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Cuttlefish are capable of changing colour and pattern (including the polarization of the reflected light as well as the texture of the skin.

Cuttlefish can go into electric stealth mode

Sharks home in on faint bioelectric fields generated by the bodies of their prey which they pick up using sensitive detectors on their snouts.

When researchers from Duke University showed captive cuttlefish held in tank videos depicting the menacing silhouettes of a shark or predatory grouper fish they reacted by lowering the electric field dramatically. Being shown the shadow of a harmless crab produced no reaction.

 Dermochelys coriacea
Leatherback turtle (Filephoto)

Leatherbacks picky about nest sites

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan focused on leatherback sea turtles nesting on St. Kitts, an island in the West Indies southeast of Puerto Rico. The team wanted to know what factors influence where and when the leatherbacks lay their eggs.

It has been suggested that characteristics of the sand, the slope of the beach and proximity to vegetation contribute to the success or failure of nests, but which factors cause female leatherback sea turtles to dig a nest in a particular spot has never been investigated.

Intertidal Acropora corals exposed to air at low tide
Intertidal Acropora corals exposed to air at low tide

Thermally tolerant corals still susceptible to bleaching

With up to 10m tides, the Kimberley region in north Western Australia has the largest tropical tides in the world, creating naturally extreme and highly dynamic coastal habitats that corals from more typical reefs could not survive.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute were thus surprised to find that corals from the region are just as sensitive to heat stress and bleaching as their counterparts from less extreme environments elsewhere.

The frequent use by humpback whales of remote seamounts has important implications for conservation and management.

Seamounts important for humpback whales

Satellite telemetry suggests that seamounts represent an overlooked cryptic habitat for humpback whales

Seamounts probably serve multiple and important roles as breeding locations, resting areas, navigational landmarks or even supplemental feeding grounds for this species, which can be viewed as a transient component of the seamount communities.

(Filephoto). White shark eyeballing divers in a cage off Guadalupe

Shark cage diving not a risk to other water users

Residents of Stewart Island, New Zealand have pleaded for politicians to halt shark cage diving in their waters. The residents and paua divers have expressed fears that the cage diving is attracting great white sharks to the area and putting them at risk, saying they live in fear of a fatal shark attack.

Maritime Archaeology Program at University of Southern Denmark

Divers build a frame, which they will later bring to the surface with the help of a lift bag. Photo courtesy of the Maritime Archaeology Program at the University of Southern Denmark.

In 2006, a postgraduate program in maritime archaeology was established at the University of Southern Denmark. Based in Esbjerg, on the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula in southwestern Denmark, it is a one-of-a-kind university program in this centuries-old seafaring nation. The program is designed for students who want to pursue a professional career in maritime archaeology and heritage management.

Hungry shrimp innovate more
Both size and hunger drove the prawns to innovate to get food, but only under certain circumstances

Hungry shrimps get smarter

Behavioural innovation is thought to play an important role in enabling animals to cope with environmental change. Research on animal innovation has focused on terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, but few animals face environmental variation as extreme as those living in littoral zones, where physical and social conditions change dramatically from moment to moment.

Masked spinefoots (S. puellus)
Masked spinefoots (S. puellus)

Fishes look out for their buddies

In pairs of coral reef rabbitfishes (f. Siganidae), one fish frequently assumes an upright vigilance position in the water column, while the partner forages in small crevices in the reef substratum. Both behaviours are strongly coordinated and partners regularly alternate their positions, resulting in a balanced distribution of foraging activity.

Blue whales optimize foraging efficiency by balancing oxygen use and energy gain as a function of prey density
Blue whales optimize foraging efficiency by balancing oxygen use and energy gain as a function of prey density

Blue whales' meal planning is complicated

Feeding performance of blue whales vary wide as a function of prey density and distribution, according to new research just published in Science Advances. Because rorqual whales are air-breathing divers that exhibit a high-cost feeding mechanism, they are under considerable pressure to optimize their foraging success by weighing oxygen use against possible energy gain.

Blacktip reef shark

Reef sharks travel far to give birth

Near sanctuary zones at Mangrove Bay and Coral Bay, marine biologists tagged 83 reef sharks. They then tracked the sharks' movements in order to find out how much protection the marine park provides the sharks. Over a two-year period, the movements of blacktip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and sicklefin lemon sharks at Ningaloo Reef were examined.