Drawing from such unlikely sources as ships logs, tax records, literary sources, and monastery archives, marine scientists are painting a picture of past life in the global ocean. This picture is proving to be a powerful, and necessary, tool in assessing environmental change in the ocean and associated ecosystems. Without it, science’s view of these environments is limited to only a short span of history and a narrow perspective. Utilizing these unorthodox sources of information, researchers from the History of Marine Animal Populations project (www.hmapcoml.org) of the Census, are discovering some surprising facts about human impact on the ocean: Prior to whaling pressure arriving in the 1800s, New Zealand’s southern right whale population was roughly 30 times higher than today’s. Prior to the 1800s, the waters of the English Isles were home to orca and blue whales, as well as porpoise, dolphins, and blue and thresher sharks. Human fishing and impacts on near-shore and island marine life began in the Middle Stone Age – 300,000 to 30,000 years ago – 10 times earlier than previously believed. The photos below show the drastic changes in the size and type of "trophy" fish available in the Florida Keys over a 50-year timeframe. These and other results are being presented in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the Oceans Past II conference (May 26-28, 2009). For more, visit: http://coml.org/press-releases-2009

Census of Marine Life collaborators at MIT and colleagues have observed, for the first time, the initiation of a mass gathering and subsequent migration of hundreds of millions of animals — in this case, fish. Employing a new Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS) technology, they have studied the origins of a mass gathering of hundreds of millions of fish and their subsequent migration. This is the first time a mass migration of animals has been studied from beginning to end, according to their paper published in Science. Studying Atlantic herring near Boston, the MIT scientists found that when the fish gathering reached a certain density it caused a sudden synchronization of movement, where upon hundreds of millions of individuals began to act as though they were one. Such massive groupings can extend for 25 miles (40 kilometers) over the ocean. It also confirms theories about the behavior of large groups of animals in general, from bird flocks to locust swarms. Until now those theories had only been predicted through theoretical investigations, computer simulations and laboratory experiments. Team leader, Nick Makris, sees potential in using OAWRS to better monitor — and conserve — fish populations. Large oceanic fish shoals provide vital links in the ocean and human food chain, he explained, but their sheer size makes it difficult to collect information using conventional methods. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326141543.htm)

SeamountsOnline, a free online portal, is providing deep-sea researchers and managers with new tools for finding and accessing information on the biological communities that live on seamounts (undersea mountains) that will aid improved management of seamount resources, and conservation of seamount habitat. Since 2005, SeamountsOnline (http://seamounts.sdsc.edu/) has been collecting data on species that have been recorded from seamounts all over world, and making data available through the online portal. Now, through a partnership between the San Diego Supercomputer Center (http://www.sdsc.edu/) and the Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam; http://censeam.niwa.co.nz), the portal has been expanded to include new spatial searching tools. Seamounts are ubiquitous features of the world's underwater topography and may play an important role in patterns of marine biogeography, potentially supporting high biodiversity and unique biological communities. Seamounts are often highly productive ecosystems, and may act as feeding grounds for fishes, marine mammals and seabirds. They are targeted for resource extraction such as fisheries and mining, but are ecologically vulnerable to such exploitation. At a global scale their biodiversity is poorly known with relatively few (< 200 of an estimated 100 000) seamounts having been studied in any detail. CenSeam, as part of the Census of Marine life, is prioritizing, integrating, expanding, and facilitating seamount research efforts in order to significantly reduce the unknown and build towards a global understanding of seamount ecosystems.

The 2,000-strong community of Census of Marine Life scientists from 82 nations today announced astonishing examples of recent new finds from the world’s ocean depths. Among revelations in fourth interim global highlights report: Antarctic ancestry of many octopus species, Behemoth bacteria, colossal sea stars, mammoth mollusks, more...
See: http://www.coml.org/press-releases-2008

4th CoML Highlights Report:
http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/highlights08/2007-08_Highlights_Enhanced_Final_small.pdf

Web visitors can now share the excitement of Census of Marine Life explorations as scientists uncover the mysteries of what lives below the surface of the global ocean. A world of marine discoveries including 50 different kinds of Arctic jellies, a colossal sea star, and Antarctica’s biggest-ever amphipod and other interesting, rare, and new marine species can be found at http://earth.google.com/ocean. Or one can follow along on scientific explorations to the coldest, saltiest water on the planet or to a new ocean environment created by an ice shelf break the size of Jamaica or to the hottest hydrothermal vent ever discovered—hot enough to melt lead! These journeys are but a few of the 129 possibilities for learning more about marine life available on the new Census of Marine Life layer in Ocean in Google Earth. Ocean in Google Earth, which enables user to dive beneath the surface of the sea and explore the world’s oceans, was launched on February 2, 2009.

How to access the Census layer in Google Earth 5 --> To see the Census layer follow these steps:
1) Download and install Google Earth 5 - Google Earth Download (http://earth.google.com/ocean/)
2) Open Google Earth and in the lower left corner click on the Ocean Layer check box to turn it on.
3) Download the Census KML file (http://coml.org/comlfiles/images/census.kml) -- if the file does not automatically open in Google Earth, double click on the file to open the location in Google Earth.
4) Explore the Census in Google Earth.

New Release (February 2009): Earth’s unique, forbidding ice oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic have revealed a trove of secrets to Census of Marine Life explorers, who were especially surprised to find at least 235 species live in both polar seas despite an 11,000-kilometer distance in between. Researchers in North and South startled to find Polar oceans share 235 species... Changes in species distribution documented as warmer oceans spur migration... United by high-speed current, Antarctic benthos revealed as single bioregion... Smaller species replacing larger ones in some Arctic waters...
See http://www.coml.org/press-releases-2009