SA Health says people should avoid discoloured foam but not avoid the beach because of the benefits to mental and physical health
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
South Australians living with asthma or other types of respiratory illness have been warned of a “potential risk” posed by a toxic algal bloom dominating the state’s coastline at a Senate committee inquiry into the natural disaster.
The Senate committee had its first public hearing on Tuesday, and heard there were now toxins in the bloom that could exacerbate asthma; that very little was known about the species in the bloom, and that even its cause was not fully understood.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/09/2025 - 01:06
09/08/2025 - 23:00
The results of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count are in, and while the numbers are a vast improvement on 2024’s record lows, the charity has warned that urgent measures are still needed to reverse long-term decline
Britain’s butterflies bounce back in annual count – but only to average levels
Continue reading...
09/08/2025 - 23:00
Biggest insect survey in world finds UK’s hot summer led to increase in numbers of many species, but overall trends are still concerning
Top 10 most-sighted butterflies in 2025’s Big Butterfly Count – in pictures
Butterfly numbers have bounced back after the dismal summer of 2024, but the hottest summer on record delivered only an average number of the insects in the annual Big Butterfly Count.
More than 125,000 citizen scientists joined the biggest insect survey in the world this summer, counting an average of 10.3 butterflies in each 15-minute count in parks, gardens and green spaces across Britain.
Continue reading...
09/08/2025 - 22:05
The Greens senator says the fact South Australia's algal bloom is yet to be declared a national disaster reflects the need for a new set of criteria for climate disasters, as the Senate begins an inquiry into the toxic event.'If this had been on the northern beaches of Sydney or on Bondi, would it have taken so long for the government to respond?', Hanson-Young said. 'Frankly, I think it probably wouldn't have'
Bubble shield deployed in ocean to protect giant cuttlefish from deadly SA algal bloom
SA’s algal bloom ‘one of the worst marine disasters in living memory’, and driving force could rival black summer, experts say
Continue reading...
09/08/2025 - 18:00
Defra says blanket ban on ‘destructive’ fishing practice disproportionate as MPs urge minister to reconsider
Seabed bottom trawling, described by the chair of a Commons committee as a “destructive” fishing practice, will continue in English marine protected areas (MPAs), the government has announced.
Despite having official designation as protected areas for creatures including dolphins, puffins and seahorses, damaging industrial methods are still allowed to take place.
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 | [email protected] +12077011069
Read more »
