State of the Oceans — Log 4
YOUR WEEKLY BRIEFING FROM PARLEY
OCEAN WEATHER
With seven major storms currently raging across the world’s oceans, people in the US, the Philippines, Hong Kong and elsewhere are preparing for the onslaught. Here’s a sobering look at the risks just one storm poses to people, rivers and the wider marine environment.
MARINE LIFE
A young narwhal far from its Arctic home seems to have been adopted by a band of beluga whales. Heart-warming footage shot in Canada shows the spiral-tusked whale playing with dozens of belugas that treat it as one of their own. Researchers hope the pod will teach us more about both species.
THE DEEP
In further proof that the deep sea is stranger than outer space, scientists have discovered what they believe to be three new species of snailfish nearly 25,000 feet below the surface in the Atacama Trench. Their ghost-like, translucent bodies are held together by the pressure of the water.
PLASTIC POLLUTION
A new study has found that chemicals from plastic are present in wild bottlenose dolphins. Because they’re high on the food chain, live long lives, and often swim through waters off the coast of urban areas, dolphins act like ‘sentinels of the ecosystem’.
FISHING
The globally endangered scalloped hammerhead shark could be 'wiped out' by overfishing according to researchers, as it’s caught in recreational and commercial line fisheries, in gillnets, trawler nets and as by-catch. Warning: some people may find images in this story distressing.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The world’s largest marine windfarm has opened off the coast of the UK. It spans an area the size of 20,000 soccer fields and can power 590,000 homes. Thanks to improving technology, the new site uses less that half the number of turbines as the previous biggest array, but is more powerful.
Top image: NOAA
Main image: ESA/NASA–A. Gerst
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