June 2022

Complex interactions and conflicts between protected populations may challenge the recovery of whole ecosystems. Several factors indicate that white sharks may be currently limiting the recovery of California sea otters.

Protected white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and pinnipeds have an established predator–prey relationship along the California coast.

White sharks are considered threatened by the IUCN Red List, and though they are protected at state, federal, and global scales, their current status in the northeastern Pacific is debated.

Text by David McGuire

Imagine witnessing a white spot moving quickly up from below. From a blur of white and gray, it turns into an open mouth, two black eyes, and large wing-like fins. In three seconds, the image transforms from a vague spot to a great white grin. Five rows (with two protruding rows) of around 300 triangular serrated teeth line a jaw of cartilage around one meter (three feet) wide in a mature great white shark sized around 5 to 6 meters (16.5 to 20 feet).

Victor Vescovo, the founder of exploration company Caladan Oceanic, and a team from EYOS Expeditions made six dives over eight days looking for the long-lost WW2 destroyer which was located on 22 June. It lies at a depth of 6,895 meters (22,621 feet), in the Philippine Sea, split in two and lodged on a slope.

Speaking to CNN, Vescovo called it an "honor" to find the ship, saying in a statement that locating it had given the team the chance "to retell her story of heroism and duty."

DNA research has shown that Mycobacterium pinnipedii, which today causes tuberculosis (TB) primarily in pinnipeds, infected human populations living in the coastal areas of Peru prior to European colonisation

The earliest cases are found in Peru and northern Chile and are dated to ~700 CE, with possible cases occurring as early as 290 CE.

The researchers also discovered TB in the skeletons of people who lived nowhere near the coast some 400 to 1,000 years ago — a scenario incompatible with TB transmission directly from infected pinnipeds or their tissues.

The great hammerhead shark is categorized as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. That’s the designation just before “extinct in the wild.” The species is highly threatened with extinction.

To that end, the Center for Biological Diversity has submitted a petition urging the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect the great hammerhead shark under the Endangered Species Act.

Large, perennial, seagrass meadows of the Poseidon’s ribbon weed and the wire weed (Amphibolis antarctica) dominate much of the marine ecosystem in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Shark Bay, Australia.

Two years ago, scientists discovered some of the seagrass there was a clone of a Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis) that had 40 chromosomes instead of the typical 20. They think half those chromosomes may come from the ribbon weed and half from an unknown species.