From: Maritimes Crimes

by Madeline McCormick

This February we are spreading love and positive vibes in our feature article where we will discuss one of the largest pieces of international legislation regarding ocean conservation in years. This past January, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement was put into effect. We will discuss what this agreement entails, the history of this agreement, and most importantly, why it matters to us ocean lovers.

The BBNJ Agreement, commonly referred to as the High Seas Treaty, was proposed in 2017 to enhance the previous international agreement, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). While the UNCLOS agreement was a precedent-setting framework for international sea law, several important factors were missing. The UNCLOS treaty excelled at appropriately delegating zones to various countries, allowing them to control their coasts and creating common laws that applied to those zones. However, outside of maritime zones, the “High Seas,” or any undelegated areas (roughly 65% of our oceans), were ultimately left unchecked. This yielded concerns about pollution, overfishing, unsustainable and harmful fishing methods (such as bottom trawling), and unpoliced criminal activity. With the new treaty, ratified now by more than the 80 countries necessary for it to go into effect, all the ratified countries are legally bound to this agreement. But how exactly does this new treaty protect our oceans?

The High Seas Treaty aims to create more marine protected areas, MPA’s for short, in order to protect biodiversity and ecological health. These MPAs can be proposed by a diverse management committee, which may then delegate marine technology and resources to smaller island nations, indigenous communities, or underdeveloped countries to utilize in the protection of these areas. On the surface, it appears that another “zone” is being created, similar to the UNCLOS agreement, but the implementation of this framework allows for international cooperation, diverse technological solutions, and most importantly, the protection of habitats otherwise overlooked. It is also worth noting that aquaculture and mining will not be “illegal” in the high seas. But any activity will be more closely monitored through Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), which increase accountability and transparency. Economic giants such as China, Japan, and France have signed and ratified this agreement, but other countries have not gotten so far. The United States Senate, unfortunately, has not moved to ratify this treaty despite signing it three years ago. However, by engaging with content such as this, we can learn more about the complexities of international maritime law, as the high seas have no borders and therefore belong to every one of us. Meaning, we can all advocate for its protection just by sharing this article and give more precedent to the ratification of this historic treaty!

Sources

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166762

https://highseasalliance.org/resources/treaty-qa/

https://highseasalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/HIGH-SEAS-TREATY-QA.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Seas_Treaty

Humpback whales, some of the most recognizable cetaceans on the planet. From: Marine Mammal Center

by Bethany Woo

Happy New Year! Did you stay up late until midnight to celebrate? Or did you end up sleeping? Sleep is a necessary behavior for humans and all types of wildlife species, as it plays an essential role in supporting metabolism, hormone regulation, brain functionality, and maintaining energy levels. Scientists define “sleep” as a physical state during which an individual exhibits changes in certain physiological functions, particularly their heart rate, brain activity, and breathing. On land, we typically associate sleeping with a posture of stillness—humans may lie down on beds, while other terrestrial animals curl up on the ground, nestle into nests or tree branches and crevices, or sleep in underground burrows. But for oceanic animals, their environment is constantly dynamic and presents many more challenges while sleeping. For example, marine animals that stop swimming may drift in ocean currents or sink in the water column. Additionally, marine mammals that need to breathe air must regularly surface, even while sleeping. How then do marine mammals sleep?

Scientists have studied sleep in marine mammals—specifically cetaceans—which include whales, dolphins, and porpoises. They noticed one key difference between cetaceans and terrestrial mammals. On land, mammals exhibit two stages of sleep identified by differences in brain activity levels, heart rate, and breathing rate: slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Cetaceans, on the other hand, exhibit a single sleeping pattern called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS). In cetaceans, one hemisphere (or one half of the brain) exhibits slow-wave sleep activity while the other hemisphere exhibits low-voltage activity similar to being awake! Essentially, half of their brain is “asleep” while the other half is “awake”! This sleeping stage has been observed in cetaceans regardless of gender or age. Since half of their brain continues to function as it would while awake, cetaceans can move and swim while sleeping! This includes swimming in circles, repeating surfacing and submerging to breathe, and moving their tail flukes and flippers to stabilize themselves against currents.

Additionally, scientists have also observed unilateral eye closure in cetaceans due to one hemisphere functioning as awake. The hemisphere that is awake also facilitates the opening of one eye—literally “sleeping with one eye open”! This allows cetaceans to process and quickly wake up to respond to visual information, such as obstacles or predators.

