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Oceans

Marine heatwaves can kill off species and alter ecosystems.

Ocean Heatwaves Are Getting Longer and More Intense

If the past century is any indication, global warming may be contributing to less stable marine ecosystems

In the water, rockweed provides habitat for crustaceans, fish, and mollusks; out of the water, it’s food for people and animals, fertilizer, and a soil conditioner.

How Seaweed Connects Us All

An unlikely debate about rockweed brings together Rachel Carson, marine biology and Maine’s supreme court

Trending Today

Exterior Cracks Force Indefinite Closure of the USS Arizona Memorial

Workers are currently assessing the damage to the iconic structure that straddles the sunken ship

When it comes to diving, humans can't hope to keep up with flippered mammals. But an anatomist thinks she may have identified a crucial structure in dolphins that could help humans avoid the bends.

New Research

Dolphins Have a Mysterious Network of Veins That Could Be Key to Preventing the Bends

It might be possible to make an external device that protects divers from the deadly condition

American South

Brush up on Your Scuba Certification—This Florida Museum Is Entirely Underwater

The Underwater Museum of Art will permanently exhibit seven sculptures in the Gulf coastal waters off Walton County, Florida

New Research

Hundreds of Blue Whales Are Permanent Residents Off New Zealand’s Coasts

Survey and genetic data show the whales of South Taranaki Bight are a unique population of non-migratory blue whales

Calmer seas in this 2015 picture of an albatross flying toward Campbell Island.

Record-Breaking Wave Reaches Height of 78.1 Feet

A buoy recorded the wave in the Southern Ocean last week

Plastic ice bag found by a NOAA expedition to the Marianas in 2016

New Research

Even the Deepest Parts of the Ocean Are Polluted With Startling Amounts of Plastic

A review of data from 5,010 ROV dives reveals and abundance of single-use plastics littering the seas

Guzmán and his team were only able to pinpoint the whale shark's whereabouts when it rose to the surface to feed.

What the Longest Known Whale Shark Migration Ever Tells Us About Conservation

Researchers in Panama tracked a specimen via satellite over an unprecedented 12,516 miles

Scientists Have a New Way of Knowing How Many Sharks Are in the Sea

The predators are elusive, but marine ecologists are finding more of them by analyzing the “environmental DNA” in ocean water samples

A pelagic snail ensnares food with with a mucous web.

These Strange Ocean Creatures Trap Their Food In a Net of Mucus

Biologists are finding that these invertebrate grazers can actually be picky eaters—and their choices might influence ocean food webs

This Is the Longest Straight-Line Ocean Path Around the Earth

But don’t go hauling your boats out just yet

Scientists have accidentally created a "mutant enzyme" that can break down plastic.

This “Mutant Enzyme” Breaks Down Plastic

It’s definitely cool—but probably won’t solve our plastics problem

Cool Finds

Wreck of Nazi Germany’s Most Advanced U-Boat Discovered

Sunk in 1945, U-3523, a Type XXI sub, may have been attempting to smuggle high-ranking Nazis to Argentina

The group of Muuscoctopus found on the Dorado Outcrop.

Cool Finds

Colony of Beautiful, Doomed Purple Octopuses Found Off Costa Rica

Hundreds of unidentified cephalopods were found nursing their eggs near a deep-sea vent

Three color morphs of bleached corals on the Great Barrier Reef

New Research

2016 Ocean Heatwave Killed 30 Percent of the Great Barrier Reef

Combined with a 2017 temperature spike, half of the 2 billion corals on the reef have died since 2015

Interactive touchpools in the aquarium.

Europe

Be Part of a Catch-and-Release Aquarium in Scotland

The Mull Aquarium in Tobermory invites visitors to help stock the tanks

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Earth’s Past Climates

They have a lot to tell us about our future

New Research

Massive Gathering of Mysterious Basking Sharks Found in Aerial Photos

In 2013, nearly 1,400 of the normally solitary filter feeders had a party off the coast of southern New England

New Research

Ocean Current That Keeps Europe Warm Is Weakening

Two new studies show the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has decreased 15 to 20 percent over the last 150 years

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