Could this humble sea sponge clean up the world’s ports?

1 September 2026 at 11:00

The chicken liver sponge has sailed through a test of its ability to filter pollutants in a harbour in Spain’s Costa Brava

In the polluted waters of Marina Palamós on Spain’s Costa Brava, Manuel Maldonado, a sponge biologist, noticed something unusual last month: red starfish had started settling in the area.

Nearly two years earlier, the Spanish National Research Council scientist and his colleagues had begun transplanting sea sponges into the port to study whether they could survive in its polluted waters.

Coral Reefs Are Running Out of Time to Recover, Research Find

NYT > Top Stories

By: Quinn Glabicki

31 August 2026 at 07:01

Rising sea temperatures mean reefs don’t have enough time to bounce back between intense heat waves, a new report warns.

Bleaching corals at Looe Key Reef off Florida in 2023.

‘It was like fighting a dinosaur’: Sydney shark attack survivor recalls left hook that helped save her life

The Guardian

By: Achol Arok

31 August 2026 at 08:01

Leah Stewart, who was bitten while swimming at Coogee beach, says she asked herself ‘which limb am I willing to lose’ as she fought back

An Australian woman who lost an arm after a shark attack at a Sydney beach has described delivering a “left hook” punch to the four-metre great white as its open mouth came within centimetres of her face.

Leah Stewart, 34, a teacher and mother of a one-year-old, was attacked by the shark while on a morning swim at Coogee beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on 13 June.

Country diary: We’re going on a nurdle hunt | Richard Smyth

The Guardian

By: Richard Smyth

29 August 2026 at 07:30

Whitley Bay, North Tyneside: A huge community effort is under way to clear up a spill of these disastrously resilient beads. We take a family trip to the beach to do our bit

My son spots the first one. It’s about the size of a lentil, and half-buried in the dry sand.

We’re on the beach at the seaside town of Whitley Bay. We’ve just walked past a clean-up crew of about 40 volunteers in hi-vis clothing and rubber gloves, kneeling or stooped over black buckets. This is the aftermath of the Tyne nurdle spill, which sounds much funnier than it is.

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