Just a few decades ago, nobody would have been surprised to see a bottlenose dolphin showing up in the lagoon of Venice, where historically some dolphins have dwelt. However, when ‘Mimmo’, a solitary bottlenose dolphin, was first spotted in the lagoon in the summer of 2025, the event was perceived as nothing short of sensational. Soon, managing the behavior of people became more important than managing the dolphin itself, a new study suggests. Researchers monitoring the dolphin said its stay in the lagoon does not put it at particular risk, but that inappropriate and illegal human action does. Cases like these highlight the importance of broader education on how to interact with wildlife, the team said.   

Plastics shed thousands of chemicals into the sea, including oleamide – an industrial lubricant that also occurs naturally. In lab aquariums, researchers tracked 31,500 hunting interactions between the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and crabs, snails, and clams. Oleamide shifted octopus prey preference, dulled crustaceans’ predator avoidance, and increased encounters – without boosting successful kills. The subtle disruption lasted days, hinting that plastic chemicals could reshape coastal food webs by altering how species sense, feed, and interact. By mimicking biological signals, plastic-derived oleamide may quietly rewire marine behavior.

Night lights affect two marine crustaceans differently, helping explain which species will be found in which portion of Tokyo Bay, Japan, according to a study. Artificial light at night can affect the behavior, physiology, and ecological distribution of marine species. Daiki Sato sought to explore the effects of city lights on the ecosystem of Tokyo Bay, one of the world’s most intensely illuminated coastal regions. Sato specifically focused on two closely related nocturnal isopods, Ligia furcata and Ligia laticarpa. Sato used genetic analysis, remote sensing, and Bayesian modeling, as well as behavioral experiments on the isopods in the lab. L. laticarpa occurrence in the bay was correlated with higher nighttime light intensity, and L. furcata showed reduced activity when reared under artificial lights at night, while L. laticarpa was largely unaffected by night lights. 

Fish-eating killer whales in southern Alaska have a diverse, seasonally changing diet featuring salmon and groundfish, according to a recently published study. The types of fish consumed also differ greatly across foraging hotspots in the region.

Scientists have been observing killer whales in Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords as part of a long-term monitoring program launched in 1984 by the North Gulf Oceanic Society. Working from May to September, researchers have gathered a total of roughly 400 remnants of prey fish and scat to develop a picture of the whales’ diets.

Historically, killer whale diet research relied on surface sampling of prey fragments, usually scales, which allowed researchers to primarily detect salmon species. Recent techniques that analyze DNA in scat have revealed the full breadth of the whales’ diets.

The summer monsoon season runs from June through September and delivers roughly 80% of the rain India receives in a year. Over the last few decades, the amount of rain has increased while the concentration of rainfall has shifted west over the continent. Now, researchers at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology have found that the intensity and location of the late-season rainfall is significantly influenced by Arctic sea ice melt that occurs earlier in the summer.

Fossils that lay almost forgotten in museum collections for over 40 years have now shed light on the earliest global radiations of land-living animals adapting to life in the sea. Around 250 million years ago, what is today scorching desert in remote northwestern Australia was the shore of a shallow bay bordering a vast prehistoric ocean. A new study has uncovered evidence of a surprisingly diverse ancient marine amphibian community with unexpectedly worldwide trans-oceanic links.

Growing up, you probably changed your style based on your social influences. It turns out, such pressures affect the appearance of young clownfish (anemonefish) too. A new study from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has revealed the social influences and biological mechanisms controlling bar loss in tomato anemonefish, showing how the presence of older fish changes the speed at which young fish lose their additional white vertical stripe.