underwater

Wild blacktip sharks can hear sounds from nearly 250 feet away and pinpoint where they come from; Florida experiments reveal how the predators locate sound underwater

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Wild blacktip sharks can hear sounds from nearly 250 feet away and pinpoint where they come from; Florida experiments reveal how the predators locate sound underwater

Wild blacktip sharks may have a more sophisticated sense of hearing than scientists previously realised. A study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that free-swimming sharks can detect low-frequency sounds from as far as 74 metres, or roughly 243 feet, away and respond by turning sharply away from the source. The findings were reported … Read more

In 1994, 100 obsolete battle tanks were sunk off Alabama; three decades later, they remain underwater fish habitat

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Alabama’s 1994 reef program involved sinking 100 battle tanks to create artificial reefs. (AI-generated/ChatGPT)

Battle tanks were built to roll across land, not to rest on the sea floor. Yet in 1994, 100 of them took a one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean off Alabama, and fish were supposed to move in. In 1993, the military needed a way to retire obsolete battle tanks. According to the … Read more

In 2024, Texas biologists turned more than 160 donated Christmas trees into an underwater reef at Granger Lake, where fish can use them as habitat within 15 minutes

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In 2024, Texas biologists turned more than 160 donated Christmas trees into an underwater reef at Granger Lake, where fish can use them as habitat within 15 minutes

The Christmas season is around the corner, and the must-have Christmas tree often ends up on the curb once the holidays are over, needles trailing down the driveway. They rarely get a second act. In 2024, more than 160 of them got a second act. None of them were headed for a living room, but … Read more

In 2017, Jordan sank a retired 30-metre C-130 Hercules off Aqaba to create an artificial reef; the aircraft now rests about 16 metres underwater and attracts coral, fish and other marine life

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In 2017, Jordan sank a retired 30-metre C-130 Hercules off Aqaba to create an artificial reef; the aircraft now rests about 16 metres underwater and attracts coral, fish and other marine life

A retired military aircraft has found an unusual second life beneath the Red Sea after Jordan deliberately sank it off Aqaba in 2017 to create an artificial reef. The Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a roughly 30-metre-long military transport aircraft, was placed underwater on November 16, 2017, about 300 metres from the Aqaba shoreline. It now rests … Read more

US rejects Iran’s claim of capturing underwater drone, calls move ‘clearly desperate’

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US rejects Iran's claim of capturing underwater drone, calls move 'clearly desperate'

Earlier today, IRGC said it had captured a second advanced US unmanned underwater vehicle, the Remus 600, in the Strait of Hormuz (Photo: Reuters). The US military has rejected claims by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that it seized an advanced American underwater vehicle carrying out surveillance in the Strait of Hormuz.US Centcom spokesman captain Tim Hawkins … Read more

Meet John Moretti: The Texas palaeontologist who put on a wetsuit to search an underwater cave and found Ice Age animals beneath the water

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Meet John Moretti: The Texas palaeontologist who put on a wetsuit to search an underwater cave and found Ice Age animals beneath the water

Paleontologist John Moretti (left) and caver John Young after exploring Bender’s Cave. Image Credit: John Moretti The discovery beneath Bender’s Cave in central Texas began in an underground stream where fossils lay hidden beneath the water. John A. Moretti, a palaeontologist at the University of Texas in Austin, and caver John Young investigated bones preserved … Read more

Underwater sensors caught a rare event off Cornwall: one porpoise became trapped in a net while two animals exchanged possible distress calls

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Underwater sensors caught a rare event off Cornwall: one porpoise became trapped in a net while two animals exchanged possible distress calls

Bycatch, the accidental capture of animals in fishing gear is considered the world’s greatest direct human-caused threat to dolphins and porpoises. Off the coast of Cornwall, a set of underwater sensors was listening to the ocean when it detected something researchers rarely get to see. According to an online report by Phys Org, two harbor … Read more

Scientists removed just 20–40% of fish from a degraded Chinese lake; underwater plants and water clarity began recovering

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Scientists removed just 20–40% of fish from a degraded Chinese lake; underwater plants and water clarity began recovering

Representative Image of a pristine highland lake transitioning from murky water to clear, with submerged plants thriving (AI Generated Image) Caohai Lake, a highland lake in southwest China, began losing its underwater vegetation after 2016. By 2019, submerged plants covered less than 10 per cent of the lake, down from around 70 per cent just … Read more

Scientists use robots more than two kilometres beneath the Pacific to discover huge lava fields around an active underwater volcano

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Scientists use robots more than two kilometres beneath the Pacific to discover huge lava fields around an active underwater volcano

More than two kilometres beneath the surface of the Pacific, off the coast of Oregon, an active underwater volcano has been hiding one of the strangest landscapes ever mapped on the seafloor. Using robotic vehicles capable of withstanding crushing depths, scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have spent more than two decades surveying … Read more

Meet Hao Ting Lyu, Qing Ying Cao, Bai Xuan Ye, Yuanhao Zhang and Jia An Pan, Chinese students who built a low-cost underwater messaging system for divers

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Meet Hao Ting Lyu, Qing Ying Cao, Bai Xuan Ye, Yuanhao Zhang and Jia An Pan, Chinese students who built a low-cost underwater messaging system for divers

Image: Conrad Space Center For divers beneath the surface, communication can become surprisingly difficult. Radio signals that work reliably on land do not travel effectively through water, leaving divers dependent on hand signals, pre-arranged plans or specialised equipment when they need to communicate. Five Chinese students, Hao Ting Lyu, Qing Ying Cao, Bai Xuan Ye, … Read more