Increased computing power has given fisheries researchers new tools to identify “hotspots of risk,” where ocean fronts and eddies bring together masses of fish, fishermen and predators, raising the risk of entangling non-target fish and protected species such marine mammals, sea turtles and sharks. Using a novel, high-resolution “Lagrangian Coherent Structures” mapping technique, scientists are…

Scientists in Antarctica have demonstrated a cheaper, faster and simpler way to gauge the condition of leopard seals, which can weigh more than a half ton and reflect the health of the Antarctic ecosystem that they and a variety of commercial fisheries rely on. Instead of spending hours to pursue, catch, immobilize, and weigh the…

El Niño exerted powerful effects around the globe in the last year, eroding California beaches; driving drought in northern South America, Africa and Asia; and bringing record rain to the U.S. Pacific Northwest and southern South America. In the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast, however, the California Current Ecosystem was already unsettled by an…