How regular people can help shape science
Not a scientist? As David Lang shows, you can still play a meaningful role in solving science’s hardest problems. Read more in IDEAS.TED.COM
Diving a hobby into a career
How do you turn a hobby like SCUBA diving into a job? Ask 17-year-old Tasmanian Jakob Lister. The high school student grabs his dive gear and heads underwater every chance he gets. Now he’s grabbed the chance to steer his love of the ocean towards a career. He’s won a Redmap scholarship to join a Marine Biology course, run by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, on Maria Island …
Old tourist photos show seabird's rise over the last century
In 1880, the picturesque Swedish island of Stora Karlsö became a nature preserve and hunting park. To help fund the venture, owners of the island began organizing tours in the 1920s. Stora Karlsö remains a popular tourist destination, attracting about 10,000 visitors each year. And that means that the colony of seabirds living on the island has had its picture taken over and over again, for almost 100 years. Now …
It’s not ‘doom and gloom’ to point out what’s really happening to coral reefs
If you read The Australian or Britain’s The Times this week, you might have concluded that concerns about ocean warming and acidification are all a big beat-up. Based on a study of the expert literature, the newspapers ran with a line that the marine science expert community has a penchant for “doom and gloom stories which has skewed academic reporting” because we only report the bad bits and rarely the …
Help arriving too late for Abrolhos Islands’ fragile coral
THE coral wonderlands of the Abrolhos Islands off the Mid West coast, and the fishing industries that rely on them, are at worse risk of damage from climate change than previously thought. New research has shown that coral larvae carried on the Leeuwin Current from elsewhere are unlikely to bolster the fragile reef system which died off in vast quantities during the 2011 heat wave. The heat wave caused the first …
Warmer waters makes Tassie a hotspot for new fishy friends
WARM sea temperatures have lured an assortment of unusual sea creatures to Tasmania in recent months – some slithery and others scrumptious. Anglers are buzzing over the larger numbers of sought-after table fish visiting the island, with catches of whopper yellowtail kingfish, snapper and broadbill swordfish. Read the full story in The Mercury.
US researchers: warming seas may cause more disease
A sea star disease epidemic of unknown magnitude decimated up to 90 percent of sea star populations in some parts of the Pacific Northwest between 2013-2014, and, while the epidemic has since slowed, sea stars are still dying. Read the full story at National Geographic.
Holy Mola!
It spans up to 3 to 4 metres, breaks the scales at 1000 kilos and resembles a giant flattened pufferfish minus spikes. Redmap has been receiving sightings of the unusual-looking ocean sunfish (Mola mola)! Read about the world's heaviest fish...
Evidence of coral bleaching on Barrier Reef as sea warms
Sydney (AFP) - Scientists have warned coral bleaching was occurring on the Great Barrier Reef as sea temperatures warm, and it could rapidly accelerate unless cooler conditions blow in over the next few weeks. Read more at Yahoo 7 News.
Melbourne BioBlitz
The second BioBlitz event is a guided 24-hour study of the plants and animals that call Melbourne home. It will offer 26 guided citizen science events from leading biodiversity experts and ecologists that will allow attendees to document and discover Melbourne's biodiversity. Read more at Life Scientist.