Dermochelys coriacea
Leatherback turtle (Filephoto)

Leatherbacks picky about nest sites

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan focused on leatherback sea turtles nesting on St. Kitts, an island in the West Indies southeast of Puerto Rico. The team wanted to know what factors influence where and when the leatherbacks lay their eggs.

It has been suggested that characteristics of the sand, the slope of the beach and proximity to vegetation contribute to the success or failure of nests, but which factors cause female leatherback sea turtles to dig a nest in a particular spot has never been investigated.

Intertidal Acropora corals exposed to air at low tide
Intertidal Acropora corals exposed to air at low tide

Thermally tolerant corals still susceptible to bleaching

With up to 10m tides, the Kimberley region in north Western Australia has the largest tropical tides in the world, creating naturally extreme and highly dynamic coastal habitats that corals from more typical reefs could not survive.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute were thus surprised to find that corals from the region are just as sensitive to heat stress and bleaching as their counterparts from less extreme environments elsewhere.

The frequent use by humpback whales of remote seamounts has important implications for conservation and management.

Seamounts important for humpback whales

Satellite telemetry suggests that seamounts represent an overlooked cryptic habitat for humpback whales

Seamounts probably serve multiple and important roles as breeding locations, resting areas, navigational landmarks or even supplemental feeding grounds for this species, which can be viewed as a transient component of the seamount communities.

(Filephoto). White shark eyeballing divers in a cage off Guadalupe

Shark cage diving not a risk to other water users

Residents of Stewart Island, New Zealand have pleaded for politicians to halt shark cage diving in their waters. The residents and paua divers have expressed fears that the cage diving is attracting great white sharks to the area and putting them at risk, saying they live in fear of a fatal shark attack.