The Battle for Coral Reefs

Kwajalein Atoll
Image Credit - Landsat 7

Here's an article in the current edition of WHOI's (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's) Oceanus Magazine on the delicate balance it takes to "maintain" a healthy coral reef and how that balance may/will be distrubed in a changing ocean.

Oceanus - Reefs

Painting the Sea

Earlier this year we learned about various microscopic inhabitants of the world; diatoms and coccolithophores, for example.

A NASA instrument picked up these wild colors in the Bering Sea in the neighborhood of the Pribiliof Islands.

Earth Observatory - Phytoplankton

New Marine Reserves

Palymra Atoll

President Obama recently created the largest protected marine reserve in the world.  Other countries have protected part of the ocean as well.  Now Gabon is following suit.

Here's an interesting article and a great map from National Geographic:

Marine Reserves

Here's the article from National Geographic:

Enlarging Remote islands Marine Reserve

The reserve was originally created by then President Bus around 2006.

Acidifying Ocean

Ocean Carbon Cycle

Here's an interesting blog post from Scientific American.  It includes a map of surface ocean pH.  Water chemistry is something we talked about extensively at the beginning of the year.

Blog - Acid Ocean Map

Touchdown!!

After an amazing journey, ESA's Rosetta Probe has planted its lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P.  Check out the resources below:

- ScienceDaily.com article - ScienceDaily - Rosetta

The Pacific Garbage Patch

Masked Angelfish

The Pacific Ocean, and every ocean for that matter, is filled with floating trash.  Trash from careless people, trash from material washed overboard in storms, and derelict (lost/abandoned) fishing gear.

I just saw this article on the NOAA website.  It's about the NOAA Fisheries program to remove this debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Sanctuary.  This is one of (if not the) the largest protected areas in the world ocean.

The article is a little disappointing due to the amount of debris found and removed each year.  However, take some time to explore the area using Google Earth.  Make sure you have the Panoramio layer turned on for some amazing pictures.

Read on for more...NOAA Article - Removing Derelict Fishing Gear

Here's the homepage for the sanctuary: http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/MNM/mnm_papahanaumokuakea.html

New Coral Species Discovered

Map of Gulf of the Farallones Nat. Marine Sanctuary
Image Credit - NOAA

California state and federal marine scientists have discovered new species of deep-sea coral while doing explorations near the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank marine sanctuaries.

Read on for more...

NOAA - New Deep Sea Corals

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Home