Green Options

The last time you visited an aquarium, you probably saw one. With their zebra-like stripes, multiple spines, and elaborate fins, they’re quite beautiful and incredibly distinctive. But red lionfish are also voracious carnivores that breed like rabbits and are poisonous to boot. And they’re invading the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Researchers in Israel have discovered that Japanese sea corals engage in sex switching. Similar to species of trees and more famously, most species of reef fish, female Japanese sea corals (scientifically known as fungiid coral) switch their sex so that the majority are male. This seems to be due to male fungiid coral’s better ability to handle the stresses brought on by resource scarcity.

Since over a quarter of the world’s coral reefs have already become damaged due to increasing sea temperatures, understanding how fungiids are able to become primarily male may provide researchers with alternative reproduction strategies. 

Geared towards raising awareness of endangered ocean habitats, a new online tool allows viewers an in-depth peek at underwater reefs around the world.

Google Earth has taken us up and out into the universe, and now they are taking us down and under the surface of the sea. The new Google Earth ‘layer’ will allow people to experience a ‘virtual dive’ under the water at sensitive ocean areas all around the world.

With a click of the mouse, viewers will be able to access video streams, photo galleries, conservation strategies and local stories specific to that spot.  Conservationists working in partnership with Google Inc. unveiled the new technology at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) world congress in Barcelona.

It seems as though right now the underwater Google plugin is only available for Windows, but I imagine a Mac version won’t be far behind.

Scientists at the University of Melbourne have discovered the relics of a 650 million year-old reef in the Australian Outback. The reef is 10 times higher than the modern Great Barrier Reef and predates the evolution of animal life by at least 40 million years. It could also offer valuable information about climate change.

The reef is located in the Flinders Ranges of southeastern Australia (pictured here). When the reef was submerged, these mountains formed Australia’s eastern seaboard. Since then, tectonic and natural forces have combined to expose a section of the reef around 20 km (12.4 miles) wide. Despite its size and relative proximity to Whyalla, South Australia’s third most populous city, the reef remained hidden to science until this week.

The discovery is of tremendous scientific value in understanding the origins of modern life. Little is known about life before around 542 million years ago–the end of the Precambrian age–since discoveries of fossils this old are rare. To put the reef’s age in perspective, it predates the first known fish by about 150 million years and the first mammals by about 450 million years. The reef itself, the only one of its age ever discovered, is not composed of coral like today’s reefs. Most of the reef is made of layers of non-living stromatolite accretion formed by previously unknown unicellular organisms.