IMPLICATIONS OF DARK OXYGEN PRODUCTION AS A NATURAL PROCESS and DEEP SEA MINING

WASHINGTON POST: DARK OXYGEN 

Excerpt:

The researchers, whose study was published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that through a newly discovered process, masses made of minerals such as manganese and iron, often used to make batteries, can produce oxygen even in complete darkness. Organisms normally need light to produce oxygen through a process known as photosynthesis, but researchers believe electrochemical activity produced by these masses — called polymetallic nodules — can extract oxygen from water. The masses formed over millions of years and can be about the size of a potato.   .....  Environmental activists and many scientists believe deep-sea mining is dangerous because it can destabilize ecosystems in unpredictable ways and could affect the ocean’s ability to help contain climate change. The study received funding from companies active in seabed mining exploration.

5000 SEA CREATURES NO ONE KNEW ABOUT and NOW THE THREAT OF DEEP SEA MINING

WASHINGTON POST - DEEP SEA MINING and 5000 SEA CREATURES NO ONE KNEW EXISTED

Excerpts:  A new analysis of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast mineral-rich area in the Pacific Ocean, estimates there are some 5000 sea animals completely new to science there. ............ There are bright, gummy creatures that look like partially peeled bananas.  Glassy, translucent sponges that cling to the seabed like chandeliers flipped upside down. Phantasmic octopuses named, appropriately, after Casper the Friendly Ghost.

CHIMERA CRAB is 90 MILLION YEARS OLD (SEE THE FOSSIL) and LOOKS CARTOONISH

SCIENCE ALERT - FOSSILIZED CRAB "STRAIGHT OUT OF PIXAR" by Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post 

EXCERPT: This crab sported a tiny lobster-eaque shell, with legs flattened like oars and huge Pound Puppies-style peepers that protruded from its head - a trait that indicates the creature used its eyes actively for whatever it did, researchers said.  But its not only the critter's cartoonish appearance that has some researchers tickled, it's also what the ancient animal means to science.

RARE BEAKED WHALE ON VIDEO

WASHINGTON POST - RARE WHALE CAUGHT ON VIDEO

EXCERPT - link has video

Natacha Aguilar de Soto has studied beaked whales for 15 years. She has spent dozens of months at sea, floating above the deepest parts of the ocean, straining her eyes and ears to detect whatever might be moving in the fathoms below.

She rarely finds anything. Beaked whales — a family of 22 cetacean species characterized by dolphinlike noses and missile-shaped bodies — are some of the most elusive animals on Earth. They dive deeper and longer than any other marine mammal and spend an estimated 92 percent of their lives far beneath the ocean surface. One species, the True's beaked whale, is so rare that only a handful of people have ever seen it alive.

“Imagine,” Aguilar de Soto said, “these are animals the size of elephants that we just can't find. They're a mystery.” ...

SEA OF PLASTIC - WORSE THAN EVER - BENOIT LECOMTE

WASHINGTON POST - SEA OF PLASTIC PACIFIC OCEAN SWIM

BEN LECOMTE has decided to make himself and his swim into a scientific experiment.

EXCERPT: Before French marathon swimmer Benoit Lecomte began his six-month long attempt Tuesday to become the first to swim across the Pacific Ocean, he prepared for a number of possible challenges such as sharks, extremely cold water — and “plastic smog.”

That’s the term scientists use to describe billions of pieces of microplastic in the sea.

On his way from eastern Japan to San Francisco — a distance of 5,600 miles — the 51-year-old swimmer will encounter a lot of those microplastic particles, most of which have broken down from larger plastic items or deliberately included by manufacturers in body wash or toothpaste. In the Pacific, the biggest accumulation of plastic smog is about the size of Germany, France and Britain combined and Lecomte will swim right through it.

SHIPWRECKS - HURRICANES - AND TREE RINGS : WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

WASHINGTON POST - ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS - CLIMATE CHANGE

EXCERPT:

To study shipwrecks, the new research drew upon historical records of no less than 657 wrecks of Spanish ships in the Caribbean between 1495 and 1825 — a period that started just after Columbus’s first expedition to the new world. All of the storms that were inferred to have wrecked these ships occurred prior to the earliest year in today’s official Atlantic hurricane database, which is kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and begins in 1851.... But to strengthen the analysis, the researchers also cross-referenced the shipwreck history with data from the rings of pine trees growing in the Florida Keys, which can also provide a record of hurricane history.