OCEAN: Toxic Waste off California & more – 24th Feb 2026

Ahoy from BA! This is the Rorshok Ocean Update from the 24th of February twenty twenty-six. A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

We start this week off the coast of Southern California, where decades-old ocean dumping is raising concerns.

Earth.com reported on research led by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The team documented thousands of barrel-shaped objects on the seafloor, believed to be toxic-waste containers dumped in the mid-twentieth century.

Many barrels are corroding. Researchers observed alkaline material forming pale halos in surrounding sediment and wiping out microbial life. Scientists say historical dumping practices can continue to affect deep-sea ecosystems decades later.

Coral reefs are also under pressure worldwide.

On Tuesday the 17th, Mongabay reported on research analyzing more than fifteen thousand reef surveys from the twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen global bleaching event. Scientists found that over half of the world’s reefs experienced moderate or worse bleaching during that period.

The article notes that a fourth global bleaching event began in twenty twenty-three. Researchers warn that repeated heat stress events are reducing recovery windows and increasing the risk of long-term reef degradation.

Not all headlines point toward decline. Some point toward discovery.

On Tuesday the 17th, the Associated Press reported that scientists working in Antarctic waters filmed a sleeper shark swimming nearly five hundred meters (over sixteen hundred feet) below the surface in water just above freezing.

The sighting marks the first confirmed recording of a shark in Antarctic waters. Researchers said the discovery expands known habitat limits for large predators and highlights how much life remains undiscovered in the Southern Ocean.

Meanwhile, a familiar force from North Africa is once again moving across the Atlantic.

EUMETSAT published its Image of the Week on Wednesday the 18th, showing a large Saharan dust plume drifting westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Satellite imagery captured dust passing the Canary Islands and Cape Verde.

Scientists explain that such plumes can fertilize ocean waters by delivering iron and other nutrients that stimulate phytoplankton growth. However, they can also reduce air quality in populated areas along their path.

An emerging form of marine food production is showing promise.

On Tuesday the 17th, researchers reported that a team at Rutgers University successfully raised 300,000 surf clams offshore in the open ocean, demonstrating that large-scale aquaculture in deeper waters is viable.

The project deployed juvenile surf clams in suspended cages moored well offshore. After several weeks, survival rates were high and growth exceeded expectations compared with nearshore farming. The findings suggest that open-ocean aquaculture may offer a new avenue for sustainable seafood production, free of the environmental pressures often seen in coastal bay farms.

Next up, debates about krill in Antarctica continue.

On Friday the 20th, Sea Shepherd announced its Operation Antarctica Defense twenty twenty-six campaign. The organization argues that krill fishing between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney Islands threatens key whale feeding grounds.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (or CCAMLR) manages Krill fisheries. The CCAMLR states that its quotas are science-based and regularly reviewed, but conservation groups argue that changing sea-ice conditions may increase ecological vulnerability and must be accounted for.

Understanding the oceans depends on knowing what to measure.

On Monday the 16th, the Global Ocean Observing System, or GOOS, announced the publication of a new scientific paper outlining its Essential Ocean Variables framework.

The paper describes a set of thirty-six key ocean measurements spanning physical, biogeochemical, biological, and ecosystem indicators. These variables guide global observing efforts, the coordinated international networks of satellites, research vessels, drifting floats, and buoys that continuously monitor the ocean.

According to GOOS, these variables form the backbone of an integrated international ocean monitoring system designed to support forecasting, climate assessments, and marine policy.

Space weather research may also affect how we observe the ocean.

On Tuesday the 17th, ScienceDaily reported that researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center launched sounding rockets into the aurora to better understand how electrical currents behave in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Scientists say solar storms can disrupt satellite systems, including those used to measure sea level, ocean circulation, and surface temperatures. Improving space weather models could help reduce errors in satellite-derived ocean data used for forecasting and climate monitoring.

Researchers say the new measurements will strengthen understanding of how geomagnetic disturbances affect Earth observation systems.

In maritime enforcement news, the United States has charged the captain of a Venezuela-linked oil tanker.

Reuters reported on Tuesday the 17th that U.S. authorities filed federal charges against Avtandil Kalandadze, the Georgian captain of the tanker Marinera, for allegedly operating under a false flag and refusing lawful orders to stop. According to U.S. prosecutors, Coast Guard and Navy vessels attempted to board the ship as part of a judicial seizure order, but the captain refused to let them.

The vessel was later detained in British waters, and Kalandadze was removed from the ship. The case underscores growing efforts by U.S. authorities to enforce sanctions and maritime inspection rules on the high seas.

And now, for this week’s opinion piece…

On Thursday the 19th, The Guardian published an English-language feature interview with environmental journalist Beth Gardiner titled They pushed so many lies about recycling: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics.

Gardiner argues that fossil fuel companies are investing heavily in plastic production as demand for traditional fuels slows. She writes that the industry has promoted recycling despite longstanding evidence that most plastics are not effectively recycled.

Gardiner contends that reducing ocean plastic pollution requires addressing production levels, not solely focusing on consumer behavior.

To read the full piece, check out the link in the show notes.

Unusual wave activity has also drawn attention this week.

Lundy Projects reported that satellite data identified deep-ocean wave systems in the Pacific reaching heights of up to thirty-five meters (115 feet), even in areas without active storms. Scientists explain that distant storm systems can interact, causing constructive interference that concentrates wave energy into large swells that may not immediately break at the surface.

While rare, such events can pose risks to shipping because deep-water wave energy can affect vessel stability. Researchers say improved satellite monitoring is helping detect these anomalies earlier.

A mass seabird death event along the northeast Atlantic coastlines has triggered urgent conservation calls.

On Thursday the 20th, Oceanographic Magazine reported that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB, has issued a nationwide appeal after hundreds of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills and other seabirds were found dead along beaches from the UK to mainland Europe.

The British Trust for Ornithology logged dozens of dead seabirds in February. Officials say the strandings are likely linked to recent winter storms that made foraging extremely difficult, leaving birds exhausted and starving when they returned to shore.

Conservationists from the RSPB and partner groups are calling on governments in the UK and Europe to implement coordinated strategies to protect fragile coastal ecosystems and help seabird populations rebound.

New research suggests large volcanic eruptions in the past may have pushed a key ocean current toward collapse.

On Monday the 23rd, Ecomagazine reported that an international team of researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute found evidence that massive equatorial volcanic eruptions historically weakened the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC.

The AMOC is a major ocean current system that transports warm tropical water to higher latitudes, helping regulate the global climate. Scientists warn that if the AMOC is already stressed by global warming and Arctic meltwater, even relatively small perturbations like volcanic forcing could push it past critical thresholds.

And to close the last episode of the Rorshok Ocean Update, collaboration remains central to ocean science.

The non-profit Ocean Visions announced its participation in the Ocean Sciences Meeting twenty twenty-six, where researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders are gathering to discuss ocean-climate solutions.

The nonprofit organization says it will host and contribute to sessions focused on scaling innovation to address warming, acidification, and ecosystem decline.

Organizers describe the meeting as a key venue for translating scientific knowledge into coordinated action.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

This is our last goodbye. We are very sad that this project has to come to an end. Thank you so much for your support for our experiment. We put so much effort into making these updates, so we hope you have connected with them and with us. We are really grateful to each one of you who has stuck with us until the end.

Again, thank you so much for being on the other side.

You can still contact us at info@rorshok.com. Who knows, we might get the Ocean update running again someday.