Central Coast council says residents should not touch the balls and avoid beaches where they wash ashore
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Debris balls have again washed up along the New South Wales coast as officials warn residents not to touch the mysterious spherical globules and to avoid beaches where they appear.
Central Coast council said on Thursday the debris balls – which are grey and about 10mm to 40mm in size – had been found on beaches including at The Entrance, the Grant McBride baths, Blue Bay, Toowoon Bay, North Shelly, Shelly and Blue Lagoon.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/21/2025 - 19:51
08/21/2025 - 13:00
Researchers ‘shocked’ to discover some species settling down for sleep 50 minutes later than rural counterparts
Urban birds stay up significantly later than their rural counterparts, according to research that highlights the impact of light pollution on wildlife.
The study, based on recordings submitted by bird enthusiasts to a popular species identification and mapping website, showed that light pollution caused birds to sing for an average of 50 minutes longer each day, with some species waking up an hour earlier and settling down for the evening an hour later.
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 10:00
Eucalyptus regnans – which regularly reach 60 to 80m tall – lose about 9% of their trees for every degree of warming, research finds
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here
Victoria’s mountain ash forests are thinning rapidly as the globe heats up, and could lose a quarter of their “giant” trees that grow up to 80m tall in the coming decades, research has found.
Forests of Eucalyptus regnans – one of the tallest tree species in the world – lose about 9% of their trees for every degree of warming, according to a University of Melbourne-led study published in Nature Communications.
Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 10:00
Sponsorship of News Corp’s event series has given Australia’s richest person a vehicle for her anti-net zero crusade
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
You won’t be able to have a cremation because the ovens won’t be allowed to run on fossil fuels, and hospitals will be forced to shut for more than half the year because they have emitted too much CO2.
Are you terrified yet?
Defence manufacturers would “be forced to close for much of the year at least”
The Royal Flying Doctor Service would not be able to collect any patients for eight months of the year “as we’ve exceeded our emissions permitted”
Cancer and maternity patients would be left to fend for themselves because “we have to close the hospitals for nine or 10 months of the year”
Funerals would be delayed because of something to do with refrigeration and “ovens” – honestly, you’ll have to work that one out for yourself
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 10:00
Researchers also suggest system could resolve problems with irregular and weather-dependent Earth-based supply
Solar panels in space could cut Europe’s terrestrial renewable energy needs by 80% by 2050, a study has found.
Using a detailed computer model of the continent’s future power grid, the researchers found that a system of space-based panels designed by Nasa could reduce the cost of the whole European power system by as much as 15%. It could also cut battery use by more than two-thirds.
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 07:46
Farmers that supply supermarket are already harvesting wheat, oilseed rape and oats amid dry conditions
Harvests are coming two weeks early because of drought, Waitrose has said, as it prepares to stock autumnal fruit in summer.
Farmers that supply the supermarket are harvesting wheat, oilseed rape, oats and malting barley a fortnight before they generally would, according to the supermarket. A lack of rainfall coupled with the hot weather has caused the crops to race through their growing stages and mature early.
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 07:16
A town had big plans for the facility site, until the Trump administration ordered it to stay open, a move it extended this week
Donald Trump has made several unusual moves to elongate the era of coal, such as giving the industry exemptions from pollution rules. But the gambit to keep one Michigan coal-fired power station running has been extraordinary – by forcing it to remain open even against the wishes of its operator.
The hulking JH Campbell power plant, which since 1962 has sat a few hundred yards from the sand dunes at the edge of Lake Michigan, was just eight days away from a long-planned closure in May when Trump’s Department of Energy issued an emergency order that it remain open for a further 90 days.
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 06:27
Changing weather patterns are affecting planting and pose a threat to a variety of species, says head of development
Rising temperatures in the spring and unpredictable autumns are making the huge task of restoring the UK’s lost meadows even more challenging, the National Wildflower Centre (NWC) has warned.
The centre, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary next month, champions projects aimed at reviving wildflower-rich meadows, 97% of which have been lost in the past 80 years.
Continue reading...
08/21/2025 - 04:34
Suspension of soy moratorium could open up area of rainforest the size of Portugal to destruction
One of the key agreements for Amazon rainforest protection – the soy moratorium – has been suspended by Brazilian authorities, potentially opening up an area the size of Portugal to destruction by farmers.
Coming less than three months before Brazil hosts the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, the news has shocked conservation groups, who say it is now more important than ever that consumers, supermarkets and traders stand up against Brazilian agribusiness groups that are using their growing political power to reverse past environmental gains.
Continue reading...
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
Read more »
