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December 4, 2009

The Scanner

Happy Friday, everyone! Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to fully digest your Thanksgiving leftovers, because I’ve got some ocean goodies for you to devour:

This week in ocean news,

…Wired Science pondered why blue whales‘ voices are growing deeper and deeper. Hypotheses revolve around increased noise pollution and the physics of sounds in increasingly warmer waters. Barry White Whale, anyone?

…For the first time, scientists were able to use DNA tools to trace the geographic origin of scalloped hammerhead shark fins in a Hong Kong fish market to their original location thousands of miles away. NPR ran a story about the DNA tool’s potential to monitor endangered species trafficking several months ago.

…The Washington Post reported on the international efforts required to stop the overfishing of important marine species such as bluefin tuna and sharks. The article quotes Oceana’s Courtney Sakai: “Shark fins are today’s ivory tusks,” Sakai said. “Like elephants, the world is realizing that sharks are more valuable alive than dead.”

…Yesterday, after years of work by Oceana, federal regulations protecting 200,000 square miles of U.S. Arctic waters from industrial fishing went into effect.

…Conservation groups pled with the Obama Administration to protect the Okinawa dugong and other endangered wildlife — including three species of sea turtle — by cancelling plans to expand a U.S. military base near Henoko in Okinawa, Japan. There are only around 50 Okinawa dugong remaining in the world.

…Deep Sea News conducted an interesting thought experiment on why the largest animals in the sea, whales, aren’t even larger.