The United Arab Emirates fisheries consist of highly diverse fish communities, and the most popular equipment used by fishermen to harvest them is a traditional baited basket fishing trap known locally as “gargoor”. Gargoors are dome-shaped traps made from galvanized steel; they have a circular supporting base and a funnel-like entrance. Unintended impacts of gargoors on marine fauna include bycatch of non-target species and, when lost, ghost fishing. However, there is very little information on sea turtle interaction with gargoors. In this paper we present two case reports from the eastern coast of the UAE of green sea turtle strandings associated with gargoor interactions. The first case report describes a turtle that was discovered trapped inside a lost or abandoned gargoor. The second case report describes another turtle that suffered from extensive perforation of the gastrointestinal tract resulting from the ingestion of 32 pieces of rusty gargoor fragments.

Maritime shipping transports over 90% of global goods. Ballast water, used to provide vessel stability, has been associated with the introduction of marine invasive species. Thus, understanding ballasting trends is imperative to protecting human and environmental health. This paper examines data from the National Ballast Information Clearinghouse to assess ballasting behavior and shipping trends in the United States. From 2005 to 2017, vessel arrivals have remained relatively constant (annual growth rate of 1.2% per year) while total ballast discharge per vessel has grown at an annual rate of 7.6%. Furthermore, from 2014 to 2016, alternative ballast water management methods have been on the rise, and these treatment options are likely to continue increasing in response to the International Maritime Organization Ballast Water Management Convention that entered into force in September 2017. It is critical that the shipping industry monitors potential cascading impacts on other ballasting behaviors stemming from this shift.

Coral populations and structural coral reefs have undergone severe reductions and losses respectively over large parts of the Galápagos Islands during and following the 1982–83 El Niño event. Coral tissue loss amounted to 95% across the Archipelago. Also at that time, all coral reefs in the central and southern islands disappeared following severe degradation and eventual collapse due primarily to intense bioerosion and low recruitment. Six sites in the southern islands have demonstrated low to moderate coral community (scattered colonies, but no carbonate framework) recovery. The iconic pocilloporid reef at Devil's Crown (Floreana Island) experienced recovery to 2007, then severe mortality during a La Niña cooling event, and is again (as of 2017) undergoing rapid recovery. Notable recovery has occurred at the central (Marchena) and northern islands (Darwin and Wolf). Of the 17 structural reefs first observed in the mid-1970s, the single surviving reef (Wellington Reef) at Darwin Island remains in a positive growth mode. The remainder either degraded to a coral community or was lost. Retrospective analyses of the age structure of corals killed in 1983, and isotopic signatures of the skeletal growth record of massive corals suggest the occurrence of robust coral populations during at least a 500-year period before 1983. The greatest potential threats to the recovery and persistence of coral reefs include: ocean warming and acidification, bioerosion, coral diseases, human population growth (increasing numbers of residents and tourists), overfishing, invasive species, pollution, and habitat destruction. Such a diverse spectrum of disturbances, acting alone or in combination, are expected to continue to cause local and archipelago-wide mortality and degradation of the coral reef ecosystem.

During decades, mercury (Hg) was discharged into the Aveiro Lagoon. Twenty-five years after the cessation of discharges, sediment cores were collected at two areas to assess the evolution of the mercury contamination status. Vertical Hg profiles differed considerably between bare and vegetated sediments. Bare sediments contained significantly less Hg (<8 mg kg−1) than historical data of 1995 (up to 40 mg kg−1), probably resulting from erosion. Salt marsh sediments were marked by a Hg sub-surface enrichment, reaching 44 mg kg−1 in the site closer to the industrial discharge point. High Hg concentrations in 2007, 2011 and 2016 were found at similar sediment layers. These results emphasise the role of halophyte plants in the cycling and retention of Hg in sediments. The persistency of high Hg in the upper marsh layers highlights the complexity in the recovery of historically contaminated marshes and the vulnerability to modifications in hydrology associated with climate changes.

