Would you dive into a body of water populated by about 150 robots? That’s what could happen if you were to fall off a “gondola” in the Venice lagoon, where scientists from an initiative of seven European research institutes, are giving birth to the world’s largest population of autonomous robots .

Approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic waste washes off land into the ocean each year. Bottle caps, toothbrushes, tiny plastic fragments, filaments, pellets, film and resin float about in the water columns.

Toxic microalgae, viruses and chemical contaminants are floating in our waters. These hazardous materials pose a high risk to the livelihood of the sea dwellers. Especially the aquaculture is affected by this rising problem.

The marine aquaculture sector has grown continuously over the past years, according to the FAO’s world review of fisheries and aquaculture.

Plastic products made of PVC, Polystyrene and other prominent plastics are flooding the market. They are a growing threat to the environment, as they are found in the sea or dumped in land fills .

European sea product consumption is on the rise. With overfishing being a threat to the natural balance of the ocean, the alternative is to turn to aquaculture, the industrial production of fish and seafood.

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is a much sought after delicacy. Due to huge fishing pressure, tuna stocks have decreased dramatically . There are now signs of recovery, according to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas .

The Oceans are filled with a diversity of life forms. This means that getting a complete picture of marine biodiversity is challenging.

When a coastal area is about to be hit by the waves of a tsunami, time is everything. The earlier we know where and when it is going to hit the coast, the more chances there are to evacuate the area.

Tim O’Higgins is a marine biologist in Scotland who has focused on those vital ecostystem services provided by estuarine and coastal waters.

People living in Arctic areas can be more sensitive to pollutants due to their genetics , says researcher Arja Rautio at the Centre for Arctic Medicine in the University of Oulu , Finland.

Sea bass or sea bream, by far the most consumed fish species around the Mediterranean area, increasingly originate from aquaculture.

Nobody knows the underlying biological mechanisms of the European eels migration . Thanks to an EU-funded research project called eeliad , now about toreach completion, biologists have revealed some of its secrets, including a better understanding of its biology and migration route.

In 2010, nearly two tons of fish was found dead due to lack of oxygen on the coastal line of the Romanian Black Sea.  Oxygen depletion , or hypoxia , occurring in the water is thought to be responsible.

Eco-symbiosis is en vogue. Indeed, this approach consists in using waste from one industry as raw material for another. It appears like an ideal solution for one of the most challenging type of pollution: oil spills .

These molecules have a curious relationship with water. One part of the molecule is hydrophilic, so it attracts water molecules. The other part is hydrophobic, so it pushes them away.

Organisms, such as algae and barnacles, sticking to the lower structure of ships are increasing the required propulsive power. It is estimated that ships’ fuel consumption could be reduced by up to forty percent by removing those organisms.

The research into molten carbonate fuel cells has it origins as early as the 1930s, Emil Baur and H.Preis in Switzerland experimented with high-temperature, solid oxide electrolytes.

His aim was to develop a system that could capture the oil right at its source, before it disperses on the surface of the ocean.

Oil is less dense than water and therefore the oil escaping the sea bed travels up to the water surface. Dr. Fivos Andritsos and his colleagues from the Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy have now developed a reservoir which can be applied on top of the leakage.