Nautical News
Original reporting on the ocean, spearfishing and diving stories, and the conditions shaping the California coast.
7.4 Earthquake in Mexico Raises Tsunami Alert: How Tsunamis Devastate Ocean Ecosystems
A powerful quake off Chiapas triggered a tsunami warning on Friday, then a swift all-clear. It is a chance to ask a quieter question: when a tsunami does hit, what does it do to the sea?
Australia Is Spending $120 Million to Create a Drone Shark Patrol Force to Cut Down on Shark Attacks
After a great white took a swimmer's arm at a Sydney beach, New South Wales is scaling up what it calls the world's largest aerial shark-surveillance program, betting on drones and AI over nets.
Massive Seaweed Die-Offs Stink Up the Coast and Murk Up the Water in the Florida Keys
A record-size belt of sargassum is burying the Keys, rotting in the canals, killing fish, and turning clear water to soup. Scientists say it is probably the new normal.
Seven Percent: The Storm Aid Puerto Rico's Fisheries Are Still Waiting For
Seven years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, a federal audit found Puerto Rico had spent just 7 percent of the $11.4 million meant to rebuild its fisheries, most of it stuck in bureaucracy while fishers rebuilt alone.
Why El Niño Is Spiking the Price of Copper
Copper is already at record highs on a global supply crunch. Now a strengthening El Niño threatens the Andes mines that dig 40 percent of the world's supply, and traders are watching the Pacific.
Giant Squid Are Much More Common Than We Think... We Just Didn't Know Where To Look
For a century we read the ocean's giant squid, and their even larger cousin the colossal squid, as rare. A new wave of stealth cameras suggests the problem was never the animals. It was our blinding white lights.
The Pacific Runs a Fever: A Possibly Record El Niño Is Forming, and California's Water, Fish, and Kelp Will Feel It
NOAA says El Niño has formed and could become one of the strongest on record. Here is how it changes ocean visibility, the fish, and the health of the coast.
Three in Four Weeks: Australian Sharks Keep Killing Spearfishermen
Three spearfishers have been killed off Australia in a month. Here are the numbers behind the danger, and the warming water that may be shifting it.
Unplugging the Deep: Why More than 900 Oceanic Sensors Are Being Removed For Good
The National Science Foundation is pulling more than 900 sensors from the Atlantic and Pacific, ending a decade of uninterrupted ocean data. Why? Yet another instance of the Trump Administration pulling funding from something vital.