Sources

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8665646/

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/how-do-whales-and-dolphins-sleep/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23369610915&gbraid=0AAAAADezc_71AzvcNdPqMIpvbOH0Ez0C1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjc7KBhBvEiwAE2BDObRf-kpUOQ0IbsoVY8lCs1BnqJGVxFNj40r4CyXMotyZsJl6nDZlkBoCZugQAvD_BwE

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8742503/

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/why-sleep-important

https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/education-training/public-education/sleep-and-health-education-program/sleep-health-education-47

Rachel Carson photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt From: The Nature Conservancy

by Madeline McCormick

To ring in the new year we are introducing a new article topic; spotlight scientist! Here we will discuss the extraordinary humans, past and present, who have revolutionized our thinking and understanding of the world around us, particularly our oceans. We thought it would be fitting to shine our first spotlight on an unequivocally influential voice regarding ocean conservation, Rachel Carson. Born on a Pennsylvania farm in 1907 during the height of the Second Industrial Revolution, Rachel Carson grew up with a fondness for nature and writing. This interest soon broadened and concentrated in marine systems. With credits in genetics, zoology, and English, along with extensive lab experience, she was hired by the Bureau of Fisheries. This propelled her into a position to marry her two passions, writing and environmental education. She soon began writing articles for radio broadcasts, newspapers, and magazines, all to do with marine habitats and their inhabitants. Her first published novel, Under the Sea Wind, captured the miraculous adaptive nature of marine life from the perspective of three creatures—a sea bird, a mackerel, and an eel—distinct yet inextricably connected by their will to survive in a harsh and unrelenting environment.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Published 1962, Houghton Mifflin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson

https://blog.response.restoration.noaa.gov/rachel-carson-biologist-writer-role-model

by Trevor Regan

The ocean has always been and may forever remain a mystery to humankind. It is a vast, dangerous expanse of incomprehensible depth, filled with apex predators and marvels of evolution. On the world’s islands and in its coastal settlements, these fears run hand-in-hand with reliance and reverence. One of the most dramatic and destructive events the ocean is capable of causing is a tsunami, where walls of water storeys high rear up from the surface of the sea and wreak havoc on those unfortunate enough to be in their path. 

Tsunamis are seismic in origin. They most commonly result from undersea earthquakes in subduction zones, which were discussed in our November newsletter. Submarine volcanic eruptions, coastal or underwater landslides, meteorite collisions, and most commonly submarine earthquakes can also cause tsunamis. In subduction zones, dense oceanic crust and lighter oceanic crust or continental crust grind against each other in a constant state of friction, with the denser crust sliding down into Earth’s mantle. The energy created in these locations may be stored, released gradually, or released in seconds. When the latter—a fast energy release— occurs, the pressure creates remarkably swift and long waves that will slow in speed but grow in height as they move over shallower waters.

A rapidly receding shoreline is a common warning sign of a tsunami. This happens when the trough of the wave is ahead of the crest. The trough is created when a fast energy release increases depth and displaces water. However, the trough may not always precede the crest, so the shoreline may not recede at all. A tsunami's run-up, the maximum height upon reaching land, may measure anywhere from 20 to over 100 feet tall, carrying unimaginable force and the capacity cause flooding miles inland. The momentum of these waves often refracts back toward the sea, mixing with shore-bound waves to create vortex-like currents, as seen in this footage from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The 9.2-magnitude 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake generated the deadliest tsunami on record, with waves reaching 100 feet and floodwaters surging up to 3 miles inland in Aceh province, Indonesia. Tsunami waves even struck shores in South Africa, nearly 5,000 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. 

Tsunamis show just how pivotal submarine activity can be to our lives on land, and how a world so alien to us can impact our daily lives. Detection methods for tsunamis have improved considerably since the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster. Perhaps the main reason why it proved so devastating was the lack of notice people received following the earthquake. Deep-ocean assessment and report of Tsunami (DART) systems read all pressure changes along the sea floor to allow for early evacuations.


Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piH4O4doAMo
https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/tsunamis/detection-warning-and-forecasting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-bWPSgk34&t=60s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami
https://www.noaa.gov/explainers/science-behind-tsunamis

by Bethany Woo
 

Last November, we took a dive into Submarine Volcanoes. This month, we’ll dive deeper by examining one specific type of submarine volcano - seamounts! Seamounts are tall, underwater mountains with steep slopes, made from remnants of inactive submarine volcanoes whose peak does not reach the surface of the ocean. Seamounts are found in every single world ocean basin, commonly near tectonic plate boundaries and hot spots in the Earth’s crust, where hot magma rises and erupts up at the sea floor. 

