Did the octopus evolve its unique intelligence by playing fast and free with the genetic code? Elizabeth Finkel investigates.

A trial is underway to restore damaged coral on the Great Barrier Reef using electricity. The reef has been severely assaulted in recent years by cyclones and back-to-back heatwaves. Nathan Cook at conservation group Reef Ecologic and his colleagues are attempting to regrow surviving coral fragments on steel frames. The frames are placed on damaged parts of the reef and stimulated with electricity to accelerate the coral’s growth (see video).

New study: Ingesting even a single piece of plastic exposes sea turtles to a 20% chance of death.

If you think Charleston, South Carolina, has plenty of history within its pre-Colonial grounds, just look at what’s been hiding 160 miles off the city’s coast for thousands of years: a giant deep-sea coral reef system. The chief scientist who helped make the discovery called it unbelievable.

An underwater drone that can keep watch on reef health and accurately identify and inject the devastating crown-of-thorns starfish is ready to be put to the test on the Great Barrier Reef, as a result of a collaboration between QUT, Google and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Nudibranchs may look cute, squishy and defenseless ... but watch out. These brightly-colored sea slugs aren't above stealing weapons from their prey.

Recent paper makes a big claim, but other scientists are unconvinced.

Half of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached to death since 2016. Mass coral bleaching, a global problem triggered by climate change, occurs when unnaturally hot ocean water destroys a reef’s colorful algae, leaving the coral to starve. The Great Barrier Reef illustrates how extensive the damage can be: Thirty percent of the coral perished in 2016, another 20 percent in 2017. The effect is akin to a forest after a devastating fire.

The local fishermen looked on skeptically. From the deck of a small motorboat, scuba divers grabbed odd chunks of ceramic – which could be described as rocky brains stuck on stumpy stilts – and plunged into the aquamarine waters. The dive team assembled the pieces as a few triggerfish circled around to investigate the commotion.

Humans have spent more than 10 centuries emptying the ocean of some of its most extraordinary animals. Today, a coalition of scientists and fishermen are trying to turn the tide – and learning that conservation is much harder than destruction

Coral harming chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate.are to blame for the ban, which was just signed by governor. The ban won't take effect until 2021.

How a piece of trash can travel from land to Henderson Island, an uninhabited, remote island in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.

Florida has an algae problem, and it’s big. This year, an overgrowth in the waters off the state’s southwestern coast is killing wildlife and making some beaches noxious. The toxic algal bloom, known as a red tide, is not unusual. They appear off the state’s coast almost every year. But this one, still going strong after roughly nine months, is the longest since 2006, when blooms that originated in 2004 finally abated after 17 months.

Fossil enthusiast Philip Mullaly was walking along the beach in Victoria Australia when he saw it: a glint in a boulder with quarter of a tooth exposed. "I was immediately excited, it was just perfect and I knew it was an important find that needed to be shared with people," Mullaly explained.

A management approach that combines manual removal and outplanting native sea urchin is effective in reducing invasive, reef-smothering macroalgae by 85 percent on a coral reef off Oʻahu, according to researchers. Globally, the health of coral reefs is threatened due to rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. Local factors such as invasive macroalgae also pose a serious risk to coral reefs—monopolizing reef habitats and overgrowing and smothering native species, such as corals.

Deepsea Oddities

It stretches for at least 85 miles and is likely the keystone source of the region's fisheries.

Plastic pollution, overfishing, global warming and increased acidification from burning fossil fuels means oceans are increasingly hostile to marine life

The giant Pacific octopus you saw at the aquarium last month? It might not have actually been a giant Pacific octopus.

At the Pacific Ocean's largest green sea turtle rookery, a crisis is unfolding, likely thanks to warming temperatures. Will this become a global problem?

Psssst, mud crabs, time to hide because blue crabs are coming to eat you! That’s the warning the prey get from the predators’ urine when it spikes with high concentrations of two chemicals, which researchers have identified in a new study. Beyond decoding crab-eat-crab alarm triggers, pinpointing these compounds for the first time opens new doors to understanding how chemicals invisibly regulate marine wildlife.

Australia is calling on the world's top scientific minds to help save the Great Barrier Reef, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund research into protecting the world's largest living structure. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef is reeling from significant coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

Some 49.9 percent of Sekisei coral reef -- Japan's largest -- had bleached by the end of 2017, the Environment Ministry has revealed. The figure is substantially less than the bleaching ratio of 91.4 percent on the reef between Okinawa Prefecture's Ishigaki and Iriomote islands at the end of 2016. However, "the water temperature remains high and the bleaching ratio is still high. We can't be optimistic," said an Environment Ministry official. "Coral in the area hasn't shown signs of real recovery, and remains in critical condition."

Millions of tons of plastic waste end up in the ocean every year. And the trash stays there: Whether it's grocery bags or water bottles or kids' toys, plastic is practically indestructible. Now marine scientists have discovered that it's killing coral reefs. A new study based on four years of diving on 159 reefs in the Pacific shows that reefs in four countries — Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar — are heavily contaminated with plastic. It clings to the coral, especially branching coral. And where it clings, it sickens or kills.

Killer whales able to copy words such as “hello” and “bye bye” as well as sounds from other orcas, study shows

Every marbled crayfish is a female clone. The population is exploding in Europe, but the species seems to have originated in the American Southeast.

Did a 1970s CIA plot spark a boom in deep sea mining?

Starfish and crabs among animals piled ankle-deep along parts of the North Sea coast

Researchers introduced SoFi, a soft robotic fish that can be operated underwater with a souped up Super Nintendo controller.

Scientists have long been trying to figure out how exactly our ancestors evolved from fish to land vertebrates some 375 million years ago. Now a tiny, eyeless fish that walks and climbs up waterfalls could offer some clues... By Kaitlyn Tiffany.

Arctic people have been communicating with cetaceans for centuries. The rest of the world is finally listening in

One strange piece of mobile DNA has spread itself throughout the oceans, claiming real estate in the genomes of clams, fish, and more

"There's a challenge for you — what is THAT?" Unusual deep-sea creatures seen for the first time can sometimes stump even a seasoned expert in marine biology. And in a recent video of an ocean dive in the Gulf of Mexico, an expert's off-camera exclamation revealed his surprised response to the appearance of a squid that had contorted itself into such a peculiar shape that it barely resembled a squid at all.

Octopus mothers all sacrifice their lives for their young, but here, their sacrifice may be in vain. 

Asia is growing. Literally. From Malaysia to Dubai, luxury developments are rising on artificial islands and coastlines. Everybody wins – except the local sea life and the fishermen who depend on it