News

03 Mar World Wildlife Day 2022 – “Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration”

Edited by Tommaso De Lorenzi   On this day, almost 50 years ago. In Washington, an important international treaty was signed to regulate the trade of endangered fauna and flora: the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, known to most as CITES. This is the reason that the General Assembly of the United Nations chose this very anniversary to establish World Wildlife Day, a day to raise awareness about the conservation of the wild species that populate our planet and increase awareness about their importance. The central theme of the 2022 edition is the "Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration" an essential point...

01 Oct Project LIFE PINNA begins, for the conservation and repopulation of Pinna nobilis in the Mediterranean Sea

  The European LIFE PINNA project has officially begun, one of the projects that will have us engaged for the next four years in the protection of Pinna Nobilis, one of the most threatened mollusks in the Mediterranean! It isn't a well-known species of the Mediterranean, but it is certainly among the most fragile and particular.  The castanet of the sea is a large bivalve mollusk, endemic of Mare Nostrum that inhabits some sandy seabeds and Posidonia meadows. Unfortunately, due to the infection caused by a protozoan and other diseases, the population of this mollusk has experienced a large collpase since 2016....

16 Jul Triton Research has 3 LIFE international projects for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea approved, starting in the coming months

The 3 initiatives, coordinated in their elaboration by the LIFE experts of Triton Research, were developed together with management bodies of protected areas and research bodies operating on marine biodiversity in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Two of these proposals fall under the Nature and Biodiversity program, while one in the LIFE Governance and Information program. The common factor of the project ideas is the conservation of rare or threatened marine species (including cetaceans, sea turtles and Pinna nobilis) and the promotion of the European Natura 2000 Network of  marine areas, also trying to raise the awareness of the most relevant...

20 Apr Triton Research presents three international projects for the most threatened species and habitats in the Mediterranean Sea

After the approval of the project ideas by the European Union, on February 17, 2021 Triton presented 3 international projects for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea with many authoritative partners from the world of sea protection. In fact, the second phase of the presentation of the projects in the context of the European call for the environment "LIFE" in which Triton Research has decided to take part by actively promoting 3 initiatives developed together with management bodies of protected areas and research institutions has been completed. operating on marine biodiversity in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Two of these...

18 Jul Science Pills: Scientists are beginning to understand the harmful effect man-made noise has on the behaviour of marine life

The study, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, reported that fish exposed to engine noise had elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol and the reproductive hormones testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone, which corresponded with the behavioural changes observed by the researchers. The techniques used by the scientists to measure hormones, which offer a window into complex behaviours, could be used to gauge the effectiveness of future noise-reduction measures.18

12 Jul Science Pills: Amazon river dolphin risks extinction if Brazil moratorium not renewed

As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe, people are beginning to understand, at a very personal level, the ways in which infectious diseases can devastate life. But disease outbreaks are not confined to just humans or to life on land. Infectious disease-induced mass mortality events are known to afflict a variety of species, including invertebrates, birds, fish, and both land and aquatic mammals. However, these events in aquatic mammals are understudied compared to their land-dwelling counterparts. I Sanderson and Alexander discovered that infectious disease-induced mass mortality events occurred in 14 percent of marine mammal species between 1955 and 2018. Viruses were responsible for 72 percent of these events and caused 20 times the number of deaths than bacterial outbreaks. Specifically, morbillivirus and influenza A outbreaks were the most commonly recorded. Due to their life cycles, both viruses can infect multiple hosts since they have the potential to be transmitted between various species.

05 Jul Science Pills: Amazon river dolphin risks extinction if Brazil moratorium not renewed

The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) or boto, already classified as “endangered” since 2018 by the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is now coming under even more serious threat across Brazil and Latin America. An estimated population in the low tens of thousands is thought to exist in the wild, though counting the animals accurately in the Amazon’s murky streams is challenging. Like other river dolphins, the boto communicates with variable whistle tones. Occupying the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, which cut across the northern half of the South American continent, these freshwater mammals were historically abundant, and are protected today by Brazilian law; it is illegal to kill them. But for years, poachers have targeted the dolphins, using their fatty blubber as bait to catch a carnivorous catfish called piracatinga, which is drawn to the scent of rotting flesh.

29 May Science Pills: Ocean currents creating underwater microplastic rubbish dumps

Ocean currents in the deep sea are creating microplastic hotspots which house around 1.9 million tiny pieces of debris per square metre, scientists have said. Researchers believe these slow-moving currents, which also supply oxygen and nutrients to deep-sea creatures, are directing the flow of plastics towards these areas, resulting in so-called “garbage patches” deep in the ocean.