Feb. 2 is World Wetlands Day, a holiday that has promoted global appreciation and protection of wetlands for 41 years. It commemorates an international treaty signed in 1971, the Ramsar Convention, that aims to conserve swamps, marshes and bogs around the world, from Albania to Mexico to Zambia.

It became official on Friday — gray wolves are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act and returned to management of the Great Lakes states.

In March 2010 an outbreak of a disease called acute Montipora White Syndrome (MWS) was discovered affecting coral reefs in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. Follow-up surveys found that the disease left trails of rubble in its wake. It was estimated that over 100 colonies of rice coral (Montipora capitata) died during that initial outbreak. The disease has reappeared and is killing corals in Kaneohe Bay. The current outbreak has already affected 198 colonies and a rapid response team led by Dr. Greta Aeby (HIMB) has been activated to document the outbreak. Members of the investigative team include scientists from the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), and USGS National Wildlife Health Center. Members of the Eyes of the Reef Network (EOR), a program that trains community members to identify threats to Hawaii's reefs, are also being asked to report on any signs of disease from other reefs.

Thailand officials have now officially made it illegal for tourists to dive in its many marine parks. These parks have been available to the public and to tourists for years, but this ban is an active attempt by the government to try and limit access to these marine parks in an effort to save the coral reefs found on these lakes. The ban will be applied to 22 different areas on the Andaman Sea, located on the West Coast of Thailand.

By early next year, there will be more deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico than there were in the days leading up to the largest oil spill in U.S. history, Jonathan Fahey of the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday.

West Coast shellfish growers have learned to work around upwellings of corrosive waters and save the lives of their bivalve stocks.

An ashy pallor has spread across South Florida's coral reefs over the past few months, as stressed corals expelled the algae that gives them color.

SEATTLE (CN) - Animal-rights activists claim an orca is being held in an "inadequate tank" in the Miami Seaquarium. They sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for excluding captive killer whales from listing under the Endangered Species Act.
     The Animal Legal Defense Fund, People for the Ethical Treatment of Individuals and three individuals challenge the NMFS decision "to exclude from the listing of the Southern Resident killer whale population all captive members of that population and their progeny."
     The federal complaint focuses on a whale named Lolita, who was captured more than 40 years ago, and has been held at the Miami Seaquarium. The activists claim Lolita is being "kept in an inadequate tank, without companions of her own species or adequate protection from the sun."

Despite non-record temperatures this year, the Earth's surface is continuing to get warmer, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).