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Damming the Red Sea could alleviate growing energy demands in the Middle East, engineers say, but such a massive project could also have untold ecological impacts, like those brought about by other major dams worldwide
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A new and compelling argument for reducing fish harvests - the profit motive - could persuade world fishers to endure the short-term pain of lower catches for the long-term gain of higher returns for their labor, according to authors of a ground-breaking study on fisheries over-exploitation
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New deep-sea images disprove doctrine Thousands of white crabs grazing on an extensive mussel bed: Up to now such high biomasses in the deep sea were only known from hot vents. Now scientists from the MARUM at the University of Bremen have found such scenes at a cold vent off the coast of Pakistan. Another first was achieved by the videos they took of the cold-vent fluids seeping from the sea floor. Furthermore, the scientists were astonished at the wide variety of seep types
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An environmental group is urging companies to drop shark fin from their banquet menus as demand rises in the booming economy ahead of the holiday hospitality season, a media report said Tuesday
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Scientists know this already, but just to give you some idea of the problem, the Greenland ice cap is melting at such a fast rate it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break up. Scientists say the acceleration of melting and subsequent speeding up of giant glaciers could be catastrophic in terms of sea level rise and make previous predictions published this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) far too low. The glacier at Ilulissat, which it is believed spawned the iceberg which sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago
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Manatees remain on the state's endangered species list, for now. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided on Wednesday to delay voting on removing the manatee from the list until it reviewed the species classification. The commission did not say when the review might be finished. "Delisting the manatee has basically invoked concerns over the listing process," the commission chairman, Rodney Barreto, said. The commission had been considering whether to reclassify the manatee as threatened instead of endangered
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Unnoticed and unappreciated for five decades, a large female turtle with a stained, leathery shell is now a precious commodity in this city's decaying zoo. She is fed a special diet of raw meat. Her small pool has been encased with bulletproof glass. A surveillance camera monitors her movements. A guard is posted at night. The agenda is simple: The turtle must not die. Earlier this year, scientists concluded that she is the planet's last known female giant Yangtze soft-shell turtle. She is about 80
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Cambodia and the UN have launched a joint project aimed at saving endangered Irrawaddy dolphins from extinction, the international body's World Tourism Organization said Tuesday. The Mekong River Discovery Trail Project encourages local fishermen to work in dolphin-watching tourism instead of fishing, the UN agency said in a statement. Fishing nets often cause the death of Irrawaddy dolphins. "Local authorities believe fishing is depleting the dolphins' food supply. Fishermen will be encouraged to take visitors to see the dolphins and sell food and drinks instead," it said. It did not give financial details
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The rising demand for jellyfish in the overseas market is threatening the survival of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles in Orissa, experts say. Extensive fishing for jellyfish along the Orissa coast to cater to the demands in the overseas markets is creating a food shortage for Olive Ridleys, Biswajit Mohanty, coordinator of turtle conservation group Operation Kachhapa, told IANS. The abundance of jellyfish on the Orissa coast attracts thousands of Olive Ridleys every year during winter months, mainly at Gahirmatha, Devi and Rushikulya, for food and nesting. 'Earlier, our fishermen used to discard the jellyfish as unwanted catch, but now they are being sent to markets as far as Chennai and then to China,' said Mohanty
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Just a few years ago, the lush coral reefs off Indonesia's Bali island were dying out, bleached by rising temperatures, blasted by dynamite fishing, and poisoned by cyanide. Now they are coming back, thanks to an unlikely remedy: electricity. The coral is thriving on dozens of metal structures submerged in the bay and fed by cables that send low-voltage electricity, which conservationists say is reviving it and spurring the growth. As thousands of delegates, experts, and activists debate climate at a conference that opened this week on Bali, the coral restoration project illustrates the creative ways scientists are trying to fight the ill-effects of global warming
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