Oceans

A study in the Pacific Ocean finds that bags and bottles are sickening and killing reefs from Thailand to Australia. Coral reefs already are susceptible to disease due to unusually warm water.

Washington state officials have proposed a new tack to save the Pacific Northwest’s critically endangered orca population. Their idea is to boost salmon hatchery production by 10 million to 20 million more fish per year to provide more food for the iconic killer whales.

At a lab in Kodiak, researchers are working to understand whether crabs can adapt to ocean acidification.

Even though the earthquake didn’t lead to a large tsunami, the Warning Center prefers to take a cautious approach.

The Board of Fish voted to limit the harvest for non-resident sport fishermen to eight sablefish a year throughout the Southeast Alaska area, with a bag limit of four fish per-day.

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake early Tuesday is what is known as a strike-slip, or when two large blocks move side-to-side instead of up-and-down. That, and it’s distance from shore may explain why tsunami waves were so small.