The Australian government’s latest report on the Great Barrier Reef, submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre last Friday, has been carefully crafted and word-smithed, with many of its claims supported…
Researchers deploy robotic Argo floats into the ocean to measure temperature.
CSIRO
The oceans are continuing to warm steadily despite an apparent slowdown in global warming at the earth’s surface, according to data collected by thousands of floating robots published today in Nature Climate…
It has long been news that overfishing persists in many of the world’s oceans. Fish and invertebrate stocks have been over-exploited for our ever-hungry, growing human population, leaving some species…
The day after: a Sri Lankan man begins the slow process of rebuilding.
EPA/Mike Nelson
Ten years ago we witnessed one of the worst natural disasters in history, when a huge earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a devastating tsunami which swept across the Indian Ocean. An estimated…
RV Investigator at sea – It will be formally commissioned in Hobart today.
CSIRO
We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about our deepest oceans, and only 12% of the ocean floor within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone has so far been mapped. The reason for this is…
Trying to smell like coral, and not like lunch.
atomicshark
The animal kingdom is full of incredible examples of camouflage, with animals resembling objects found in their environment such as sticks or leaves, or displaying colour patterns that permit them to blend…
Warmer waters heading south – here’s sunrise off Manly in New South Wales.
Flickr/Jeff Turner
Occasional erratic bursts southward of the East Australian Current (EAC) are thought to have moderated the weather of south-east Australia this autumn and winter and they continue to introduce tropical…
Marine parks need to be big enough to safeguard wide-ranging species, like the sharks being studied here.
Manu San Felix/National Geographic Pristine Seas Expedition
Top scientists, senior government managers, industry representatives, conservationists and even some nations’ presidents are currently in Sydney for the World Parks Congress. This major international meeting…
A great butterfly fish enjoys the reef view off Waialae, Hawaii.
Steve Palumbi
Reef historian Iain McCalman, in Sydney, and reef scientist Stephen Palumbi, in California, are monitoring reef degradation from opposite sides of the planet. They compared notes. Iain McCalman: A recent…
Coral reef ecosystem off Palmyra Atoll part of newly expanded Marine National Monument.
Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This fall, President Obama signed a proclamation that created the biggest marine reserve in the world. By extending the protective boundaries around Wake Island, Jarvis Island and Johnston Atoll from 50…
Apollo Bay in Victoria. Australia’s coastal towns are vulnerable to changes in the surrounding seas.
ccdoh1/Flickr
Australia’s coastal towns, many built around fisheries and tourism, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. South east and south west Australia are marine hotspots — they are warming much faster…
A king tide in New Zealand, part of a project documenting what future sea level rise might look like.
Witness King Tides/Flickr
Human activity is driving sea levels higher. Australia’s seas are likely to rise by around 70 centimetres by 2100 if nothing is done to combat climate change. But 2100 can seem a long way off. At the moment…
As ships resume the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in the depths of the Indian Ocean this week, we often hear that the oceans are “95% unexplored” and that we know more about the surface…
Shark Bay is one of Australia’s 19 World Heritage Areas, home to dolphins, dugongs, and sharks.
Matthew Fraser
In the summer of 2010-2011 Western Australia experienced an unprecedented heatwave — but not on land. Between December 2010 and April 2011, sea temperatures off the WA coast reached 3C above average, and…
Bad news for icebergs: oceans in the Southern Hemisphere have been soaking up more heat energy than previously thought.
Andrew Meijers/BAS
The upper layers of the world’s oceans have been warming much faster than oceanographers realised over the past few decades, according to a new study. Sparse sampling of the Southern Hemisphere’s oceans…
Diseases can devastate coral reefs.
Jorge H. Pinzón C.
The incredible diversity of coral reef ecosystems is being threatened by factors associated with global climate change and local pollution. Today diseases have increased and are killing more corals. Seeing…
The AAL Fremantle, borne along by a meteotsunami, hits the rail bridge next to Fremantle Harbour.
@Mattiegeesu via Twitter
At around 10pm on Sunday 17 August 2014, the container ship AAL Fremantle was being unloaded after arriving in Western Australia’s Fremantle Harbour, when it broke away from its mooring and collided with…
Rubbish strewn on beaches eventually ends up in one of the world’s giant ocean garbage patches.
Vberger/Wikimedia Commons
Most of us have littered at one time or another, and in the process we probably contributed to the enormous of amounts of plastic that enter the ocean every year, eventually ending up in one of the five…