on mixing [...]

A mosaic of Nasa satellite images gives the most detailed true-colour image of the Earth ever created
For decades, man has gazed up at the stars and marvelled at the wonders of the universe.  But, as this amazing selection of images shows, there are many mind-blowing sights to behold from the other direction.
 

This bizarre sea creature looks happy with its lot in life as it appears to be smiling broadly.
The rarely photographed piglet squid was captured on film at a rescue aquarium.  Its tentacles and skin patterns have formed an adorable shape of a small smiling face with what looks like curly locks on his head.
 

Because underwater photography is a specialized art, relatively few photographers attempt it. But it offers many exciting and rare photographic opportunities for fresh and truly different vivid images.

Serial killers of the sea 
Great white sharks hunt down their prey in the same way as serial killers, scientists have found.  Researchers used methods copied from criminology to show that great whites pick their targets in a highly focused fashion.

 
Round goby fish
Scientists have found the existence of two types of males of a fiercely invasive fish spreading through the Great Lakes, which may provide answers as to how they rapidly reproduce.

Sardine Run
Every year, between the months of May and July, many millions of silvery sardines travel north from the cold southern oceans off South Africa’s Cape Point, hugging the shore as they make their way up along the coastlines of the former Transkei (northern Eastern Cape) and KwaZulu-Natal in what is commonly known as the [...]