Marine

Keys and the Coral Triangle Area. The loss of symbiotic algae and/or their pigment lead the bleaching of corals [2]. Moreover, the mass bleaching phenomena degrade the valuable ecosystem services of coral reefs, which are home to 25% of all known marine species and provide approximately $375 billion per year in goods and services around the world [3, 4, 5]. Due the fact that corals tend to die in great numbers immediately following coral bleaching events [6], many scientists consider ‘bleaching’…

Ocean Pollution: North Pacific Gyre filled with Plastic In 1997 a well-known chemist, scientific researcher and sea captain named Charles Moore, set sail from Hawaii back to his homeland, California after competing in a yacht race. Along the way, Captain Charles Moore had extra fuel to spare and decided to take a short cut through the low pressured winds of the north pacific gyre. As he and his crew reached the calm within the gyre, they were completely caught off guard as they noticed bits and…

Microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes is a fairly new environmental issue, but it is growing rapidly and requires our attention in order to minimize and ultimately stop it. Microplastics are plastic particles in smaller size scales, usually particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter (Eerkes-Medrano et al. 2015). Recent research has documented microplastics in ocean habitats worldwide and specifically in the Laurentian Great Lakes and studies have found that microplastics interact with…

greatly affected by overfishing, as a bycatch species, is the hector dolphin. It lives in the shallow waters off the coast of western New Zealand, and it is only found in the smallest area of any whale or dolphin. The are the smallest and rarest marine dolphin. There are somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 left. A subspecies called the maui dolphin who also lives in the shallow water off the coast of western New Zealand is down to an estimated 55 individuals left. Hector dolphins have many…

Whale, Whale, Whale what have we done? At the ripe age of 7, when most kids want to be princesses I wanted to be, a whale. Not in like the I want to be a whale (gesture to size of body) but I wanted to be a whale. I found them so fascinating, swimming in and out of the waves, eating all the food they wanted. But the real fascination for me came from their poop. I was obsessed with whale poop, a slightly more interesting form of poop obsession than my 7 year old peers. Okay, I know you think…

As scuba diving becomes more popular, there is a growing concern about the impact it will have on coral reefs. In Cancun, Mexico the closure of the natural reef, Manchones, was being considered to protect it against human impacts, such as scuba diving and pollution, instead the artificial reef, MUSA, was created to offer an alternative attraction for tourists. MUSA is an underwater museum that aims to combine art and conservation through the submersion of sculptures. The aim of the study was…

danger of becoming extinct across the whole world. Since their numbers are decreasing so rapidly, many efforts have been made to save them from disappearing completely. Some of these efforts are lead by different organizations such as the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. In the U.S., federal agencies lead these conservation efforts by creating recovery plans, developing habitat conservation…

Case Citation: Eckhardt Marine GMBH v. Sheriff Mahkamah Tinggi Malaya & Ors [2001] 3 CLJ 864 CA Details of the case: The parties that involved in this case were Eckhardt Marine GMBH as an appellant and Sheriff Mahkamah Tinggi Malaya as a respondent. This case had been brought to the Court of Appeal in Kuala Lumpur at 8 June in 2011. Besides, there are three judges of the court of appeal involved in this case who is Gopal Sri Ram, Nh Chan and the last one is Haidar Mohd Noor. This case was…

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to explore and delve deep into the ocean. I dreamt of breathing underwater and discovering a vastly unknown world that surrounds all of us. This lead to my interest in Marine Biology and how it has pushed my character past any interfering influence. There were so many media outlets that helped drive my passion for the water. The best way I can imagine to spend my time is to relax on a couch watching some of the best ocean films in history. There are great ones…

on hard coral. Abiotic features are non-living or physical factors and can have a large effect on the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem and the Crown of Thorns starfish. These include water temperature and nutrients in water. The Australian Institute of Marine Science state that survival rates rise by 240% with only a 2 degree temperature increase, therefore contributing to the population burst of COTS. Also, nutrients in water have been proven to improve the survival of the Crown of Thorns starfish.…