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"The sleepiest ocean on the planet is mixing more and supporting more summer life with the rapid loss of ice cover."

"I have to say that this one just really depresses me (but please look straight at this one): AFP writes that a new report by the UNEP shows that at current fishing rates, and if we don't do anything to stop it, in 40 years there will not be any commercially-viable amounts of fish left in the oceans. Consider that for a moment before continuing reading. No significant quantities of fish left, due to direct human action."

Plastic marine debris collected in a surface plankton net tow. Photo: Sea Education Association. Though it hasn't garnered nearly as much attention as its plastic-ridden analog in the Pacific, the North Atlantic Ocean too has its very own gigantic

aryland utilities would have to sign multi-decade contracts to buy offshore wind energy under a proposal Gov. Martin O'Malley could introduce as soon as Thursday. A draft of O'Malley's offshore wind bill, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, would require the state's four utilities to sign fixed-price contracts of at least 20 years with offshore wind developers who are expected to build wind turbines a dozen miles off the coast of Ocean City.

"Delmas, a French shipping company that has been under pressure for facilitating the destruction of Madagascar's rainforest parks, has been cleared to begin picking up contraband rosewood as soon as Monday, report local sources in the Indian Ocean island nation. Leaders behind last year's military coup - which displaced the autocratic, but democratically elected President Marc Ravalomanana - have signed off on the shipment."

"Most of the chemical absorption of sound occurs at relatively low frequencies, from about 1,000 to 5,000 hertz. Propeller noise ... fall in the same range, as does some military and research sonar. So this "background" noise, especially prevalent near shipping lanes, will be louder. That may be bad news for marine mammals, which use sounds in the same range for communication and echolocation while foraging. "We're not saying that during the next 100 years all dolphins will be deafened," Dr. Zeebe said. "But the background noise could essentially override or mask the sounds that they're depending on."

"A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species."

From 1950 to 2006 the United Nation Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that 12,700 metric tons of fish were caught in the Arctic, giving the impression that the Arctic was a still-pristine ecosystem, remaining underexploited by the world's fisheries. However, a recent study by the University of British Colombia Fisheries Center and Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences throws cold water on this widespread belief. According to the study, published in Polar Biology, the total Arctic catch from 1950 to 2006 is likely to have been nearly a million metric tons, almost 75 times the FAO's official record.

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.

One thing you can say about the winter of 2010-'11, for what it's worth: the Arctic doesn't seem so remote anymore. You don't have to be a meteorologist to get the feeling that the polar atmosphere has sprung a leak -- that the freezing down here has something to do with the warming up there.