Background Articles

Extreme heat events wreak havoc on marine ecosystems and will only get worse in coming decades.

A team of biologists is surveying a lake on Kodiak Island for crawfish, an invasive species in Alaska that has been observed in higher frequency over past several years.

Vibriosis cases are on the rise, and scientists think the trend is likely to continue as climate change results in rising temperatures and rising sea level.

Foraging strategies and their resulting efficiency (energy gain to cost ratio) affect animals' survival and reproductive success and can be linked to population dynamics. However, they have rarely been studied quantitatively in free-ranging animals. We investigated foraging strategies and efficiencies of wild northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus during their breeding season to understand potential links to the observed population decline in the Bering Sea. We equipped 20 lactating females with biologgers to determine at-sea foraging behaviours. We measured energy expenditure while foraging using the doubly-labelled water method, and energy gained using (1) the types and energy densities of prey consumed, and (2) the number of prey capture attempts (from acceleration data). Our results show that seals employed 2 foraging strategies: one group (40\%) fed mostly in oceanic waters on small, high energy-density prey, while the other (60\%) stayed over the shallow continental shelf feeding mostly on larger, lower quality fish. Females foraging in oceanic waters captured 3 times more prey, and had double the foraging efficiencies of females that foraged on-shelf in neritic waters. However, neritic seals made comparatively shorter trips, and likely fed their pups similar to 20 to 25\% more frequently. The presence of these strategies which either favor foraging efficiency (energy) or frequency of nursing (time) might be maintained in the population because they have similar net fitness outcomes. However, neither strategy appears to simultaneously maximize time and energy allocated to nursing, with potential impacts on the survival of pups during their first year at sea.

Nematodes moving and eating again for the first time since the Pleistocene age in major scientific breakthrough, say experts.

An increase in carbon emissions are showing up not only in the air, but also in water. Now researchers and shellfish farmers are teaming up to see how marine plants can help stave off the effects of ocean acidification. Special correspondent Jes Burns of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

Dataset from Dr. Brian Burke (NOAA; brian.burke@noaa.gov); derived from surface trawls taken during NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center Juvenile Salmon & Ocean Ecosystem Survey (JSOES).

Considered the most destructive pest slug in Europe, the Spanish slug, or Arion lusitanicus, or Arion vulgaris, or sometimes Geoff (there’s some controversy over the name, thanks to the fact that the Arion genus contains up to 50 species and they all look a lot like one another) is between 7-15cm long and can weigh up to 15kilos if it’s sitting on a dog.

Warmer temperatures and declining sea ice pulls foreign animals and plants to the Arctic, with drastic consequences for these sensitive ecosystems.

In August 2017, Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak was awarded funding by USFWS Tribal Wildlife Grant (TWG) Program. The two-year project, titled “Distribution, Movement and Diet of Invasive Crayfish Populations in Buskin River Watershed on Kodiak Island, Alaska” focuses on characterizing the distribution (snorkel/scuba diving surveys), movement (radio tagging) and diet (stable isotope analyses) of the Signal Crayfish population within Buskin Watershed.

Climate change has warmed the waters east of Tasmania at four times the speed of the global average. But the heatwave of the southern summer of 2015/2016 was something exceptional, damaging fisheries and bringing new species to the island. It's a sign of things to come, say the researchers examining these events.

Wild salmon from the Pacific coast of North America may be infected with Japanese tapeworms, according to a study in a CDC-published journal.

B.C salmon farms last year were besieged by sea lice, according to a new University of Toronto study, which also found a dangerously steep rise of infestation among young wild salmon who swam nearby.

FioRito, Rebecca, Celeste Leander, and Brian Leander. "Characterization of three novel species of Labyrinthulomycota isolated from ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus." Marine Biology 163.8 (2016): 1-10.

Contagious cancers occur in clams and other bivalves, and some can even spread between different species of bivalves.

There's somewhat of a slow motion invasion of a fresh water crustacean happening in Buskin River and Buskin Lake. It has a hard shell, two claws and tastes great in pies.

Populations of marine wildlife have plummeted by a half on average over the past 40 years with some species suffering far greater declines as a result of habitat loss, overfishing, rising sea temperatures and worsening ocean acidity, a major report has found.

The "unprecedented" warm water in the Pacific caused a massive toxic algae bloom from California to Alaska.

The lobster population has crashed to the lowest levels on record in southern New England while climbing to heights never before seen in the cold waters off Maine and other northern reaches — a geographic shift that scientists attribute in large part to the warming of the ocean.

Scientists first caught on to the strange event when they found thousands of purple sea urchins and other organisms dead in their laboratory tanks. Their theory: The mass deaths were caused by a huge bloom of algae.