Preparing for a Storm the Ni-Vanuatu Way

Mango flowers and hornets’ nests might seem strange bedfellows for meteorological satellites, but on Futuna Island, a craggy volcano at the eastern edge of the archipelago of Vanuatu, they play a critical role in helping local people predict extreme weather. “When the mango tree flowers early—before October—we know there will probably be a cyclone,”...

2h

One Great Shot: Seeking Shelter in the Arms of a Jellyfish

Survival for juvenile fish necessitates ingenuity, compromise, and good fortune. Dense zooplankton blooms, such as this one I captured near midnight in the waters of Shetland, at the far north of the British Isles, attract predators from the pitch-black water. The bloom also attracted these fish that I observed using a jellyfish as a sort of “satellite...

4d

Another Animal That Speckles with Age: Dolphins

As humans age, our bodies are often graced with fine lines, gray hairs, and flecks of hyperpigmentation on our skin known as age spots. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get spots with age, too. And as scientists have revealed in a recent study, the onset of dolphins’ speckling is so predictable it can be a noninvasive way to gauge the dolphins’ age....

5d

Cruise Ship Invasion

6d

Plastic Bags Are Leaving Their Mark on the Deep-Sea Floor

Plastic pollution is everywhere, from the tip of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Wherever it goes, plastic has unexpected effects: it transports pathogens, strangles wildlife, and, sometimes, becomes habitat. But on the bottom of the Philippine Trench, 10,000 meters deep, plastic is reshaping life on the seafloor. In 2021, Alan Jamieson,...

1w

In Graphic Detail: Sharks in Parks

New Zealand has 44 marine reserves in its territorial waters. All are no-take zones: no fishing of any kind and no resource extraction. Though intended to protect overfished species—snapper, blue cod, spiny lobster, for instance—the reserves likely provide cover for a range of other species, including sharks. For decades, coastal shark numbers have...

2w

With Ships, Birds Find an Easier Way to Travel

Last fall, hundreds of birders rushed to Bryher, a tiny island off the coast of Cornwall, England. They came to see a Blackburnian warbler, a bird with a flaming orange throat and a high-pitched, trilled song. Blackburnian warblers are hardly ever seen in the United Kingdom—their home is 4,800 kilometers away in the pine forests of North America. Though...

2w

The Toxic Threat in Thawing Permafrost

Covering nearly the same area as Norway, the Hudson Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario and Manitoba is home to the southernmost continuous expanse of permafrost in North America. Compared with many marine waterways this far south, Hudson Bay stays frozen late into the summer, its ice-covered surface reflecting sunlight and keeping the surrounding area...

2w

Banking on the Seaweed Rush

Join Hakai Magazine and the Ocean Decade Collaborative Center for the Northeast Pacific on April 11, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time for a panel discussion about the environmental and social benefits of the rapidly growing kelp farming industry—and what questions remain. Register now. Offshore from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a team hauls...

2w

The Lion, the Land Bridge, and the New World

The Ice Age was kind to large mammals. From about 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago, they had the space—and the time—to roam far. Lions, for instance, were once found around the world. After evolving in eastern Africa, the big cats padded through Europe and Asia and eventually crossed into North America by way of Beringia, a now-sunken continent that...

2w