Missed out on February 2022's ocean news? Here's a glimpse into what went down in Davy Jones's Locker this month

Animals & Plants

• What makes some kelp forests more resilient to urchins? This new research suggests the complexity of the sea floor has something to do with it.
  
  
• Atlantic cod and squid in the middle of the Arctic Ocean? Yup.
  
  
• Did you know that as well as acting as a carbon sink, protecting coasts from erosion, & housing a multitude of different animals, seagrass meadows emit methane? This new study suggests they can emit methane for decades after they die.
  
  
• Feast you eyes on this baby ghost shark! This super-rare sighting was made near the Chatham Rise, off the coast of New Zealand's South Island.
  
  
• Basking sharks spend their winters in the south where waters are warmer, and their summers in the north where waters are full of food right? Not so for some baskers who love to spend their whole year around Ireland (to be fair, Ireland is gorgeous).

Climate Crisis

• New study finds 56 African cultural and natural heritage sites at "immediate risk" from a "once-in-a-century coastal extreme event." At least 151 natural and 40 cultural sites will be exposed to a 100-year event from 2050 onwards. Let's not be too fatalist though. The scientists calculate "limiting emissions would reduce the exposure of the heritage sites."
  
  
• Is ocean based carbon removal really the solution? Elizabeth Kolbert shares her thoughts.

Fisheries & Aquaculture

• Following years of overfishing in the 1900s, Tope sharks along the USA's Oregon, Washington, and Californian coasts never really recovered. A new petition is seeking to protect the sharks and their habitat.
  
  
• Apparently "sustainable" isn't the word to use with most of South Florida's commercial and recreational coral reef fisheries. New study looks at stake of grouper and snapper poupulations, finds more than 85% are overfished.
  
  
• The Canadian Federal Governmnet are investing C$11.8 million to support First Nations commercial fisheries enterprises for the benefit of Indigenous communities under the Pacific Integrated Commercial Fisheries Initiative.

Marine Technology

• Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were used to detect oil plumes back in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. 12 years later, they aren't being used as a matter of course when oil spills happen. Dr Neil Bose and Dr Jimin Hwang argue they should be.
  
  
• Eco Wave Power Finalizes the Production of 10 Floater Units and commences Installation of the Floaters in the Port of Jaffa, Israel.
  
  
• Biologists want to attach audio devices to elephant seals to record life in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
  
  
• A new remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is going to explore three of Greenland's glaciersseals up close.

Oceanography

• Who loves a rogue wave? Back in 2020, “the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded” occurred off Ucluelet, Vancouver Island. How big are we talking? 17.6 meters. Now, it turns out there have been taller waves recorded (yes Norway, it's you with your 25.6m wave) but the difference here is that Vancouver Island wave was 3 times taller than the surrounding waves, whereas the one in Norway was "only" 2 times taller.

People & the Sea

• Did you know there is a 'space cemetery' in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? In 2031 the International Space Station will join other space craft at the furhest point from any landmass on Earth.
  
  
• Samsung are joining the likes of Bureo & Net-Works to repurpose discarded fishing nets in their new Galaxy devies.
  
  
• The underwater museum in Turkey is suffering from poacher's anchors and lack of maintenance.