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The Dead Sea has been found to be receding at a rate of more than 3.3 feet (1 meter) every year.

The idea of linking the two bodies of water has been around for more than a century. The project began to move ahead two years ago after the World Bank determined it is possible to use the Red Sea to replenish the shrinking Dead Sea after years of studying whether such a connecting lifeline could work.

The desalination plant will produce at least 80 million cubic meters annually. Israel will buy at a cost up to 40 million cubic meters. The rest will go to Aqaba.

Researching the intelligence of the grey bamboo shark a team of researchers at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany showed that sharks could be trained to recognise and remember shapes for an extended period of time.

First juvenile sharks were subjected to three different cognition experiments, one at a time, and then tested to see how long the sharks could remember their training.

Florida again led the United States in shark attacks last year, with 28 incidents and no fatalities. The vast majority of the Florida incidents were minor ones in which a shark quickly bites an arm or leg in poor visibility water, releasing it as soon as the shark realizes its prey isn't a fish.

"Most of them are better called bites than attacks," said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File. "They're the equivalent of dog bites."

The five types of shark were among 21 species of shark and ray, including sawfish, granted new protection status at a convention summit in November.

Although Australia did not object to the listings in November, it is now seeking to opt out of the commitment to cooperate with other countries to ensure the five migratory shark species do not become extinct. The expanded list is due to come into effect on 8 February.

Counting "band pairs," which are series of rings that alternate between translucent and opaque within the sharks' vertebrae scientists looked at band-pair data from 77 sharks that were captured between 1963 and 2010.

Using this method, the researchers found that great white sharks were considerably older than previously thought, with the oldest individual animal in the study reaching 73 years of age.

They also found that the great white sharks — at least in the Atlantic Ocean — matured more slowly than previously thought, thus making them even more vulnerable to threats.

Using a metal detector, the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority's divers found gold coins in different denominations: a dinar, half dinar and quarter dinar, of various dimensions and weight.

Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority said that “the winter storms expose treasures from the sea.”

Born in Germany in 1968, he became interested in photography at a very young age but his real passion for the subject came to the fore after he discovered scuba diving in 1998. On becoming an instructor in 2000, he was able to combine his love for diving and photography by focusing on his 'Aquatic Photography' which has earned him his just reputation as being one of the best in this field. His work has been published in magazines worldwide and has won him many awards and accolades.

A study of bottlenose dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico conducted between 2010 and early 2013 has concluded the highest number of strandings and deaths occurred in areas most impacted by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In comparison, Gulf Coast areas of Texas and Florida, which experienced little to no oiling, saw few statewide increases in stranded dolphins during the same period.

According to Department of Conservation officials, at least 198 pilot whales had become stranded on the beaches of New Zealand's South Island. At least 24 of the whales have already died with Conservation officials and local volunteers scrambling to save the remaining individuals.

It was the first thorough exploration of the cold, oxygen-rich waters north of Bodega Head, a small promontory that lies along the California's Sonoma coast just 70 miles north of San Francisco. Submarine canyons, such as Bodega Canyon, extend from the continental shelf to the deep sea – making their exploration a difficult but worthwhile endeavour. The canyons are important because they act as a refuge for important species of fish and provide a habitat for sensitive species of deep-water corals and sponges.