If the peak of the mountain reached the top of the ocean, this would instead be a volcanic island. There is a subtype of seamounts called guyots, which were previously volcanic islands, but the peak was weathered away by the rain, wind, waves, etc. until it became a flat summit. As the ocean level rose these flat summits were covered by the ocean surface and became guyot seamounts.

Because of how deep the ocean floors are, very little is known about seamounts. The first Seamount to be mapped and officially recognized, was the Davidson Seamount, off the coast of California, in the 1930s. With new technological developments like remotely-operated-vehicles (ROVs) that can explore the ocean floor, seamounts have become more accessible for scientific exploration. Even still, scientists estimate that less than 1% of all the seamounts in the ocean have been explored!

From the seamounts we have explored, we’ve learned that seamounts are some of the most biodiverse and unique ecosystems in the ocean! Many sessile organisms (which cannot move) require hard rock substrate to attach and settle on - which in the vast and deep ocean, can often be hard to find. Seamounts are an ideal place for sessile organisms like deep sea coral and sponges because they provide hard rock substrate, but also because they provide rich food sources from localized upwelling. As deep ocean currents run into seamounts, the water flows upwards, carrying nutrients and food particles along the seamount’s surface. Invertebrates, filter feeders, and their predators, are also then attracted to seamounts. As a result, seamounts are home to a variety of sea creatures, including coral, sponges, sea anemones, crabs/lobsters, sea stars, sea cucumbers, worms, and deep sea fish!

Sources
 

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/ocean-fact/seamounts/
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/ocean-fact/seamounts-biodiv/
https://www.whoi.edu/ocean-learning-hub/ocean-topics/how-the-ocean-works/seafloor-below/seamounts/
https://schmidtocean.org/cruise-log-post/what-are-seamounts-and-guyots/
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/seamounts-underwater-oases
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/seamounts-oases-of-life-fact-sheet.pdf

by Trevor Regan
 

For forty years, the brisk waters of Dingle Bay in Ireland were warmed by the presence of Fungie, a bottlenose dolphin that became Dingle’s most treasured resident. He was first sighted in Dingle Harbour in 1983. Paddy Ferriter, the lighthouse keeper, would observe a dolphin tagging along with fishing boats docking at and launching from port. Fishermen eventually gave him his name, Fungie (Fun-ghee). He was later named a permanent resident of the mouth of the bay and pilot of the harbour’s fishing fleet by Kevin Flannery, the local Ministry of Marine manager. Dingle residents quickly fell in love with their new companion, who was just as eager to play, swim, and lead them out to sea asthey were to see him surface and leap with an ever-present smile on his scarred face. Fungie also produced a tangible benefit to Dingle, as his arrival soon brought tourists and created a new business opportunity for fishermen, who could introduce such tourists to their friendly neighborhood bottlenose. Locals and researchers also noted that Fungie had taken to eating Garfish, something no wild bottlenose dolphin had been recorded doing prior. This indicates two things: Fungie had come to prefer a solitary life in a habitat dominated by people, and he had adapted his feeding habits to sustain himself there. In 2000, a bronze statue of Fungie was built, and it now adorns Dingle Pier. Sadly, Fungie vanished in October 2020, most likely passing peacefully of old age. He had warmed Dingle Harbour for nearly forty years. 

Fungie most clearly demonstrates dolphins' extraordinary socialization skills, particularly in interactions with humans. Dolphins, like humans and chimpanzees, live in fission-fusion societies, where the size and members of their pod change over time. They also have complex languages specific to each pod, and each dolphin develops unique whistles to help identify each other over long distances or over periods of lengthened separation. These traits are adaptations that aid dolphins in hunting, foraging, mating, and migration. They also explain why dolphins are so welcoming and so eager for human contact, which also stems from their innate curiosity. However, it is critical to remember that dolphins are wild, powerful, and predatory animals. Swimming with dolphins is dangerous, no matter how friendly they are, and giving them food outside of their regular diet may cause health issues. Prolonged contact may upset their natural hunting and foraging abilities. Not every dolphin is Fungie.


Sources

https://dingle-peninsula.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&catid=28
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54602337
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungie