Breaking Waves: Ocean News

The pandemic and harsh laws suffocated climate movements as we knew them. Get ready for a new kind of action On 21 April 2019, I was on Waterloo Bridge in London with my younger siblings. Around us were planters full of flowers where there were once cars, and people singing. This was the spring iteration of Extinction Rebellion, when four bridges in London were held by protesters. My siblings, then 14, had been going out on school strike inspired by Greta Thunberg, and wanted to see her speak. We were there for less than a day, but the occupations of bridges and other blockades lasted for 11 days. Tens of thousands of people mobilised in the UK that spring. An estimated 500,000 people were affected by the shutdowns the movement imposed on central London’s road networks, and more than 1,000 protesters were arrested in what was then an official part of XR’s strategy. Continue reading...

Newborns seen in colder waters as far south as Tasmania, indicating breeding and migration more complex than thought Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Baby humpback whales are turning up in unexpected places. In Australia, humpback mums were assumed to travel north to give birth in warmer, tropical waters – like the Great Barrier Reef – before migrating south with their calves along the “humpback highway” to feed in waters off Antarctica. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Scientists have spotted surprising evidence of what they describe as monkey kidnappings while reviewing video footage from a small Panamanian island. Capuchin monkeys were seen carrying at least 11 howler babies between 2022 and 2023. The footage showed the capuchins walking and pounding their stone tools with baby howlers on their backs. But cameras did not capture the moments of abduction, which scientists said likely happened up in the trees, where howlers spend most of their time Continue reading...

Researchers are deploying sniffing dogs to combat spread of leaf-hopping pests that can damage trees and fruit crops The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the US a decade ago, has steadily spread across the east coast and into the midwest with little getting in its way. But now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow its advance: specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect’s eggs before they hatch. Continue reading...