Century-old shipwreck in North Sea is filled with stash of rare oysters in bid to revive marine species
Molluscs have mostly disappeared from the North Sea due to human activity, including overfishing.
Now, a Belgian project is trying to reintroduce it in a move scientists believe will help boost other marine species.
"We have to bring them back because they are essential elements in our marine ecosystems," Vicky Stratigaki, an engineer working on the restoration project, told AFP.
In mid-July, a load of 200,000 oyster larvae attached to biodegradable materials was deposited about 100 feet under the sea in the ship's hull.
The environmental project, named Belreefs, aims to turn the wreckage into a biodiversity sanctuary.
Flat oysters form reefs that purify water and that other sea animals, from fish to algae, use as breeding and feeding grounds, explained Stratigaki.
"There is a lot of predation in the sea, it's a wild environment," she said, with about 30,000 of the oyster larvae expected to survive their first year at sea. "Then they will start reproducing, extending the reef and also supporting the biodiversity of the reef."
The laying of the oyster stash is the culmination of two years' work for the Belgian government project, which is supported by European Union funding.
"Until around the 1850s, the North Sea and the European waters were full of these oyster reefs," Stratigaki explained.
Then overfishing, the spreading of an imported parasite called Bonamia and "climatic adverse effects" caused them to disappear, she said.
The 1906 wreckage, located about 20 miles off the coastal city of Ostend, was selected to house the pilot as fishing and other disruptive activities are banned around it.
"In Belgium every wreck that is for more than one hundred years on the sea bottom gets protected automatically as cultural heritage, because it's nice for divers to go there," said Merel Oeyen, a marine environment expert at the Belgian ministry of health. "It's also a hot spot for biodiversity."
A 2023 paper published in BioScience found that shipwrecks provide important ecological resources for a wide variety of organisms, from tiny microbes to large marine creatures.
"Small fish and mobile crustaceans often find shelter in the crevices of the sunken material, and larger baitfish and predators use shipwrecks as feeding grounds and rest stops as they swim from one place to another," according to NOAA, which helped conduct the study.
However, scientists also warned shipwreck can also cause damage to existing marine life in the area, or carry harmful cargo, such as oil.
Still, the study's author, Avery Paxton, said shipwrecks can have "second lives" as homes to a variety of marine life.
"A ship's transformation from an in-service vessel into a thriving metropolis for marine life has a fairy-tale quality to it," Paxton said in an article published by the Washington Post after the study was released.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Crushers to slashers: Dinosaur bite styles reveal evolution's many paths
A new study finds that meat-eating dinosaurs followed remarkable evolutionary paths regarding their skull design and feeding style. In a new study published in Cell, researchers from the University of Bristol investigated the largest carnivore dinosaurs, the Theroposa family. The T. rex is the most iconic member of that group, and it is also famous for producing the largest bipedal carnivore in Earth's history. 'Carnivorous dinosaurs took very different paths as they evolved into giants in feeding biomechanics and possible behaviors,' said Andrew Rowe of the University of Bristol, UK. The new study explores how the skulls of these bipedal meat-eating giants evolved and offers intriguing insights into a way of life that exists no longer. These dinosaurs are big, but what does that mean about their skulls? A new study out of the University of Bristol analyzed the bite strength of 18 species of carnivorous dinosaurs. Study authors Andrew Rowe and Emily Rayfield wanted to know how bipedalism influenced skull biomechanics and feeding techniques. Experts already knew that although this group of dinosaurs reached similar sizes, predators evolved at different times and in disparate parts of the world. And their skulls reflected that. Study authors wanted to dive in and assess how these skulls compared. What is the relationship between their body size and skull biomechanics? A snapshot of how carnivores developed Rowe and Rayfield used 3D technologies, including CT and surface scans, to analyze skull mechanics, quantify feeding performance, and measure bite strength across 18 species of theropod, according to a press release. The Tyrannosaurus rex skull was optimized for quick, strong bites like a crocodile. However, its evolutionary path was different from that of other giant predatory species, such as spinosaurs and allosaurs, which walked on two legs. It had weaker bites and instead specialized in slashing and ripping flesh. 