News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
HMS Nottingham discovered
Mass bleaching hits Great Barrier Reef
Singing the blues
ENVIRONMENT
Protect Our Seas
News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
PHOTO: STEFFEN SCHOLZ
HMS Nottingham discovered
Divers have located the wreckage of the Royal Navy warship HMS Nottingham in the North Sea – 109 years after its sinking in the First World War. The ship was identified 60
Mass bleaching hits Great Barrier Reef
Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the largest annual decline in coral cover since records began nearly 40 years ago. Northern and southern branches of the extensive Australian reef both suffered their most widespread coral bleaching, the Australian Institute of Marine Science( AIMS) found. Reefs have been battered in recent months by
miles off the southeast coast of Scotland by a team of ten divers led by ProjectXplore, a team engaged in the search for historicallysignificant shipwrecks around the UK. Its resting place, at a depth of 82 metres, remained a mystery until ProjectXplore documented the site in July.
tropical cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish that feast on coral, but heat stress driven by climate change is the predominant reason, AIMS said. AIMS warns the habitat may reach a tipping point where coral cannot recover fast enough between catastrophic events and faces a“ volatile” future. AIMS surveyed the health of 124 coral reefs between August 2024 and May 2025. It has been performing surveys since 1986.
Thirty-eight crew members were killed when the 144 metre-long ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in August 1916. Divers found white dinner plates stamped with a Royal Navy blue crown emblem, as well as the embossed lettering‘ Nottingham’ on the top of the stern.
Singing the blues
Unique structures on the skin of the blue shark suggest it may be able to change colour like a chameleon, according to a new study. The study, presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Antwerp, reveals tiny nanostructures in the skin of the shark that produce their colouration. The secret to the shark’ s colour lies in the pulp cavities of the scales that armour the skin, known as dermal denticles.“ Blue is one of the rarest colours in the animal kingdom, and animals have developed a variety of unique strategies through evolution to produce it, making these processes especially fascinating,” Viktoriia Kamska, a researcher who participated in the study, said.
52