Marine Biology

A recently published marine biology study shines a light on yet another damaging effect of the global illegal drug trade. Cocaine dumped in rivers can alter the behavior of fish in those waters, causing them to venture out more than usual.

When a behavioral ecologist gazed towards a group of emperor chichlids in Zambia recently, the fish seemed to be more alert and aggressive. That got him investigating whether they could really tell when they were being stared at.

The warm waters of Mexico and Texas are home to a small fish that has produced nothing but daughters for over 100,000 years. The offspring are the exact genetic copy of their mother, with no father involved. This is the amazing Amazon molly.

In 2023, a great white shark was caught off Spain, leading researchers to analyze historical data. They suggest these rare sightings aren't random anomalies but evidence of a "ghost" population persisting in the Mediterranean over centuries.

For the first time, we know more than we ever expected to know about the sex lives of the majestic beluga whale. It's complicated, to say the least, but it also shows just how strategic nature is at keeping an isolated group of animals alive.

The first ever study to document a direct relationship between earthquake activity at the bottom of the ocean and phytoplankton growth at the surface changes the way scientists in the future will model ecosystems.

In 1995, divers first noticed a group of bizarre sandy "crop circles" on the seabed near southwest Japan. But it took decades for scientists to identify the marine artists behind them – and why they were building such geometrically precise structures.

For the first time ever, a unique cooperative hunting arrangement between dolphins and orcas has been documented. Researchers believe killer whales find salmon by tailing dolphins, who in turn benefit from bite-sized fish pieces.

On a remote reef, endless streams of bubbles rise from cracks in the seabed into the shallow water, fed by an underground volcanic system. For scientists, this phenomenon has become a kind of crystal ball, revealing the changes that await marine life.

A new species of jellyfish, named after a samurai warrior, has been identified off the coast of Japan and its discovery is more than just a biological curiosity. It reveals ocean currents changing and marine migration routes shifting.

Oceanic manta rays make extreme dives of more than 1,200 meters – three-quarters of a mile – but it's not to feed. Instead, the mantas are calibrating their own kind of Google Maps as soon as they find themselves out beyond the continental shelf.

Old Nazi warheads and US warships have been reclaimed by a new army of diverse marine life, as scientists for the first time uncover how nature has made use of the munitions and fleets that ended up dumped in waterways during the two world conflicts.