Latest news with #ScienceofTheTotalEnvironment
Kuwait Times
an hour ago
- Science
- Kuwait Times
Bull sharks linger in warming Sydney waters
Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year. The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland. A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbor. Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz. 'If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them.' Bull sharks gather to inspect a group of divers and a bait box that has caught their attending off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database. There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death. Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment. Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said. Bull sharks 'year-round' 'If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales,' Lubitz said. 'So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney,' he added. 'While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney.' Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south. There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said. Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.—AFP This handout image released by Simon Fraser University/James Cook University shows bull sharks in the waters off Fiji. --AFP photos
Bangkok Post
6 days ago
- Science
- Bangkok Post
Bull sharks linger in warming Sydney waters
SYDNEY - Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year. The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland. A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour. Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz. "If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them." Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database. There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death. Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment. Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said. Bull sharks 'year-round' "If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said. "So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added. "While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney." Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south. There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Science
- NZ Herald
Bull sharks linger longer in warming Sydney waters, study finds
Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database. There have been more than 1200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which more than 250 resulted in death. Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment. Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said. Bull sharks 'year-round' 'If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales,' Lubitz said. 'So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney,' he added. 'While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney.' Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south. There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said. Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations. -Agence France-Presse
Int'l Business Times
6 days ago
- Science
- Int'l Business Times
Bull Sharks Linger In Warming Sydney Waters
Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year. The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland. A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour. Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz. "If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them." Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database. There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death. Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment. Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said. "If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said. "So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added. "While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney." Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south. There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said. Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations. Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national data base AFP
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spanish islands want influencers gone after seeking help in promoting
"We're going to Ibiza!" Or are we? If the 'we' refers to influencers then the answer is a resounding 'no': social media-dependent selfie-takers have been told by tourism officials on Spain's Balearic Islands to make themselves scarce following complaints of overcrowding. Reported by local and international media, the rebuff comes in the wake of the picturesque but secluded Calo des Moro being swamped with phone-waving holidaymakers apparently tripping over each other to gurn into the lens for selfies with the tiny Majorca cove as a backdrop. While Calo des Moro can hold around 100 people at a time, it has been deluged by up to 4,000 visitors a day - leading in turn to anger among residents of the Balearic Islands, which include Menorca and Ibiza. The rush of selfie-hunters came about after officials turned to social media influencers to try promote parts of the Balearics thought to be less popular and less visited than the beach resorts and nightclubs the islands are known for. However, the move backfired after spots such as the Calo des Moro were overwhelmed, leading to Spain's latest backlash against tourists. Last year, residents of the Balearics protested against so-called overtourism on the islands, which are economically reliant on tourism. Recent years have seen anti-tourism protests in places as far apart as Bali in Indonesia and Malaga in Spain, where city officials felt it necessary in September last year to tell scantily clad visitors to wear more clothes when ambling downtown. A month earlier, a team of Australian scientists warned that "the hunt for the perfect selfie" has been causing "disruptions to the breeding and feeding patterns of animals and the trampling of endangered plant species." In work published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, the team listed orchids, which selfie-takers appear to be particularly taken by, as vulnerable to the trend as they end up getting trampled and pulled.
