Shark "Virgin Birth" Confirmed

A female blacktip shark in Virginia fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, new DNA evidence shows.

This is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis—the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm.
The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.

A necropsy—an animal autopsy—after her death revealed she was carrying a near-term pup fetus that was about 12 inches (30 centimeters) in length.

Tidbit was caught in the wild when she was very young and reached sexual maturity in a tank at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, where she lived for eight years.

"The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity," said Demian Chapman, a researcher with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

"So the question is, where does this baby come from?" he asked.

Chapman is the lead author of a study on the female blacktip in the latest issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.

DNA fingerprinting

Chapman and his colleagues generated a DNA fingerprint for the mother shark and her pup fetus with a procedure identical to a human paternity test.

Ordinarily, a shark's DNA contains some genetic material from its mother and some from its father. Tidbit's pup, however, was not ordinary.

"Every part of the fingerprint of the embryo comes from the mother," Chapman said. "In other words, there is no genetic material from a father."
"Virgin Births"

All non-mammal vertebrate species are theoretically capable of parthenogenesis, scientists say. Examples have been documented in komodo dragons (read story), pythons, rattlesnakes, chickens, and turkeys.
Parthenogenesis is not possible in humans because if all the genetic material comes from the mother, certain genes will be switched off, and the embryo won't develop.

"For sharks in captivity, [parthenogenesis] has probably occurred more times than has been documented," says Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.

The question then becomes, is parthenogenesis a type of developmental anomaly or a response to the female shark not having a mate in captivity?

"The fact that only one shark embryo was formed may suggest that this is more a case of an egg developmental aberration rather than a physiological response to the lack of a mate," said Hueter, who was not involved with the study.

No Variation

Normally, an embryo is formed when an egg containing half its chromosomes is fertilized by a sperm containing the other half.

When an egg cell is formed, a plant or female animal also produces three other cells called polar bodies. In the type of parthenogenesis observed in sharks, one of those cells behaves like a sperm and fertilizes the egg.

"But that cell is genetically identical to the egg," Chapman said. "So that's where you lose a lot of genetic variation."

Offspring produced by parthenogenesis are not exact clones of their mothers, however, because the genetic material is mixed differently.

Still, researchers believe the risk of congenital defects increases in animals whose DNA lack genetic variation.

"There's an increased risk of having a weakened immune system and there's a risk of reproductive abnormalities," Chapman said. "But in some cases, they'll be able to survive."

The scientists have not ruled out the possibility that increased stress from the abnormal pregnancy contributed to Tidbit's death.

Fifth of World's Corals Dead

Almost a fifth of the planet's coral reefs have died and carbon emissions are largely to blame, according to an NGO study released Wednesday.
The report, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, warned that on current trends, growing levels of greenhouse gases will destroy many of the remaining reefs over the next 20 to 40 years.
"If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions," said Clive Wilkinson, the organization's coordinator.
The paper was issued on the sidelines of the December negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change, taking place under the U.N. flag.Half a billion people around the world depend on coral reefs for food and tourism, according to a common estimate.
Experts say the coral die-off has several causes, including local pollution, overfishing and invasive species.
But, they say, rising ocean temperatures caused by the greenhouse effect, and acidification, caused by the ocean's absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are probably the biggest triggers.
"If nothing changes, we are looking at a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide in less than 50 years," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the the global marine program at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an umbrella network for more than a 1,000 NGOs and government groups.
"As this carbon is absorbed, the oceans will become more acidic, which is seriously damaging a wide range of marine life from corals to plankton communities and from lobsters to seagrasses."
Nearly half of global coral reefs are still healthy, but the overall downward trend shows no sign of stopping, the study found. It added, though, that the damage could be braked by strong conservation measures, such as properly policed marine parks.

Pacific World War II Wrecks Pose Risk of Toxic Leaks

In the Pacific Ocean, amid a chain of tiny islands that make up the Federated States of Micronesia, more than 50 World War II shipwrecks lie below the placid surface of the 40-mile-wide Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon.

Encased in coral, host to abundant sea life, and a popular destination for scuba-loving tourists, these tankers, destroyers, and other vessels also contain noxious cargo: thousands of barrels of oil and other fuels, and sometimes chemicals and unexploded ordnance.
Chuuk's so-called Ghost Fleet includes dozens of Japanese ships, many of which were destroyed during a three-day attack by Allied forces in February 1944.

For decades, scientists and governments have said it was best to leave these shipwrecks alone.

Cleanup is laborious, expensive, and can cause its own problems if handled incorrectly, releasing oil or other pollutants into ocean waters.

Most of the ships also double as underwater military graves, sacred sites that no one wants to violate.

But concern about corrosion—which occurs faster in warm water—is prompting increased investigation of Chuuk's aging Ghost Fleet and roughly 3,700 other World War II ships from at least four different countries languishing throughout the Pacific.

