Marine Life

Marine scientists have discovered hundreds of new animal species on reefs in Australian waters, including brilliant soft corals and tiny crustaceans, according to findings released Thursday. The creatures were found during expeditions run by the Australian chapter of CReefs, a global census of coral reefs that is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalog all life in the oceans. Among the creatures researchers found were about 130 soft corals -- also known as octocorals, for the eight tentacles that fringe each polyp -- that have never been described in scientific literature, and scores of similarly undocumented crustaceans, including tiny shrimplike animals with claws longer than their bodies.

"I've always been kind of a shill," says Ted Danson. "The guy out in front of the tent saying, 'Thank you so much for watching "Cheers," come on in and let me introduce you to the marine biologists who have something really important to tell you.'" The former Sam Malone might seem an unlikely environmental activist, but Ted Danson has quietly been advocating on behalf of our oceans for 25 years. Now he has taken his commitment to a new place: bookshelves. His recently released first book, "Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do To Save Them" (co-written with Michael D'Orso, Rodale, $32.50)

Southern California researchers have found evidence of ingestion of plastic among small fish in the northern Pacific Ocean in a study that they say shows the troubling effect floating litter is having on marine life in the far reaches of the world's oceans. About 35% of the fish collected on a 2008 research expedition off the West Coast had plastic in their stomachs, according to a study to be presented Friday by Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.

Three dolphins died this month during a Navy training exercise using underwater explosives near the San Diego County coast, authorities said Friday. Scientists have yet to officially determine what caused the deaths at the Silver Strand Training Complex near Coronado, but examinations of the animals showed injuries consistent with blast trauma. The unit conducting the underwater training exercises March 4 had scanned the area and spotted no marine mammals before starting a countdown to detonate the explosives about 10:45 a.m., said Cmdr.

The thousands of students, tourists, fishermen and hungry people who visit the Little Corona del Mar tide pools are loving the area to death. Some marine animals are disappearing from the craggy rocks of Orange County's most popular tide pools, and wildlife biologists are alarmed by the steady degradation of the spot at the south end of Corona del Mar State Beach.

Despite eloquent pleas from sport fishermen and divers, the State Lands Commission on Friday approved dismantling artificial Belmont Island off Seal Beach and moving its rock base to the state's Bolsa Chica Artificial Reef. Opponents had argued that the former oil production facility provides a reef-like habitat for scores of sea creatures. "I'm saddened to see the political process does not put together the science needed to see . . .

The Bush administration on Monday gave the Navy permission to "harass" and potentially injure whales, if necessary, in conducting exercises with a powerful new sonar to hunt for super-quiet submarines. The Navy asserts that no whales will be killed by the intense underwater noise because of elaborate safety precautions.

Palikapu Dedman stalks across the slick lava rock, crouches for a moment, then pounces on his prey with one quick swipe of his stainless-steel butter knife. "You have to make it a good shot the first time," said the burly Hawaiian, explaining a tradition more than 1,000 years old, "(otherwise) there's no space between the shell and the rock to let your knife through."

When you think of the oldest living things that ever existed, you probably think of dinosaurs. Yet certain creatures from the sea, like a common jellyfish and sea anemone, appeared 300 million years before the earliest dinosaur. Want a quick way to learn about these amazing animals on the great Web sites listed below. Use the direct links on The Times Launch Point Web site, http://www.latimes.com/kaunchpoint/ Here are the best sites for getting your schoolwork done or for just having fun.

We are two students from Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente. We have been studying the future of marine life in the face of the growing water pollution problem. We would like to express our concern regarding this topic. Although it is illegal to dump any trash into the ocean, the growing number of plastics in the ocean have threatened marine life. Sea gulls, seals, fish, and other marine animals often become entangled in the synthetic nets of fishermen and plastic six-pack rings.

Southern California researchers have found evidence of ingestion of plastic among small fish in the northern Pacific Ocean in a study that they say shows the troubling effect floating litter is having on marine life in the far reaches of the world's oceans. About 35% of the fish collected on a 2008 research expedition off the West Coast had plastic in their stomachs, according to a study to be presented Friday by Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.

Oxygen levels fell significantly in deep-sea areas of the Gulf of Mexico contaminated by the BP oil spill, researchers said Tuesday, but not enough to create biological "dead zones" that cannot harbor marine life. Scientists found a 20% decline in dissolved oxygen, not enough to create the lifeless zones that some biologists had feared might form around the oil plumes left by the disaster. Moreover, the water's oxygen levels appear to have stabilized. "We are not seeing a continued downward trend over time," said Steve Murawski, chief scientist for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which released the findings.

Coral larvae, tiny hair-covered sacs of cells, can "hear" reefs and actually swim toward them, researchers report. The finding suggests that sound is far more important in underwater ecosystem development than previously thought. Further, marine biologists say, human noise pollution has the potential to block the larvae's ability to seek out nearby reefs and settle there, ultimately harming other marine life. Coral are tiny sea creatures that build the rocky, often colorful structures associated with them; these structures ring islands and can span thousands of miles.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday vetoed a measure that would have banned smoking at state parks and beaches, calling it "an improper intrusion of government into people's lives." Schwarzenegger, whose cigar habit led him to build a smoking tent at the state Capitol, said in his veto message that the proposed regulation, which would have been the most far-reaching tobacco legislation in the nation, went too far. Such rules should be left up to cities, counties and local park officials, the governor said.

Scientists have discovered a cluster of underwater asphalt volcanoes rising from the seafloor just off Santa Barbara. The seven volcanoes, about 65 feet tall, probably last disgorged petroleum and natural gas into the sea 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, during the most recent ice age, according to geochemist David Valentine of UC Santa Barbara. Valentine and his fellow researchers first came across the asphalt behemoths in 2007 while exploring in a white, three-seat U.S. Navy submarine operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Scuba diver John Vincent sensed something was wrong when, fishing for lobster one night off Playa del Rey, he felt a strange current. It grew stronger. Seconds later, Vincent, 49, was swept into the mouth of a huge intake pipe for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Scattergood power plant. He tried to kick against the flow, but it was no use: Down the pipe he went, clutching his flashlight and his limit of lobsters, a long, fast journey through the dark. "I was flipping out," he said.

A fishing conservation group dumped nearly 1,500 concrete poles off the coast this week in a continuing effort to revitalize marine life of the Bolsa Chica artificial reef. The United Anglers of Southern California took a barge four miles off Huntington Beach and dropped the hollow poles in waters about 90 feet deep. In recent months, about 6,000 poles have been dumped in the ocean, said Jim Paulk, a spokesman for the organization.

While Americans' appetite for seafood continues to grow, most of us know little about where our fish comes from or how it was produced. In California, more than half of our seafood comes from aquaculture, often imported from fish farms in other countries. Just as most chickens, pigs and cows are raised in tightly confined, intensive operations, so too are many farm-raised fish. But raising fish in tight quarters carries some serious risks. Disease and parasites can be transmitted from farmed to wild fish.