Ocean Sentry

Dragon, a female North Atlantic right whale, has been discovered entangled off the coast of Nantucket. She is currently in declining health, and has a buoy lodged in her mouth.

Polar bears in Russia’s Arctic are increasingly turning to cannibalism as growing human activity and development in the region shrinks their hunting grounds, scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

Marine ecosystems are particularly interesting as potential carbon sinks or stores. Coastal wetlands like mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses can store more carbon than terrestrial ecosystems. This is because the waterlogged soils preserve the organic carbon and prevent decomposition. 

A nine-day heat wave scorched Antarctica’s northern tip earlier this month. New NASA images reveal that nearly a quarter of an Antarctic island’s snow cover melted in that time — an increasingly common symptom of the climate crisis.

At least 26 per cent of our oceans need urgent conservation attention to preserve Earth’s marine biodiversity, a University of Queensland-led international study has found.

A new study by University of Arizona researchers presents detailed estimates of global extinction from climate change by 2070. By combining information on recent extinctions from climate change, rates of species movement and different projections of future climate, they estimate that one in three species of plants and animals may face extinction.