A number of these sunken wrecks lie in the waters around Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Palau, a Micronesian archipelago to the west of Chuuk.

And so many Allied and Japanese ships sank in a strait near the Solomon Islands during the 1942-1943 Battle of Guadalcanal that it became known as Iron Bottom Sound.

Some environmentalists worry that these wrecks—which are also vulnerable to improper anchoring, dynamite fishing, and storms—pose potential hazards to marine life, beaches, mangroves that protect coastlines, and local economies.

Researchers say that the ships, constructed of iron and steel and already submerged for 60-plus years, may be reaching a tipping point and all of them could break down—and leak—at around the same time.
Chuuk Pollution Traced to Sunken Tanker

When U.S. conservationist Michael Barrett began examining this issue in 2003, no one had ever mapped the wrecks precisely or done a comprehensive survey of their fuel holdings or the ecosystems they might threaten.
With funding from the National Geographic Society's Conservation Trust, Barrett was able to fill in some gaps, gathering data on 31 of Chuuk's 50-plus shipwrecks.
Surveying the area by boat and from a small plane during a two-month period in 2006, Barrett often found a thin film of fuel on the lagoon's surface.

He traced one source of the pollution to a large Japanese tanker, the Hoyo Maru, which was sunk by an American bomb during the 1944 attack and now rests upside down on the sea floor.

This summer, researchers from the international environmental group Earthwatch confirmed that the same tanker, built to hold two million gallons of fuel, is still leaking oil into this ecologically rich lagoon, home to turtles, more than 200 species of fish, and at least one rare coral.

"The bubbles [of oil] come from an area the size of a dinner plate," says Australian maritime archaeologist Bill Jeffery, who led the Earthwatch team.

Earthwatch also identified a smaller oil slick coming from a nearby Japanese submarine tender, the Rio de Janeiro Maru.

Risks Vary

The risk posed by a wreck depends on where the vessel sits, the types and amount of fuel on board, and the local environment, says Douglas Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration, which evaluates and responds to many ocean hazards.

A wreck in a sensitive lagoon, for example, may pose a greater potential hazard than one that's sunk 5,000 feet underwater.

Most World War II wrecks "pose little or no threat to the environment," Lt. (j.g.) Thomas Buck, a U.S. Navy spokesperson, says via email.

"Many of the sunken WWII vessels did not, at the time of their sinking, contain large quantities of oil (i.e., the vast majority were not oil tankers); and of those that did, many no longer do, owing to the severe combat damage they sustained."

But conservationists emphasize that tankers like the Hoyo Maru deserve close watch because of their massive fuel capacity.

Most were built to hold millions of gallons of oil. And while the exact number of sunken fuel tankers is unknown, an Australian maritime consulting firm, SEA Australia, has counted 332 among the 3,700 Pacific wrecks from that era, including three in Chuuk Lagoon.

An Expensive and Complicated Problem

So what can be done about leaks from Pacific wrecks?

In the case of the Hoyo Maru, the Japanese government, which still has rights over the tanker, acknowledges local concerns and requested a Chuuk-based Japanese diver to look at the oil leaking from the tanker, "but none could be seen on the day of the inspection," Earthwatch's Jeffery says via email. "This is not unusual as it is known the tanker can exhibit leaking one day and not the next."

Overall, the small island nations of the South Pacific lack the funds and technological expertise to perform large-scale cleanups.

Even if they didn't, Japan, like the United States, and the United Kingdom, has repeatedly asserted control over the remains of its own World War II ships. All three countries say their wrecks are maritime graves and cannot be salvaged by anyone else without permission.

At the same time, they generally don't act unless they receive a specific request for help from nations affected by the wrecks.

In the U.S., where various government agencies share different kinds of authority over issues involving American shipwrecks, "Sunken wrecks are an expensive problem that many agencies feel ill-equipped and underfunded to address," NOAA's Helton wrote in a 2003 report.

While NOAA has an interest in the effects of American military shipwrecks, responsibility rests with the Navy for wrecks outside U.S. waters.

"The Navy has developed a structured case-by-case approach for dealing with situations where U.S. navy wrecks are suspected of posing undue environmental risks," says Buck.

The Case of the Mississinewa

One leaking Navy wreck that did pose risks was the U.S.S. Mississinewa, a tanker sunk in 1944 by a Japanese suicide submarine near the Micronesian island of Yap.

In 2001, the Mississinewa was jostled by a typhoon and began releasing more than 300 gallons of fuel a day on and off for a year-and-a-half.

Micronesia declared a state of emergency and temporarily banned fishing, which island residents depend on for income and subsistence.

Following a couple of patchups, the Navy organized a comprehensive cleanup in 2003 that required nine Navy commands (units), at least two barges, and approximately 15 divers who underwent at least 10 days of training beforehand.

The divers used an advanced technique called hot tapping—in which submersible hoses are attached to oil or fuel tanks and the liquid is pumped to a barge on the water's surface—to offload most of the ship's remaining oil.

