Instruments strapped onto and ingested by sharks are revealing novel insights into how one of the most feared and least understood ocean predators swims, eats and lives. Scientists are also piloting a project using instruments ingested by sharks and other top ocean predators, like tuna, to gain new awareness into these animals' feeding habits. The instruments, which use electrical measurements to track ingestion and digestion of prey, can help researchers understand where, when and how much sharks and other predators are eating, and what they are feasting on....

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Genetic and environmental evidence indicates that after the ancestors of Native Americans left Asia, they spent 10,000 years on a land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska. Archaeological evidence is lacking because it drowned when sea levels rose....

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A new modeling study suggests that a recent observed increase in summer sea-ice cover in Antarctica's Ross Sea is likely short-lived, with the area projected to lose more than half its summer sea ice by 2050 and more than three quarters by 2100. These changes will significantly impact marine life in what is one of the world's most productive and unspoiled marine ecosystems....

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Despite the comparably small footprint that they take on the ocean floor, tropical coral reefs are home to a substantial part of all marine life forms. Coral reefs also provide numerous benefits for human populations, providing food for millions and protecting coastal areas from erosion. Moreover, they are a treasure chest of potential pharmaceuticals and coral reef tourism provides recreation and income for many. Unfortunately, coral reefs are declining at an alarming rate. To promote management activities that can help coral reef survival, an international group of world renowned scientists have addressed the present knowledge about the challenges that coral reefs are facing now and in the future in a new article....

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A series of radars just deployed on Antarctica will give researchers their first ever day-by-day measurements of the health of one of the ice shelves that surround the frozen continent. The ice shelves around Antarctica can be up to 2 kilometres thick, but preliminary trials show the new radar system can detect changes of as little as a millimetre -- about the amount the Pine Island Glacier melts in just 30 minutes....

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By analyzing four years of continuous measurements of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current at Drake Passage, the narrowest point in the Southern Ocean, oceanographers have concluded that the current carries 20 percent more water than previous estimates. They also found that the current remains strong all the way to the seafloor....

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Twenty-five years after the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, beaches on the Alaska Peninsula hundreds of kilometers from the incident still harbor small hidden pockets of surprisingly unchanged oil, according to new research....

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The mega-decline in cod and other fisheries across the North Atlantic Ocean threatens the livelihood of fishermen and communities in New England and Atlantic Canada. One suspect in the disappearance of cod and other groundfish is the food source for their young: a planktonic copepod crustacean. The first transcriptome for the key North Atlantic copepod Calanus finmarchicus has been published; scientists will use it to decode the genetic instructions that are resulting in population changes....

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The Arctic is home to a growing number of whales and ships, and to populations of sub-Arctic whales that are expanding their territory into newly ice-free Arctic waters. A three-year survey of whales in the Bering Strait reveals that many species of whales are using the narrow waterway, while shipping and commercial traffic also increase....

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NOAA researchers measured pollutants in the sediments of Guánica Bay, Puerto Rico, and found these were among the highest concentrations of PCBs, chlordane, chromium and nickel ever measured in the history of NOAA’s National Status & Trends Program. The National Status and Trends Program is a nationwide contaminant monitoring program that began in 1986. These results were released in a NOAA study earlier this month.

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