Guardian: Little bigger than a pea, the smallest known sea horse, Hippocampus satomiae, was discovered at a depth of about 15 metres on reefs in Indonesia, from Derawan island to northern Sulawesi and Borneo. Like other pygmy sea horses, its size and camouflage make it difficult to spot. This species resembles, in texture and colour, the sea fans with which it lives. It has a pouch in which it carries its young, which are only 3mm in length. Animal names ending in -ae honour women, in this case Satomi ...

Daily Comet: The combined forces of climate change and land loss pose a major threat to Louisiana bird species, especially those that depend on the disappearing coast, according to a report released Thursday by a partnership of university bird researchers, federal agencies and environmental groups. The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change," released Thursday by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, was prepared by a partnership of university bird researchers, federal agencies and ...

BBC: Sales of ivory and a possible ban on trading bluefin tuna top the agenda for the two-week CITES meeting that opens this weekend in Doha, Qatar. CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - will set a precedent if it votes to ban trading in a lucrative fish such as bluefin. The US and EU back the proposal, but Japan is set against. Conservation groups are also hoping for increased protection on sharks, coral, polar bears, lizards and ...

San Francisco Chronicle: Emperor penguins and chicks in Antarctica are the most severely threatened by impending climate changes, the report says. The birds need solid sea ice to lay eggs and raise chicks on. Shifting sea ice around Antarctica is already disrupting penguin colonies as the world's climate warms, according to a new report by a team of polar scientists. The researchers looked at the complex relationship between emperor and Adelie penguins and their changing habitats and studied how a ...

Living on Earth: YOUNG: It's Living on Earth, I'm Jeff Young. Recent discoveries on the floor of the Arctic Ocean have raised interest and concern about methane and its role in climate change. A study in the journal Science found permafrost under the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is not so permanent. Some of it is melting and as it does, it leaks methane into the atmosphere. Previous studies found a similar phenomenon in the waters off of Norway. This raises a troubling scenario, because methane is a ...

Inter Press Service: As climate change transforms the acidity and oxygen levels of the world's waters with devastating effects for some marine species, others are facing an even more immediate threat from human consumption. To reverse that unsustainable trade, an unprecedented number of aquatic species have been proposed for listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in order to prohibit or significantly curtail international trade in those ...

National Public Radio: Wildlife experts convene next week in the city of Doha in Qatar to consider how to control the trade in rare animals and plants. Their means to that end is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty that most of the world's government have signed onto, though not always happily. Trade in elephant ivory continues to be a contentious issue. And this year sees a brand new effort to move offshore and protect some of the ocean's most charismatic -- and ...

Telegraph: Despite restrictions on taking the species from European waters, the spiny dogfish is still imported into the UK and other EU countries. Most of the meat in Britain ends up in fish and chips without consumers knowing what they are eating. But a meeting of 175 countries next week is expected to crack down on trading of the shark meat meaning it will no longer be appearing in the nation's favourite dish. Spiny dogfish is one of eight species of shark to be considered at the ...

New York Times: Marathon negotiations on protecting the planet's endangered species open on Saturday in Qatar with tensions bubbling over efforts to ban trade in bluefin tuna and to reopen exports of elephant ivory from Africa. Kenyan officials confiscated tusks in Nairobi last year and are fighting a request by some nations to sell their ivory stockpiles. About 40 proposals are on the agenda for the 12-day meeting of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ...

Guardian: It is a familiar story in the climate change debate. The US government is at odds with the rest of the world and, despite criticism, wants other countries to change their minds and fall in line behind Uncle Sam. This time, the tale comes with an unexpected twist. This weekend, the US will warn that the threat from climate change to the survival of the polar bear is so great that the world must grant it the highest possible protection. At the meeting of the international body ...

Agence France-Presse: China's coastal waters are increasingly polluted by everything from oil to pesticides, contaminating the nation's marine life including the shellfish supply, state press reported Friday. Most shellfish in offshore areas contained "excessive harmful chemicals" such as lead, cadmium and the insecticide DDT, the China Daily said, citing a new report released by the State Oceanic Administration. Levels of lead detected in shellfish were 50 percent higher than normal, while cadmium ...

Christian Science Monitor: Nearly three years after the US Supreme Court found that carbon dioxide was a pollutant that fell under the purview of the Clean Air Act, the US Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to explore approaches for tightening its regulations dealing with ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. Ocean acidification results from the ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Maine scientists have become increasingly concerned about the effect industrial emissions of CO2 ...

New York Times: Changes in the global climate are imposing additional stress on hundreds of species of migratory birds in the United States that are already threatened by other environmental factors, according to a new Interior Department report. The latest version of the department's annual State of the Birds report shows that nearly a third of the nation's 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or suffering from population decline. For the first time, the report adds climate change to ...

Associated Press: The Japanese coastguard has arrested an activist from New Zealand for illegally boarding a whaling ship last month. Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based group Sea Shepherd, is accused of jumping aboard the vessel from a jetski in the Southern Ocean, where Japan was conducting its annual whale hunt. Boarding a Japanese vessel without legitimate reasons can bring a prison term of up to three years or a fine up to 100,000 yen (£730). Sea Shepherd said Bethune boarded the ...

Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will consider ways the states can address rising acidity levels in oceans, which pose a serious threat to shellfish and other marine life. The agency's decision was announced in a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. The environmental group sued the EPA last year for not requiring Washington state to list its coastal waters as impaired by rising acidity under the Clean Water Act. "It's one of the ...

Agence France-Presse: Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America, threatening a two-billion-dollar industry and 136,000 jobs, regional experts said Thursday. "Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species," especially shrimp and lobster, said Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) regional director Mario Gonzalez. "The Pacific shrimp population, Panama excluded, has fallen dramatically" because ...

Telegraph: Northern right whale - mid 1880s Red-backed shrike - 1988 Gamekeepers boost rare birds Hundreds of wildlife species lost Large tortoiseshell butterfly - 1953 Lynx - First century Irish lady's tresses flower - 1990s Burbot fish - 1960 Black backed meadow ant - 1988 Spotted sulphur moth - 1960 Beaver - Late 1700s Wildcat - Late 1800s Tawny earwig - 1930 Apple bumblebee - 1864 Blue stag beetle - ...

Reuters: Japan's coastguard on Friday arrested an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand who boarded a whaling vessel in the Antarctic following clashes between hunters and environmentalists, a spokesman said. Media helicopters hovered overhead as a flotilla of ships sailed into Tokyo Bay and Pete Bethune of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was brought ashore after being held on board for the four-week trip. Sea Shepherd said 44-year-old Bethune had been planning to attempt a ...

San Jose Mercury News: Birds that rely on oceans and live on coastlines are more vulnerable to climate change than birds found in any other habitats in America, according to a new report released Thursday by federal biologists and other researchers. Terns that live on California's beaches -- along with murres, auklets, puffins and other species found in offshore areas like the Farallon Islands off San Francisco -- face loss of habitat from rising seas, disruption of ocean food supplies and other problems in ...

Associated Press: Global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations, which are already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution, according to a report released Thursday. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference to release the study, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change." The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at particular risk from ...