Nearly two million gallons were recovered and some was re-refined and sold, recouping a portion of the $5.5 million clean-up cost.

Prevention and Assessment

Some conservationists believe assessing wrecks is the best way to avert problems.

"Prevention is always better than cure," Australian environmental scientist Trevor Gilbert says via email.

Assessing the likelihood of a spill for the highest-risk wrecks may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that's certainly cheaper than the millions required to offload oil from leaking vessels like the Mississinewa, notes Gilbert, a marine pollution expert who researched the World War II wrecks for Pacific island governments and has worked extensively with SEA Australia.

Marine biologist Sylvia Earle, who spotted at least one oil leak when she first dove Chuuk in 1975 for a National Geographic magazine story, agrees it's important to assess the wrecks for environmental risk.

For each, she says, "We need to know how much oil, the depth, what the complications [of cleanup] might be. An intelligent evaluation would be mandatory."

Earle, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, suggests starting with the Hoyo Maru: "If it's a tanker," she says, "that's a priority."

But overall Earle advocates a cautious approach. "By and large these attempts to go in and solve problems cause more problems," she says.

Still, conservationists like Barrett believe that using cutting-edge draining techniques like hot tapping on wrecks that pose the greatest risk is safer than waiting.

He hopes the data he's collected over the years will help pinpoint which wrecks are most likely to cause environmental damage—and spur cleanup efforts. In the meantime, he continues to worry about the effects of the Hoyo Maru and other World War II wrecks: "The longer these ships are down there corroding or getting battered by waves," he says, "the higher the risk of a spill."

1/5 of Coral Reefs Lost Due to Acid-Filled Oceans

The world has lost nearly one-fifth of its coral reefs, and much of the rest could be destroyed by increasingly acidic seas if climate change continues unchecked, a conservation group warned Wednesday.

Rising temperatures from greenhouses gases are the latest and most serious threats to coral, which are already being damaged by destructive fishing methods and pollution, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
About 19 percent of coral reefs have disappeared during the last 20 years, said IUCN's director general, Julia Marton-Lefèvre.

"If current trends in carbon dioxide emission continue, many of the remaining reefs will be lost in the next 20 to 40 years," Marton-Lefèvre said at Wednesday's U.N. talks, which are focused on creating a new climate change treaty.

"Climate change must be limited to the absolute minimum if we want to save coral reefs. We need to move forward and substantially cut emissions," she said.
Devastating Loss

Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which fuels global warming, is raising ocean levels and temperatures, said Olof Linden of the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden.

When oceans absorb carbon dioxide from air, the gas reacts with water to produce carbonic acid.

That makes the water more acidic, dissolving the calcium shells of reef-building coral and other creatures that rely on the mineral.
A report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, of which IUCN is a member, also said all the world's coral reefs could be considered threatened if current forecasts from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and coral reef experts are heeded.

Because such reefs are home to more than a quarter of all marine species, their loss could be devastating for biodiversity in the world's oceans, experts say.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Power On the Tides

Walk along the beach and watch the ocean. There’s a lot of power out there. Just ask the people whose beachfront houses get washed away in big storms. Engineers are investigating ways to harness that power and generate electricity.

It’s not a new idea. Prototypes of wave-power generators have been around for 100 years. But people have only started to get serious about it since the reality of global warming started to sink in.

The idea is simple. Anything that moves can power a generator. Water in the ocean moves, all the time. It’s easy to predict how that water will move, next week or next year. We can predict how tides will move in bays and rivers – several years ahead. And satellite images can tell us several days ahead of time how high the waves will be.

Engineers are already testing wave and tide-powered turbines. A turbine on the bottom of New York City’s East River already provides enough electricity to run a nearby grocery store and parking garage. A generator buoy bouncing in the waves off the Oregon coast is being tested, too. Engineers estimate that eventually, 300 buoys could provide power for almost 40,000 homes. Turbines in the Gulf Stream could provide electricity for more than 100,000 homes.

Sex-Changing Chemicals Found in Potomac River

Ever since the discovery of gender-bending fish in the Potomac River, scientists have wondered what could be changing the sex of large numbers of fish in the waterway outside Washington, D.C.

They may not have to wonder much longer.

A recent U.S. government study has found large quantities of chemicals in the river and its tributaries—pollutants that are known to cause sex change in animals.

These chemicals, from both residential and industrial sources, may be linked to the unnatural fish, says the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report, which was released late last month.

Males With Eggs

The discovery of the abnormal fish "was largely accidental," said Douglas Chambers, a USGS scientist who led the study.

"In 2002 we were looking at stream-water chemistry to understand the large fish die-offs at these sites. It was then that we found smallmouth bass with intersex, a condition where male fish develop premature egg cells."

During a 2003 survey of the Potomac River and the Cacapon River of West Virginia, Chambers and his colleagues found large numbers of intersex fish.

