Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana last week, dumping rain across the South. Forecasters are expecting a lot of hurricanes and tropical storms in the next few weeks. Jack Brook/AP hide caption
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Humpback whales blow spiraling circles of bubbles to create underwater nets for their tiny prey, krill. Hunter Warick/Alaska Whale Foundation, images collected under NMFS Permit #19703 hide caption
News Round Up: aquatic vocal fry, fossilizing plankton and a high seas treaty
A diver in the Revillagigedo Archipelago interacts with giant mantas as part of a citizen science cruise led by Dr. Alfredo Giron. Alfredo Giron hide caption
A blue whale swims in the deep waters off the southern Sri Lankan town of Mirissa. Pods of Blue, Sperm and Humpback whales can be easily seen around Sri Lanka for six to eight months a year. Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Scientists expect increasing marine heat waves to cause coral bleaching, which can result in reefs dying off. Kevin Lino/NOAA/NMFS/PIFSC/ESD hide caption
Fearing Their Kids Will Inherit Dead Coral Reefs, Scientists Are Urging Bold Action
Climate change is also making ocean waters more acidic, potentially harming shellfish like oysters. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
In addition to large plastic trash, researchers estimate that more than 21 million metric tons of tiny plastic debris are floating below the Atlantic Ocean's surface. Michael O'Neill/Science Source hide caption
Humpback whales feed together just outside Glacier Bay, Alaska. Christine Gabriele/National Park Service photo taken under National Marine Fisheries Service Scientific Research Permit #21059 hide caption
Whales Get A Break As Pandemic Creates Quieter Oceans
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New research shows that dolphins can learn foraging behavior from other dolphins. Sonja Wild/Dolphin Innovation Project hide caption
Stacy Jupiter, a newly named MacArthur Fellow, poses with a puppet used in a show she staged for kids about how to protect fish. Jupiter is a marine scientist who works on ocean issues in Fiji. Rebecca Weeks hide caption
Salmon swim upstream in Seattle in 2017. A mass of abnormally warm water off the west coast of the U.S. that year contributed to a federal fishery disaster. Warming oceans and rising sea levels are threatening coastal economies as the world's climate changes. Elaine Thompson/AP hide caption
Earth's Oceans Are Getting Hotter And Higher, And It's Accelerating
Jill Heinerth says Dan's Cave on Abaco Island, Bahamas, is her "favorite cave on Earth." Jill Heinerth/Ecco hide caption
Cave Diver Risks All To Explore Places 'Where Nobody Has Ever Been'
Scientists are using statistics, history and computer modeling to understand exactly how much hotter the oceans are today than they were before industrialization. Harvard researchers just found a clue in shipping records digitized after World War II. Suomi NPP — VIIRS/NASA Earth Observatory hide caption
The New England Aquarium team searching for right whales, at sunrise in the Bay of Fundy. Johanna Anderson and Kelsey Howe scan the waters while Marianna Hagbloom logs data, Amy Knowlton adjusts a GPS unit, and Brigid McKenna steers the Nereid. Murray Carpenter for NPR hide caption
In Changing Climate, Endangered Right Whales Find New Feeding Grounds
Waste engineer Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia surveys plastic waste in a southeast Asian village, where it will be recycled to make raw material for more plastic products. Jambeck advises Asian governments on how to keep plastic trash out of waterways. Courtesy of Amy Brooks hide caption
A Somali fisherman carries a fish to the market near the port in Mogadishu. One of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals calls for the world to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development." Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Eddies behind an A. salina shrimp swimming Isabel Houghton / J.R. Strickler/courtesy of Stanford / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hide caption
Swarms Of Tiny Sea Creatures Are Powerful Enough To Mix Oceans, Study Finds
Zach Whitener, research associate at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, holds a cod while collecting samples for a study. Gulf of Maine Research Institute hide caption
Joshua Haggmark, Santa Barbara's water resources manager, is in charge of getting the city's desalination plant back online. Becky Sullivan hide caption
Will Turning Seawater Into Drinking Water Help Drought-Hit California?
Crew members pull an oyster dredge in Tangier Sound of the Chesapeake Bay near Deal Island, Md., in 2013. A study found that the Chesapeake Bay shellfishery is a "hot zone" for ocean acidification. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption
Cannonball jellyfish soak up the sun on a South Carolina beach. Fishermen are now pursuing the pest that used to clog their shrimping nets. Courtesy of Steven Giese hide caption