Latest

Like other fish, minnows can adjust their body temperatures to match that of their surroundings.

Research into the effects of climate change on fish generally focus on their heat tolerance at an increase of two or three degrees Celsius above the current average temperatures.

However, a recent University of Illinois study wanted to find out how fathead minnows handled short-term temperature spikes—those amounting to as much as 5 to 10 degrees Celsius above average.

The USS Jacob Jones was the first American destroyer ever to be sunk by enemy fire. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Jacob Jones was sent overseas. On 6 December, Jacob Jones was steaming independently from Brest, France, for Queenstown, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-53 with the loss of 66 men out of a crew of 150. The vessel sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call.

Giant kelp grows in dense stands known as kelp forests. Kelp forests, defined here as habitat-forming brown algae in the orders Laminariales, Fucales, and Desmarestiales, are globally distributed habitats which have declined around the world

It was found that with traditional fish stocks 90% overfished, sharks (along with tuna) have become the most lucrative prey for fisheries due to the value of their fins. So, with fishing scarcely profitable any more, fishing fleets around the world have joined in the hunt for them. The meat is pushed onto consumers using other names, so it is largely the shark fin trade that drives the so-called market for shark meat.

As a result, those species of sharks and rays accessible to fishing fleets are approaching extinction.

Published today, AIMS’ Annual Summary Report on Coral Reef Condition for 2021/22 shows another year of increased coral cover across much of the Reef. The report summarises the condition of coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) from the Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP) surveys of 87 reefs conducted between August 2021 and May 2022 (reported as "2022").

The increasing frequency of warming ocean temperatures and the extent of mass bleaching events highlights the critical threat climate change poses to all reefs, particularly while crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and tropical cyclones are also occurring. Future disturbance can reverse the observed recovery in a short amount of time.

AIMS monitoring program team leader Dr Mike Emslie

The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) sank with a cargo of gold, silver, and gems on the western side of the Little Bahama Bank in 1656. The Spanish galleon was part of a fleet sailing to Spain from Havana with royal and privately-consigned treasures from the Americas. Failing to navigate shallow waters, however, it collided with the flagship of the fleet and hit a reef. Of the 650 people on board, only 45 survived.

Sessile organisms, such as corals where adults are immobile and their growth position is determined at settlement, are confronted by unique circumstances arising in that particular location.

In some habitats, anthropogenic effects are causing large changes in community structure, as well as the environmental conditions to which they are exposed.  On a densely populated reef space is a limited resource. One of the ways organisms can win that space is through the strategy of shape.