The researchers also found chemicals from pesticides and flame retardants as well as fragrances commonly found in products such as soaps, antiperspirants, and deodorants.

"We analyzed blood plasma of 30 smallmouth bass from six sites," Chambers said. "All the fish contained at least one of the polluting chemicals, including fish that were not intersex."

However, Chambers said, the study has so far not turned up a single case of "imposex"—the condition in which female fish have malformed ovaries or produce sperm.

Once absorbed by the body, these chemicals—known as endocrine disruptors—interfere with normal bodily functions either by mimicking or blocking the production of hormones.

Experts say endocrine disruptors are found in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, fumigants, and fungicides. Municipal and domestic sewage and wastewater from farms and industries might be routing these chemicals into the water supply.

The presence of such chemicals is not unique to the Potomac. The pollutants have previously been documented in bodies of water in other parts of the United States as well as in Europe.

Scientists have also found reproductive problems in fish and birds in habitats along the U.S. Great Lakes. Similarly, declining alligator populations in Florida's Lake Apopka have been linked to synthetic chemicals that hinder reproduction.

Pollution Cocktail

Chambers says the USGS is analyzing data from last year and is planning to release a more detailed report later this year. The next report will try to make a definitive link between these chemicals and their effects on the environment.

"Currently many of these compounds have not been well researched for their environmental characteristics, how they are taken up by living organisms, and how they can be removed from streams," he added.

Dana Kolpin is a USGS research hydrologist and director of the agency's Emerging Contaminants Project. He reviewed Chambers' study but is not connected with it.

"This is the first step to understanding a very complex issue," Kolpin said.

"We need to understand the cocktail of compounds that are in the environment and whether there are certain bad actors that are causing feminization of males—and what it means for humans [who use this water]."

"It is critical to know where the sources are, how the compounds are being transported, and which ones are being degraded. What happens to them [after they enter the river] is the million-dollar question."

"Ugly" Albino Ratfish Captured

This ghostly animal is a completely different kettle of fish.

The albino white-spotted ratfish caught this summer during a marine survey in Washington's Puget Sound is the first albino fish ever spotted by local scientists.

Ratfish, bottom-dwelling relatives of skates and stingrays, are usually brown with white spots that act as camouflage.

The fish probably owe their name to their exceptionally long tails and rodentlike teeth that crush up clams and other prey lurking in the mud.

"They're pretty ugly," John Reum, the University of Washington doctoral student who caught the fish, told the Associated Press news agency.

The foot-long (30-centimeter-long) pearly white female seen here had pale green eyes and was estimated to be about two or three years old—just an adolescent.

"This animal would stand out like a beacon," fisheries professor Ted Pietsch told the AP. "I don't know why it wasn't eaten long before."

But the rare creature's luck ran out—it died shortly after capture.

It now sparkles as the only albino specimen in the university's collection of 7.2 million fish.

New Artificial Reefs "Grow" From Mideast Peace Deal

In a rare example of Middle East cooperation, Israelis and Jordanians have joined together to create a string of artificial coral reefs in the Red Sea.

The international effort is meant to attract divers and snorkelers to artificial reefs to allow the area's damaged natural reefs to heal.

A high diversity of corals thrive in the Gulf of Aqaba, which lies at the northern end of the Red Sea and is bordered by both Israel and Jordan as well as Egypt and Saudia Arabia farther south.

These reefs draw tourists from around the world to the neighboring resort cities of Elat, Israel, and Al 'Aqabah, Jordan.

The tourism dollars are a boon to the region's economy, but an onslaught of snorkelers and divers has taken a damaging toll. Many of the reefs are literally dying, experts say.

Reefs on Jordan's coast, though still at risk, have so far suffered less from human pressures than those on the more heavily visited Israeli and Egyptian coast.

"There is increasing construction, industrial development, and tourism around the gulf. Elat and [Al ']Aqabah are fast-growing cities and pressure on the reefs is growing," said Fuad Al Horani of the Marine Science Station (MSS) in Al 'Aqabah.

MSS and a team from the Elat campus of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) are spearheading the reef construction.

A 1994 peace deal between Israel and Jordan mandated that the two countries work together on combating marine pollution, natural resources issues, and coastal reef protection in the gulf.

Researchers are also gathering critical data on these complex ecosystems, including coral survival rates and patterns as well as the effects of human behavior on reefs.

Reviving the Reef

Using cranes and large parachutes, the team has already sunk huge concrete structures, each weighing 4.2 tons, into water 19 to 22 feet (6 to 7 meters) deep. Before installation, corals were nursed in special tubes designed to fit in holes drilled into the artificial reef.

In September researchers aided by university students and Israeli schoolchildren glued the tubes across the surfaces of the irregularly shaped modular building blocks.

About 250 of the coral-filled tubes have already been planted on the reef, and more are in the works.

Inner areas of the new human-made reef are barred to prevent the entry of divers and encourage new coral growth and colonization by fish and other marine life.

