• Have your say about the Bay:

Restore the Bay is 100% community owned and led. It will be the first time anyone has evaluated our Bay in terms of community belonging, sense of place and the way we feel and behave in the natural environment that surrounds us.

If you are interested in how your lifestyle and livelihood connects to the Bay’s environment, please follow the link. There is even a chance to win a trip to Phillip Island. https://www.restorethebay.org.au/haveyoursay

•  APRIL 5TH 2025. Far beneath the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island, a seemingly dormant underwater volcano has revealed a breathtaking secret—one that has left scientists both thrilled and puzzled.

What began as a geological survey quickly turned into a remarkable biological discovery: a hidden nursery where thousands—possibly over a million—giant eggs are incubating in the warm embrace of volcanic heat.

This natural heat source has created a rare haven for marine life, especially deep-sea corals and sponges. But the true marvel came when the scientists spotted white skate rays (Bathyraja spinosissima) laying eggs in droves across the summit of the volcano—1.5 kms below the surface.

What stunned the team was the sheer scale of this reproductive gathering. Based on initial counts and image surveys, experts believe the site could be home to hundreds of thousands, possibly over a million eggs—a number that has never been documented for this species.

These rays produce egg cases nearly 50cm in length, resembling soft, curved pillows or even ravioli in shape. That’s massive by marine standards. Brian Foster

• Scientists map the ocean floor in detail and discover nearly 100,000 submerged seamounts.

Maps of the lunar surface are better than those of the Earth’s ocean floor, but this situation is changing thanks to high-resolution data collected in space by satellites. Accurate maps of the seabed are essential for various maritime activities, such as navigation and the laying of underwater communications cables, understanding  deep-sea currents and tides, which affect life at depth, as well as geological processes such as plate tectonics.

Seamounts and other seafloor formations, such as smaller abyssal hills, influence the movement of heat and nutrients in deep waters and can attract life. A geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and his colleagues used a year’s worth of SWOT data to focus on seamounts, abyssal hills and underwater continental margins, where continental crust meets oceanic crust.

• After 7,000 years without light and oxygen in Baltic Sea mud, researchers bring prehistoric algae back to life

by Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde

Fully active again even after around 7,000 years without light and oxygen in the Baltic Sea sediment: the diatom Skeletonema marinoi. A research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) was able to revive dormant stages of algae that sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea almost 7,000 years ago. Despite thousands of years of inactivity in the sediment without light and oxygen, the investigated diatom species regained full viability.

Many organisms, from bacteria to mammals, can go into a kind of “sleep mode,” known as dormancy, in order to survive periods of unfavorable environmental conditions.

For more information read the study, published in The ISME Journa