Background Articles

About 70 gray whales have been spotted dead so far this year along the West Coast from California to Alaska, the most in almost 20 years. Many of them appeared malnourished, according to NOAA officials.

Researchers are trying to determine the cause of a gray whale die-off along the West Coast, including Alaska. And they're looking at whether recent warming trends in the Arctic, and reduced sea ice, has affected their prey.

A female adult Southern resident killer whale and her three-and-a-half-year-old calf are rapidly declining in health in what appears to be a troubling situation for the creatures.

Ocean scientists are concerned about dead gray whales that have washed up on the US West Coast this year at the highest rate in almost two decades.

Scientists have identified a spike in ‘vagrant’ species of fish including damselfish, wrasse and triggerfish

"We've all known with climate change, the bears are coming ashore earlier, they're spending more time onshore, and they're becoming habituated," said Rockwell, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History.

Dumps are often chock-full of plastic and, as a new survey shows, polar bears are ingesting a lot of it. In an analysis of the stomach contents of 51 polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea, researchers led by Raphaela Stimmelmayr, a wildlife veterinarian with Alaska’s North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, found that 25 percent of the bears had plastic in their stomachs.

March becomes the hundredth month in a row with temperatures above normal. "It is unique and shows how fast climate change is happening in the Arctic," says climate scientist Ketil Isaksen at the Meteorological Institute (MET).

Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study has found.

Warmer seas have led the fishery to move 300 kilometers further northeast - towards the North Pole. At the same time, cruising traffic in the outlying sea areas is increasing.

The survey started in 1971 as a review of commercially important fish like cod and halibut, but has grown into an annual scientific assessment of all sea life hauled up from the deep.

A new study has documented unexpected consequences following the decline of great white sharks from an area off South Africa. The study found that the disappearance of great whites has led to the emergence of sevengill sharks, a top predator from a different habitat. A living fossil, sevengill sharks closely resemble relatives from the Jurassic period, unique for having seven gills instead of the typical five in most other sharks.

While most wolves prefer ungulates like moose, deer and mountain goats, the Gustavus pack has displayed a preference for sea otter.

Ice seals thought to be most affected by the disappearance of arctic sea ice seem to be doing well, according to data presented at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium last week. The two species of ice seals that were declared “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act are, so far, doing well with less sea ice. …

Greenhouse gas emissions provide extreme warming on Svalbard.

Climate change has opened region up for more of the year

Climate change is ravaging the natural laboratory that inspired Darwin. The creatures here are on the brink of crisis.

December 3, 2018 – A new study by MBARI scientists shows that pulses of sinking debris carry large amounts of carbon to the deep seafloor, but are poorly represented in global climate models.

Killer whales go to extraordinary depths to pilfer a meal.

On Friday, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium released its 2018 report card for the endangered species. There are just 411 left.