"Usually when something bad happens to a protected marine area, you can only say, Okay, we lost a part of it," said Nadav Shashar, BGU's marine biologist and project supervisor.

"But here we are actually able to reclaim an area. This used to be a coral reef and it died. But now we can go back and build a new one."

Just two months after initial construction, more than 20 species of fish—along with invertebrates including corals, fan worms, and tunicates—have settled naturally on the reef.

Shashar anticipates the artificial structure will need between five and ten years to evolve into a viable reef ecosystem.

But fish populations will likely fully colonize the project within a year.

When completed, the project will include three reefs in Jordanian waters and two in Israel. But it is not intended to replace natural ecosystems.

Instead, the new reefs provide alternate dive areas and help in the reclamation of specific reefs.

Artificial vs. Natural

There are biological differences between natural and artificial reefs.

Natural reefs contain tiny ecosystems that are dependent on light and nutrients as well as sea current strengths and speeds, Al Horani of Jordan's MSS said.

Artificial reefs do not necessarily provide the physical infrastructures for these micro-ecosystems.

"We are trying to create different types of micro-ecosystems within the structures we are developing," Al Horani said. For instance, some surfaces are exposed to full sunlight, and others are more shaded.

Shashar of Israel's BGU intentionally designed the new reef in a way that does not mimic a natural reef, but rather provides an alternate habitat for rare species.

Similar Pressures

Natural reefs in the U.S.—including the Florida Keys and Hawaii—and the Bahamas are also facing dangerous pressures similar to those of the Gulf of Aqaba reefs.

Bob Leeworthy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was not involved in the Gulf of Aqaba project.

He has worked on a Florida Keys artificial reef study that involved the intentional sinking of a decommissioned U.S. naval vessel.

Such projects can help save natural reefs by taking stress off them, he said.

"It was a win-win situation in the sense that total use—including scuba diving, snorkeling, glass-bottom boat rides, and fishing—increased while the use of the surrounding natural reefs declined," Leeworthy said.

Advertising the artificial reef site led to a direct increase in business traffic at local scuba outfitters, he added. Anecdotal information suggests that visitor interest in the artificial site remains steady today.

Both MSS's Al Horani and BGU's Shashar said relations between the Israeli and Jordanian team members are positive.

"We have common goals," Al Horani said.

"Without this kind of collaboration we can't really control the environmental factors that might negatively influence the Gulf of Aqaba."

Dolphin "Chat Line" to Help Deaf Mom's Calf "Talk"

An underwater "chat line" may help stimulate communication development in an unborn dolphin—in ways the calf's mother, which is deaf, cannot.

Castaway, a pregnant Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, has been living at the Marine Mammal Conservancy (MMC) in Key Largo, Florida, since January, when she was found stranded in Vero Beach.

A battery of tests determined that the mother-to-be is profoundly deaf. Deafness can be fatal for dolphins in the wild. The animals rely on echolocation—the sending and receiving of sound waves—to socialize, find prey, and avoid predators.

"Dolphins live in a world of sound," said MMC president Robert Lingenfelser. "The inability to hear makes them blind, in a sense."

Scientists do not know what caused Castaway's deafness, but they doubt that the dolphin has been deaf since birth.

The bottlenose is about 27 years old. Researchers believe it is highly unlikely that she would have survived so long in the wild, even with help from her pod, if the dolphin had been deaf its entire life.

Concerns for Calf

Castaway's deafness could also hinder her ability to teach her calf vital developmental skills.

The first few months of life are the most critical for newborn dolphins to learn survival skills, Lingenfelser says.

To date, Castaway has only uttered a few sounds in a low-frequency monotone—a stark contrast to an average dolphin's steady stream of high-frequency chirps, squeaks, and clicks.

"Probably our biggest concern is that the calf will not develop the ability to communicate if the mother is not communicating," said Jill Borger-Richardson, director of research and education at Dolphins Plus, a Key Largo dolphin and marine mammal research and education facility.

Dolphins Plus scientists have consequently recorded several "conversations" of their hearing dolphins. Those recordings are now being played in Castaway's pen via underwater speakers to promote the fetal calf's communication development.

Underwater Chat Line

Once the calf is born, scientists plan to turn off the stereo and give Castaway the opportunity to communicate with her calf on her own.

If Castaway's verbal repertoire does not improve, staff will try opening up a live chat line between the dolphins at MMC and those at Dolphins Plus. Even then, success is not guaranteed.

"At the very least, [these efforts] might help the calf assimilate into its pod when it's moved to a new facility," Borger-Richardson said. "If it's not going to hurt them, we might as well give it a try."

Castaway has a mid-May due date. MMC scientists will monitor the bottlenose and her newborn calf for at least nine months before transporting the pair to another facility.

Given Castaway's deafness and her calf's potential developmental delays, neither dolphin will be released into the wild.

Weird Deep-Sea Creatures Found in Atlantic

With a fearsome grin fit for a movie monster, this viperfish is a real-life predator that lurks in one of the world's most remote locations.

