When large numbers of gray whales began washing up along North America's Pacific Coast nearly six years ago, marine scientists could only speculate on the reason: Was it disease? Ocean pollution? Increasing ship collisions?
A group of coastal Alaska Native tribes in 2016 began monitoring shellfish, a traditional harvest, for deadly biotoxins because the state only tests commercial harvests. The program fills an essential gap in public health ...
In early 2014, a great anomaly descended upon the seas: A patch of warm water that manifested in the Gulf of Alaska. Scientists called it "The Blob."
A string of whale deaths in recent days in southern Argentina have worried scientists, who think a micro-algae could be to blame.
Only one thousandth of a milligram of the bacterial botulinum toxin is necessary to kill a living organism. The toxin unfolds its lethal effect by preventing the release of neurotransmitters at the point where nerve cells ...
Laboratories may consume large quantities of plastics, generate waste, and emit greenhouse gases. A report published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation by Jane Kilcoyne and her colleagues at the Marine Institute, Galway, ...
Last summer, some 190 dead porpoises washed ashore on the Dutch Wadden Sea Islands within just ten days. A remarkably high number, considering the annual average of about 600 stranded porpoises on the entire Dutch coast. ...
Toxic algae can pose serious problems. Mussels become poisonous and aquaculture can be wiped out. But despite the monitoring of algae and toxins, it is very difficult to forecast when an algal bloom will occur. Now a research ...
Back in the summers of 2018 and 2019, the shellfish industry in Washington state was rocked by mass mortalities of its crops.
It's easy to think that more nutrients—the stuff life needs to grow and thrive—would foster more vibrant ecosystems. Yet nutrient pollution has in fact wrought havoc on marine systems, contributing to harmful algae blooms, ...
