Thirty million tons of fish caught annually worldwide are made into meal to feed to farm animals and farmed fish, according to a study co-authored by Enric Sala (2005), Rashid Sumaila (2009), and their colleagues. Finding an alternative would significantly reduce pressure on the world's fisheries, the authors say.

By storing large amounts of cold water in their systems, ochre sea stars, a Pacific North American species, can survive in the sun during low tide, according to new findings by Brian Helmuth (2005) and his post doc, Sylvain Pincebourde. However, as climate change increases water temperatures, this thermoregulatory mechanism may stop working, the researchers warn.

In the debate over industrial agriculture, Jonathan Foley (2000) argues in the New York Times for a hybrid solution to feed a growing population while conserving resources. Through means such as precision agriculture, drip irrigation, and new crop varieties, this solution is not only possible but also necessary, says Foley.

Antarctica's Lake Vida, a body of brine always covered by at least sixty feet of ice, contains some of the world's oldest organisms. Peter Doran (2008) is co-leading the first drilling through the lake's ice cap to collect about ten feet of core samples to study the present ecosystem and its past history.

As precipitation increases with global warming, excess runoff can bring viruses and bacteria into waterways and make people sick. With a $900,000 grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jonathan Patz (2005) is co-leading a study about how floods affect health.

Standards for making shellfish farming sustainable have been released by the Bivalve Aquaculture Dialogue of the World Wildlife Fund. Shellfish producers, scientists, and conservationists are among the stakeholders who took part.