An international team of 31 researchers found this and other strange animals while exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an underwater mountain range that runs from Iceland to the Azores islands west of Portugal

Over the course of five weeks, the team cataloged a host of exotic worms, colorful corals, unusual sea cucumbers, and weird fish. Clearly, viperfish has plenty to eat.

Many of the species found on the ridge are rare and had only been discovered in recent years, scientists said. At least one species found during the survey—a tiny crustacean called a seed shrimp—is thought to be new to science.

"It was like going to a new country," said expedition leader Monty Priede of Britain's University of Aberdeen.

The survey was coordinated by the Norway-based MAR-ECO project and the Census of Marine Life program.

Despite its delicate, decorated appearance, this jewel squid was found 1,650 lung-crushing feet (500 meters) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic.

Scientists on a recent deep-sea expedition found the squid, called Histioteuthis, along with an abundance of other species thought to be very rare, if not unknown, elsewhere.

Jewel squid are known for their mismatched eyes, one of which is larger than the other to scope for prey in the deep's darkness.

With its polka-dot mantle and cartoonish expression, this glass squid brings out a lighter side of the inky ocean deep.

Scientists found the squid and other species while mapping more than 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of an undersea mountain range in the North Atlantic.

Until now the region had scarcely been explored because of its remoteness and depth. But the new survey shows that the ridge is teeming with life, said Monty Priede, expedition leader and director of the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab research center.

"The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is roughly equivalent in size to the European Alps and is one of the largest areas of habitat available in the ocean," Priede said.

In an ironic strategy for survival, a tiny shrimplike creature called an amphipod shows everything it has, inside and out, in an attempt to disappear.

The unusual animal, called Phronima, is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic.

Many small deep-sea creatures are transparent, or nearly so, to better camouflage themselves in their murky surroundings, scientists say.

"Super Suckers" Slurp Invasive Algae Off Reefs

In the battle against an exotic seaweed, biologists are employing a rather unusual solution: underwater vacuum cleaners.

The cleaners—called Super Suckers—suck up tons of gorilla ogo, invasive algae that are killing coral reefs, smothering sea grass beds, and fouling beaches in Hawaii.

Since 2006 the original Super Sucker, a barge-mounted device, has been operating in Kaneohe Bay, on the island of Oahu, where the seaweed invasion is particularly severe.

At a recent scientific conference in Japan, biologists announced the arrival of "Super Sucker Junior," a smaller and more versatile unit that can operate in shallower waters and be easily transported between islands.

Alien Competitors

On land, non-native plant species sometimes outcompete native vegetation and take over habitat. The same phenomenon can happen in the sea.

In Hawaii and elsewhere, scientists have noticed high-diversity coral communities shift to algae-dominated reefs with greatly reduced species diversity.

The problem posed by gorilla ogo and other invasive algae in Hawaii has been growing in magnitude for a number of years, experts say, and now has become dire.

"The algae invasion poses the largest current threat to the health of reefs in Hawaii," said Cynthia Hunter, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii.

Thick coatings of algae can kill corals by blocking them from sunlight and flows of fresh seawater.

Some species have been particularly affected, Hunter said, including a species of rice coral that is now rapidly disappearing.

Algae also fill in the cracks and crevices that make coral reefs a safe haven for fish and other forms of marine life. Even larger animals such as sea turtles may be excluded from their normal resting areas.

"Removing the algae recreates the three-dimensional nature of the coral reef, and recreates homes used by all types of fish and invertebrates," said Brian Hauk, a director of the Super Sucker project with Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Gorilla ogo is just one of five exotic algae that now threaten Hawaii's reefs. Only one of the invaders arrived by accident—probably on the hull of a ship.

The others were all brought to Hawaii deliberately for aquaculture research in the 1970s, Hunter of the University of Hawaii said. At that time, scientists were evaluating the suitability of different algae for commercial production.

Substances derived from marine algae are used for a variety of purposes in manufacturing and biological research, she said. When the research ended, the algae remained.

For two decades nobody really noticed: The algae were held in check by other marine life just as in their native environment.

But by the mid-1990s populations of algae-eating fish and sea urchins had declined, Hunter said, and the algae underwent an ecological shift.

"There was a tipping point about 10 to 15 years ago, and then the algae just took off," Hunter said.

"They invented a way of life that no one could have predicted: growing into dense mats 1- to 2-feet [0.3- to 0.6-meters] thick."

Sucking It Up

Each Super Sucker consists of a powerful pump and a tube for suctioning algae from beneath the ocean surface to the deck of a barge.

Divers in the water operate the 100-foot-long (30-meter-long) suction hose, feeding in gobs of algae by hand after first shaking loose any marine organisms that may be attached.

"They literally suck the algae off the reef," Hauk said.

