Leila Fouda

@leilafouda.bsky.social

Ecologist. Interests: human impacts, species interactions, movement dynamics & animal behaviour. Postdoc @UNBSaintJohn working on North Atlantic right whale Conservation. She/Her/Hers leilafouda.com

North Atlantic right whale numbers estimated at 384. An increase in eight whales from last year - report today by the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. Slow population growth trend over the past four years gaining more than 7% of their 2020 population. 🦑🐋🧪🌍 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Scientists say North Atlantic right whale population slowly increasing

Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the most venerable of the leviathans now numbers 384, up eight from past year

theguardian.com

"The bill pretends that everything is tradeable. You can destroy an ancient woodland, as long as you deliver an 'overall improvement' in woodland cover, namely saplings in plastic tubes." Reminder that the only way to replace a 200 year old tree is to plant a tree and wait 200 years

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot

The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Grab a coffee and find out how 18,000 years ago you might have spotted megabergs off the coast of the UK!

James Kirkham@jdkirkham.bsky.social · last yr.

Icebergs? The size of a city? 90 miles from the UK? Must be a joke, right? No! Our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com shows massive tabular icebergs broke off the UK in the last ice age before the UK’s ice shelves disintegrated from climate warming. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @bas.ac.uk

New paper! Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should. This is the *first* paper in the peer reviewed scientific literature to explain how Bluesky works and how to use it for #SciComm 🧪🦑🐠 academic.oup.com/fisheries/ad...

Social media for fisheries science and management professionals: How to use Bluesky and Instagram, and why you should

ABSTRACT. Social media tools have revolutionized how people communicate with one another. A 2018 paper in Fisheries summarized the use of Twitter, Facebook

academic.oup.com

Effect of oceanic conditions on humpback whale behaviour modelled. During migration whales engage in feeding & rely on environmental cues & memory of conditions to start migration to arrive at krill bloom. Unclear if whales will succeed tracking prey in changing climate doi.org/10.1038/s415... 🦑🐋🧪🌍

Migratory behaviour of humpback whales in the southeastern Pacific under climate change - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Migratory behaviour of humpback whales in the southeastern Pacific under climate change

doi.org

⭐ A newly discovered sea star has been named after a group of children representing the latest generation of the Scripps family, who have supported Scripps Oceanography for over a century! 🌊 Meet the Scripps Cousins Wood-Dwelling Seastar, also known as the Caymanostella scrippscognaticausa.

Seastar Named for Youngest Cousins of Scripps Family

A seastar that specializes in living on pieces of wood that have fallen into the ocean is among the top 10 new marine species described by researchers in 2024. And in the case of this particular inver...

scripps.ucsd.edu

Year-end scramble getting you down? ⏳ Applications for lots of our Antarctic #jobs are closing in the next week. They include vehicles manager at Halley, and Radio Operator and IT Engineer at Rothera Research Station. These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth ⬇️

Seriously remote work, in Antarctica. The photo is of Halley Research Station, stretching into the distance on a flat white polar landscape, with the label 'Today's Office'

born too late to get a two Western blot Nature paper, born too early to be a science TikTokker, born just in time to start a postdoc during a global pandemic and look for faculty positions during a historic hiring freeze

There's a #LunarEclipse tonight! If you're in the dark region here, and if you have a view of the Moon at the right time, you'll see the eclipse. Check www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/luna... for more info and timings for the eclipse in your location. (Here on the East Coast, totality peaks around 3am.)

A map of where the eclipse will be visible. The darkened part of the map covers the entirety of North and South America and touches the western edge of Africa and Europe.
EarthSky@earthskyscience.bsky.social · last yr.

Tonight, a total lunar #eclipse of the Full Worm Moon will sweep across parts of Antarctica, western half of Africa, western Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas, the Pacific Ocean, eastern Australia, northern Japan and eastern Russia. Read more about the total lunar eclipse: buff.ly/ZVdCT06

Full moon that looks orange. White text on the left side that reads "See the lunar eclipse".

"Male blue-lined octopuses inject females with venom during mating to avoid being eaten by their partners" 🐙 Octopuses never cease to amaze me. Also perfect headline for the week of Gaga's new album www.nature.com/articles/d41... Refers to Chung et al here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bad romance: male octopuses inject deadly venom into their mates

The paralysing toxin deployed by the male blue-lined octopus might help to protect him from being eaten.

nature.com

The great whale conveyor belt of pee, skin, dead bodies & poop!! Whales transport ~4,000 tons of nitrogen yearly to low-nutrient coastal areas in the tropics and subtropics. Species recovery might help to restore nutrient movement by whales in global oceans! doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🦑 🐋 🧪 🌍

Migrating baleen whales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems - Nature Communications

Baleen whales migrate from high latitude feeding grounds to subtropical reproductive winter grounds, translocating limiting nutrients across ecosystems. This study estimates the latitudinal movement o...

doi.org

So proud of @eubalaenagina.bsky.social and her next exciting steps at The Marine Mammal Center in California! I am really glad we got to overlap at UNB and I will be following along as you do more brilliant science! May we all continue to fight as hard as Gina does for the world and people around us

Gina Lonati, PhD@eubalaenagina.bsky.social · last yr.

In light of many friends and colleagues losing their jobs in the #biology sector, I have mixed feelings sharing the latest update in my life... 💙 (1/4)

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs. It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science

48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

ucsusa.org

Today marks World Wildlife Day, a vital reminder of the importance of protecting our planet’s wildlife. 🌏 For over 60 years, Wildlife Photographer of the Year has helped us see our natural world through a different lens, showcasing its beauty and the necessity to preserve it.

A photograph of a golden eagle landing, its wings wide open and its talons outstretched. In background, there are rocky mountains partially covered by snow. By Audun Rikardsen. A photograph of a dozen of sperm whales swimming in deep blue water. By Tony Wu.A photograph of a leopard laying down on a wall, with its legs and arms resting against the wall. By Masood Hussain. A photograph of clump of spotted salamander eggs in a vernal pool. On either sides, there’s deep green leafy vegetation. By Steven Johnson.