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“This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins,” said WCS researcher Brian D. Smith, who led the study. “Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a top priority.”

The scientists counted nearly 6,000 of the dolphins in the South Asian country’s Sundarbans mangrove forest and the adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal.

As one of the eight new natural sites that have been added to the World Heritage List, following IUCN’s recommendations you find the Socotra Archipelago in Yemen. Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horn of Africa some 190 nautical miles (220 mi/350 km) south of the Arabian peninsula. It is a part of the 'Adan Governorate of the Republic of Yemen.

The diving centres on the black list have not complied to standards EN 14467/ISO 24803 for Recreational Diving Services and will not be able to renew their license from the Ministry of Tourism and therefore will be operating illegally.

The auditing process to check that diving centres are meeting these standards began in May 2008 and by 31st March 2009 was completed in South Sinai and will continue to 31st July 2009 in the Hurghada area. Steps will then be put into action to close down illegal operations that fail to comply.

In the case of cod in the North Sea, eastern channel and Skagerrak...things took a turn for the worse in 2008, when a greater proportion of the stock was caught than in any year since 1999," the European Commission said in a statement.

"We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse," said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana.

As many as 400 megalodon teeth were found at the sites, giving rise to this theory. The size of most of the teeth, about 0.6 to 2.8 inches, suggests that the majority had come from juveniles and embryonic sharks.

Juvenile teeth are different from the small teeth from adults or the dwarf species of the megalodon. In all, it is estimated that the teeth came from 21 juvenile megalodons and seven adults, possibly the mother sharks.

The discovery of the new deep-sea vent is remarkable because the area in which it was found has been intensively studied during previous research cruises. The vent with chimneys as high as one meter and fluids with temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius was found at one thousand metres depth in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Marine life samples collected and new maps created from the mission will guide management of important deepwater coral habitats and provide insight into environmental changes.

During the NOAA mission “Extreme Corals 2010,” scientists used the Jason II remotely operated vehicle from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to survey deep-sea coral sites from the Florida Keys to Jacksonville, Fla., and collect invertebrate and fish samples from depths over two thousand feet beneath the Gulf Stream.

But according to a report from the University of Guam, soil science professor Mohammad Golabi’s research shows that using vetiver grass to shield reefs in Guam’s Pago Bay helps protect them from the effects of construction-induced run-off.

After a seven-year campaign by Australian Federal and State governments, Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef has been awarded World Heritage status at UNESCO’s June meeting in Paris. Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke heralds the inscription as a major achievement. “The Ningaloo coast’s striking land and seascape tells a dramatic story about the formation of oceans, movement of continents and changes in our climate,” he said.

According to an analysis of the Atlantic cod’s genome, scientists have discovered the fish have evolved to survive without a set of genes thought essential to the immune system. It is hoped the finding will lead to better vaccines for farmed cod and even open new avenues of medical research for human disease.