Marine Life and Conservation
U.S. National Park Service (USNPS) The dazzling vibrancy of coral reefs, the fleeting streaks of color as shorebirds alight, flying up and above the waves, the sight of young sea turtles flecked with granules of sand, clambering for open ocean, the bioluminescence of extraordinary organisms churning in deep sea; When we catch glimpses of the myriad life dotting the ocean’s blue expanse, we are often struck by its beauty. But marine life is not only vibrant; it is vital. Wipeter/CC BY-SA So much as the visible compels us, it is the invisible that sustains us. Marine microbes, which drive carbon sequestration in the oceans, comprise more than 98% of ocean biomass. Floating in delicate glass walls of Silica, diatoms, a type of phytoplankton, produce one fifth of the air we breathe. Collectively, phytoplankton are responsible for every other breath we take. These tiny organisms also form the basis of marine foods webs that support Earth’s largest animal, the blue whale. U.S. National Park Service (USNPS) Kendall Jeffrys Larger species also support marine ecosystems. Green sea turtles, for example, foster healthy seagrass meadows and coral reefs, critical habitats for commercial fish species that billions depend upon for their livelihoods or food security. Whales act as ecosystem engineers, recycling nutrients and increasing ocean productivity. As top predators, sharks are good indicators of ocean health and keep marine food webs in balance. These are just a few examples of the roles marine species play on the greater stage of life. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Federal protection of endangered species has allowed some marine life to come back from dramatic declines: 77% of marine mammals and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act are recovering in population size. In 2016, humpback whales had recovered so much that most populations were taken off the endangered species list. Marine mammals not listed as endangered are still protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Despite recovery of some species, many forms of life, such as shore birds, are still facing rapid decline. A confluence of climatic threats to the ocean pushes marine life to a precarious existence. The ocean is 30% more acidic than it was before industrialization. As the ocean absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, it forms carbonic acid which dissolves calcium carbonate structures of corals, mussels, clams, oysters, and starfish. The ocean is not only acidifying but also gasping for air: over the past 50 years, the volume of ocean with no oxygen has quadrupled. Oxygen is consumed by algal blooms spurred by warming temperatures and nutrient overload from sewage and agricultural run-off spilling from land into our seas. “Fish, amphibian, and reptile, warm-blooded bird and mammal — each of us carries in our veins a salty stream in which the elements sodium, potassium, and calcium are combined in almost the same proportions as in sea water.” The makeup of our atoms is not unlike that of the sea. Without ever splashing our feet into its salty waters, we all connect to the ocean in this way. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Some may know the ocean personally, some may know it through photos, art, or the work of marine scientists such as Rachel Carson, whose book Under the Sea-Wind transforms an imagination of ocean life into a vivid reality. The RCC seeks to continue to bring the ocean to life, highlighting our interconnectedness with the sea and our need to protect it. Gray Whales Are Starving as the Arctic Warms. Will the US Protect Them? Several hundred scientists, government officials, and environmentalists gathered for an unusual two-day conference in Newport, Oregon, last week, entirely focused on a single species: gray whales. Read more Sargassum Superbloom: Seaweed Scourge or Ecological Boon? Florida Dumped Half a Million Oyster Shells Into the Gulf of Mexico. No one Expected the Results to Be This Good. Between 2007 and 2024, Florida attempted to rebuild the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem in an unusual way: dumping over 500,000 tons of recycled oyster and clam shells straight back into the water. Read more The Pacific Coast Where Sea Otters Have Come Back As Duke Prepares to Send First-years to Marine Lab, Faculty Have Questions and Praise Click here for Past Issues of the RCC Coasts and Ocean Observer Click here for Previous Marine Life and Conservation News
We come from life in the ocean — the chemistry of our bodies is testament to that past. As Rachel Carson wrote in The Sea Around Us, 
Latest News About
Marine Life and Conservation
Thousands of them have died in the last decade, and environmental groups might sue the Trump administration for ignoring their plight.
Stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, a massive bloom of sargassum seaweed is swamping beaches and killing coastal wildlife. But scientists have discovered the floating algae also shelters a vast array of ocean creatures, and some are now calling for its protection. Read more
Dumping trash into the ocean seems like a bad idea, right? Wrong.
A little over a century ago, the sea otter was all but gone. Because it wears the densest fur of any animal on Earth, with up to a million hairs packed into a single square inch, it was hunted with a ruthlessness that borders on the absurd, and the fur trade methodically vacuumed the species off the coast from Japan to Baja California. By the time an international treaty finally called off the slaughter in 1911, perhaps a thousand or two animals clung on in a scattering of tiny, isolated colonies. Read more
The next class of Duke first-years will have the option to spend their first semester at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort as part of a new program known as Duke Embark. But in a Thursday Arts & Sciences Council meeting, some faculty raised questions about the initiative, concerned that it might undermine the first-year experience. Read more
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