Ocean plastics from Haiti’s beaches turned into laptop packaging
Laptop packaging is an unlikely new destination for plastic otherwise destined for oceans – but will it make a difference to the clean-up efforts?
Pregnant rays tangled in trawler nets have small, sickly babies
Rays, and possibly sharks, could suffer reproductive loss from being dragged around by fishing nets before being released
Captive breeding is a final roll of the dice for the vaquita
The decline of the rare porpoise has brought us to the cusp of a risky project to put the animals in a sanctuary. Will it be enough, wonders Olive Heffernan
Sea urchin emits a cloud of venomous jaws to deter predators
When predators get too close, this normally serene pincushion releases hundreds of tiny “jaws” that pack a nasty chemical punch
Squishy robotic manta ray flaps its wings to spy in the ocean
A manta-ray-inspired robot is made of soft, transparent materials so that it can go undetected as it swims around monitoring wildlife and wrecks
Metabolism may be older than life itself and start spontaneously
The discovery that the Krebs cycle, which is essential for life, can occur in the absence of enzymes suggests that life’s origins were surprisingly humble
World’s most endangered marine mammal has 30 individuals left
The vaquita porpoise lives in the Gulf of California, Mexico, where illegal fishing with gill nets has slashed the population by a total of 90 per cent in the past five years
Dozens of ancient shipwrecks spotted deep beneath the Black Sea
Decks of medieval ships have been revealed in unprecedented detail in exquisitely preserved wrecks, some found as deep as 1 kilometre
Oceans given boost as nations agree to protect a third worldwide
But the deal is not legally binding, and opposition from some big countries to the idea could make it largely symbolic
Biggest ever die-off of ocean forests triggered by warming seas
Kelp forests crucial to marine life are disappearing fast in Australia as rapidly warming oceans transform the ecosystems