Which shark species are more resilient to catch and release?
Plus pig-faced sharks, pregnant orca and more...
Good morning!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the latest ocean news… here goes:
🐳🦈 Whales & sharks
Megapod: cool footage of 100+ humpback whales off the coast of Australia (CNN)
Expecting: three females in a pod of endangered southern resident killer whales are visibly pregnant (Agassiz-Harrison Observer)
Jaw(s) dropping: incredible close up pics of a Great White (New York Post)
Pig face: an angular roughshark was found by Italian sailors - who were confused why this shark looks so much like a pig (LadBible)
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🎣🚯 Threats
1,500 slaughtered: Faroe Islands to re-examine rules around its contentious dolphin hunt (FT)
Overwhelmingly in favour: vote on deep-sea mining puts pressure on the International Seabed Authority for strict regulation (Eco Watch)
Organic soup: new WHOI study finds sunlight can convert the base polymers of plastics into new chemicals (Science Alert)
Tough stuff: study finds some shark species are much more resilient to the stress of catch and release (Science Daily)
Thanks to everyone helping us reach new pod members by sharing Baleen!
🐚🐠 Ecosystems
Finally… a coral emoji is coming! (Metro)
Continuing destruction: about 50% of global coral cover has been lost since the 1950s (Independent)
400%: whole-site" Marine Protected Areas can result in four-fold increases in fish populations (Phys.org)
Lurkers: it appears that most coral species have been hiding a parasite that’s never been noticed before (New Scientist)
❄️ Ice, ice, baby
Inbreeding: polar bears are in trouble, due to melting sea ice (abc)
Alarming: Arctic multiyear sea ice is at a record low (Mongabay)
Scrambling: Scientists are racing to gather ice cores from glaciers in a climate monitoring effort (Reuters)
📣 In case you missed it
Toothless: I only clicked on this to see what a ‘dentally challenged’ great white looks like - can you resist the clickbait beter than me? (Yahoo!)
Total 💩: conservationists are fighting against raw sewage being dumped in UK waters (Kent Live) - please sign their petition (Change.org)
Tee hee: for a bit of a giggle, check out the world's funniest animal photograph awards (Creative Boom)
Thanks, as always, for reading. Did you like this week’s slightly shorter digest? Do you want more ocean news? Let me know what you’re thinking so I can make the best newsletter for you…
Melissa