marine biology

Coral reefs nearing irreversible decline, scientists warn

Coral reefs worldwide are bleaching so frequently that they can no longer recover between events, pushing global coral cover well below historical norms and toward irreversible decline, according to a landmark report released Monday by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring…

Thousands of whales surge into East Greenland as ice vanishes, study finds

Thousands of humpback, fin, and common minke whales are now congregating along the East Greenland coast in numbers never recorded in modern history, drawn by climate-driven shifts in prey and ice cover, according to a study published in Frontiers in…

Dolphin carries dead calf for days in act of grief

A bottlenose dolphin named Fraggle has been observed carrying the body of her two-week-old calf through Western Australia's Leschenault Estuary for several days, in what marine experts describe as a mourning ritual that highlights the deep emotional bonds among cetaceans.

Drone captures first aerial footage of humpback whale birth

A volunteer drone pilot has recorded what scientists believe is the first-ever aerial footage of a humpback whale giving birth, capturing the moment off the eastern coast of Australia during the annual whale migration.

Sperm whales blow bubbles in their sleep to stay submerged, study finds

Sperm whales release gas bubbles while napping vertically underwater to keep themselves from floating to the surface, according to research published on Wednesday in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The study, conducted by scientists at the University of St Andrews…

UC Berkeley study finds algae parasitized coral cells to build reefs

Coral reefs may owe their existence not to a cooperative merger between algae and coral, but to a cellular heist. A research team at UC Berkeley has published findings in the journal Cell showing that algae colonized coral by parasitizing…

Vast whale graveyard with 5-million-year-old fossils found in Indian Ocean

Chinese scientists have uncovered the largest, deepest, and oldest whale graveyard ever found on Earth, a sprawling underwater cemetery stretching roughly 1,200 kilometers across the floor of the southeastern Indian Ocean. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, reveal…