'Tyrannosaurs evolved skulls built for strength and crushing bites, while other lineages had comparatively weaker but more specialized skulls, suggesting diverse feeding strategies even at massive sizes. In other words, there wasn't one 'best' skull design for being a predatory giant; several designs functioned perfectly well,' says Andrew Rowe from the University of Bristol. But the Tyrannosaurids, like the T. rex, experienced higher skull stress. 'But in some other giants, like Giganotosaurus, we calculated stress patterns suggesting a relatively lighter bite. It drove home how evolution can produce multiple 'solutions' to life as a large, carnivorous biped.' Does size matter? But size didn't necessarily matter in this case. Some smaller therapods experienced more stress than some of the larger species due to increased muscle volume and bite forces. 'The findings show that being a predatory biped didn't always equate to being a bone-crushing giant. Unlike T. rex, some dinosaurs, including the spinosaurs and allosaurs, became giants while maintaining weaker bites more suited for slashing at prey and stripping flesh,' concludes a press release. 'I tend to compare Allosaurus to a modern Komodo dragon in terms of feeding style,' says Rowe. 'Large tyrannosaur skulls were instead optimized like modern crocodiles with high bite forces that crushed prey. This biomechanical diversity suggests that dinosaur ecosystems supported a wider range of giant carnivore ecologies than we often assume, with less competition and more specialization.' Solve the daily Crossword
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Was Jesus Really Wrapped in the Shroud of Turin? 3D Study Says Probably Not
The Shroud of Turin is an ancient linen cloth with the subtle impression of the front and back of a crucified man. While many believe it was the burial shroud in which Jesus was wrapped when he died in the 30s CE, scientific research has dated it to between 1260 and 1390 CE, suggesting it's a medieval artifact. An ingenious new approach using 3D scans is now adding further credence to the suggestion that Jesus's body—or any body for that matter—never touched this famous fabric. Cicero Moraes, a 3D designer specializing in digital 3D facial reconstruction, has joined the contentious debate by using computer models to simulate two scenarios: draping a sheet of fabric (the same size as the Shroud of Turin) on a 3D human and one on a low-relief depiction of a human to compare their imprints, or contact patterns. Low-reliefs, also known as bas-reliefs, are carvings in which the figures emerge only slightly from their backgrounds. In other words, Moraes wanted to see whether the figure on the Shroud of Turin corresponds more closely to the imprint of a human body or a bas-relief. 'The results demonstrate that the contact pattern generated by the low-relief model is more compatible with the Shroud's image, showing less anatomical distortion and greater fidelity to the observed contours, while the projection of a 3D body results in a significantly distorted image,' Moraes wrote in a study published late last month in the journal Archaeometry. Moraes is the sole author. Simply put, 'the Shroud's image is more consistent with an artistic low-relief representation than with the direct imprint of a real human body, supporting hypotheses of its origin as a medieval work of art.' The study paid particular attention to the 'Agamemnon Mask effect.' The effect sees the contact pattern of fabric draped over volume, like a body, appear distorted and bloated once flattened or pulled taut. The name comes from the famous Agamemnon Mask, a 3,500-year-old gold death mask Heinrich Schliemann (the amateur archaeologist best known for 'discovering' the city of Troy) unearthed in Greece and misidentified as belonging to the Homeric hero Agamemnon. The full-face mask, which represents the face of the deceased, appears strangely wide for the same reason that the imprint of a human face in fabric would also appear wide once flattened. The real Shroud of Turin does not display the Agamemnon Mask effect. On the other hand, 'the printed image, generated from the contact regions in low relief, shows high compatibility with that present on the Shroud of Turin, significantly corresponding to its contours, even considering a not entirely flat base,' Moraes explained in the study. This conclusion supports the theory that the Shroud was not wrapped around a real human (or divine) body. Instead, it may have been an artistic representation, he suggested, potentially related to funerary practices. 'This work not only offers another perspective on the origin of the Shroud of Turin's image but also highlights the potential of digital technologies to address or unravel historical mysteries,' he concludes, 'intertwining science, art, and technology in a collaborative and reflective search for answers.'
