Census in the News 2010

Sperm whaling grounds, as mapped and published in 2005 by John Bannister (et al.) in Oceans Past: Management Insights from the History of Marine Animal Populations, have been added to the HMAP atlas.

The deep sea carnivorous sponge Chondrocladia (Meliiderma) turbiformis Vacelet, Kelly & Schlacher-Hoenlinger, 2009, known only from Pyre and Gothic seamounts in the Graveyard seamount complex, Chatham Rise, has been selected as a 2010 Top 10 New Species by the International Institute for Species Exploration. 

The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK has released a press annoucement regarding diversity in oxygen minumum zones and the potential impact of global warming. The press release is based on the paper "Habitat heterogeneity and its influence on benthic biodiversity in oxygen minimum zones" which was recently published in a special issue of Marine Ecology. The special issue, dedicated to habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity on continental margins, is open-access and is a product of a workshop sponsored by COMARGE.

The work of HMAP is being featured in the documentary film "Into the Deep: America, Whaling, and the World" which is scheduled to air on PBS stations in the US on Monday, May 10th.

2 August 2010

Representing the most comprehensive and authoritative answer yet to one of humanity’s most ancient questions -- “what lives in the sea?” -- Census of Marine Life scientists today released an inventory of species distribution and diversity in key global ocean areas.

MAR-ECO’s travelling exhibition of abyssal artwork, “Deeper than Light”, has opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Sant Ocean Hall in Washington, D.C.The

The journal Endangered Species Research has published a Theme Section examining the tracking of marine vertebrates in relationship to their oceanic environment. This publication features the papers from the Biologging III conference hosted by TOPP in September, 2008.

The Nature of Things launches One Ocean, a provocative and powerful 4-part series, today Thursday, March 4 at 8 p.m. on CBC TV (in Canada). One Ocean is produced by CBC's The Nature of Things and Merit Motion Pictures, in association with National Geographic Channel.

February 24 - March 17, 2009

INSPIRE: INternational Southeast Pacific Investigation of Reducing Environments:

Video Introduction (13 minutes)

For the mission plan and background information as well as a cruise log (in both English and Spanish), visit the NOAA Ocean Explorer.

Jolted by the planet’s biggest earthquakes, sequestering massive reservoirs of methane, while slowly swallowing a mid ocean ridge, the Chilean margin offers an inspiring natural laboratory for investigating the complex interactions between the solid earth, the deep ocean and the biosphere. At the Chilean Triple Junction, where a the South Chile rise, a ridge crest, is being forced under the methane-rich South American continent, ten Scripps and UC Santa Barbara students and an international team of scientists will explore for tectonically controlled hydrothermal vents, for seep sites of massive methane release, and for novel “hybrid” systems that may yield hot seeps or cool vents. With the shared vision of several Census of Marine Life programs, we will probe for strange new biological life forms, communities, and ecosystems dependent on as yet unknown conditions. As the only location on Earth where all known forms of chemosynthetic ecosystem (hydrothermal vents; cold seeps; oxygen minimum zones; whale, kelp and wood-falls) can coexist and be studied together, the Chilean margin is a prime target for remarkable discoveries.

Last week, as Vancouver was busy welcoming the world, the Vancouver Aquarium welcomed a brand new POST exhibit peppered in a few locations around its public galleries. 

The exhibit features several elements throughout the aquarium that explain how scientists are using POST and what they are discovering. These features include: