Press Releases 2005

The mid-point findings of the ten-year Census of Marine Life were made public on December 14th in a release that covered everything from a coastal fish tracking that is using implanted chips to record the movement of endangered salmon to carnivorous sponges found among new species in the Southern Ocean Abyss to an eerie underwater dead zone at the 2004 Tsunami epicenter. The Census, which began in 2000 with about 250 collaborators, now has some 1,700 experts from 73 nations involved in 17 projects are today working to produce the 1st Census by 2010.

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October 23, 2005 Seafood prices collected from U.S. restaurant menus dating to the 1850s will help plot the shifting harvest and depletion of marine species, according to a study to be announced at Oceans Past, a Census of Marine Life conference in Denmark on the History of Marine Animal Populations.

Led by paleo-oceanographer Glenn Jones at Texas A&M University in Galveston, the researchers are charting over 150 years of inflation-adjusted seafood prices from menus, most from cities such as New York, Boston, San Francisco and Providence. The result helps shed light on marine catches and supplies of such popular species as lobster, swordfish, abalone, oysters, halibut, haddock and sole.

Though still at an early stage, the research shows the most dramatic rise in the price of abalone as stocks of that species collapsed from over-fishing on the California coast.

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29 JULY 2005. A historic expedition of Census of Marine Life explorers to the planet's most northern reaches has revealed a surprising density and diversity of Arctic Ocean creatures, some believed new to science.
The 30-day "Hidden Ocean" expedition (http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov), funded and coordinated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, an agency of the US Department of Commerce) sailed aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy with 24 scientists, including 11 from the Census of Marine Life, from four countries (the US, Canada, Russia and China).
Several of the creatures aboard the Healy are unfamiliar to expedition experts and may well prove new to science, said Dr. Rolf Gradinger, head of the Arctic CoML, based at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), and chief scientist on the voyage.

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PHUCKET, THAILAND. 26 May 2005. An international team of the world's leading scientists has just returned from the first ever scientific expedition to dive an amazing 4,500 metres deep into ocean water to explore the seabed site of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. They have revealed dramatic photographic evidence of seafloor ruptures that contributed to the deadly December 26 tsunami wave

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The Investigation's First Dive, Slated for Wednesday, May 11, Starts Production of Journey to the Heart of the Tsunami To Be Telecast Later This Year

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CoML expert Dr. Andy Rosenberg, Dean, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, University of New Hampshire, and report co-authors are available for advance interviews Fri. and Mon. Feb. 25 and 28. Please call 416-538-8712 or email terrycollins [at] rogers [dot] com to schedule a time. They will also take part in a media conference call Tuesday. March 1, 1 p.m. EST. To join the call, dial +1-303-664-6043, conference ID 8309014.

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Annual Highlight Report for CoML 2004