Workers on the barge further screen the collected algae for any accidentally collected marine life. The nutrient-rich algae are then packed into bags for use as fertilizer. The Super Suckers can remove up to 800 pounds of algae per hour and restore hundreds of square feet of reef in a day, Hauk said.

"When you pull the algae off, there is often live coral underneath that is fighting to survive," Hauk said.

"You feel like you are saving the reef one [coral] colony at a time."

The Super Sucker project is a joint effort by The Nature Conservancy, the University of Hawaii, and the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources.

People Power

Using Super Suckers isn't the only way to clean up invasive algae. On the islands of Oahu and Maui, community volunteers have removed more than a hundred tons of algae from beaches and shallow waters.

But such efforts have not been able to keep pace with the invasion and are impractical in reef areas far from shore, experts say.

The Super Suckers provide a much faster and more efficient clean-up method, Hunter said, but they are only part of the long-term solution.

The ultimate goal is to turn the job of reef management back over the reefs' natural algal residents.

"Native algal consumers can keep [the invasive algae] from coming back," Hunter said. "The areas we are targeting will need to have those native communities restored."

Biologists are now starting to propagate native sea urchins—spiny, hard-shelled creatures with a strong appetite for algae. They hope to raise the urchins in captivity and then introduce them in reef areas where algae have been removed.

In addition, Hunter noted, new fishing restrictions should help allow populations of native reef fish to recover.

Studies have shown that in areas treated with the Super Sucker, native species can effectively prevent re-invasion, and new coral larvae begin to settle and grow.

Glow Sticks May Lure Sea Turtles to Death

The same glow sticks that lighten up raves and Halloween may be tempting thousands of sea turtles to their deaths, a new study says.

Used to attract fish to hooks on miles-long lines, the lights are apparently also irresistible to the reptiles.

Commercial longline fishing operations are known to contribute to the decline of sea turtle populations.

Now researchers say that simply changing the type of light sticks could perhaps reduce the number of accidentally caught turtles.

The study is the first to demonstrate that sea turtles are attracted to the lights used by commercial longliners to lure swordfish and tuna. The paper appears in this month's issue of the journal Animal Conservation.

"Once the turtles are in the vicinity of the longlines, there's a high chance they will bite on the bait and become snagged," said study co-author John Wang of the University of Hawaii. "They can also get entangled in the fishing lines."

In 2000 alone, an estimated 200,000 loggerhead turtles and 50,000 leatherbacks were killed on longlines, according to the report. The World Conservation Union lists both species as endangered.

Swimming Tests

To investigate whether visual stimuli attract sea turtles to longlines, Wang and colleagues used electronic tracking devices to monitor the movements of loggerhead turtles as they swam in a large laboratory tank.

"We put various commercial light sticks at the edge of the laboratory pool to see if the turtles would swim toward them," Wang said, "which they did."

The turtles swam toward yellow, blue, and green chemical glow sticks as well as orange LEDs.

An LED is a small type of light bulb usually used in groups. The bulbs are increasingly found in consumer applications such as car brake lights and flashlights—and in a more expensive, longer-lasting type of glow stick.

"Turtles might mistake the light sticks for glowing jellyfish," said co-author Ken Lohmann, from the University of North Carolina.

"But it's equally plausible this is just an instinctive reaction to the unnatural continuous light," Lohmann said.

Searching for Solutions

"Light sticks are integral parts of some longline fisheries," study co-author Wang explained, "so limiting their use will not be a viable management solution."

Instead, researchers are working closely with industry leaders to develop modified glow sticks that would still lure swordfish and tuna but be less attractive to turtles.

One possible strategy, Wang said, "is shading the light sticks to direct the light downward. Sea turtles use the top portion of the water column, while most target fish are caught as they move upward from deeper water."

Pulsing lights are also being tested to see if they are less attractive to sea turtles.

"Fisheries in general are the biggest concern for sea turtles," said Roderic Mast, vice-president of Conservation International and co-chair of the World Conservation Union's Marine Turtle Specialist Group.

"Research like this that focuses on ways to limit the impact of particular fisheries is going to help us do a better job of solving these problems."

Giant Catfish, Stingrays Among World's ''Monster'' Fishes

Mysterious "Harbor"(Ocean Living)

Nearly one hundred years, the world merchant shipping and ships at sea constantly encountered some strange things : the ocean depths will inexplicably fired strange glare or any mysterious and unpredictable unknown object; So far, these strange phenomena are still many scientists puzzled. ...

Scientists based on years of research, proposed a bold idea : these strange phenomena may hide behind some kind of exotic from the civilization! ...

There is a view, "Harbor" both in terms of "air oceans" of survival, but also the "marine air" survival of prehistoric humans by another branch of reasons : the origins of mankind in the ocean, many of the modern human organ habits and obviously retains traces of this , for example - salt, water, love and other fish. These characteristics of the land is not available in other mammals ...

"Harbor" is floating around? What is it? ..

