Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Butterfly Conservation poll is open until 7 June with choice of 60 species from small tortoiseshells to purple emperors Will it be the rapidly disappearing former garden favourite, the small tortoiseshell? Or the poet John Masefield’s “oakwood haunting thing”, the charismatic purple emperor? Or perhaps the brimstone, the ultimate harbinger of spring? The question of which is Britain’s favourite butterfly is being put to a popular vote for the first time. The charity Butterfly Conservation is running the poll, which runs until 7 June, giving people the chance to choose their favourite from the 60 species that fly around Britain every summer. Continue reading...

Thames at Ham designated as one of 13 new swimming areas across England to be monitored for water quality The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London will welcome swimmers for the official start of the bathing season on Friday as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across England. The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, has been designated as a new river bathing water area after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year. Canvey Island foreshore, Essex East Beach at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset Falcon Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk Granville Parade Beach, Sandgate, Kent Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland New Brighton Beach (east), Merseyside Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon Pangbourne Meadow, Berkshire Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester, Cheshire River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire River Thames at Ham and Kingston, Greater London Continue reading...

Scientists exploring deep underwater canyons off the coast of Western Australia uncovered a hidden world packed with bizarre and elusive marine life — including signs of the legendary giant squid. By analyzing traces of DNA floating in seawater from depths exceeding 4 kilometers, researchers identified 226 species ranging from deep-diving whales to strange fish rarely or never seen in the region before. Some of the creatures may even be unknown to science.

When the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay, Chile, Cecilia Durán Gafo decided she would protect them from people and predators Five pairs of rubbery feet carry velvet-sheathed black-and-white bodies towards the rope line separating the king penguins from the dozen or so visitors, who look on in awe. As these emissaries shuffle over, a hundred of their cohorts parade on a nearby bank, splashing around in the water and regurgitating food into their chicks’ open beaks. The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) makes its home almost exclusively on islands in the Southern Ocean. But it has been coming to this wind-battered bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region for hundreds of years, probably because its shallow shores offer protection from marine predators and humans. Continue reading...