Researchers have identified the world's largest marine virus -- an unusually complex "mimi-like virus" that infects an ecologically important and widespread planktonic predator....

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Scientists reported the southern Baffin Bay off West Greenland has continued warming since wintertime ocean temperatures were last effectively measured there in the early 2000s. Temperatures in the study were collected by narwhals, medium-sized toothed Arctic whales....

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The Ocean Service's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries teamed up with the National Marine Fisheries Service this Fall to survey large swaths of ocean in the Pacific Northwest from the air. The aerial surveys--conducted with NOAA's Twin Otter aircraft--located and gauged the population of leatherback turtles and other important living marine resources within the boundaries and surrounding waters of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary....

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Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk....

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Industrial-scale aquaculture production magnifies environmental degradation, according to the first global assessment of the effects of marine finfish aquaculture (e.g., salmon, cod, turbot and grouper) released today. This is true even when farming operations implement the best current marine fish farming practices, according to the findings....

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A team of scientists has found new evidence linking "Snowball Earth" glacial events to the rise of early animals: marine phosphorus. The researchers tracked phosphorus concentrations through Earth's history and found a pronounced spike in marine phosphorus levels in the mid-Neoproterozoic. They say phosphorus, which is essential for life, led to a spike in oxygen production via photosynthesis, facilitating the emergence of complex life on Earth....

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A nearly 17,000-acre area of freshwater marshes, uplands, and river on the shores of Lake Superior in Wisconsin has become the 28th member of NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System in a designation ceremony at Superior, Wis., on October 26....

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New research puts to rest the mystery of where old carbon was stored during the last glacial period. It turns out it ended up in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica....

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As the ice-capped Arctic Ocean warms, ship traffic will increase at the top of the world. And if the sea ice continues to decline, a new route connecting international trading partners may emerge -- but not without significant repercussions to climate, according to a US and Canadian research team....

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Have you ever wondered about the main differences between seals and their "second cousins," the sea lions?...

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