Achilles Tang

Researchers have identified an unexpected metabolic ability within a symbiotic community of microorganisms that may help solve a lingering mystery about the world's nitrogen cycling budget. View the full article

After 15 years of research in the waters of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, scientists have unveiled the largest genetic study of humpback whale populations ever conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. View the full article

Milk drinks that lower blood pressure, meat products that reduce the risk of heart disease, chocolate that calms you down and a new range of foods that can fight obesity can be created from marine animals and plants. Japan already has several product ranges on the shelves and research programs are underway all over the world to create more. And now Ireland is well on the way to becoming a player in this worldwide multi-billion euro industry, according to recently presented research results. View the full article

Oxygen deficiency in the Baltic Sea has never been greater than it is now. But it is not an effect of climate change but rather of increased inputs of nutrients and fertilizers. View the full article

A positive effect of climate change that is helping to support a £30m industry has been uncovered by new research. Ocean warming in UK waters is increasing stocks of the great scallop Pecten maximus, according to a study published in the journal Marine Biology. However the researchers have warned that further rises in water temperatures could have the opposite effect on scallops and better management of these fisheries is needed to protect sensitive seabed habitats. View the full article

The consumption of fish has no major role in the prevention of heart failure, according to results from a large prospective population study. The study, which was started in 1990 and involved all men and women over the age of 55 living in a suburb of Rotterdam, found no difference in the risk of developing heart failure between those who did eat fish and those who didn't. View the full article

Major shifts in fisheries distribution due to climate change will affect food security in tropical regions most adversely, according to a new study/ View the full article

Scientists from the UK and Japan have recorded the first observations of how albatrosses feed alongside marine mammals at sea. View the full article

A range of natural flavorsome food products that rely neither on added salt or monosodium glutamate may soon be available thanks to a Cork-based company exploring the food potential of a major Irish natural resource ? seaweed. View the full article

Human activities have meant invasive species have been able to populate parts of the world to which they are not native and alter biodiversity there over thousands of years. Now, an international team of scientists has studied the impact of the black rat on bird populations on Mediterranean islands. Despite the rat's environmental impact, only the tiny European storm petrel has been affected over time by its enforced cohabitation with the rat. View the full article

A powerful fish-killing toxin could have cancer-killing properties as well. The toxin, called euglenophycin, has a molecular structure similar to that of solenopsin, an alkaloid from fire ant venom known to inhibit tumor development. View the full article

Mercury's persistent and toxic presence in the environment has flummoxed scientists for years in the quest to find ways to mitigate the dangers posed by the buildup of its most toxic form, methylmercury. A new discovery, however, has shed new light on one of nature's best mercury fighters: bacteria. View the full article

Biologists have genetically mapped the sex chromosomes of several species of cichlid fish from Lake Malawi, East Africa, and identified a mechanism by which new sex chromosomes may evolve. View the full article

Mass coral bleaching has devastated coral colonies around the world for almost three decades. Now scientists have found that bleaching can make corals more susceptible to disease and, in turn, coral disease can exacerbate the negative effects of bleaching. A new article shows that when they occur together, this combination of afflictions causes greater harm to corals than either does on its own. View the full article

New research is aiming at developing new dietary sources of long-chain omega-3 oils in grains and lamb. They are now developing oilseed crop plants that synthesize EPA and DHA in their oils. View the full article

A bluefin tuna, tagged by researchers in August 2008, was caught a year later by a professional bait boat off the coast of northern Spain. The animal had internally implanted electronic tag which enabled its migratory movements and the depth of these, amongst other data, to be obtained. First estimations of the geographical location of the recovered tag revealed that this fish had undertaken migrations between the Azores and Portugal during the winter, later to return to the Gulf of Bizkaia in spring and also that it had dropped, during the winter, to depths of more than 1000 meters. View the full article

NOAA and Norwegian researchers recently completed a comparative analysis of marine ecosystems in the North Atlantic and North Pacific to see what factors support fisheries production, leading to new insights that could improve fishery management plans and the ecosystems. View the full article

Tiny organisms known as archaea play a central role in the planet's nitrogen cycle, according to new research. Experiments show that archaea appear play a key ecological role in both upper and deep ocean ecosystems. This could affect calculations made by global climate models. View the full article

Wild salmon and farmed salmon can now be distinguished from each other by a technique that examines the chemistry of their scales. View the full article

A new study of microscopic marine microbes, called phytoplankton, has solved a 10-year-old mystery about the source of an essential nutrient in the ocean. View the full article

Scientist have revealed the first stage of the European eels mysterious migration to the Sargasso Sea by attaching pop up satellite tags to eels. View the full article

There may be plenty of fish in the sea but the medaka knows what it likes. A new study shows how a single gene mutation that turns Japanese Killifish a drab gray color renders them significantly less attractive to more colorful members of the opposite sex. View the full article

Just as people plug in to computers, smart phones and electric outlets to communicate, electric fish communicate by quickly plugging special channels into their cells to generate electrical impulses, researchers have discovered. View the full article

Everyone knows that frogs are in trouble. But a recent analysis of frog surveys done at eight Central American sites shows the situation is worse than thought. Under pressure from an invasive fungus, the frogs in this biodiversity hot spot are undergoing "a vast homogenization." "We're witnessing the McDonaldization of the frog communities," comments the lead author of the new study. View the full article

It is well documented that brown (grizzly) bears prey on major runs of salmon, charr and trout. In 2007, researchers were surprised to spot a brown bear caching whitefish near a stream in the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories. This sighting has researchers advising increased care in petroleum extraction and infrastructure development within the area. View the full article