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
15 TikTok Videos About ‘Clankers', a New Slur for Robots
Terms like 'social media,' 'podcast,' and 'internet' emerged years ago as ways to talk about the latest advancements in the world of technology. And over the past month, we've seen some new terms popping up in the world of tech, from clanker to slopper, even if they seem to be mostly tongue-in-cheek at this point. What's a clanker? It's a derogatory word for a robot, a term coined in 1920 for a Czech play about dangerous mechanical men. And given the fact that humanoid robots are still pretty rare in everyday life, the term clanker has emerged as a way to joke about a future where robots face discrimination in jobs and relationships. That's what the folks of TikTok have been doing with some frequency since the word started to spread widely online in early July. As io9 reported Monday, clanker as a slur actually originates from the Star Wars universe, starting with the 2005 video game Republic Commando and becoming more popular with the Clone Wars animated series in 2008. But the term has taken off recently as a way to joke about our uneasiness with new technology in 2025. Some of the videos currently circulating on social media are just directed at robots that show up in daily life already, like the bots that are sometimes cleaning in supermarkets. But other videos imagine what the future will look like, placing the viewer in an era, maybe 20 or 50 years from now, when robots will presumably be much more common. The jokes often use stereotypes of the 20th century around racial integration, mimicking the bigoted responses white people had reacting to civil rights advancements in the U.S. and repurposing them for this version of a future where humans are uncomfortable with a robotic other. Obviously, we don't know how common humanoid robots will be in five, 10, or 20 years. Elon Musk has promised 'billions' of robots will be sold around the globe within your lifetime. And while Musk is often far too, let's say, optimistic about his tech timelines, it seems perfectly reasonable that we will have more humanoid robots walking around in the near future. For his part, Musk has only been showing off teleoperated robots that are closer to a magic trick than visions of the future. But technological change can be scary. And it's interesting to see how content creators channel those fears by imagining a new future where robots are oppressed—something that's incredibly common in science fiction, even before the word clanker was coined. Whatever you think of the term (and there are some people who are uncomfortable with it as coded racism rather than a comment on racism), it's everywhere on TikTok right now. good for nothing cl***ers #groopski #robophobic #futuretech #humanityfirst ♬ Bell Sound/Temple/Gone/About 10 minutes(846892) – yulu-ism project #fyp ♬ original sound – baggyclothesfromjapan Robophobia running rampant in clanker society #robot #fyp #fypage #robophobia #ai #police #cops #robo ♬ Beethoven's 'Moonlight'(871109) – 平松誠 #fyp #pov #robot #skit ♬ Bell Sound/Temple/Gone/About 10 minutes(846892) – yulu-ism project Sorry I just thought you were one of the good ones 🤖❌ #clanker #ai #fypシ #viral #fyp ♬ Bell Sound/Temple/Gone/About 10 minutes(846892) – yulu-ism project All these new gens bro💔🥀 #clanker#ai#robot#clonewars #starwars#clone#jangofett #starwarsfan #obiwan#anakin ♬ Classic classical gymnopedie solo piano(1034554) – Lyrebirds music How would pissed would you get at a robot ump? #baseball #comedy #clanker #pov ♬ original sound – LucasRoach15 Clanker #clanker #clankermeme #robophobic #robot #fyp ♬ original sound – TrendsOnline – TrendsOnline Asked ChatGPT if it liked this video it said yeah ♬ Rust – Black Label Society #clanker #fyp #fypシ #relatable #funny #trending #blowthisup ♬ original sound – 👩🏼🎤 Robophobia running rampant in clanker society #robot #robophobia #fyp #fypage #ai #clanker #robo ♬ Dust Collector – ybg lucas ♬ original sound – Conner Esche These clankers am I right #skit #meme #edit #clanker ♬ original sound – coopermitcchell #pov : You're coming out to your parents in 2050 #ai ♬ original sound – bjcalvillo Clanker #clanker #clankermeme #robophobic #robot #fyp #robots ♬ original sound – TrendsOnline – TrendsOnline Every new era sees an expansion of the tech lexicon. That's just how the march of time works. And it's unclear whether clankers will have any staying power beyond the summer of 2025. Another term, sloppers, has seen a similar rise, a term for people who use generative artificial intelligence for everything. There's just no predicting what new words are going to stick. After all, the internet was almost called the catenet. Language works in really funny ways.
