Mediterranean

We had noted a while back here at TakePart that the beautiful and iconic Joshua Trees in the eponymous National Park are rapidly dying out thanks to global warming, but that wasn't the only threat to the Park and its gorgeous environs. Luckily, at least one bullet has been dodged, as a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that stopped construction on what would have been one of the nation's largest landfills.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (the one the Republicans think have the activist judges) has upheld a 2005 ruling that prevented an abandoned iron ore mine from being converted into the Eagle Mountain Landfill. And why, you might ask, would this landfill maybe not be a good idea? More

You may remember back in July when TakePart's own Gina Telaroli wrote about a mile-long, fibrous blob floating in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. That blob turned out to be none other than algal blooms, a common occurrence in the ocean when the right light and water temperature mix with water that is heavy on nutrients.

However, National Geographic magazine recently reported on a new study about a blob of a very peculiar and lesser known kind. As sea temperatures have risen to warmer-than-average in recent years, the study found, gargantuan blobs of light-brown mucus-like material are appearing in the ocean, usually near the Mediterranean coasts.

The mucus-y blobs, which can be up to 124 miles long, are clusters of microscopic dead and living matter, as well as organisms visible to the naked eye, such as crustaceans, and can even trap large fish. The blob is also teeming with bacteria and viruses, including deadly E. coli. The largest blobs are heavy enough to sink to the ocean floor and smother sea life at the bottom.

The study was conducted by the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy.

You can read more about the sea blobs here in National Geographic.

The health of the ocean is directly linked to the health of its corals. I tend to think of corals as the multipurpose depots or rest stops of the sea: Countless species of marine life rely on them to find food, to hide from predators, and to reproduce. But, because of their beauty, some corals are also traded commodities and consequently in danger of being removed from their habitats faster than they can replenish themselves. For red and pink coral, or Corallium, in particular, their beauty has been their curse.

Corallium has been considered a precious gem for over five thousand years. The coral skeleton, consisting of hardened calcium carbonate in hues ranging from red to pink, is what harvesters and traders find so valuable; it can be polished to a glass-like luster. Italy is the world capital of the red coral trade, but coral jewelry dates all the way back to ancient Egypt. Through the ages many cultures, including Indians, the Gauls, Greeks and Romans, believed red coral to hold magical powers, such as protecting one from danger or evil. They were also believed to be to be an antidote for poison and for treating diseases. More

It's no Earth, but check out this video of bluefin tuna totally running a train on some mackerel.

Best viewer comment ever: "those fishes in the bait ball are so stupid...do they wanna get eaten or something?!" Yesss. But why do I bring this up? Because the World Wildlife Fund thinks that overfishing may wipe out the bluefin tuna within three years. More