Numerical experiments using a 3D model of fine sediment transport in the Great Barrier Reef region indicate deposition of the bulk mass of catchment sediments from river plumes within a few tens of kilometres from river mouths. A very fine fraction of easily resuspended catchment sediment has a capacity to propagate over much greater distances reaching out into the mid-shelf and outer-shelf regions. The model suggests such particles, instrumental to the development of low density flocs in the marine environment, can play a critical role in altering optical properties of water masses over the shelf during wet years. The mid-term (4 year) impact of Great Barrier Reef catchments on the probability of suspended sediment concentration exceeding the ecologically significant trigger value of 2 mg/L is confined to inshore regions adjacent to river mouth locations.

The use of macroalgae transplants is a recent technique used in pollution biomonitoring studies in marine ecosystems. Only 60 articles published between 1978 and 2017 reported the use of this environmental tool for the active biomonitoring of inorganic pollutants and nutrients worldwide. In this review paper, we evaluated studies on this topic in relation to the development of methodological aspects of the technique and the degree of standardization of the protocols used. On the basis of findings of this review, we conclude that the technique is not yet standardized and that uniformisation of protocols is required to enable comparison of the results of different studies. We propose a new protocol for applying the technique, in which each suggestion has been carefully and rigorously compared with the relevant findings reported in the available literature.

A mass balance of total mercury (HgT, dissolved+particulate) is constructed for China's Jiulong River estuary based on measured HgT concentrations in the surface water, sediment, porewater, and groundwater for May, August, and November 2009, combined with data from the literature. The HgT mass budget results show that the dominant source (39–55%) is desulfurized seawater discharged from the Songyu coal-fired power plant. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD)-derived HgT flux into the estuary is equivalent to 8–58% of the HgT input from the Jiulong River, which is remarkable when compared with SGD-derived HgT fluxes reported in coastal systems worldwide. Hence, SGD is a significant pathway for the transport of HgT into the Jiulong River estuary. The primary HgT sinks is export to the Taiwan Strait (53–88%), which has important environmental implications on the Hg cycling and marine ecosystems in marginal seas.

Information is scarce on historical trends of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the coastal environment. In this study, four sediment cores were collected from semi-enclosed bays of Korea to investigate the pollution history, contamination profiles, and environmental burden of PFASs. The total PFAS concentrations in sediment cores ranged from 6.61 to 821 pg/g dry weight. The highest concentrations of PFASs were found in surface or sub-surface sediments, indicating on-going contamination by PFASs. Historical trends in PFASs showed a clear increase since the 1980s, which was consistent with the global PFAS consumption pattern. Concentrations of PFASs were dependent on the organic carbon content in sediment cores. PFOS and longer-chain PFASs were predominant in all of the sediment cores. In particular, a large proportion of longer-chain PFASs was observed in the upper layers of the sediment cores from industrialized coastal regions. Inventories and fluxes estimated for PFASs were similar to those for PCDD/Fs.

The effects of underwater noise pollution on marine life are of increasing concern. Research and management have focussed on the strongest underwater sound sources. Aerial sound sources have understandably been ignored as sound transmits poorly across the air-water interface. However, there might be situations when air-borne noise cannot be dismissed. Commercial passenger airplanes were recorded in a coastal underwater soundscape exhibiting broadband received levels of 84–132 dB re 1 μPa rms. Power spectral density levels of airplane noise underwater exceeded ambient levels between 12 Hz and 2 or 10 kHz (depending on site) by up to 36 dB. Underwater noise from airplanes is expected to be audible to a variety of marine fauna, including seals, manatees, and dolphins. With many of the world's airports lying close to the coast, it is cautioned that airplane noise not be ignored, in particular in the case of at-risk species in small, confined habitats.

Since 2012 a huge amount of marine debris caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami has been arriving on Northeastern Pacific shores. Often healthy macroalgae were attached to them, which may become introduced to the Northwestern Pacific coasts and disturb their ecosystems. In order to elucidate the diversity of those macroalgae, and to establish a basis for detecting their new introduction to Northwestern Pacific coasts, we have examined their species diversity by morphology and genetic identifications. We have obtained gene sequences for 205 specimens, and identified 49 species as Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD) macroalgae. Most of them are known to be distributed in Japan and showed identical or very closely related genetic types to those of Tohoku, and confirmed to be originated from the area. Several species such as Ceramium sungminbooi, Ectocarpus crouaniorum, Polysiphonia koreana, etc. have not been reported from Japan, but this is explained by the shortage of taxonomic information.