SeaWeb, an international non-profit ocean conservation organization, announced the six finalists of the Marine Photobank’s fifth annual “Ocean In Focus” photography contest on 12 March 2013. The contest aims to illuminate the human-ocean connection and advance ocean conservation through photography.

Photograph by Matthew Potenski Courtesy of Marine Photobank

A baitfish shoal in the Bahamas, ready to retreat to the protection of the mangroves at the first sign of a predator: The photograph of a healthy coastal ecosystem. Ocean in Focus contest continues to uncover the unsavory truths facing the ocean.

The North Atlantic Bloom: swirling artwork in the sea, plankton bloom in spring, summer.: Photograph courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
View a photo gallery showing the North Atlantic Bloom.

Lemon sharks are now protected by the shark fishing ban implemented in the Los Roques Archipelago off of Venezuela. Shark scientist, Rafael Tavares’ research has shown that Los Roques is one of the most important shark breeding areas of the Caribbean Sea; protecting this area secures healthier shark populations throughout the region. Local fishermen have committed to protecting sharks in order to maintain the health of the ocean environment.

Photograph by Federico Cabello

Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha: The scientific name for Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is derived from the Greek words “onkos” (hook), “rynchos” (nose), and “tshawytscha” (the common name for the species in Siberia and Alaska). New scientific information and analyses about the Southern Resident population of killer whales and the extent of their reliance on salmon – particularly large chinook salmon – strongly suggest that chinook abundance is very important to survival and recovery of these whales. Fisheries coast wide are potentially affected by the extensive range of both chinook salmon and killer whales. Photograph courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.

Photos of the Sargasso Sea courtesy of the Pew Environment Group

The Pew Environment Group’s Global Ocean Legacy Program is working with the government of Bermuda, nongovernmental organizations, and scientists to establish the ‘Bermuda Blue Halo,’ a very large, no-take marine reserve to protect the Sargasso Sea within Bermuda's waters. Nearly the size of the continental U.S., the Sargasso Sea was named after Sargassum. Some of the marine species relying on this habitat have evolved unique shapes and color patterns that camouflage them among the plants. The Sargasso Sea is set off from the surrounding Atlantic by four ocean currents - some of the strongest in the world.

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Oil contamination and minnow trap in the marsh at Grand Terre Island, Louisiana. Photograph by Andrew Whitehead

Despite low concentrations of oil constituents in Gulf of Mexico waters from the Deepwater Horizon spill, fish were dramatically affected by toxic components of the oil. So found a team led by scientists Fernando Galvez and Andrew Whitehead of Louisiana State University (LSU).

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Alternative Fishing Gear Can Reduce Shark Mortality:Pew lays out simple steps to cut bycatch numbers

A new global scientific review shows that simple changes in fishing gear could significantly reduce the large number of sharks unintentionally caught in the world’s oceans. The paper, “Fisheries Bycatch of Sharks: Options for Mitigation” released today by the Pew Environment Group, outlines practical options for reducing shark injury and death from commercial fishing, a leading cause of shark population decline.

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Flares of captured gas (left) and oil (right) at the Deepwater Horizon spill site in June 2010. Photograph by David Valentine

Scientists Identify Microbes Responsible for Consuming Natural Gas in Deepwater Horizon Spill

Water temperature played key role. :In the results of a new study, scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill. The researchers found that water temperature played a key role in the way bacteria reacted to the spill. Please click on the title to go to the full article.

Some species, such as the oceanic white tip, have experienced declines of up to 99 percent. Due to their life history characteristics of slow growth, late maturity, and production of few young, sharks are exceptionally vulnerable to overexploitation and slow to recover once depleted. Photograph by Jim Abernethy courtesy of the Pew Environment Group

World’s Largest Shark Sanctuary Declared in Central Pacific

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is now home to the world’s largest shark sanctuary. The Nitijela, the Marshallese parliament, unanimously passed legislation this week that ends commercial fishing of sharks in all 1,990,530 square kilometers (768,547 square miles) of the central Pacific country’s waters, an ocean area four times the landmass of California. Please click on the title to go to the article.

Blue sharks (Prionace glauca), as one seen here, tiger sharks (Galeocerdo curvier), Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), and whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) can be found in the region. Photograph by Jim Abernethy courtesy of Pew Environment Group

Tokelau Declares Shark Sanctuary

Tokelau, an island territory in the South Pacific, designates a shark sanctuary encompassing all 319,031 square kilometers (123,178 square miles) of Tokelau’s exclusive economic zone. Please click on the title to go to the article.

Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus). Photograph by Jim Abernethy courtesy of Pew Environment Group

Blue shark. This photograph was taken off of Narragansett, Rhode Island by Karin Leonard. Photograph courtesy of the Marine Photobank

Chile Ban on Shark Finning Law Published: Praised by Pew

Chile’s ban on shark finning requires that any fisherman who catches these animals must land them with their fins naturally attached, meaning that the whole body must be taken to port intact. The law signed by Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was published on August 8, 2011 in the Diario Oficial. According to Pew, “Up to 73 million sharks are killed every year around the globe primarily for their fins, which are most often consumed in Asia in shark fin soup. This unsustainable trade is fueled by shark finning, the wasteful act of slicing off the fins and discarding the body at sea.”

