A research team led by Hiroshima University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have proposed a neuroendocrine mechanism in bony fish that signals ovulation from the ovaries to the brain, using the medaka fish as a model; the first step to elucidate the neural circuits for facilitation of sexual receptivity in female teleosts. 

Plastics were detected in 7 of 10 green sea turtles migrating to Japan’s Ogasawara Islands, dominated by meso- and macroplastics rather than microplastics. Green turtles likely ingested plastics through two distinct pathways: non-selective ingestion of plastics associated with large and drifting seaweeds, and selective ingestion of plastics resembling gelatinous plankton such as jellyfish and salpas. The ingested plastics originated beyond the turtles’ migratory range, highlighting the transboundary nature of marine plastic pollution.

In a groundbreaking study of ancient ocean geochemistry, a Rutgers researcher and a former Rutgers graduate student have found evidence that the end of the latest ice age some 18,000 years ago, a period of rapid planetary warming, coincided with the emergence of salty water that had been trapped in the deep ocean.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, shed new light on how salt levels in the Earth’s deepest waters may influence the amount of carbon dioxide – a principal heat-trapping gas – in the atmosphere. 

Australia’s beloved dolphin populations face growing pressures from environmental changes and human activity, increasing the need for reliable, accessible and non-invasive tools to monitor their health and support conservation and management. 

In a new study published in the Journal of Thermal Biology, marine mammal experts from Flinders University analysed more than 40,000 drone-based thermal images to test how accurately drones fitted with thermal cameras can measure dolphin surface temperature and respiration rates without the need for capture or invasive probes.

A new study shows that millions of Britons could be ready to swap imported fish for home caught favourites like sardines, sprats and anchovies.

The new report reveals that more than 40 per cent of consumers are willing to experiment with fish they’ve never tried before.  The study suggests the UK is overlooking a major opportunity to improve national health and bolster local economies by embracing its own rich stocks of small, nutritious fish.

And the team say that now is the perfect time for Britain to rediscover its local seafood.


Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan have identified the genes that allow an organism to switch between living as single cells and forming multicellular structures. This ability to alternate between life forms provides new insights into how multicellular life may have evolved from single-celled ancestors and eventually led to complex organisms like animals and plants. Published in Nature, the study represents an exceptionally detailed molecular explanation of how clonal multicellularity, where all cells descend from a single ancestor, can be achieved and controlled at the genetic level. 

Oxygen isotopes data enable researchers to look far back into the geologic past and reconstruct the climate of the past. In doing so, they consider several factors such as ocean temperature and ice volume in polar regions. A new publication, by an international team from Bergen (Norway) and Bremen in Nature Geoscience concludes that the Antarctic ice sheet was less dynamic during the Oligocene epoch 34 to 23 million years ago than previously assumed.

Where does hydrogen in the deep sea come from? An international team led by the University of Bremen addressed this question and discovered an unexpected process occurring beneath the sparsely studied hydrothermal fields at extremely slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges that could play an important role. Particularly at sites where liquids circulate through sediments. Samples from the Jøtul Hydrothermal Field off Norway were analyzed for the study. The findings have been published in the professional journal Communications Earth & Environment.