Russian scholars Kuwabara that such a bold assumption was correct. If we can mysterious marine flash duration and the time interval recorded, perhaps modern electronic computer can "Harbor" to the flashlight signal to our continent human decipher the message out. ...

The second view, "Harbor" is not another branch of humanity, is likely to be living in a peculiar underwater aliens, the reason was that these biological wisdom and technological level far exceeds the human. But this assumption bizarre, most scientists have not been recognized. ...

Sea glass pyramid prominent under mysterious summer 1992, a group of Spanish workers harvesting kelp on the seabed to see a huge transparent dome of the building. In July 1993, British scientists in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 meters deep seabed found two large pyramid, much like a crystal glass, while about 100 meters, 200 meters high. ...

Col. Henry in the Bermuda Triangle area 360 meters underwater found the pyramid, the United States explorer Trona in the Bahamas Islands waters discovered the "secret Lane underwater than buildings." When people think of construction is "Harbor" to collect seabed oil and gas chemical plants, it was also considered to be "Harbor" for the purification and desalination equipment, and some even guess ...

Harbor is a civilization which, it is assumed, human evolution, may be divided into the water, and land two and climbed up to the shore as human beings, submerged in water, called "Harbor people." Scientists Sund Morrison almost a lifetime devoted to all underwater world "anomaly" study, written many great academic value of the article. .

Once, a ride Thunder Morrison icebreaker voyage in the Atlantic Ocean, witnessed an incredible miracle : a bullet-shaped gray monster suddenly frozen sea appears, "click" bang crushed a 3-meter thick layer of ice, and then suddenly disappeared in the sky were. Thunder Morrison has made a bold assumption : Earth exists a highly developed Harbor ...

Mysterious "Harbor" frequently appear more and more people puzzled Harbor monster, a monster from the ocean of humanity Lane climbed to a ramification is still in the ocean depths? Or from extraterrestrial civilizations? ...

In 1938, the east coast of the Baltic Sea in Eastern Europe Estonia Zhu Ming Da beach, a group of people rush to the sea found a singular never seen the animal : It mouth like duck's beak, chest like a chicken, round the head a bit like frog. When the "frog" found someone to track it, then no one jumped into the Baltic Sea, fast, it could barely see the feet, but on the beach ...

In 1958, the United States National Institute of the 89th Marine Dr. use underwater cameras, in the Atlantic Ocean more than 4,000 meters deep seabed appears to be a similar number of people it is not man's footsteps. In 1988, in the United States to South Carolina to the suburbs than peacekeeping marshes, it also found a semi Now they "lizard people." ...

"Lizard" two meters tall, a lot of red eyes, all wearing full green scales, each finger only three fingers, walk upright, run up faster than the vehicle can operate in the swamps easily and people with various approaches hope orphans, but failed in 2:44:19. With the advancement of technology around the world tend to like "Harbor" eyewitness report. ...

An information card : mermaid : Harbor civilized emissary? Britain's "Sun" reported that in 1962 there had been together scientists capture small Mermaid incident. The former Soviet Union Lenin Academy of Sciences, Dr. Weinuogeleide described as follows : At that time, one containing the scientists and military experts to detect vessels in the sea off Cuba captures a person can speak the language of small Mermaid, was squamous skin, ...

Small said he Mermaid Atlantis from the city, also told researchers in a few million years ago, Atlantis across the continent of Africa and South America, was submerged ... Later, a small Black Sea Mermaid was rushed to a secret research institutions, scientists for in-depth study. ...

Coincidentally, the two recent shark fisheries expert career in the Caribbean waters 11 to catch sharks, which have a tiger shark was spotted 18.3 meters long, when fishermen anatomy of the tiger shark was spotted, it was found in the stomach of a strange anomaly the skeleton, bones like the upper third of the adult skeleton, but from the beginning of the pelvis is a big fish bones. Fishermen then be forwarded to the police after this pair of strange for the bones, the police also invited experts to further study and information into the computer, according to the shape skeleton produced the mermaid. Participating in this Andean destroyed the Egyptian degrees, said Dr. them from the evidence available, the mermaid legend or is not made up of organisms, but does exist in the world of a biological. ...

The Golden Ocean

Marine scientists predict the world, which account for 71% of the total area of marine contain large quantities of gold, is the future of humanity competition belongings land.
The ocean is the source of gold in many ways.
Apart from marine strata contain vast natural sand, the lake's major rivers into the gold-bearing ores are huge.
Only Heilongjiang example, the annual flow into the Tatar Strait of gold reached more than 8 tons.
Secondly, each of the universe fell into the sea about 3,500 tons of rock, ordinary meteorites 10 grams of gold per ton, up to 18 kilograms a year.
After a few million years, meteorites gold sea least tens of thousands of tons.
In addition, dissolved in the water of gold per ton of water up to 0.01 to 0.4 mg, the world's seawater containing gold reached 55 million tons.
Therefore, the human equivalent to the sea for the cause enticing.