Please click on the title to go to the article and videos from Pew Global Shark Conservation: "Sharks in Trouble" and "Chile Bans Shark Finning."

Shortfin mako. This photograph was taken off of San Diego, California by Masa Ushioda. Photograph courtesy of Sea Pics

Subseafloor Observatories Installed to Run Dynamic Experiments

Scientists will study fluid flow, chemistry, and life off British Columbia coast: Scientists estimate that a large fraction of life on Earth thrives in the "subsurface biosphere." Observatories installed in the ocean floor off British Columbia, Canada, will to run innovative experiments at the bottom of the sea. They will "measure directly, within the oceanic crust, key characteristics that govern an unseen, remote, yet geographically widespread biological world, and will support long-term chemical and biological sampling and environmental monitoring of this exotic habitat," said Jamie Allan, program director in the National Science Foundation's(NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences.

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Super-Rare 'Elkhorn' Coral Found In Pacific

An Australian scientist has discovered what could be the world’s rarest coral in the remote North Pacific Ocean.
The unique Pacific elkhorn coral was found while conducting underwater surveys of Arno atoll in the Marshall Islands, by coral researcher Dr Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS).

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The archetypal divergent branching pattern of the Pacific elkhorn closely resembles that of the Atlantic elkhorn coral - Acropora palmata. Photo courtesy of Dr Maria Beger.

As storm clouds gather and seas deteriorate, a team recovers the hybrid vehicle Nereus aboard the R/V Cape Hatteras during an expedition to the Mid-Cayman Rise in October 2009. A search for new vent sites along the 110 km ridge, the expedition featured the first use of Nereus in "autonomous" or free-swimming mode. Photograph courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Expedition to Mid-Cayman Rise Identifies Unusual Variety of Deep Sea Vents: Method included first use of nereus hybrid vehicle in “autonomous” mode.

The first expedition to search for deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Cayman Rise has turned up three distinct types of hydrothermal venting, reports an interdisciplinary team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hydrothermal activity occurs on spreading centers all around the world. However, the diversity of the newly discovered vent types, their geologic settings and their relative geographic isolation make the Mid-Cayman Rise a unique environment in the world's ocean.

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Black coral (Antipathes dichotoma). This picture and the other photographs in this article were taken by a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) at depths lower than 300 meters.Expedition Oceana Ranger 2010: Discovering seamounts. Seco de los Olivos, Almeria, Spain. June 2010. Photograph copyright Oceana.

Oceana discovers one of the most important and threatened deep-sea coral reefs of the Mediterranean in the Alboran Sea

Oceana has discovered large colonies of white coral and a wealth of associated fauna in Spanish waters of the Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean), with greater abundance at depths between 300 and 500 meters. The finding took place during the 2010 expedition of the research catamaran, the Oceana Ranger, as part of LIFE + INDEMARES project.

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Mangroves in Monroe County, Southeast Florida. Photograph by Ralph F. Kresge NOAA

Three Pacific Marine Protected Areas, Marine National Monuments, Established

President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes on July 19, 2010. That Executive Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and directs Federal agencies to take the appropriate steps to implement them.

The Executive Order strengthens ocean governance and coordination, establishes guiding principles for ocean management, and adopts a flexible framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes.

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Expanded Focus of Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Efforts Recommended

In an article published in Science, scientists argue for a coral reef conservation strategy that not only takes into account biodiversity hotspots, but also focuses on evolutionary processes and the preservation of peripheral areas of species ranges, as well as connectivity among populations.

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Long-Distance Larvae Speed to New Undersea Vent Homes

Working in a rare, "natural seafloor laboratory" of hydrothermal vents that had just been rocked by a volcanic eruption, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and other institutions have discovered what they believe is an undersea superhighway.

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"Pioneer" vent species travel hundreds of kilometers to settle new deep-ocean territories. Photograph courtesy Nicole Rager-Fuller, National Science Foundation

Surface accumulation of the nitrogen-fixing microbe Trichodesmium in the South Pacific Ocean.
Credit: Pia Moisander

More than One: Long-Reigning Microbe Controlling Ocean Nitrogen Shares the Throne: Novel species found to be more widely distributed in world's seas

Nitrogen-fixing microorganisms are the key to the productivity of the oceans. Growth of microbes at the base of the food chain is dependent on nutrients like nitrogen, in the same way that agriculture on land depends on such nutrients. Marine scientists long believed that a microbe called Trichodesmium, a member of a group called the cyanobacteria, reigned over the ocean's nitrogen budget. New research results reported on-line on February 25, 2010 in a paper in Science Express show that Trichodesmium may have to share its nitrogen-fixing throne: two others of its kind, small spherical species of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria called UCYN-A and Crocosphaera watsonii, are also abundant in the oceans.

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NOAA Report Finds Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Among the Healthiest Coral Reefs in Gulf of Mexico

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is among the healthiest coral reef ecosystems in the tropical Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, according to a new NOAA report. The report, A Biogeographic Characterization of Fish Communities and Associated Benthic Habitats within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, offers insights into the coral and fish communities within the sanctuary based on data collected in 2006 and 2007. Sanctuary managers will use the report to track and monitor changes in the marine ecosystem located 70 to 115 miles off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.